Part of a series of interviews with the makers of our favorite history podcasts.

The third podcast in our Makers of History series is for anyone who picks up their phone mid-conversation to Google something, because they can’t wait to find out the… backstory. The appropriately titled BackStory podcast is put on by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. It takes advantage of the momentum of current events and the click-happy, instant knowledge gratification era that we live in by handing us engaging histories that we would have spent hours attempting to piece together on Google.

During the recent controversy over the use of the confederate flag, BackStory produced an entire episode delving into the history of the flag. Not only do you learn surprising facts about the genesis of the flag, but they also interview an African-American woman in Atlanta, GA who is a member of a Confederate flag society, takes part in flag-toting rituals, and freely shares her unique philosophy on this taboo symbol.

Flags Confederate Reunion by Harris & Ewing, 1917. Image courtesy the Library of Congress.

BackStory is hosted by three American history experts, a.k.a., the American History Guys, who are prolific authors and professors at universities in Virginia: Peter Onuf handles the 18th century, Ed Ayers specializes in the 19th century, and Brian Balogh masters the 20th. These guys have a laidback conversational style that serves to simplify pretty complex historical narratives.

One element of their show that stands out from a lot of contemporary podcasts is their use of the audience. Oftentimes they engage their fans by accepting call-in questions or allowing them to dictate the direction of certain shows with challenges to the hosts. The Creators Project spoke with Andrew Parsons, the current producer of the show, about what goes on behind-the-scenes of the podcast.

L to R: Brian Balogh, Peter Onuf (via skype), Ed Ayers

The Creators Project: How did BackStory come into existence?

Andrew Parsons: My understanding is that the genesis of the podcast occurred in 2007 or so when Andrew Wyndham (who was director of media at the Virginia Foundation of the Humanities at the time) witnessed Ed Ayers and Peter Onuf chatting at a social function. They were talking about history but at the same time were laughing, jostling each other and having so much fun. It dawned on Andrew that public radio needed these two on the air. Once the ball was rolling, Ed and Peter insisted on adding Brian Balogh to enhance the chemistry and provide expertise in the 20th century.

BackStory is conversational and often mimics the style of talk radio, where listeners call in and ask questions about that day’s episode. The listener questions in particular seem to necessitate improv and spontaneous recall of historical facts from the hosts. Is this an element that you found difficult to incorporate and how do you feel that it benefits BackStory? 

It’s important to the staff that the show be highly varied in its sound since it’s often tackling so many complicated stories in one episode. The listener engagement is key in providing that variety. The hosts are tapping decades of professional knowledge as historians when they speak on anything. That said, not every call or interview works out. There’s a lot of the show left on the cutting room floor.

BackStory notes and equipment

What is the process that goes into selecting a topic?

Our production cycle is around nine weeks long, so when the staff arrives to a meeting to pitch the newest episodes we are usually looking to see if there are events that we know will be in the news, like when Pope Francis came to the US last September. We also evaluate major anniversaries or debates in the news. 

How does each episode get created?

It starts with a research assistant (often a PhD candidate in history) that preps the staff on the deep history of any given topic, and then the hosts get together to expand upon that history with their own knowledge and networks of historians. Our producers, using our hosts as sounding boards, then take those ideas and do more research to figure out what ideas will be most viable as engaging radio stories. They write up pitches and we have a formal pitch meeting, discussing what stories are most interesting, surprising, and best help illuminate the subject at hand. This is also where we are making sure there is sound variety and we’re covering all the three centuries. We approve or table stories and then the producers work to find experts and get them into the studio with our hosts. From there, it’s a lot of discussion, tape cutting, and script writing. I wouldn’t be surprised if only about 10-15% of what goes on tape goes to air. 

What is your main consideration when writing the script for each episode?

We have two main considerations in writing script. We need to make sure it’s clear and engaging to a general audience who might be multitasking while listening. But we also want to make sure that in any given topic we’re connecting every story in a meaningful way to the larger history so that listening doesn’t feel like we’re just jumping from one random story to another—that’s where our hosts can be critical to anchoring and connecting ideas.  

Jamal Millner and Andrew Parsons

What challenges do you face with the production of BackStory?

I think the biggest challenge is always distilling a lot of American history into one radio show. There’s no way we can ever give a definitive history on any topic, just a history. Not the history. But at the same time, the listener needs to feel like they’ve traveled the full length of three centuries of American life by the end of the an episode. It’s a big task.

What’s in the works right now for BackStory?

We are working on shows about history in the 2016 Oscars, the history of armed protest, the history of testing will come during SAT season, and then the history of local power will be our a counter to all the media attention on the 2016 presidential race when there are important local races around the country too. But don’t worry, we’re going to have lots of presidential election-related episodes as we get closer to the election on November 8th.

You can download episodes of BackStory for free on iTunes, and to learn more about the podcast, click here.

Related:

New York City History Is Alive in ‘The Bowery Boys’ Podcast

‘On Broadway’ Is a Stunning, Data-Driven Portrait of Life in New York City

Realist Art Returns to the Spotlight in New York

How a Freewheeling Skater Became an Art Historian