North Americana

PBS storyteller Robert Reid shares his funny factual dive into the war that few people can explain on either side of the border.  And why all this matters today.

Beyond poutine, two stories in this episode set the table for the varied culinary legacy of New France in North America. From Montreal bagels to Cajun gumbo.  

The little-known story of how a King, a US president, and a hotdog saved the free world.  And how our host Liz Beatty is connected to all this!

An insider take on this cross-border odyssey from National Geographic photographer and writer Katie Orlinsky.  We get the goods straight from mushers who take on this most gruelling of dog sled races.

National Geographic Editor, Heather Greenwood Davis, reveals how a black baseball team in Ontario, pre-Jackie Robinson, were among the best in the world.  And how their descendants are still fighting for their due recognition.

Long before steamships and airplanes, Hawaiians were planting roots in British Columbia’s Salt Spring Island. And they still are.

From Eugene Levy, Martin Short and Toronto's 1960s version of Godspell to the Emmy-sweeping Schitt’s Creek — we return to the precise moment when a group of unknown Canadian comics were launched and American comedy would never be the same.

Lonely Planet Editor, Alex Howard, shares this crazy 1930s quest — Siberian reindeer shipped to Alaska, then driven over 1500 miles to Canada’s Mackenzie Delta.  And they’re still there today!

A deep dive into these hip duelling traditional Jewish neighbourhoods from National Geographic contributor Nina Caplan.

Fat, sugar and gluten come together in a way that beguiles American foodie, Carolyn Heller. She digs in to explore why butter tarts are so deeply Canadian.

Twelve folks of the Dene Nation, whose roots reach down the American southwest, run the iconic Northwest Territories river in a moose skin boat, the first time attempted in 100 years.

Rich and famous Americans have long flocked to Canadian retreats for solace and a sense of anonymity. This episode reveals how this towering figure in American history is no exception. 

You’ve seen the old image of the steel workers eating lunch on a beam above NYC.  We meet these Kahnawake steel workers who built America’s most iconic skyline. 

PBS producer and former Nat Geo editor Robert Reid has an irrational love for Canadian football. Find out how his love shaped his philosophy for exploring the world.

Long before there was America’s Rosie, there was Canada’s Ronnie — Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl. We follow their history from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Thunder Bay and Toronto in Ontario.

How well do Americans and Canadians really get each other? North Americana dives into fascinating and surprising connections between our two countries. From a black baseball team in Ontario that was one of the best in the world to how Kahnawake steel workers built the New York City skyline — North Americana is a cross-border conversation.

“At first glance, the wide sloping field off the western shores of Lake Winnipeg looks like a death metal convention gone very very wrong” — the words this episode of Nat Geo Digital Nomad Robert Reid. He’s reporting from the Viking battle reenactment of Gimli, Manitoba’s annual Icelandic Festival — one of the longest running cultural festivals in North America.  In this episode, we explore deep into that Viking heart of New Iceland — From Gimli, to Mountain, North Dakota.  Two towns divided by a border, but inextricably linked by their surprising and storied Icelandic roots. Podcast: https://www.northamericanapodcast.com Facebook: @northamericanapodcast Twitter: @north_podcast Instagram: @northamericana

Former National Geographic Explorer and anthropologist Wade Davis calls language the old growth forest of the mind. In other words, language and how we know ourselves within our culture and our people are inextricably linked. And there are few places on the planet where these links are more palpable than Quebec. Still many of my American friends and colleagues just don’t “get” the notion of our two official languages. How it happened and why it stuck. To shed light on that confusion, we send two midwestern journalists, without a lick of French, deep into rural French-speaking Quebec. Food Travelists Sue Reddel and Diana Laskaris have one mission — to ask one big question: Why does Canada have these two official languages and how does that define you as Quebecois? The answers are not always simple, but quest itself is a journey of transformation.   Podcast: https://www.northamericanapodcast.com Facebook: @northamericanapodcast Twitter: @north_podcast Instagram: @northamericana See images, get links to insider travel tips and resources for everything in Episode 5 on our show page.

African American roots reaching back to before the American Revolution, the underground railroad and slavery, and gospel traditions almost 200 years old.  Think you have a hunch where North Americana is going this episode?  You might be surprised. Twenty minutes drive due east of downtown Halifax, on Canada’s Atlantic Coast, over the MacDonald Bridge through Dartmouth and beyond, we find North Preston and some of Nova Scotia’s oldest music traditions.  Visitors might expect to hear the lilt of a celtic fiddle, but this is something entirely different. In this episode, we explore the rich and often surprising stories of shared Black history north and south of the Canada/US border.  Podcast: https://www.northamericanapodcast.com Facebook: @northamericanapodcast Twitter: @north_podcast Instagram: @northamericana See images, get links to insider travel tips and resources for everything in Episode 4 on our show page.

Say “Summer of Love” and so many images come to mind — “far out” lingo, tie dye and flower power, San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, the Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park where you’d sway to local bands like the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane.  But for a time and place that changed a generation, it’s amazing just how fleeting all this was.  From what seemed like endless possibilities for 30,000 or so hippies converging on San Francisco, to total collapse in about 10 months.  All amid intense political discord over the Vietnam war, heated civil rights battles and what devolved into hard drug abuse. American sociologist, political writer, novelist, and cultural commentator Tod Gitlin called all this a cyclone in a wind tunnel. In other words, too volatile not to self destruct.   But what if you took this cyclone of hippie spiritual seekers and draft dodgers out of the charged American wind tunnel of political and racial strife at the time.   And what if you transplanted a piece of it into a remote idyllic British Columbian town — what would all this look like some 50 years later?  Listen in and find out… Podcast: https://www.northamericanapodcast.com Facebook: @northamericanapodcast Twitter: @north_podcast Instagram: @northamericana See images, get links to insider travel tips and resources for everything in Episode 3 on our show page.  Also, hear Breena’s travel tips for Nelson and more of her mom’s amazing stories from the San Francisco’s Summer of Love.

Think the explorers or the voyageurs opened up North America, finding trade and travel routes? Do you imagine regional indigenous peoples once living in idyllic isolation? Think again. With the help of National Geographic Travel Media Editor Norie Quintos, North Americana explores the massive crossroads of pre-contact North America. Northern Ontario’s Manitoulin Island is a fascinating portal to the Great Lakes first peoples, and their ancient axis across which trade, people and ideas flowed from the far north to the Gulf of Mexico to the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast. And all this millennia before Christopher Columbus.  In this episode, meet the Anishinaabe people of the Great Lakes flowing across the Canada US border.  Hear their fascinating stories on their own terms.  Like our host Liz Beatty, you’ll be forever changed. Podcast: https://www.northamericanapodcast.com Facebook: @northamericanapodcast Twitter: @north_podcast Instagram: @northamericana  See images, get links to insider travel tips and resources for everything in Episode 2 on our show page.  Also, hear some common misconceptions debunked and more little-known indigenous history from the full interview of Michigan State University Professor John Norder, a Native American of the Spirit Lake Tribe of North Dakota.

A feel-good musical about 9/11? How does that possibly work? Award-winning Broadway actor De’Lon Grant had no idea, back when Come From Away was just a rumor among musical theatre insiders. Then he joined the cast of now Tony-nominated Come From Away — and — went to Gander, Newfoundland.  With De’Lon’s help, we meet firsthand the people that inspired this global hit, get inside the culture that shaped them, and share travel tips if you want to go too. https://www.northamericanapodcast.com Facebook: @northamericanapodcast Twitter: @north_podcast Instagram: @northamericana See images. Get links to insider travel tips. Learn about the pirate culture of Newfoundland and Labrador, how to talk like a local, geek out on Central Newfoundland Geology and more at the Episode One Show Page. Liz Beatty is an award-winning writer, broadcaster & podcaster. She contributes to National Geographic Travel and others. Her podcasts have won top honors across NA.

How well do Americans and Canadians really get each other? North Americana dives into fascinating and surprising connections between our two countries. From Summer of Love refugees in a remote BC town, to American Revolution Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia and the real people who inspired a Tony-nominated Broadway play set in Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11 — North Americana is a cross-border conversation.