The Lens: Historians and Popular Media

On this episode of the Lens, Emma and Craig are joined by Lucas Kelley, a PhD candidate in the History Department at UNC - Chapel Hill. Lucas discusses the historical importance of Tyler Childers' most recent album, Long Violent History. Childers released the album in the aftermath of the widespread protests against police brutality around the country in the summer of 2020. The closing track is a rallying call for White Appalachians to sympathize with the protests. We discuss how Childers' uses historical understandings of Appalachia to make an argument, and the long history of violent protest in the mountain South.

In this episode, Emma and Craig talk with Gabe Moss about the video game franchise Civilization, by Sid Meier. First released in 1991 and now in its sixth installment, the "Civ" games have engrossed generations of players with the opportunity to guide a society from the Stone Age to the modern day. We discuss how the game reflects the assumptions and ideologies of its creators, particularly in its conception of historical progress and inter-civilization competition, as well as the challenges of representing a subject as complex as the entire human past in a playable format.

In the Season 2 premiere, Ph.D. Candidate Sarah Miles talks with Gabe and Craig about the documentary film Les Rose and Quebec's October Crisis of 1970.

In this episode, Emma and Garrett talk to Craig Gill about the depiction of African American golf caddies in the 2000 film The Legend of Bagger Vance.

In this episode, Gabe and Garrett talk to Marlon Londoño about the Netflix series Narcos (2015-16) and Caracol Television's Escobar: El Patrón del Mal (2012).