Military Historians are People, Too!

Our guest today is proud New Orleans native Kimberly Guise! Kim is the Associate Vice President of Curatorial Affairs at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, where she has worked since 2008. She holds a Hebraicum Certificate from Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, a BA in German Studies from UMASS Amherst, and an MLIS from Louisiana State University. Kim secures capstone artifact donations and financial gifts and heads the Museum’s Curatorial Division, which includes producing exhibits and acquiring hundreds of collections per year. She helped launch the Museum’s digitization initiative and has contributed to several major exhibitions, including Guests of the Third Reich: American POWs in Europe, Our War Too: Women in Service, and Barbed Wire to Battlefields: Japanese American Experiences in WWII. Her work with WWII veterans over the years has produced countless oral histories, secured dozens of collections of letters and photographs, and created numerous amazing exhibits. Kim is a lifelong New Orleans Saints fan (season ticket holder, no less!) and has been known to attend a Pelicans basketball game here and there. Her life is one of serendipity and taking the road less traveled - how else do you get from the West Bank of the Mississippi to UMASS Amherst and Freiberg? Join us for a great chat with Kim - we'll talk Stalag 17, food in WWII, Dogpatch USA, living in Germany, Hurricane Katrina, Paul McCartney, Rothaus Pils, and, yes, crawfish. Enjoy!Shoutout to the Boiling Pot and The Shed BBQ!Rec.: 09/11/2026

Today's guest is historian and Washington Post journalist Steve Vogel. Born in West Berlin as the Wall went up, Steve was there decades later as a journalist when it came down in 1989. He's reported from the streets of DC, the Pentagon during 9/11, the Gulf War, Iraq, the Balkans, Rwanda - he's seen a lot. Like Washington Post colleague Rick Atkinson, whom Steve worked first worked for in Berlin, he's turned to his lifelong passion: military history. His books include The Pentagon: A History, Through the Perilous Fight: Six Weeks that Saved the Nation, Betrayal in Berlin: The True Story of the Cold War's Most Audacious Espionage Operation, and most recently A Task Force Called Faith: The Untold Story of the US Army Soldiers Who Fought for Survival at Chosin Reservoir (which recently won the Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award). Steve's "writing hut" in his backyard is actually a small log cabin original to the property - it's very, very cool.Steve's humility hides much of what he's experienced, but he shares a lot in this fascinating chat. We'll talk about having a father in the CIA and not knowing it, high school in Islamabad, almost starting a war between India and Pakistan, learning German from Mister Ed, using a Telex and a typewriter, the Allman Brothers, being a "stringer," and much more. You'll enjoy this one!Shoutout to Black Hog BBQ in Frederick, Maryland!Rec.: 08/27/2026

We're back with Season 7! Today's guest is Classicist Jessica H. Clark of Florida State University. Jessica is Professor of Classics and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Classics, coming to Tallahassee from California State University, Chico. Among her many scholarly pursuits, Jessica studies the Roman military during the Republic Period. Her publications include Triumph in Defeat: Military Loss and the Roman Republic (Oxford), Brill's Companion to Military Defeat in Ancient Mediterranean Society (edited with Brian Turner), and most recently Women in Fragments: Alternative Histories in Ancient Mediterranean Society (Wisconsin). She serves on the editorial boards of Brill's Historiography of Rome and Its Empire and the Warfare in the Ancient Mediterranean World series, and was the Program Chair for the Society for Military History 2026 conference. What a way to kick off Season 7! We'll talk Boston, the woods of Northern California, reading Latin, The Prince of Leeches, Springsteen, Gladiator, and more, while ignoring the obvious question: "What have the Romans ever done for us?"Shoutout to Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, Texas, and all the roadside smokers in Tallahassee!Rec.: 08/20/2026

Another good one! Today we are joined by Ed Westermann, who has just retired from Texas A&M University-San Antonio, where he is now Regents Professor Emeritus of History (congrats, Ed, on your second retirement!). Ed served in the US Air Force for 25 years as a helicopter pilot-turned-academic. He commissioned as a history major from the US Air Force Academy and earned MA degrees from Florida State University (History) and the USAF School for Advanced Air and Space Studies (Airpower, of course), before earning his PhD at UNC Chapel Hill. He is the author of Hitler's Ostkrieg and the Indian Wars: Comparing Genocide and Conquest (Oklahoma), Hitler’s Police Battalions: Enforcing Racial War in the East (Kansas), and Flak: German Anti-Aircraft Defenses, 1914-1945 (Kansas). His recent book is Drunk on Genocide: Alcohol and Mass Murder in Nazi Germany (Cornell), which received the Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research. He published numerous articles in top journals, such as War in History, the Journal of Military History, and Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Not bad for a military brat from Temple, Texas.Join us for a really interesting chat with Ed Westermann - we'll talk about the SS and drinking culture (yes, that's a deep chat), flying UH1s, deciding to take the military's academic track, being mentored by Dennis Showalter and paying that forward, Fleetwood Mac, Berliner Pilsner, and transitioning to retirement. You'll enjoy this one, but we know you enjoy them all!Speaking of "them all," this episode closes out Season 6 and, wait for it, is our 150th numbered episode! Thanks so much to each and every one of you for listening, sharing, and supporting us, and a special thanks to all of our guests - thanks for taking the time, and for taking the risk! We've got a long list of folks to get to yet, so we'll keep at it.Shoutout to Old 300 BBQ in Blanco, Texas!Rec.: 06/16/2026

Our guest today is Revolutionary War-era maritime historian Christopher P. Magra of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. At Tennessee, Chris is a Professor of Early American History and the Director of the Center for the Study of Tennesseans and War (formerly the Center for the Study of War and Society). A native of Pennsylvania, Chris earned his BA from Grove City College and MA from Penn State University (where Carol Reardon asked him a really tough question during his thesis defense!), then earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. His work includes The Fisherman's Cause: Atlantic Commerce and Maritime Dimensions of the American Revolution (Cambridge), and Poseidon's Curse: British Naval Impressment and Atlantic Origins of the American Revolution (also Cambridge). His current edited volume of essays titled America's First War: The Military History of the Declaration of Independence (Tennessee) will be released to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in just a couple of weeks! Not one to rest, being a center director and all, he's got a project underway on the manufacture of chocolate- yes, chocolate - in early America.Join us for a relaxing, fun chat with Chris Magra - we'll talk orange sportcoats, maritime history, running a vaunted oral history program, ensigns, learning on the job market, Tori Amos, Knicks-Spurs, riding mowers, Hershey, PA, and OMG the return of the Pittsburgh Potty! Enjoy this one!Shoutout to Dead End BBQ and Sweet P's BBQ in Knoxville!Rec.: 06/10/2026