As America celebrates 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson has been claimed, reshaped, and rejected by every side of the political divide. On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Way Back When" History Show, Lisa D. Smith talks with historian Francis D. Cogliano, professor of American history at the University of Edinburgh. He is co-author with Peter S. Onuf of "Thomas Jefferson Survives: American Independence in His Time and Ours" (Liveright, 2026).

This isn't a typical biography. Built from years of teaching seminars for American school teachers, the book's three essays, "Generations," "My Country," and "The People," look at Jefferson in his real historical context. Frank explains how Franklin Roosevelt and Donald Trump each invoked Jefferson toward very different ends. He talks about why the political left has largely stepped away from him this century, and how Jefferson's "Empire of Liberty" came at the expense of enslaved people and Indigenous nations.

The conversation also goes to the heart of the book. Jefferson believed that "the earth belongs to the living." He thought the Constitution should grow with the country, and that every generation must confront its own challenges instead of being held back by the past. Frank shares the story of Jefferson's lukewarm reaction to Madison's Constitution. He also discusses the powerful slave trade clause Congress deleted from Jefferson's draft of the Declaration, and why Jefferson is "America writ small." Lisa brings in the kitchen table conversations the book sparked, including Jefferson's failings on women and the questions that still surround Sally Hemings.

For Big Blend, the conversation hits close to home. The historic Jefferson Highway, the 1915 auto trail from Winnipeg to New Orleans, was named for Jefferson because it runs through the Louisiana Purchase.

Frank also talks about teaching American history from Scotland and the Whiskey Rebellion podcast he co-hosts with fellow historian David Silkenat.

RESOURCE LINKS: - Thomas Jefferson Survives: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324098072 - Francis D. Cogliano: https://franciscogliano.com - Check out more history and culture interviews in the Big Blend Media House: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/t/history-and-culture

Travel writer and advisor Lisa Evans, host of Big Blend Radio's "Journey Jukebox" Podcast takes us to Yellowstone National Park — America's very first national park, marking 110 years of the National Park Service this year.

This episode picks up right where her Cody, Wyoming visit left off: after basing herself in Cody, Lisa spent a day and a half looping through Yellowstone by chartered bus, and brings back a full rundown — bison herds thick enough to stop traffic for fifty cars, a moose sighting straight out of Lamar Valley, a surprise cinnamon bear, and the bighorn sheep on the way out of the park.

From there we walk through the icons — Old Faithful (which kept everyone waiting an extra thirty minutes), the otherworldly colors of Grand Prismatic Spring and the Midway Geyser Basin, the bubbling mud volcanoes, and dinner at the historic Lake Yellowstone Hotel with a general manager who's spent 40 years working his way up through the park's lodging operation.

We also get honest about the less charming side of visiting a place like Yellowstone: tourists stepping over barriers at Mammoth Hot Springs, walking up to bison for a closer photo, and — in one widely reported case — Pierce Brosnan's own $1,500 fine for wandering off a boardwalk into a restricted thermal area. With national parks already stretched thin on funding and staffing, we talk about why this isn't just about rule-following — it's about keeping the wildlife wild and the parks safe for everyone who visits them.

Along the way, Lisa also looks ahead to her next stops — Clarksville, TN, and a trip up to Anacortes, WA — and shares more of the multi-generational travel trends she's seeing on the road.

🗺️ Plan your own trip: Full Yellowstone travel guide, park links, and resources: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/yellowstone-still-wild-at-110

- Missed her last stop? Catch Lisa's Cody, Wyoming episode & article: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/cody-wyoming-western-culture

🎵 Journey Jukebox Music Playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7humUf03LIW04t8LiJSSN9?si=71c11c52c77c4596

🎧 More about the Journey Jukebox Podcast: - New episodes air every 3rd Tuesday at 6pm CST: https://journeyjukebox.podbean.com/ - Podcast Magazine: https://online.fliphtml5.com/yhwzg/JOURNEY-JUKEBOX---2026/#p=1

Follow Lisa Evans: - https://substack.com/@allabouttravelwithlisa - https://writerlisa.com/

On this shared episode of Big Blend Radio's "Jo Goes Everywhere!" Podcast, travel writer Jo Clark takes us to Greensboro, North Carolina — the third-largest city in the state and home to Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, site of one of the most consequential battles of the Revolutionary War.

Jo digs into Greensboro's roots, from the Saura and Keyauwee peoples who lived there first, to the German, Welsh, English Quaker, and Scotch-Irish settlers who followed, to the city's surprising reputation as the "second-holiest city in America."

Then the Revolution arrives: on March 15, 1781, General Nathanael Greene's Continental Army met Lord Cornwallis's British troops at Guilford Courthouse. Cornwallis technically won the battle — but at such a staggering cost in men that it helped set up his eventual defeat at Yorktown.

Along the way, Jo tells the story of the Hoskins family, who fled war-torn Pennsylvania for a fresh start in Greensboro, only to have the British commandeer their farm and turn their home into a field hospital just three years later.

Jo also shares Greensboro's literary and broadcast history (hometown ties to O. Henry and Edward R. Murrow), plus where to eat, drink, and stay if you visit today, including Sàigòn Cuisine, Machete, Lewis and Elm, the O. Henry Hotel, Fainting Goat Spirits, and Angels Bed & Breakfast.

Read Jo's full article: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/guilford-courthouse-national-military-park

Plan Your Visit to Greensboro - Jo's Greensboro Travel Guide: https://recipestravelculture.com/greensboro-1781-battlefield-to-jeansboro/ - Guilford Courthouse National Military Park: https://www.nps.gov/guco/index.htm

Follow More of Jo: - https://www.haveglasswilltravel.com/ - https://recipestravelculture.com/ - Jo Goes Everywhere! Podcast: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/jo-goes-everywhere-podcast - Jo Goes Everywhere! Digital Podcast Magazine: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/jo-goes-everywhere-magazine

In this shared episode of Big Blend Radio's "ABC's of Horses" podcast, World Champion horse trainer Christy Wood is joined by fellow rider Stephanie Callahan Clark for their annual look at the Chief Joseph Trail Ride — a thirteen-year progressive journey on horseback retracing the Nez Perce National Historic Trail across Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.

They cover this year's route, wildlife encounters, camp community, horse safety, and why living off-the-grid on the trail is part of the adventure — plus a look ahead to 2027, the 150th anniversary of Chief Joseph's flight.

🔗 EXPLORE MORE 🐴 Learn more about the Chief Joseph Trail Ride: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/the-chief-joseph-trail-ride 📚 Connect with Christy & get her books: https://wdnhorse.com/ 🏇 Chief Joseph Trail Ride nonprofit: https://chiefjosephtrailride.org/ 🎧 Listen to more episodes of the ABC's of Horses Podcast: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/abcs-of-horses-podcast 📖Check out the ABC's of Horses Podcast Magazine: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/abcs-of-horses-magazine

This episode of Big Blend Radio's "Getting to Know You" series was recorded back in April with Phyllis Bitner, Chair of the Miners Hall Museum Foundation in Franklin, Kansas.

Phyllis shares how Miners Hall Museum grew out of the 2003 tornado that leveled the town's community center, why the museum's twelve exhibit categories focus as much on the immigrant experience as the equipment, and the story behind the Page 618 Walking Dragline — a massive, one-of-eighteen-ever-built machine now being moved piece by piece into a new free public park along the Jefferson Highway. She also talks about the historic 1.7-mile Franklin-Arma sidewalk, the site of the 1921 Amazon Army March, and why the museum's research library keeps surprising visitors with their own family history.

Then Phyllis plays a round of our Lucky Seven Questions — sharing her spirit animal, her NASCAR bucket-list dream, a life lesson from her father, and more.

P.S. — Phyllis will be one of four storytellers at "Night at the Friendly Tavern" on September 3rd, part of Pittsburg, KS's 150th birthday celebration, and Miners Hall Museum is a featured stop on the Jefferson Highway Association's "Miner's Drive" caravan, September 17–19.

Resource Links: - Miners Hall Museum: https://www.minershallmuseum.com/ - Night at the Friendly Tavern Tickets (Sept 3): https://memorialauditorium.ludus.com/show_page.php?show_id=200542773 - Jefferson Highway "Miner's Drive" Caravan (Sept 17–19): https://jeffersonhighway.org/event-6661501 - Jefferson Highway Travel Guide — Miners Hall Museum page: https://www.jeffersonhighwaytravelguide.com/travel-directory/kansas/miners-hall-museum

On this shared episode of Big Blend Radio's "Global Adventures" Podcast, travel writer Debbie Stone relives the 163rd Gettysburg Civil War Battle Reenactment — held over 4th of July weekend at the historic Daniel Lady Farm, with timing that felt especially fitting during America's 250th birthday year.

Debbie shares what it was like to stand in the summer heat alongside reenactors in full wool uniform, walk through the Union and Confederate camps, and talk with the volunteers — many of them lifelong history buffs — who keep this history alive. They cover the sobering reality of the battle itself (more than 50,000 casualties over three days), a packed-house presentation on Civil War medicine, the Daniel Lady Farm's role as a Confederate staging area and field hospital, and even a kids' reenactment battle that had every adult on the field smiling.

Read Debbie's full article with more of her Gettysburg story: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/civil-war-battle-reenactment-in-gettysburg

Follow more of Debbie's travels on Global Adventures: - https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/global-adventures-with-debbie-stone - Explore the digital Global Adventures Magazine: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/global-adventures-travel-magazine

Nearly thirty years ago, explorer and author James Michael Dorsey traveled to Timbuktu to see its legendary manuscript libraries — and found himself swept into a race against time. As Al Qaeda's presence grew in northern Mali, his Tuareg guide, Halis al Moctar, recruited him to help evacuate centuries-old manuscripts before the extremist group could destroy them.

On this shared episode of Big Blend Radio's "Before They Vanish" Podcast, James shares what it was like to pack and smuggle manuscripts by camel caravan across the Sahara, hiding them under slabs of salt to slip past Al Qaeda patrols, and distributing them to nomadic families who buried them in the desert for safekeeping. He also talks about the Tuareg "Blue Men" of the Sahara, explorer Ernst Aebi's strange attempt to build a luxury resort in the dying village of Araouane, and the ongoing effort to digitize what manuscripts remain today.

📖 Read James's full feature, "Libraries Beneath the Sand," at Hidden Compass: https://hiddencompass.net/story/libraries-beneath-the-sand/

🎙️ Listen to more episodes of Before They Vanish: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/before-they-vanish-podcast

🌍 Learn more about James Michael Dorsey and his books: https://jamesmichaeldorseyauthor.com/

Forget the Christmas Carol postcard version of Charles Dickens. On this shared episode of Big Blend Radio's "English Connection" Podcast, Glynn Burrows digs into the real story — a childhood shaped by his father's debtor's prison, a stint in a blacking warehouse, and a writing career so prolific it basically invented the serialized soap opera decades before television existed.

Along the way, he digs into what Victorian England was really like for the poor, why Dickens' novels mattered as social record as much as entertainment, and the genuine mystery still surrounding his personal life — including a young actress named Ellen Ternan and a sister-in-law who moved in three years after his separation. Glynn also makes the case for why doing your own research matters, whether you're tracing Dickens' story or your own family history.

It all wraps up with where you can actually go in England today to walk in Dickens' footsteps — from his Portsmouth birthplace to his grave in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner — and a reminder that gratitude looks a little different once you know what people were living through less than 200 years ago.

📖 Read Glynn's article, "A Dickens Tour of England: From Portsmouth to Poets' Corner": https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/dickens-tour-of-england

🌐 Visit English Connection: https://EnglishConnection.uk

📚 Explore Glynn's English Connection Digital Magazine: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/english-connection-magazine

🎙️ Listen to more episodes: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/english-connection-podcast