Three hosts. Five rounds. One judge with a hatchet.

Jake, Justin, and Molly each drafted their picks for history's most revolutionary moments, figures, and films — then handed the gavel to three-time guest Codie Eash of the Seminary Ridge Museum to rank every choice and crown a winner.

The board ran wide. Jake took the French Revolution, the summer of 1945, Band of Brothers, UMWA president John Mitchell, and the revolutions of 1848. Molly countered with Roe v. Wade, the executions after the Easter Rising, V for Vendetta, John Brown, and Bush v. Gore. Justin argued for Martin Luther's 95 Theses, the founding of CNN, Star Wars, Nathanael Greene, and the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.

Codie scored it all on a three-two-one system, category by category — and the final tally delivered a genuine upset. He also lays out his own "Oops, All-American Revolution" board.

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After a long spring hiatus, Justin, Jake, and Molly are back — and they're arguing about what "revolution" actually means. With America's 250th anniversary on the horizon, the three of us turned the question into a draft: five rounds, snake order, one pick per category, and a guest judge waiting in the wings to rank the results.

We are thinking of it like building a record collection. Who walks away with the best greatest-hits album of revolutionary history?

In this episode, we draft across five categories:

• Foundational Revolutionary Moments — the pivot points that changed everything.
• Political Turning Points — the shifts in power and thought that bent history's course.
• Cinematic Revolutions — the films and series that changed how we see the past.
• Best Revolutionary — one figure who deserves the credit.
• Wild Card — anything goes.

Expect some predictable picks, a few curveballs, and at least one choice nobody at the table saw coming.

Now it's your turn - vote for who drafted the best revolutionary moments here!

In this episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly, Jake sat down with Fin Dwyer - the voice behind the Irish History Podcast and one of the most consistent storytellers working in public history today.

If you've ever wondered what it actually takes to sustain a history podcast for more than a decade, this is that conversation.

We talk about how Fin got started back in 2010, building an audience from scratch, and how podcasting has evolved from a niche format into one of the most powerful tools we have for sharing history. Along the way, we dig into something that sits at the center of both of our work - how to take complex, often uncomfortable history and make it accessible without losing the nuance.

We also talk about the craft of public history; how we tell stories, how audiences engage with them, and what responsibility comes with putting history out into the world.

And like any good conversation between public historians, we end up somewhere deeper - talking about bias, interpretation, and why the past still matters so much in the present.

Check out The Irish History Podcast

Check out Transatlantic: An Irish American History Podcast

This episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly explores:

• How Fin built the Irish History Podcast into a global show
• What podcasting looked like in 2010 - and how much it's changed
• The challenge of turning deep research into clear, engaging storytelling
• Why some of the most important stories never become books - but thrive in podcasts
• The responsibility of historians in public spaces, especially online
• How nuance gets lost and why it's worth fighting to keep it
• The tension between academic history and public-facing storytelling
• Why the past still shapes how we see the world today

In this episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly, Justin, Jake, aned Molly wrap up HBO's John Adams miniseries.

Episodes five through seven leave the battlefield and diplomacy behind and step into the uncertain world of governing a brand-new nation. Independence has been won - but now comes the reality of politics, power struggles, and the messy work of building a republic from scratch.

John Adams finds himself on the outside looking in as vice president, then at the center of the storm as president - caught between Jefferson, Hamilton, and a political culture that already feels strikingly familiar. Meanwhile, Abigail Adams remains a steady and formidable presence, even as the personal cost of public life begins to take its toll on their family.

By the final episode, the story turns inward. The urgency of revolution fades into something quieter and more human: aging, loss, legacy, and the uneasy realization that the history they lived is already being reshaped into myth.

This episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly explores:

• John Adams discovering just how little power the vice presidency actually holds
• The rise of political parties and the bitter divide between Jefferson and Hamilton
• The threat of war with France and the fragile place of the United States in a global conflict
• The Alien and Sedition Acts and the tension between liberty and control
• Abigail Adams navigating family, politics, and personal loss
• The devastating toll of illness and grief on the Adams family
• The mythmaking of the American Revolution and how quickly history gets rewritten
• John Adams and Thomas Jefferson reflecting on a lifetime of rivalry and legacy

Other notes:

In this episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly, Jake and Molly head back into HBO's John Adams miniseries - this time following the American Revolution far beyond Boston and Philadelphia.

John Adams sails for Europe with young John Quincy Adams at his side, stepping into the chaotic world of Revolutionary diplomacy. In Paris he clashes with Benjamin Franklin, struggles to win allies for the American cause, and begins the long, exhausting work of convincing Europe that the United States is a nation worth betting on.

Back home in Massachusetts, Abigail Adams is fighting a very different war. With John gone for years at a time, she manages the farm, raises the family, and navigates the constant uncertainty of wartime.

Jake and Molly unpack the history behind the series, from Adams' awkward diplomacy in France and the Netherlands to Abigail's resilience and entrepreneurship on the Massachusetts home front.

This episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly explores:

• John Adams arriving in Europe as America's most stubborn diplomat
• Benjamin Franklin's very different approach to winning French support
• Young John Quincy Adams witnessing the Revolution up close
• Abigail Adams running the farm - and the household war effort - alone
• Awkward scenes with European royalty

In this emergency episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly, Jake and Molly step away from their regular programming to talk about a war unfolding in real time - and a part of that war that few are discussing.

During airstrikes in Iran, damage was reported near the Golestan Palace in Tehran, a UNESCO World Heritage site with roots stretching back centuries. That moment raises a larger question: what happens to history when modern war arrives?

Jake walks through the international effort to protect cultural heritage during conflict, including the 1954 Hague Convention - an agreement created in the shadow of World War II's destruction. The conversation traces the long history of armies destroying culture, from Nazi looting in Europe to the bombing campaigns of World War II, the looting of museums in Iraq in 2003, and the deliberate destruction of ancient sites by ISIS in the 21st century.

But the episode also widens into something more personal and immediate. The duo reflects on the historical echoes of the Iraq War, the dangers of conflicts launched without clear purpose, and the human consequences that follow when governments rush into war without understanding what comes next.

This episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly explores:

• The damage to Tehran's Golestan Palace and why UNESCO heritage sites matter
• The 1954 Hague Convention and the laws meant to protect culture in wartime
• World War II, Nazi looting, and the origins of cultural protection treaties
• The destruction of museums and archaeological sites in Iraq and Syria
• The historical parallels between the Iraq War and the current conflict
• Why protecting history in wartime is ultimately about protecting humanity itself

In this episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly, we begin our rewatch of HBO's 2008 miniseries John Adams — and it feels different this time.

Jake, Justin, and Molly dive into the first two episodes of John Adams, beginning with the Boston Massacre and John Adams' controversial defense of British soldiers. It's a legal drama rooted in principle and ambition - a reminder that the rule of law has always been contested in American history, even in 1770.

From there, the conversation moves into the Continental Congress, the long road to independence, and the fragile coalition that produced the Declaration.

Along the way, the trio unpacks the radicalization of John Adams, the diplomacy of Benjamin Franklin, the complicated legacy of George Washington, and the indispensable role of Abigail Adams - moral compass, political strategist, and intellectual equal.

This episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly explores:

• The Boston Massacre and why Adams defended the British soldiers
• "Facts are stubborn things" and the meaning of the rule of law
• The violence and instability of revolutionary Boston
• The Continental Congress and the messy politics of independence
• Jefferson, Franklin, and the drafting of the Declaration
• The slavery clause that didn't survive
• Smallpox, inoculation, and medicine in wartime
• Abigail Adams as the quiet force behind the Revolution

In this episode, Jake and Justin are joined by public historian Travis Shaw for a story that feels very modern - and yet unfolds in the 1840s.

It begins with a marriage between Sally Preston McDowell, the daughter of a powerful Virginia political family, and Francis Thomas, a rising Maryland political star. Within weeks, suspicion, jealousy, and accusation turn that marriage into one of the most explosive public scandals of the antebellum era.

What follows is a cascade of drama: alleged infidelity, a miscarriage, public accusations of infanticide, private letters turned into political weapons, and - at one point - two sitting governors physically fighting on a train platform in Virginia.

Francis Thomas published a 52-page pamphlet detailing the intimate collapse of his marriage and places it on the desk of every member of Congress. State legislatures in Maryland and Virginia debated the case. Crowds packed the galleries. The press leapt at the chance to spill ink about this unfolding drama.

But beneath the spectacle is something more human - and more revealing. This episode explores how marriage, divorce, reputation, and gender operated in the 19th century. It traces how a woman navigated public shame in a world that gave her few legal protections. And it follows the strange afterlife of a political career that seemed permanently destroyed - only to be resurrected during the Civil War.

This episode of Public History with Justin, Jake, and Molly explores:

• Marriage, jealousy, and power in the 1840s political elite
• Divorce through state legislatures in antebellum America
• Public scandal before tabloids and reality TV - broadsides, pamphlets, and packed galleries
• Two governors fighting on a train platform
• The Civil War redemption arc of Francis Thomas
• Sally McDowell's second act - and a life reclaimed

Want to learn more? Here's this episode's reading list and more information about Travis Shaw:

The Great Catastrophe of My Life Divorce in the Old Dominion by Thomas E. Buckley

If You Love That Lady Don't Marry Her: The Courtship Letters of Sally Mcdowell and John Miller, 1854-1856 (Volume 1)

Statement of Francis Thomas

Historians on Tap

Virginia Piedmont Heritage Area