Ron Curtis

From the America Abroad series: Mexico isn’t just America’s neighbor. It is also our third-largest trading partner, outpacing Japan, Germany and the UK combined. So what will a change in Mexico’s government mean for the U.S.?

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Airing Sunday, August 19th. You can hear The Listening Room Sunday nights at 9:00 p.m., on WWNO, 89.9 FM.

From: Backstory with the American History Guys:  Summer and movies go together like peaches and cream. And that association is not just the product of Hollywood marketing: movie theaters were among the first places to install central air conditioning. In the early decades of the 20th century, the public flocked to the movies to escape August heat waves, and the tradition has stuck.

From the State of the Re:Union series: The Ozarks have long been an isolated part of the country. Here, families have stayed in the same hollows for generations with little influence from the outside world. Everyone knows everyone else, which means that daily life here is steeped in the past, for better or for worse.

These days, what we find in the mailbox tends to fall into one of two categories: junk mail or quaint hand-written reminders of times past.

While the mail may now vacillate between irritating or antiquated, for more than two hundred years the U.S. Post Office played a central role in American life. It was not only the institution that allowed us to communicate with each other across state lines and beyond, but it played a vital part in our country’s political organization and hierarchies.

From the Backstory with the American History Guys series: When President Obama became the first American president to publicly support same-sex marriage, he acknowledged a trend in American culture: that marriage–the laws, as well as social conventions and expectations surrounding it–have long been subject to change.

From the America Abroad series: The Middle East is largely Muslim but it’s also the birthplace of Christianity, Judaism, and many other religions. Many non-Muslims have left in recent decades, leaving relatively small populations of non-Muslims and Muslim minority sects.

Now, the rise of Islamist political parties in the Mideast raises questions about the rights and protections such minorities can expect or whether they can expect them at all.

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From the State of the Re:Union series. Quaint storefronts along Main streets, covered bridges over clear streams, cows from dairy farms dotting green valleys: across the state, these are the iconic images of Vermont.

From: Backstory with the American History Guys: In the early days of our nation, July Fourth wasn’t an official holiday at all. In fact, it wasn’t until 1938 that it became a paid day-off. So how did the Fourth become the holiest day on our secular calendar?

Historian Pauline Maier offers some answers, and explains how radically the meaning of the Declaration has changed since 1776. James Heintze chronicles early Independence Day Bacchanalia. And historian David Blight reflects on Frederick Douglass’ arresting 1852 Independence Day speech.

From Backstory with the American History Guys: in 1815, a volcanic eruption in Indonesia sent enough ash into the sky to disrupt the world’s weather for the next year. In New England, 1816 became known as “The Year Without a Summer.” Snow fell in June and July. Crops and animals died. Tens of thousands of people picked up and left; their search for greener pastures became an early chapter in a larger story of westward expansion.