In 1910, a German Earth scientist noticed something about the map of the world. South America seemed to fit into Africa. North America seemed to fit into northwest Africa and Europe.
He proposed that the continents may at one time have been joined and subsequently moved.
The scientific community laughed at him and rejected his idea.
Learn more about Alfred Wegener and the theory of Continental Drift, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
In The Soviet Myth of World War II: Patriotic Memory and the Russian Question in the USSR (Cambridge UP, 2021), Jonathan Brunstedt examines how Soviet society, a community committed to the Marxist ideals of internationalism, reconciled itself to notions of patriotist, Russian nationalism, and the glorification of war. Brunstedt does through the lens of the myth and remembrance of victory in World War II – arguably the central defining event of the Soviet epoch. The book shows that while the experience and legacy of the conflict did much to reinforce a sense of Russian exceptionalism and Russian-led ethnic hierarchy, the story of the war enabled an alternative, supra-ethnic source of belonging, which subsumed Russian and non-Russian loyalties alike to the Soviet whole. The tension and competition between Russocentric and 'internationalist' conceptions of victory, which burst into the open during the late 1980s, reflected a wider struggle over the nature of patriotic identity in a multiethnic society that continues to reverberate in the post-Soviet space. The book sheds new light on long-standing questions linked to the politics of remembrance and provides a crucial historical context for the patriotic revival of the war's memory in Russia today.
Douglas Bell is a writer, teacher, and historian who lives in the Netherlands. His research interests center on American military history, American foreign policy, German history, and European Studies. Tweet him @douglasibell.
Our guest is: Professor Morgan Talty, who is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation where he grew up. He is the author of the story collection Night of the Living Rez from Tin House Books, and his work has appeared in Granta, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, Narrative Magazine, LitHub, and elsewhere. A winner of the 2021 Narrative Prize, Talty’s work has been supported by the Elizabeth George Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts (2022). Talty is an Assistant Professor of English in Creative Writing and Native American and contemporary Literature at the University of Maine, Orono, and he is on the faculty at the Stonecoast MFA in creative writing as well as the Institute of American Indian Arts. Professor Talty is also a Prose Editor at The Massachusetts Review. He lives in Levant, Maine.
Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.
Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:
A Calm and Normal Heart by Chelsea T. Hicks
The Removed by Brandon Hobson
There There by Tommy Orange
Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot
The Lesser Blessed by Richard Van Camp
Welcome to The Academic Life! We reach across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Here on the Academic Life channel, we embrace a broad definition of what it means to be an academic and to lead an academic life. We view education as a transformative human endeavor and are inspired by today’s knowledge-producers working inside and outside the academy. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DMs us on Twitter: @AcademicLifeNBN.
What to know about President Biden’s speech last night that seemed like a final pitch to voters, and how Republicans are responding.
Also: the Fed’s outlook for the future when it comes to interest rates and inflation, and two of America’s largest pharmacies made a deal to settle thousands of lawsuits.
Plus: how last night’s World Series game made history, the new feature coming to Gmail to help you keep track of holiday packages, and how to get some freebies on National Sandwich Day…
Those stories and more news to know in around 10 minutes!
It’s election season. And Injustice Watch’s Maya Dukmasova joins us to answer your last-minute questions about that lengthy part of the ballot lots of voters avoid: judges.
President Biden on Wednesday made his closing argument to voters ahead of Election Day. In a speech delivered near Capitol Hill, where violent extremists attempted to overturn the 2020 election, he warned that America’s democratic traditions are on the line this midterm cycle.
For our final installment of WAD The Vote, Rep. Sean Casten, the first Democrat to represent Illinois’ 6th Congressional District in decades, tells us how he entered politics, and why he’s running for a third term.
And in headlines: a surprise ceasefire was reached to end two years of civil war in Ethiopia, the Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by another 0.75%, and hospitals are reporting an alarming surge in R.S.V. cases among young children.
Crooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffee
Peter Vlaming believes words have power, a conviction that cost him his job.
Vlaming was fired from his position teaching French at West Point High School in Virginia in 2018 for refusing to call a female student by male pronouns.
Vlaming said he was essentially given the option to either “deny” his own “Christian belief, in order to stay in the school system,” or stand and fight.
“Sooner or later, you have to say, ‘No, I'm not going to do that,’” he said, a decision that cost him his teaching career.
Vlaming sued the school board, and now, the Virginia Supreme Court will hear Vlaming’s case on Friday.
Vlaming and Caleb Dalton, senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, join "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss the significance of the case and what the court’s decision could mean for the free speech rights of teachers.
Democrats have been winning reliably in Nevada, but between the lack of enthusiasm for Joe Biden among Latino voters, and a lackluster voter-turnout effort from Vegas’s hospitality union, it’s very possible that the face of Nevada’s “Stop the Steal” effort may win a Senate seat.
Guest: Jon Ralston, CEO and Editor in Chief of The Nevada Independent.
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