I have a new podcast, Listening T.O. History! Here's a quick announcement about it and the trailer. Check it out here: https://open.spotify.com/show/17OnQyM5pOXgcflZbBBlno.

Today we’re digging into the history of urban planning in twentieth-century Canada and the US! Particularly, we discuss why our cities came to be oriented around car-dependent suburbs, and what consequences that style of design has for our lives today.

In this episode, I’m joined by fellow Torontonian and historian, Dr. Hana Suckstorff. Our conversation today responds to ongoing political debates about urban design in the Greater Toronto Area; anyone living in southern Ontario knows that we have had multiple recent provincial and municipal elections (and soon will have another) in which our urban design has been a major political issue. While our discussion centers on these debates in the GTA, many of the themes we get into are applicable to cities across Canada and the US. We get into why governments, businesses, and ordinary people took up car-dependent suburbanization in the mid-twentieth century; the roles of race, class, and gender in this history; why this history matters for current political debates about the issue; and much more.

For those interested in learning more local Toronto history on this topic, check out Richard Harris's Unplanned Suburbs: Toronto’s American Tragedy, 1900-1950 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996). For those interested in a more general history focused on the US, have a look at Kenneth T. Jackson’s Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985). Also, if you’re interested in learning more about Hana’s work in educating people about WWII in Asia, check out ALPHA Education’s website here: https://www.alphaeducation.org/.

--

Podcast logo is made by https://www.instagram.com/nethkaria; music is from “Mystery,” recorded in 1919 by Paul Biese and his Novelty Orchestra. Follow the show on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/offcampushistory/) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/offcampushistory)! You can also email the show at offcampushistory[at]gmail.com.

On today’s episode, we chat about all things historical movies! I’m joined by Kevin Winterhalt, previous Off-Campus History alumnus and PhD Candidate at the University of Colorado-Boulder. His research examines the intersection of professional sports and politics in the modern United States.

It’s a bit more of an informal chat today as we dive into our thoughts on historical films generally. When it comes to movies, what does “historical accuracy” really mean to us? What are some of the best historical films we’ve seen, and what are some of the worst? Plus, we talk about some historical events and figures that would make for interesting and/or important movies!

For those who’d like to learn more about on-screen portrayals of history, check out Monica MacDonald’s book Recasting History: How CBC Television Has Shaped Canada’s Past (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s, 2019). Also, for those interested in the biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer biography mentioned toward the end of the episode, that was Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (New York: A.A. Knopf, 2005).

--

Podcast logo is made by https://www.instagram.com/nethkaria; music is from “Mystery,” recorded in 1919 by Paul Biese and his Novelty Orchestra. Follow the show on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/offcampushistory/) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/offcampushistory)! You can also email the show at offcampushistory[at]gmail.com.