An interview with Joshua Hammer, author of The Mesopotamian Riddle: An Archaeologist, A Soldier a Clergyman, and the Race to Decipher the World’s Oldest Language (Simon & Schuster, 2025)

Interview with Andy Huse, author of From Saloons to Steakhouses: A History of Tampa (University Press of Florida, 2024)

An interview with historian Jeffrey Lesser about his new book, Living and Dying in São Paulo: Immigrants, Health, and the Built Environment in Brazil (Duke University Press, 2025).

Grace Mackey interviews journalist Lee Pitts

An interview with Editorial Assistant Grace Mackey, about a new series she is launching for us, “Beneath the Byline.”

An interview with David Morton, author of Motion Picture Paradise: A History of Florida’s Film and Television Industry (University Press of Florida, 2024)

An interview with Robert Darnton, premier cultural historian and most recently author of The Writer’s Lot (Harvard University Press, 2025). The Writer’s Lot is set to be his final book. [This interview is a repost.]

We’re doing a Book Club! Spend six weeks reading Joy in the Morning by PG Wodehouse with us!

Interview with Richie Hofmann, poet and 2025 Guggenheim Fellow. He is also the recipient of a 2025 Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts. He is the author of A Hundred Lovers (2022) and Second Empire (2015), and his work has appeared in publications including The New Yorker and The Paris Review. He currently teaches in the Humanities Core at the University of Chicago.

Interview with Mike Stark, author of Starlings: The Curious Odyssey of a Most Hated Bird (University of Nebraska Press, 2025)

An interview with Stephanie Pridgeon, author of Absorption Narratives: Jewishness, Blackness, and Indigeneity in the Cultural Imaginary of the Americas (University of Toronto Press, 2025).

Interview with Christopher Meindl, PhD, author of Florida Springs: From Geography to Politics and Restoration (University Press of Florida, 2024)

Dan Reiter is a “surfer, author, and general contractor.” His writing has appeared in Surfer’s Journal, The Kenyon Review, and McSweeney’s, among other places. His new book, On a Rising Swell: Surf Stories from Florida’s Space Coast was published by University Press of Florida in April 2025.

Richard Overy is a premier historian of the Second World War and the Third Reich. He has written over twenty-five books, most recently Why War? (2024) and Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima and the Surrender of Japan (2025).

Interview with Stephen West, host of the podcast Philosophize This!

What is Substack? Why should you sign up for ours? What’s in it for you?

Interview with Olivia Taylor, author of Welcome to the Paradise Motel (Apprentice House Press, 2025)

Interview with Michael Kosta, author of Lucky Loser: Adventures in Tennis and Comedy (Harper, 2025)

Interview with Geoffrey Ward, historian and writer of scripts for Ken Burns. Author of The Vietnam War: An Intimate History (Knopf, 2017), The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (Knopf, 2014), and others. Script writer of The Civil War, Baseball, The West, Jazz, and more.

Robert Darnton is a premier cultural historian and perhaps the foremost expert on the 18th century republic of letters. He is the author of numerous books, most recently The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1789 (Harvard University Press, 2024).