Now Available on all platforms! In this new podcast from the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, we'll explore George Washington as both President and precedent. From the very origins of the US presidency at the Constitutional Convention to Washington’s final warnings in his Farewell Address, we will break down how one man shape…

Welcome back to the Book Squad Podcast! In this episode, Polli and Adam discuss all of their favorite reads of 2023. Spoiler alert: we read a TON of good books this year, and plan on reading some excellent ones in 2024, too. Thanks for listening to our truly unhinged podcast. We'll see you in the new year. Happy reading!…

Welcome back to the Book Squad Podcast! We have a special guest joining us; our very own Spooky Queen, Christina! In this episode we'll talk about Halloween traditions, figure out whether Christina is Team Jacob or Team Edward, and hear all about Adam's weird pumpkin experiments. Spooky Season might be over, but our love for vampires is eternal.…

Welcome back to the Book Squad Podcast! In this episode, we'll be talking all about the hot topic of banned books. How much have instances of books being banned increased over the years? What type of books do you typically find on Banned Books list? How can you make a difference by challenging these bans? You'll get answers to all that and more, in…

Welcome back to the Book Squad Podcast! It's been a couple minutes since we've last recorded an episode, and we're back with a bloody good one! In this episode we'll discuss some rumors featuring Taylor Swift, share all the details about our annual Booktoberfest extravaganza, and give some takes on Dracula that are just as spicy as paprika. And as …

Welcome back to the Book Squad Podcast! This time around we're talking all things Summer Reading, including all of the cool prizes. (Spoiler alert: WE HAVE TOTEBAGS). We'll also be giving recommendations for a few of our favorite audiobooks, to help you reach your summer reading goals. Listen to this episode to hear which audiobook narrator Polli t…

Welcome back to the Book Squad Podcast! This month we're giving recommendations for Jewish American Heritage Month, but they're perfect picks for any time of the year. In this episode you'll find magical realism books, fairytales, messy coming-of-age stories, spicy romance, and more! There's something for everyone in this episode. Happy reading!…

In this final episode of Conversations at the Washington Library, Drs. Anne Fertig and Alexandra Montgomery bid farewell to former Digital Historian and host, Dr. James Ambuske, through a retrospective of his time and work at the George Washington Podcast Network.By George Washington's Mount Vernon

In this episode, we talk about what first made us interested in becoming librarians and then we talk about books, some more books, and oh yeah, books! Listen to hear some of Polli and Adam's favorite books about books, and feel free to suggest synonyms for "sweet", "fascinating", and "lovely" in the comments.…

Welcome back to the Book Squad Podcast! In today's episode we're touching grass. Listen to hear Polli expound on her dreams of visiting Maine, Adam complain about bugs, and for our special guest Shirley to talk about an exciting nature-related event happening later this month. Happy reading!By Lawrence Public Library

Welcome back to the Book Squad Podcast! In this episode Adam and Polli talk about the books they're reading this month and what the book clubs have been up to lately. Stick around for a special guest and to hear more about the annual Squad Goals challenge. What's the first book you're planning to read this year?…

Welcome back to the Book Squad Podcast! We've reached the end of 2022 and it's finally time to talk about our favorite books of the year. From rom coms to, er, womp womps, we've got a ton of recommendations! Give the episode a listen to hear all the ~spicy~ opinions of your local bookish "experts". Happy holidays, and happy reading!…

The Adams Family is one of the more prominent families in American history. They were at the center of the American Revolution, they helped create a new republic, shaped the young nation’s foreign policy, and later were central to the development of the history profession. Fortunately, we know much about their lives because of the countless letters…

Welcome back to the Book Squad Podcast! Grab your hot beverage of choice and settle in for a discussion of all things cozy. What feels comforting during the changing of the season? For Polli it's cookbooks (but maybe not cooking) and for Adam it's stories that fell like the emotional equivalent of wearing an old sweater. Listen to this month's podc…

In 1752, George Washington joined the Masonic Lodge in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was just twenty years old. Despite his early interest in masonry, Washington was not as active in the organization as some might imagine, but Masonic Lodges became important sites of social gathering for men in early America. And while masons and masonic rituals pla…

When George Washington wrote his final will in the months before he died in December 1799, he named Bushrod Washington as heir to his papers and to Mount Vernon. He took possession of his uncle’s Virginia plantation when Martha Washington passed away in 1802. But Bushrod was not as interested in agriculture as George had been. He was a lawyer who l…

Why is the way that we remember the past oftentimes different than historical reality? And how can we use public history to inform conversations in the present about events that took place centuries earlier? On today’s episode, Jim Ambuske introduces you to Dr. Anne Fertig, our newest colleague here at the Washington Library, who will help us think…

Welcome back to the Book Squad Podcast! It's finally autumn: the season of crunchy leaves, cozy sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, and scary the crap outta yourself while watching a scary movie. What drives people to watch and read horror stories? Join Book Squad members Polli Kenn, Adam Lopez and special guest Christina James as they talk about the p…

Welcome back to the Book Squad Podcast! In this episode we're give you all the insider information you need to celebrate Booktoberfest. Join Polli, Adam, and our special guest Leah to hear them ramble about Practical Magic, Welsh soccer, and Chris Pine being a dang snack. Be sure to register for all of the Booktoberfest events so you can show off y…

Welcome back to the Book Squad Podcast! August is Read A Romance Month and in this episode Polli and Adam get on their soapbox and rant respectfully educate our listeners on all things Romance. Listen to hear all of Polli's spiciest takes, to hear Adam lament the loss of this past season of Love Island, and to discover why you, yes you, should be r…

This month is a delicious hors d'oeuvres of an episode, in which our intrepid librarians must bravely face their most challenging topic yet: keeping their chit chat to under thirty minutes. Will they succeed?! You'll have to listen to find out! In this episode you'll find little to no rambling, some discussions on our must-read books, and a Thor re…

Wanting AAPI book recommendations, with a generous side helping of chaos from the rag tag team you've come to know and love? Well, you're listening to the right podcast! Join our co-hosts as Polli and Adam (formerly Kimberly) talk a lot about a whole lotta books. Grab a snack and a cuppa, folks, this one's a long episode!For show notes, visit this …

In the early decades of the nineteenth century, the British Empire began dismantling the slave system that had helped to build it. Parliament banned the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, and in 1833 the government outlawed slavery itself, accomplishing through legislative action what the United States would later achieve in part by the horrors of …

In May 1787, George Washington arrived in Philadelphia to attend the Constitutional Convention. One afternoon, as he waited for the other delegates to show up so the convention could begin, Washington accompanied some ladies to a public lecture at the University of Pennsylvania by a woman named Eliza Harriot Barons O’Conner. Eliza Harriot, as she s…

We're delighted to bring you one of the bonus episodes from our other podcast, Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. In Intertwined Stories, we're featuring extended interviews with some of the expert contributors to the main Intertwined show. Today, you'll hear part of the conversation that Jim Ambuske and Jeanet…

Welcome back to the Book Squad Podcast! Today's episode features a special guest to give you all the scoop on Read Across Lawrence. Listen to the end to hear all about it. You'll also get book recs for times of stress, and you'll get to listen to Kimberly finally master upspeak and Polli give a basic United States history lesson. It's John Wilkes B…

Hannah Lawrence Schieffelin was an American poet who rhymed about some of the most important issues facing the early United States in the eighteenth century, including the British occupation of New York City during the American Revolution, the debate over the gradual abolition of slavery in the early days of the republic, and the legacy of George W…

Polli Kenn and Kimberly Lopez are back at it (again) for more shenanigans (again), and this time they have even more books to discuss! Listen to the podcast to hear Kimberly completely butcher the premise of The School for Good Mothers (the main character has to take care of a toddler doll, not a robot child, because this isn’t A.I.) and keep liste…

In eighteenth-century America, you would’ve had little opportunity for formal schooling or an advanced education. Unless you were among the elite or at least of some means, your chances of attending a local academy or Harvard College weren’t great. But the American Revolution ushered in a new era of education in the United States that paved the way…

For years after the ratification of the Constitution, Americans debated how the Federal Government and the several states should relate to each other, and work together, to form a more perfect union. The success, if not the survival, of the new republic depended on these governments cooperating on any number of issues, from customs enforcement to N…

In the 1760s, tobacco was one of Virginia’s chief exports. But George Washington turned away from the noxious plant and began dreaming of wheat and a more profitable future. Washington became enamored with new ideas powering the agricultural revolution in Great Britain and set out to implement this new form of husbandry back home at Mount Vernon. H…

In the 18th and 19th centuries, North Americans looked up at the sky in wonder at the cosmos and what lay beyond earth’s atmosphere. But astronomers like Benjamin Banneker, Georgia surveyors, Cherokee storytellers, and government officials also saw in the stars ways to master space on earth by controlling the heavens above. And print technology bec…

When delegates assembled in Philadelphia in the Summer of 1787 to write a new Constitution, they spent months in secret writing a document they hoped would form a more perfect Union. When we talk about the convention, we often talk of the Virginia Plan, the Connecticut Compromise, the 3/5ths clause, and other major decisions that shaped the final d…

For most Americans, Thomas Paine is the radical Englishman, and former tax collector, who published Common Sense in early 1776. His claim that hereditary monarchy was an absurdity and that the “cause of America was in great measure the cause of all mankind” galvanized American rebels into thinking more seriously about independence than they had onl…

On this week's show, we bring you Episode 1 of Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington's Mount Vernon. Entitled "Passages," it features the life of Sambo Anderson, who was just a boy when he was captured in West Africa, survived the Middle Passage, and purchased by an ambitious George Washington sometime in the late 1760s. During h…

Intertwined tells the story of the more than 577 people enslaved by George and Martha Washington at Mount Vernon. Told through the biographies of Sambo Anderson, Davy Gray, William Lee, Kate, Ona Judge, Nancy Carter Quander, Edmund Parker, Caroline Branham, and the Washingtons, this eight-part podcast series explores the lives and labors of Mount V…

In May 1796, an enslaved woman named Ona Judge fled the presidential household in Philadelphia and escaped to freedom on a ship headed for New Hampshire. Judge’s successful flight was one of many such escapes by the sea in the 18th and 19th centuries. Enslaved people boarded ships docked in ports great and small and used coastal water ways and the …

To kick off Season 6, we bring you the story of America’s Favorite Fighting Frenchmen. In 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette sailed from France with a commission as a major general in the Continental Army. Unlike many other European soldiers of fortune, Lafayette paid his own way and had no expectation that he would be placed at the head of American fo…

In the eighteenth century, the Myaamia people inhabited what are now parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. More commonly known in English as the Miami, the Myaamia figure prominently in the early history of the United States, especially in the 1790s, when war chief Mihšihkinaahkwa (or Little Turtle) co-led an alliance of Miami and Shawne…

Consuls are essential to American foreign relations. Although they may not be as flashy or as powerful as an Ambassador like Thomas Jefferson or John Quincy Adams, they’re often the go-to people when an American gets in trouble abroad or when a trade deal needs to get done. Consuls operate in cities and towns throughout the world, helping to advanc…

If you pull any decent history book off your shelf right now, odds are that it’s filled with quotes from letters, diaries, or account books that help the author tell her story and provide the evidence for her interpretation of the past. It’s almost always the case that the quotation you read in a book is just one snippet of a much longer document. …

On September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key began composing "The Star-Spangled Banner after witnessing the British attack on Fort McHenry. Of all the things he could have done after seeing that flag, why did Key write a song? And how did his new composition fit into a much longer history of music as a form of political persuasion in the Early Republic…

In 1784, King Charles III of Spain sent George Washington a token of his esteem. Knowing that Washington had long sought a Spanish donkey for his Mount Vernon estate, the king permitted a jack to be exported to the new United States. Washington named the donkey Royal Gift in recognition of its royal origin, and the donkey became somewhat of a minor…

We're back, we're back! The Book Squad Podcast is back! Kate Gramlich, our longtime cohost, has brazenly left the library for another job. (Everyone wave to Kate at her new job!) So along with starting back recording, Book Squad member Kimberly Lopez has taken up the mantle of shenaniganizing about books with Polli Kenn and we had a great time star…

The American Revolution dismembered a protestant empire. In the years during and after the war, states disestablished their churches, old and new denominations flourished, and Americans enshrined religious freedom into their state and federal constitutions. But claiming religious freedom in a democracy was not the same as enjoying it. In the republ…

In the eighteenth century, death stalked early Americans like a predator hunting its prey. In Virginia, as in other colonies, death made children orphans and wives widows, making a precarious existence all that much more challenging. For the Virginia elite, death also created opportunities for widows and widowers alike to protect their interests, t…

If you’ve taken part in a part in a protest recently, perhaps you carried a sign, waved a flag, or worn a special hat. But if you had grievances in the American Revolution or early Republic, you might have helped raise a Liberty Pole. Now, you may ask yourself, what good is a large wooden pole gonna do about my high taxes? And you may ask yourself,…

Plymouth Plantation occupies a powerful place in American national memory. Think of the First Thanksgiving in 1621; Englishmen escaping religious persecution; the rock marking the alleged spot where settlers first landed; and of course the Mayflower Compact. In the wake of the American Revolution, citizens of the new nation looked to the Compact fo…

Maryland wasn’t so merry for some Americans during the Revolutionary War, especially if you happened to side with the king. Professing fealty to the Crown, for whatever reason or motivation, cost many Maryland colonists their property, and sometimes their lives. But for other Maryland Loyalists, like enslaved people, loyalism was an opportunity to …

Virginia was home to many of the most famous rebels like George Washington during the American Revolution, but it was also a den of Tories who remained loyal to the British king. Loyalists in all the colonies rejected what they called “the unnatural rebellion” and resisted Patriot forces as they tried to restore the king’s peace to British America.…