I write and (sometimes) host podcast episodes! Most recently, I worked with journalist Tim McKirdy to write, research, and produce “Mezcal’s Untold Past, Soaring Present, and Fragile Future,” a three-part audio docuseries for VinePair’s Cocktail College podcast. This impactful series featured interviews with small-scale, traditional mezcal producers throughout Oaxaca, Mexico, explored the methods, history, and choices defining mezcal’s identity in a globalizing world. Find it wherever Cocktail College is available, or linked here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
(Art by Oscar Rodriguez Amado)
Previously, I wrote and hosted a series of podcast episodes called Source Material, hoisting a pint glass between past and present to see how beer refracts our perspective. These deep dives and interviews were published on Good Beer Hunting’s (now former) podcast. You can find episodes on Apple, Google, Spotify, and anywhere else the GBH podcast is (still) available…or just scroll down! Every episode I’ve produced is available on this page.
Featured episode
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The Rise and Fall of the 1970s’ Biggest Kegger
Link on Good Beer Hunting
Sometimes throwing a great party requires the right historical moment. This episode traces the story of the Aber Day Kegger, the United States’ largest kegger/concert during the 1970s. Created by students at the University of Montana in Missoula, the kegger’s quest to raise money for the university library made it both iconic nationwide and controversial in its local community. Its fate would be the product of a surging youth drinking culture, shifting minimum drinking age laws, predatory beer marketing practices, some old-fashioned greed, and–for a moment there–a national boycott movement. (Released October 7, 2023)
Past episodes
GBH Podcast EP-397
Theresa McCulla, formerly of the Smithsonian Institution
Link on Good Beer Hunting
In late 2023 Theresa McCulla, curator of modern beer history at the Smithsonian Institution, announced her departure for a new professional chapter. McCulla devoted some 7 years to documenting, preserving, and sharing critical moments in American beer history and her influence on the field of beer history will be felt for generations. It seemed only fair to sit down with her one last time for a symbolic exist interview…and heartfelt well-wishes. (Released January 24, 2024)
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Frontline Frenemy — Alcohol’s Backhanded Role in the American Civil War
Link on Good Beer Hunting
A common misconception is that the temperance movement more or less sat out the Civil War. In reality, anti-alcohol politics merged easily with wartime realities, from debates over alcohol’s medicinal properties to attempts by the Confederacy to enact Prohibition. For this episode, I interview historian Megan Bever about her recent book, At War with King Alcohol: Debating and Drinking Masculinity in the Civil War, which tackles this topic in ways I’d never seen before (and believe me, I’ve looked). (Released May 6, 2023)
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Beer For All or None: The Busch-Lasker Controversy of 1922
Link on Good Beer Hunting
In 1922, while Prohibition gripped the United States, brewing industry titan August A. Busch Sr. discovered that government-owned passenger ships were serving up alcohol all over the Atlantic. As you might imagine, he had something to say about it. This episode covers his public feud with Albert Lasker, advertising guru and chairman of the US Shipping Board, and the weird politics of Prohibition. (Released Feb 4, 2023)
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Women’s Work: What the Story of a 17th-Century Brewster Can Teach Us About 21st-Century Brewery Ownership
I team up with superstar beer journalist Kate Bernot to review the many ways women have sustained, elevated, and even saved American brewing. We focus on Sarah Frankes, brewer and tavern owner in 17th century Boston, then pair her story with 21st century women brewers and brewery owners. We discuss the ways that barriers facing women in this industry have changed…and the ways they haven’t changed at all. (Released Dec 7, 2022)
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Worth Saving: Brewery Records and the Future
I sit down with three archivists who specialize in the preservation of beer history to talk about brewery records and how to save them from oblivion. This episode gets into the weeds just a little bit, but it’s a message the brewing industry needs to hear. (Released May 21, 2022)
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That Dog Won’t Hunt: Charleston Beer’s Past, Present, and Future
Alongside Jamaal Lemon and Mike Stein, we discuss our work to recover the names of erased Black brewery workers in one of Charleston’s oldest breweries. Specifically, we talk to brewery owners and artists who helped up honor this history with a historically-minded beer and the first ever Tek Cyear uh Da Root festival, which took place in Charleston on November 4, 2021. This work relates to our earlier written Tek Cyear uh Da Root series. (Released Nov 18, 2021)
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‘Every Can Counts’: Boycotting Coors in Colorado, the Castro, and Beyond
I team up with guest co-host Holly Regan to explore the Coors boycotts, a series of coalition-based campaigns against the anti-union, discriminatory, and zealously conservative practices of Coors Brewing Company and the family behind it. Special guest Allyson Brantley. (images by Colette Holston) (Released October 13, 2021)
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Name Your Poison
I wrap up my debut series on 1800s lager beer and public health with a look at the seemingly endless adulteration debates that hounded lager beer for half a century. Special guests Maureen Ogle and Lee Graves. (Released August 26, 2021)
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The Devil’s Chloroform
I continue my dive into lager beer and 1800s public health debates with a look at cholera epidemics during the 1840s, 50s, and 60s, when lager beer was simultaneously blamed for causing the disease, and lauded for preventing it. Special guests Maureen Ogle and Lee Graves. (Released July 25, 2021)
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Overruled
My podcast debuts with ‘Lager Beer, Governing Bodies,” a three part series looking at lager beer’s repeated entanglements with public health debates in 1800s America. This episode covers a series of court cases during the 1850s and beyond, where a heated debate took place about whether lager beer could intoxicate a person. Special guests Maureen Ogle and Lee Graves. (Released May 28, 2021)
Brewed Culture 