It is well known that Harry Houdini had an interest in the afterlife and the paranormal. What if the magician pulled off the greatest trick of his life by escaping the bonds of death? Our guest Charlie Young, along with his sister Cheryl Young, have written a work of fiction called Houdini’s Last Handcuffs which seeks to explore the possibility of the master illusionist reappearing to the world of the living. As you will learn from Mr. Young, the book contains as much historical fact as fiction.

Derek Luptak talks with author Spun Counterguy to talk about the inspirations behind the horror anthology Nest of 'Em. Including Skeleton Key, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Picture of Dorian Gray, Southern Gospel, Chinese folklore and more.

In the early 1800’s when America was debating what to do about those still enslaved and the many black Americans that were gaining their liberty, one solution was to return free people to the continent from which they were bought from: Africa. The American Colonization Society was an organization that embraced this idea and began the process of aiding blacks who wished to return to their place of origin. While some African Americans were sympathetic to the plan, most were not. Dr. Robin West comes Back by the Woodpile to help us understand what were the intentions of this movement and why ultimately it failed.  

Though with the 1896 case of Plessy verses Ferguson, American local and state governments forcing racial segregation was upheld as legal, individuals also chose to enforce the separation even if there were no laws. But all over the nation one can find instances where individuals and groups quietly associated together in spite of the times and in one place that happened on occasion was the recording studio. Author and jazz historian Stephen Provizer has painstakingly investigated the recording logs and records and made a comprehensive discography of recordings where blacks, whites and others made some wonderful truly American music together. His book is called As Long As They Can Blow and Mr. Provizer has come Back by the Woodpile to talk about his experience in putting the book together and gives what backstories he can about some of the specific recordings.

During the 1970s and 1980’s there was a flourishing of musical blending and innovation in the nation of South Africa that infected the whole world. All of this occurred in spite of the violent oppression of the then Apartheid government. One man who not only lived through those times but was an active participant was Benjy Mudie, he working for various record labels including Warner and Tusk and signing some of the most legendary names to come out of the rainbow nation. Listen in as Mr. Mudie talks about his experiences with such artists as eVoid, Johnny Clegg, Malcolm McLaren, Paul Simon, Mango Groove and others in addition to giving us a bit of history lesson of those both wonderful and troubled times.  

Musician Mike Roe (77s, Kerosene Halo, Lost Dogs) came by for a short chat about a handful of topics, including his involvement with Robert Vaughn’s 1991 album “Songs from the Riverhouse”, his friendship with Alternative Records’ Randy Layton and then some musings on existential crisis’s that most creative spiritual folks go through.

Randy Layton of Alternative Records comes on to talk about the story behind Robert Vaughn's Songs from the Riverhouse record and the campaign to have it re-released on vinyl! (Learn more at IndieGoGo)

The conversation with Soup the Chemist continues, he talking about sharing the stage with KRS-One, the last days of Brainstorm Artists International, watching fellow artists leave the faith, his own regrets, his book Through My Windows and brand new material! 

Rapper Soup the Chemist aka SFC aka Chris Cooper joins Todd and Spun for this first episode of Orphans of God to talk hip-hop, Brainstorm Artists International, Gene Eugene, Adam Again, faith and so much more! 

Filmmaker Jaime Prater returns to talk about his newest film Love Song, which further documents the Jesus People USA commune in Chicago, Illinois.  To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Jazz music collector Dave Greer tells all about his quests and chance encounters with all kinds of musicians ranging from King Oliver to Jabbo Smith to Louis Armstrong to Nipper the dog to Victoria Spivey and her prostitute friends.

In the history of early recorded music, one label stands out as a kind of unlikely blessing. A recording studio in the unassuming town of Richmond Indiana would end up making some of the first recordings of now legendary artists in the blues, hillbilly and jazz genres. To help us get a grasp of the contribution that Gennett Records gave to music history is the former president of the Starr-Gennett Foundation, Bob Jacobsen.

Welcome to another edition of That to Which We are Tethered, a discussion of belief and disbelief in light of ever-changing times and trends. On this episode we are joined Pastor Daniel Bradford, the professor of Systematic Theology, Philosophy and Christian Ethics for Kentucky District School of Ministry. Dan helps up parse through the confusion over authority and scripture, the claims of fundamentalists and deviations of progressives.  

  In 1846, a slave by the name of Dred Scott after several attempts to buy his own freedom from his master Eliza Sanford, sued. In one Missouri court Scott won his freedom but then in the appeals process pursued by Sanford, his liberty was taken away. Through a long process the case ended up before the US Supreme Court where a devastating decision delivered by Chief Justice Roger Taney in 1857 said that not only would Scott, his wife and children remain slaves, but in fact the rights of man as defined in the Declaration of Independence had never applied to those Americans of African descent. Dr. Dennis Boman comes Back By the Woodpile to explain the days leading up to the monumental case in addition to its nuances and aftermath. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Oswaldo Paya attempted to bring Cuba closer towards all the broken promises of Fidel Castro by peaceful, democratic means, which in the end cost Paya his life. Pulitzer Prize winner David E. Hoffman has written a biography call “Give Me Liberty” which tells both the story and thinking of Oswaldo Paya. Join us as we talk with the author about both Paya and the situation of Cuba before and after the communist takeover in 1959.   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

The Federalist Papers argued on why the Articles of Confederation needed to be ditched for the United States Constitution. On this episode we learn about what were some of those reasons.

(Finster with Keith Haring) Welcome to our third and final installment of our series on folk artist and preacher Howard Finster. If you haven’t heard the first two episodes, these recordings were made in the late 1990’s at Finster’s Paradise Gardens in North Georgia.     To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Originally published in 1961, Houdini’s Fabulous Magic was written by Walter B. Gibson and Morris Young, both of which knew and worked with the said most famous magician of all time. The two authors were able to write the revolutionary book because they not only had had access to Houdini himself but his personal notes and the assistance of friends and family of the performer. The book fell out of print for many years but has finally been reprinted by Vine Leaves Press. Morris Young’s son Charlie Young comes Back By The Woodpile to talk about the contents and history of the book and his own personal memories of growing in a setting where magic and wonder was appreciated and embraced.   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Here's part two of filmmaker Todd Zeller's talk with Spun Counterguy regarding his 1980s fantasy homage, The Ten Tracks Mixtape Tasks! To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Your host Spun Counterguy wrote a book called The Ten Tracks Mixtape Tasks and filmmaker Todd Zeller talks to him about it, including questions from readers. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

On this third installment of our series on singer, songwriter and musician Una Mae Carlisle we talk with Charlie Young, the nephew of music publisher Barney Young. We will learn about Barney Young's life and career as it intersected with such figures as Machito, Harry Blackstone, Gloria Parker, Artie Shaw, Mez Mesrow and of course Una Mae Carlisle.  To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Music journalist and author Bill Adler is Back by the Woodpile to talk a little more about his memory of the history of hip hop. In this episode we’ll touch on Salt n’ Pepa, Run DMC, Fat Boys, Boogie Boys, Whodini and others in addition to the issues of mob activity in the music industry and anti-Semitism. Adler was the director of publicity at Def Jam Recordings and is the author of Tougher Than Leather: The Rise of Run-DMC To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Before the United States Constitution, Americans lived under the government of the Articles of Confederation. So why the overhaul? This episode tries to explain the crises that created the American's second government.   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

We’re back with another installment of our talk with Reformation scholar Carlos Eire. This time we discuss the joys of historical research and discovery, the devil getting credit for miracles and The Blues Brothers and Oh Brother Where are Thou as films of faith. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Uncle Paul is back for a third chapter regarding his interesting life and experiences. This time we talk about climbing into a girl’s dormitory to deliver kisses, literarily demolishing a girls dormitory, a sleeping projectionist, a whooper eating contest, falling from grace and finding restoration but what it was like to working a sour kraut cannery.   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

In early 1980, a city bus crashed into the Peruvian embassy in Havanna Cuba. Somehow this incident would lead to the mass exodus of over 100,000 Cubans mostly via small boats from the communist  Island to the democratic United States. But there were a lot a lot of anticedents that brought the peoples of the two nations to that point. Here to helps fill in some of those gaps is historian Victor Triay, author of Mariel Boatlift: A Cuban American Journey. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Franklin Pierce is not one of the better known presidents in U.S. history but is still worth examining if for anything the lessons that can be learned on how not to run a country or a political party. Dr. J. David Alvis comes Back By the Woodpile to explain. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

The 1920’s were a time marked by new and more affordable technology, massive economic growth, a renewed push for civil rights and relative peace, its daily life beating along to a new music genre called jazz. But one element of the roaring 20’s that is lost on most of us these days is how it contrasted with the decade previous. To help us compare the 1910s to the 1920s, is historian Dr. David F. Krugler who has written and taught extensively on those early 20 years of the 20th century.   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!  

Spun Counterguy sets out to present the most thorough biography to date of jazz singer, songwriter and pianist Una Mae Carlisle, including her adventures in Europe just as the clouds of World War II were gathering, the world’s spotlight put on her thanks to Fats Waller, her recording careers with Leonard Feather and Joe Davis and her desperate attempt to record and perform as much as possible before her looming death. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

The singer and songwriter Una Mae Carlisle is a name tragically lost to modern memory. On this first of two episodes, Spun Counterguy talks about how he discovered the woman and her music and the places it’s taken him. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Former Cuban political dissident Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo is now a writer and blogger advocating for his home country’s liberataion from the current oppressive regime. We’ll hear many of Orlando Luis’s views on the current state of the island naion in addition to some of his own personal life experiences. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

We’re going back to Europe, specifically France and Switzerland, and five hundred ago on top of that. Serving as our tour guide is once again Carlos Eire, who wrote the book Reformations and he’s going to introduce us to a few figures- notably John Calvin- and how he and others still affect us today, both in positive and negative ways.   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Seth and Nirva Ready not only have their own musical career as a duo and host a theological/cultural podcast called FreeMind but they have also sang for folks like Kirk Franklin, Toby Mack, CeCe Winans, Rachael Lampa, Chris Tomlin, Donnie McClurkin and many others. On this episode the couple pull their lawn chairs up to the Woodpile to talk about their own personal histories, music industry insights and adventures, struggles to navigate the conflicts of the day within and outside the church while maintaining grace for their fellow man and several other topics that meander in and out of our free-flowing conversation. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

America’s separation from Britain is often simplified by both those with enthusiastic and cynical motivations. But the years leading up to July 4th, 1776 were complicated, replete with hope, disgust and sacrifice. On this episode we talk about the Stamp Act and other actions on the part of Parliament that ultimately pushed the often fractious American colonists towards unity, rebellion and finally revolution. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Part two of our talk with artist and preacher Howard Finster, this one got him talking about Hank Williams Sr., Elvis Presley, chewing tobacco and singing an original banjo tune talking about being a tack in the shingle of a roof!  To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Back in the late 1970s a new music genre exploded on the world stage: rap. This episode’s guest Bill Adler was right there near the beginning, first as a fan and music journalist, and then working for Def Jam Records and Rush Management. Adler recently donated his enormous treasure trove of hip-hop related artifacts to Cornell University, of which has become digitized and is available online for public use. We used some of the materials found there to talk about everything from the film Wild Style, rap pioneers like Busy Bee, Fab Five Freddy, the Funky 4+1, the massive career of LL Cool J to even the controversy over the presence of anti-semitism in the Public Enemy organization and how it touched Adler personally. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!  

Recently there’s been a lot of different tellings about how America’s founding was tied to slavery. American History professor Dr. Dennis Boman comes Back By the Woodpile to give the whole story, including the state of slavery on the rest of the planet, the Founder’s views and actions for and against slavery and strange phenomenon of some modern progressives basing their views of the American founding by adopting the views of pro-slavery forces of the past. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!  

Back in the late 1970’s, computers programs called “Text Adventures” would appear. These were interactive games where players had to read, problem solve and then type in commands to complete the puzzles and tasks. Their popularity dominated the home computer market for about a decade and though they would be later overshadowed newer game innovations, text adventures are still being produced and played. Author, blogger and game designer Aaron A. Reed comes Back By the Woodpile to give us some snapshots of the history of these games, the industry and individuals that produced them and then talk about his own adventures at creating games.   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Howard Finster was a folk artist preacher whose work reached out all over the globe. On this recording from the 1990s, Mr. Finster talks about other preacher's differing theology, sex vs. relationships, the history of Japan, fellow artist Keith Haring and the several literal angels he saw.  To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

On July 11th of last year protests broke out all over Cuba over several issues, ranging from lack of food and medical access to the general state of oppression. For a moment the world’s eyes were on the island and the prospect of a free Cuba seemed to be within grasp. But as humans tend to do, they quickly lose interest and turn their gazes to other matters and distractions. The Cuban dictatorship became more brazen in their oppression of the Cuban people, especially of those who embarrassed them on the world stage. To help us to put names and faces on just a few of those who as I write this are enduring prison, beatings and worse, is Vicky Collado. Vicky wears many hats but one of them she wears is while trying to get the true condition of Cubans out to the worlds ears. (Rosa Maria Paya, Vicky Collado and Vanessa Garcia before the US Congress) To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Filmmaker Todd Zeller comes Back By The Woodpile to talk about his experiences with Gene Eugene and the band Adam Again while working on his upcoming documentary This Band Is Our House. (BAI roster at Cornerstone) (Todd Zeller and Greg Lawless) To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Uncle Paul is back a second time by the woodpile to share some more stories and thoughts from his life. This time around we talk fainting trumpet players, creepy evangelists, a broken legged chicken, the fine art of dumpster diving and how a good spit can help anyone sing better! To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Welcome to part four of our conversation with Dr. Carlos Eire, historian, Yale Professor and author of Reformations, a history of the reformation era of Europe. Today we’re going to talk anabaptists, Mennonites, torture, and the mystery of why prostitutes get so disappointed with modern historical conferences.   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

  It didn’t take long for the people of Cuba to realize after the "revolution" of 1959, they were now under the rule of an even more cruel dictator. In an attempt to protect their children from indoctrination, persecution and being sent to the Soviet Union for “special training”, many parents looked for a way to get their young off the island until at least this newest dictatorship was overthrown. So a plan was hatched by an Irish priest in Miami and with the help of many others, including the Eisenhower administration, a British woman who had helped Jewish children exit Nazi-occupied Europe and even a Kentuckian working in Havana. When it was all said and done, over 14,000 Cuban children were flown to a safe but uncertain future in the United States. The first historian to write a book about this incredible feat- eventually known as Operation Padro Pan- was Victor Triay. The book is called Fleeing Castro and he’s Back By The Woodpile to talk about some of the finer points and mysteries of this modern day exodus.     To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Henry Clay was an American statesman of the 1800’s that was so vital to the survival of the Republic that it was assumed by many in his time that the man would at some point become president. But as of this moment we have yet to have had a President Clay. So, who was this man largely forgotten that the whole world might owe much to? To help us answer that question Dr. Jason Stevens, a professor of history and political science at Ashland University joins us Back By The Woodpile!   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Music journalist and insider Bill Adler comes Back By the Woodpile with a big bag full of musical Christmas goodies, including tunes by Kurtis Blow, Run-DMC, Sonny Boy Williamson, Irma Thomas and others. We also discuss the publication of his chat book "The Making of Kurtis Blow’s Christmas Rappin’". To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Uncle Paul Buchanan comes Back By The Woodpile to talk about fire alarm candy, weenie water, misplaced children, a dog called Icky Sticky Stombo for short and much more!   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

  Poet Juana Rosa Pita returns to the Woodpile to talk about and read selections from her new compilation of poems, The Miracle Unfolds. In addition, the book’s translator Erin Goodman also shares some of her favorite pieces of Juana Rosa Pita’s verses while talking about how the release came together. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

On July 11th of this year, the streets throughout the island of Cuba erupted with chants of “Libertad! Libertad!”. Immediately, both Cuban communist state media and their leftist allies in the free democracies framed the protests as actually being about such issues as Covid 19 or opposition to the US embargo. Historian and author Victor Triay comes Back By the Woodpile to give us the bigger, clearer picture of what lay at the heart of the peoples’ cries. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!