Finding Out About BackStory

As may be obvious by now, I am traveling in Spain. What is less obvious is that I'm with a dozen other designers and printers, visiting sites related to the history of printing and type.

One nice thing about traveling with people you don't know well is conversations that diverge from your usual topics and knowledge base. A trip companion from Chicago told me about a radio show called BackStory, which airs on her local public station. It's created by three history professors from the University of Virginia and University of Richmond, each specializing in one of the three most recent centuries.

They take a topic from recent news and explore its historical background. Recent shows covered mental illness, monuments and memorials, intellectual property, and birth.

Sounds like a big part of my future listening (since all of the shows are archived online). MPR, why don't you air this show?