R2 Studios
R2 Studios is on a mission to democratize history through podcasting. We tell unexpected stories based on the latest research to connect listeners with the past.
Podcasts
Worlds Turned Upside Down
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Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant
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Antisemitism, U.S.A.
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The Green Tunnel
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Consolation Prize
Visit PageRecent Episodes
Aug. 25, 2025
Episode 18: The Resurrection
Fourteen years after British forces conquered New France during the Seven Years’ War, Parliament’s passage of the Quebec Act in 1774 resurrects old fears of French Catholic tyranny in Protestant British America. Featuring: Ka...
July 29, 2025
Episode 17: The Tyranny
In the wake of the Boston Tea Party, Parliament passes a series of coercive and intolerable acts to punish the tea destroyers and bring order to British America. Featuring: Benjamin Carp, James Fichter, and Mary Beth Norton. ...
July 14, 2025
Episode 60: Those Guardians of Liberty
Dr. Lauren Duval joins Kathryn Gehred to discuss a letter from Elizabeth Drinker to her husband Henry dated February 26, 1778. In 1777, not long before the British Army occupied Philadelphia, the Continental Congress exiled H...
June 30, 2025
Episode 16: The Tea
British Americans' unquenchable thirst for tea and a looming financial disaster for the East India Company leads to a new crisis in North America when seven tea-laden ships are sent to the colonies in 1773.
May 31, 2025
Episode 15: The Heavens Fall
The detainment of a West African-born enslaved Virginian named James Somerset in London leads to a court case decided by England's most powerful judge that challenges the foundations of slavery in the British Empire.
May 5, 2025
Episode 14: The Corruption
Months after the Boston Massacre, British Americans calling themselves "Regulators" launch a rebellion in western North Carolina that threatens to engulf the colony in revolution and civil war.
April 21, 2025
Episode 59: The Scheme I Undertake with Chearfulness
Diane Ehrenpreis joins Kathryn Gehred to discuss a letter from Martha Jefferson to a Mrs. Madison dated August 8, 1780 in which Jefferson encourages women to join together and raise funds to support the Continental soldiers. This letter is one of...
March 26, 2025
Episode 58: Our Unnatural Enemies May Be Turned From Us
Dr. Emily Sneff joins Kathryn Gehred to discuss a letter from Polly Palmer to John Adams dated 4 August 1776, in which Palmer thanks Adams for sending her one of the earliest printings of the Declaration of Independence.
March 7, 2025
Episode 13: The Massacre
In response to rioting and protests over the Townshend Acts, the British deploy four regiments to Boston, leading to a deadly shooting on March 5, 1770, a massacre that wounds a family.
Feb. 25, 2025
Episode 57: Those Tumultuous Assemblies of Men
Dr. Cynthia Kierner joins host Kathryn Gehred to discuss a 1778 letter from Richard Henry Lee to his sister Hannah Lee Corbin. In a lost letter, Hannah previously expressed her frustrations that widows are being taxed without representation. In this...
Jan. 28, 2025
Episode 56: The Most Dreadful Of All Enemies
Dr. Jacqueline Beatty joins host Kathryn Gehred to discuss The Petition of Belinda from 1783 in which Belinda Sutton petitions The Massachusetts General Court for the funds left to her by her enslaver Isaac Royall after he fled the colonies during the...
Dec. 20, 2024
Episode 55: An Insurrection Was Hourly Expected
Ramin Ganeshram joins Kathryn Gehred to discuss excerpts from Janet Shaw’s Journal of a lady of quality; being the narrative of a journey from Scotland to the West Indies, North Carolina, and Portugal, in the years 1774 to 1776. Ganeshram and Gehred...
