
Bob Crawford (The Avett Brothers) & Dr. Ben Sawyer (MTSU History) share conversations with great thinkers from a variety of backgrounds – historians, artists, legal scholars, political figures and more –who help us uncover the many roads that run between past and present. For more information, visit TheRoadToNow.com If you'd like to support our work, join us on Patreon: Patreon.com/TheRoadToNow
| Publishes | Weekly | Episodes | 487 | Founded | 10 years ago |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Listeners | Categories | HistorySociety & Culture | |||

Ben & Bob talk about the history of the US Senate and why the august body is now under attack from both the Freedom Caucus and the Democratic Socialists of America.
For readings discussed in this episode, check out Michael Trotti's "The Troubling R... more
In an era of cynicism towards politics, Lindsey Cormak wants you to focus on what government has gotten right and to raise your kids to be active citizens. And as the host of the new podcast Government That Doesn't Suck (alongside History That Doesn... more
Kathryn Olivarius joins Bob & Ben to explain the powerful role that Yellow Fever played in shaping all aspects of life in New Orleans during the 19th Century. Kathryn is Associate Professor of History at Stanford University and the author of Necropo... more
Journalist Michael Tackett joins Ben & Bob to discuss his book The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America and Lost his Party (Simon & Schuster, 2024). Tackett, who wrote the biography with McConnell's consent, was g... more
People also subscribe to these shows.





This show is thoughtful, measured, informative and always interesting
Always well researched, informative guests.
I love the intriguing topics and unique ideas I get from the conversations on this podcast. Keep up the good work.
I’ve been listening ever since Ben was on the Nate land podcast. This pod is good easy listening full of great information. That is actually interesting.
I have been looking for a good podcast on history that helps explain some of the famous stories a little better but this was not it. Instead it’s just them putting their political spin on everything and that’s not what I was looking for. I just want to hear about the story not why you think all republicans are awful. If you love hearing why being a liberal is right with a little history sprinkled in this is the podcast for you.
Key themes from listener reviews, highlighting what works and what could be improved about the show.
How this podcast ranks in the Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube charts.
Apple Podcasts | #241 |
Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.
Listeners, social reach, demographics and more for this podcast.
| Listeners per Episode | |
|---|---|
| Gender Skew | |
| Location | |
| Interests | |
| Professions | |
| Age Range | |
| Household Income | |
| Social Media Reach |
A history- and culture-focused talk show that blends deep-dive conversations with historians, authors, journalists, and policy experts. Episodes frequently center on historical events and figures, civics education, and how the past informs present-day politics, media, and culture. Noteworthy traits include a conversational, narrative style that often weaves personal anecdotes and modern-day context into scholarly topics, and regular guests who are leading scholars or writers in history, politics, and the arts. The show appears to attract listeners who enjoy thoughtful historical analysis that connects to current events, media, and civic life, with a strong emphasis on storytelling and education for a broadly curious audience.
Rephonic provides a wide range of podcast stats for The Road to Now. We scanned the web and collated all of the information that we could find in our comprehensive podcast database. See how many people listen to The Road to Now and access YouTube viewership numbers, download stats, audience demographics, chart rankings, ratings, reviews and more.
Rephonic provides a full set of podcast information for three million podcasts, including the number of listeners. View further listenership figures for The Road to Now, including podcast download numbers and subscriber numbers, so you can make better decisions about which podcasts to sponsor or be a guest on. You will need to upgrade your account to access this premium data.
Rephonic provides comprehensive predictive audience data for The Road to Now, including gender skew, age, country, political leaning, income, professions, education level, and interests. You can access these listener demographics by upgrading your account.
To see how many followers or subscribers The Road to Now has on Spotify and other platforms such as Castbox and Podcast Addict, simply upgrade your account. You'll also find viewership figures for their YouTube channel if they have one.
These podcasts share a similar audience with The Road to Now:
1. History That Doesn't Suck
2. My History Can Beat Up Your Politics
3. Government That Doesn't Suck
4. Ben Franklin's World
5. American History Hotline
The Road to Now launched 10 years ago and published 487 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.
Our systems regularly scour the web to find email addresses and social media links for this podcast. We scanned the web and collated all of the contact information that we could find in our podcast database. But in the unlikely event that you can't find what you're looking for, our concierge service lets you request our research team to source better contacts for you.
Rephonic pulls ratings and reviews for The Road to Now from multiple sources, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, and Podcast Addict.
View all the reviews in one place instead of visiting each platform individually and use this information to decide if a show is worth pitching or not.
Rephonic provides full transcripts for episodes of The Road to Now. Search within each transcript for your keywords, whether they be topics, brands or people, and figure out if it's worth pitching as a guest or sponsor. You can even set-up alerts to get notified when your keywords are mentioned.
Recent guests on The Road to Now include:
1. Bart Elmore
2. Dayton Duncan
3. Denise Kiernan
4. Greg Jackson
5. Ted Widmer
6. Robert O'Harrow Jr.
7. Kristin Jorgensen
8. Dean Kinzer
To view more recent guests and their details, simply upgrade your Rephonic account. You'll also get access to a typical guest profile to help you decide if the show is worth pitching.