Episode 450-Bob Cudmore takes a look at Guy Park Manor, arguably Amsterdam’s oldest house. We also look at the leather business.

Friday, November 18, 2022- Episode 449-Bob Gumson of Albany, author of In Blind Sight: From Canarsie, Brooklyn with Love, Music and Mischief", his autobiography about living blind.

Bruce Henderson, author of “Bridge to the Sun: the Secret Role of the Japanese Americans Who Fought in the Pacific in World War II.”

Highlights Edition with excerpts from Joe Collea on Ilion, N.Y.; Giovanni Ruscitti visits his Italian roots; Chris Carola discusses Mohawk chief Joseph Brant; Alyson Richman on writing historical fiction David Pietrusza dissects FDR’s landslide 1936 victory; Norm Bollen meets filmmakers interested in Mohawk Valley; Rod Correll on learning to be a Leatherman.

Episode 446- What’s it like to be the boss’s son? Rod Correll is author of the memoir “Learning to Be a Leatherman-A Rite of Passage.” Correll lived in the leather business for 50 years, from childhood up to when he left the business to return to Yale for an MBA.

Friday, October 21, 2022-Episode 445- Norm Bollen of the Fort Plain Museum says a film crew spent time in the Mohawk Valley in September scouting locations and shooting video for possible use in a Ken Burns documentary series on the American Revolution. Bollen also says the Fort Plain Museum is about to embark on a major expansion.

Episode 444-David Pietrusza is author of “Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR’s 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal.”

Friday, October 7, 2022-Episode 443-How to write historical fiction with Alyson Richman, co-author with Shaunna Edwards of “The Thread Collectors,” a Civil War novel.

Friday, September 30, 2022-Episode 442-Retired Associated Press reporter Chris Carola takes a look at the life of Revolutionary War era Mohawk chief Joseph Brant. A warrior and diplomat, Brant is memorialized with a sculpture of his face on the outside of the New York State Capitol in Albany.

Episode 441-Giovanni Ruscitti of Colorado is author of the memoir Cobblestones, Conversations, and Corks: A Son’s Discovery of His Italian Heritage. Ruscitti chronicles the history of his Italian immigrant family and a visit to his ancestral homeland of Abruzzo.

Friday, September 16, 2022-Episode 440-Joe Collea Junior is author of Our Town--Ilion, New York: a Selective Look at 300 Years of History. An Ilion native, Collea was a teacher and administrator in Ilion schools and served three terms as mayor of the village.

Highlights Episode Four with excerpts from a history of the Mohawk River with Mary Zawacki of Schenectady County Historical Society; Kelly Yacobucci Farquhar, Montgomery County New York historian, on a national family history TV show visit to Fonda; Susanne Dunlap discusses The Portraitist, a novel based on the life of an 18th century French artist; Stephen Williams, author of Off the Northway on the history of the GlobalFoundries semiconductor facility in Malta; Bob Cudmore on Ukrainians in Amsterdam and Rick Herrera, author of Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778.

Friday, September 2, 2022-Episode 438-Ricardo Herrera is author of Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778. Herrera is visiting professor at the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. Previously he was professor of military history at the School of Advanced Military Studies, US Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He served as an armor and cavalry officer in the US Army.

...Bob Cudmore’s Focus on History columns from Daily Gazette and Amsterdam Recorder in 2022 provide information for this chit chat podcast.  Hear stories about Amsterdam’s connections with Ukraine, World War II, Amsterdam’s link with Jeff Buckley’s version of the “secret chord” and the Polish cowboy.

Friday, August 19, 2022- Episode 436-Stephen Williams is author of Off the Northway, a collection of newspaper columns written by Williams, who retired after 42-years at the Daily Gazette in Schenectady. One of the principal topics is the history of the GlobalFoundries semiconductor facility in Malta, which employs three thousand people and plans a second plant at its Luther Forest location.

Episode 435-Susanne Dunlap discusses her book The Portraitist, a novel based on the life of 18th century French artist Adélaïde Labilleo-Guiard whose life went on amid the changes and terror of the French Revolution.

Episode 434-NBC TV has aired an episode of their popular family history show Who Do You Think You Are including scenes filmed in Fonda and Johnstown. Actor Nick Offerman (who plays Ron Swanson in the sitcom Parks and Recreation) traced his ancestors to families from upstate New York. Kelly Yacobucci Farquhar, Montgomery County New York historian, explains why Fonda’s Old Courthouse is a mecca for genealogists and upstate New York historians.

Episode 433-A history of the Mohawk River with Mary Zawacki, executive director of the Schenectady County Historical Society.

Friday, July 22, 2022-Episode 432-The third Highlights Edition of 2022 has excerpts from 12 podcasts including stolen Little League Dreams, an Erie Canal balladeer and a boy’s life in Ilion, New York.

Friday, July 15, 2022-Episode 431-Former New York Times investigative reporter Howard Blum exposes the danger posed by the suspected infiltration of America’s Central Intelligence Agency by a series of Russian spy agency moles through the years. Blum’s new book is “The Spy Who Knew Too Much.”

Friday, July 8, 2022-Episode 430-Kevin Hall, author of a memoir on growing up in Ilion, New York-Ilion, My Childhood, My Memories Growing Up in a Bygone Era.

Friday, July 1, 2022-Episode 429-John Sweet is author of “The Sewing Girl’s Tale,” the story of the first published rape trial in American history. Sweet researched Lanah Sawyer’s decision to charge an upper class man named Henry Bedlow with rape, leading to a raw courtroom drama, riots in the streets, and public debate over class privilege and double standards. Sweet is a professor at the University of North Carolina.

Friday, June 24, 2022-Episode 428-Ben Kemp from Grant Cottage in Wilton New York, where Civil War general and President Ulysses S. Grant died after completing his memoirs. This year is the 200th anniversary of Grant’s birth.

Friday, June 17, 2022-Episode 427-Journalist David Levine is author of “The Hudson Valley: The First 250 Million Years.” His book explains how Hudson New York was part of the whaling industry. He has stories about Alexander Hamilton, the Mohicans and slavery in the time of Dutch colonial rule.