Revolutionary Nightlife in Boston 1776, with J.D. Dickey (episode 354)

In this week’s episode, Nikki sits down with J.D. Dickey to discuss his new book  Boston, 1776: A Rogue Tour of Revolution City. Written as a historical travel guide, Boston, 1776 positions the reader as a visitor to Boston in July 1776. You’ll navigate the turbulent streets, tub-thumping taverns, and radical strongholds of a town at war with an empire. From the harbor wharves and seedy brothels to renowned assembly halls like Old South Meetinghouse and Faneuil Hall, Boston, 1776 leads us on a vivid tour of the vital hub of the Revolutionary War. At every stop along the way, we encounter iconic names like Paul Revere and Samuel Adams, but also the forgotten men and women who bled and brawled for freedom in every corner of Boston… and still needed to get out of the house at night. We’ll follow in their footsteps into the taverns and dram shops of revolutionary Boston to learn the day’s news, strategize for survival, and of course let off some steam.


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A Firestorm in Dorchester (episode 353)

On May 22, 1964, sixty-two years ago this week, a fire that broke out on a back porch in Dorchester.  The Bellflower Street fire grew so fast and burned so intensely that it created its own weather, creating a literal firestorm and leaving the fire department struggling to contain it.  Columns of smoke and flame licked the sky, while every available firefighter from Boston and over two dozen suburban towns raced to the scene to make a desperate stand.  When the smoke cleared, 35 buildings had burned and 300 people were homeless. 


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Boston’s 17th Century Interstate System (episode 352)

America’s first “interstate” highway was built to link Boston to New York City. The 17th century Boston Post Road is often overlooked in the city’s early history, but it marked the earliest and one of the most ambitious attempts to knit the fragmented English colonies of North America into a single, cohesive entity. From Boston’s first post office, which accepted only overseas letters, to the post riders who braved “mountainous passages” and roaring rivers, this primitive road network was the original interstate, forged not just for convenience, but for the survival of the British colonial project.

In this episode, we’ll explore how the Boston Post Road evolved from an indigenous trade route into the King’s best highway, a crucial artery for colonial and early federal correspondence. We’ll trace the routes of the upper Post Road through the wilderness of Central Massachusetts and Connecticut and the coastal lower Post Road that shaped the roads and transportation networks of modern New England. Along the way, we’ll uncover the stories of the people who marked the miles, from wealthy landowners like Paul Dudley, to determined travelers like Madam Sarah Kemble Knight, to George Washington, who arrived in Boston for his first official visit as President along the Post Road.


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Paul Revere NOT on the Road to Concord (episode 351)

For Patriots Day this year, let’s talk about Paul Revere. Instead of focusing on his famous ride 251 years ago, let’s go into the back catalog to uncover some lesser known aspects of Paul Revere’s involvement in the Patriot cause. First, we’ll look at Revere as a messenger. He’s known for his famous ride on April 18, 1775, but Paul Revere was chosen for that ride because he already had a reputation as a reliable express rider, carrying secret messages from the Boston Committee of Correspondence on horseback to patriots in New York, Philadelphia, New Hampshire, and beyond. Then, we’ll turn the clock forward and look at Revere’s support for the cause after his famous ride. In 1779, Paul Revere was the colonel in charge of the Massachusetts artillery regiment, and he was tapped as one of the commanders of an expedition to dislodge the British from the Penobscot Bay in today’s Maine. The resulting fiasco was the worst American naval defeat prior to Pearl Harbor, and it left Revere’s soldiers half-starved and wandering through the Maine wilderness. In this episode, we’ll learn how much blame Revere bore for the chaotic retreat.


Continue reading Paul Revere NOT on the Road to Concord (episode 351)

The Duke: Weekly Conversations With The Last Honest Politician, with Scott Kerman (episode 350)

This week, we chat with Scott Kerman, whose new book about Governor Mike Dukakis is The Duke: Weekly Conversations With The Last Honest Politician: A Political Giant and a Comedian Walk Into a Kitchen. This book is very different from the typical political biography, and I think we could have a serious conversation about whether it “counts” as history, but the fact remains that Michael Dukakis was a major party presidential candidate and remains the longest serving governor of the Commonwealth.  When The Duke dropped almost a year ago, I was shocked to learn that it’s the first book about Governor Dukakis in decades, and the only one to include a wider focus than the 1988 presidential race.  As you will hear in a few moments, as a humorist and comedian, Scott approaches this book very differently from most biographers, but if you have any interest in Governor Dukakis, you will want to tune in. 


Continue reading The Duke: Weekly Conversations With The Last Honest Politician, with Scott Kerman (episode 350)

Loyalists in the Siege and Evacuation of Boston, with Dr. Patrick G O’Brien (episode 349)

What does it mean to lose your home to a war you hoped would never come? In the popular imagination, the American Revolution is a black and white story of “Good Patriots” versus “Bad British,” but the reality on the streets of occupied Boston was far more gray, hungry, and heartbreaking. By the time the British fleet finally sailed out of the harbor on March 17, 1776, the city was a shell of its former self—a place where residents had been reduced to eating rats and burning their neighbors’ houses for warmth.

Our last episode examined the nearly miraculous American victory at Boston that forced the occupying British troops and Massachusetts residents who sympathized with them to evacuate Boston.  In this episode, co-host emerita Nikki sits down with historian Dr. Patrick G. O’Brien to explore Evacuation Day from the perspective of the Bostonians who later became known as “loyalists.”

From the economic fallout of the Boston Port Act to the shocking sight of British soldiers sleeping in tattered tents on a frozen Boston Common, this conversation explores the human cost of civil war, from the 1774 arrival of thousands of Redcoats to the desperate 10-day scramble of the March 1776 evacuation. From the rocky, fog-drenched shores of Halifax to the lonely streets of London, it’s a story of divided families, broken kinship bonds, and the long, bitter road to reintegration, reminding us that for many, March 17th was not a day of liberation, but a day of profound loss.


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Boston’s Independence Day: Evacuation Day at 250 (episode 348)

2026 marks the 250th anniversary of American independence, and here in Boston Independence Day comes early, on a holiday we celebrate every year on March 17 as Evacuation Day.  In the early months of 1776, the American Revolution was stuck in a freezing, muddy stalemate. For nearly a year, George Washington’s fledgling Continental Army had kept the British regulars pinned inside the city of Boston, but without heavy artillery, they lacked the muscle to actually end the occupation. Washington, frustrated and desperate, even fantasized about a suicidal frontal assault across the ice of the Charles River. But the arrival of Henry Knox and his “noble train of artillery”—dozens of cannons hauled 300 miles through the winter wilderness from Fort Ticonderoga—flipped the script overnight. This episode explores the high-stakes gambit that followed: the secret, overnight fortification of Dorchester Heights.

We’ll dive into the primary accounts of those who lived through it—from Abigail Adams listening to the earth-shaking roar of a diversionary bombardment, to British officers waking up to find a “miraculous” fortress staring down their throats. You’ll learn how Washington used the best tactics and technology of 18th-century military engineering, like portable bulletproof shields crafted of wicker and dirt, known as Gabions, Fascines and Chandeliers, pulling off a logistical feat that left the British commander, General Howe, stunned. It’s a story of military brinksmanship, a providential storm that changed the course of history, and the chaotic, plundering retreat of the British that we remember every March 17th as Evacuation Day. Join us as we go behind the lines of the first great American victory of the war. 


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The Original Crypto: 18th Century Burial Practices at Old North Church (episode 347)

At a time when most Bostonians were interred at burying grounds with familiar names like Copp’s Hill and the Granary, usually under slate markers decorated with winged skulls or cherubs, the congregants at Old North and just a handful of other Boston churches preferred to be sealed up inside the basement walls of their beloved churches.  In this episode, co-host emerita Nikki is going to be interviewing one of her colleagues at Old North Illuminated, education director Emily Spence.  They will be visiting the nearly-300 year old crypt that lies beneath the floorboards of the historic church, and talking about why it exists, who is buried there, and what researchers learned when the tombs were opened for a restoration project three years ago.  


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Religion and the Revolution at 250, with Nikki Stewart and Dr. Kyle B Roberts (episode 346)

In this episode, Nikki Stewart of Old North Illuminated and Dr. Kyle B. Roberts of the Congregational Library and Archives discuss the pivotal role of religion in the American Revolution. The conversation explores how Boston’s religious landscape—ranging from established Congregationalist churches to the Church of England—acted as a catalyst for revolutionary thought or a source of complex loyalist tension. As the 250th anniversary of independence approaches in 2026, both organizations are shifting their focus toward a more inclusive historical narrative. Initiatives like “New England’s Hidden Histories” and new educational exhibits aim to uncover the long-overlooked stories of Black and Indigenous congregants. Ultimately, the episode emphasizes that understanding these intricate ties between faith and politics is essential for interpreting modern American identity and fostering a more nuanced perspective on our shared history.


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The Noble Train Arrives

January 1776 was a dark and scary time in Boston.  By this time, the city had been on a wartime footing for nine months following the battles at Lexington and Concord the preceding April.  The redcoats had transformed the city into an armed garrison, but they were outnumbered and cut off by the patriots who surrounded them in Roxbury and Cambridge.  The Americans had the numbers, but the British had artillery regiments and the guns of the Royal Navy to dissuade a frontal assault on the city.  Those Navy ships were a lifeline for the British troops, bringing in enough food and supplies to keep them alive, but only barely.  Even though many residents had fled the town, leaving mostly loyalists behind, there was not enough food or firewood to go around.  Things weren’t much better on the other side of the lines.  The patriots had enough to eat, though they were usually gouged on the prices that winter.  But they were spending the winter shivering in hastily-built barracks with no insulation and little firewood.  They must have watched with some jealousy as the redcoats across the river tore down the meetinghouse in North Square to use the timber as firewood.  On January 24, George Washington seethed in a letter to John Hancock, “no man upon Earth wishes more ardently to destroy the Nest in Boston, than I do—no person would be willing to goe greater lengths than I shall to accomplish It, If it shall be thought advisable—But If we have neither Powder to Bombard with, nor Ice to pass on, we shall be in no better situation than we have been in all the year.”  Little did the general know that Boston’s salvation was just a day away.  The next day, 25-year-old Henry Knox arrived in Cambridge with 60 tons of artillery in tow.  Against all odds, he had managed to float, cart, and sled 59 cannons and mortars from Fort Ticonderoga, on the icy shores of Lake Champlain in upstate New York, over the Berkshire mountains, to the Continental headquarters in Cambridge.  This week, we are going to revisit an interview that first aired in May 2020 with author William Hazelgrove about his book Henry Knox’s Noble Train and the audacious expedition that saved Boston 250 years ago this week.


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