Episodes
Sunday Aug 21, 2022
Episode 7: My Little Runaway
Sunday Aug 21, 2022
Sunday Aug 21, 2022
Josie and Celia both ran away from home as teenagers - one before the age of 15.
Between them, these girls would travel thousands of miles to meet their similar destinies.
Both would end up working as underage "sporting girls" on the 19th century American frontier, and both would become consort to a man still celebrated today in American film and folklore.
One would survive her ordeals by forgetting.
The other could never forget...
Saturday Jun 25, 2022
Episode 6: Sun Bonnets and Bootstraps
Saturday Jun 25, 2022
Saturday Jun 25, 2022
It is often said that we live in "post-truth" times, as if misinformation and disinformation are an innovation of the internet age.
The people who bend reality to fit ideology have been around for decades - for centuries - and they play the long game.
One of the most popular and long-running TV series in US history premiered in 1974.
Little House on the Prairie was a big slice of sweet American apple pie.
But sometimes sugar is for covering-up something rotten...
Friday Apr 01, 2022
Episode 5: Charleston Reshuffle
Friday Apr 01, 2022
Friday Apr 01, 2022
Announcing the first of our new "bitesized" episodes, which we hope to release regularly between our "deep dive" episodes.
*****
On 4 April 2015, an unarmed man was unlawfully shot dead on the streets of Charleston, South Carolina by a police officer.
The local chief of police would be called to testify in the subsequent murder trial, amid national media interest and widespread community unrest.
The public interpretation of events was largely divided along the usual American socio-ethnic and political faultlines.
But Charleston is one of the oldest towns in the American South, with many secrets buried deep underneath the weight of centuries - and nothing is ever quite as it seems.
And the people now living on different sides of the tracks might have a lot more in common than they could possibly imagine...
"Charleston Reshuffle", out now at beforewewerewhite.com and wherever you get your podcasts.
Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
Episode 4: Strangers for Dinner
Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
November 1620.
Aboard a freezing ship anchored off Cape Cod, Massachusetts...
A mutual cooperation agreement is signed by a group of men representing 101 passengers who had survived a perilous north Atlantic crossing, hoping to found a colony in the "New World".
This agreement would be important, because some of these passengers were members of a religious sect calling themselves "Saints".
The other two-thirds of the Mayflower passengers were not self-declared "Saints".
These "Saints" - later known to history as "The Pilgrims" - called the people who outnumbered them "Strangers".
Take a deep dive into America's forgotten history with this special length post-pandemic episode.
Wednesday May 12, 2021
Episode 3: Matrimony and Mayhem
Wednesday May 12, 2021
Wednesday May 12, 2021
Between the founding of Jamestown in 1607, and the end of the Anglo-Powhatan Wars in 1644, there were a mere eight years of relative peace between the rightful inhabitants of Tsenacomoco and English colonisers.
Those few years of peace were largely the result of one marriage between two people from utterly different worlds.
The descendants of Pocahontas and John Rolfe are still here today, like seeds scattered before a whirlwind.
Monday Oct 26, 2020
Episode 2: Black Hair, Gray Eyes
Monday Oct 26, 2020
Monday Oct 26, 2020
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Episode 1: Off-Course
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Friday Oct 02, 2020
The sea can be pitiless.
In 1477, a small ocean-going craft was found washed ashore in County Galway, Ireland, with the dead bodies of a man and a woman still lashed to it.
Of the innumerable maritime mishaps in history, none would have a greater lasting impact on the course of world events.
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
Before We Were White - main theme
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
Thursday Oct 01, 2020
Before We Were White main theme, featuring Dave McLoughlin of County Sligo, Ireland on bouzouki.
Theme based on the old Irish traditional Molly McAlpine, composed by famed Sligo harpist Thomas Connellan (1640 - 1698).
Tuesday Sep 29, 2020
BWWW Launch Announcement
Tuesday Sep 29, 2020
Tuesday Sep 29, 2020
"Before We Were White" podcast launches Thursday, 1 Oct 2020