‘Stuff You Missed in History Class’ tackles barbecue.
Tracy V. Wilson and Holly Frey host the “Stuff You Missed in History Class” podcast twiceweekly on the How Stuff Works Network, and they are bringing the show on the road in a Texascentric tour. They’ll be stopping at the Secret Group for a live taping. There subject this time? Barbecue and its history.
“One of the things we’re going to talk about is the origin of barbecue cuisine throughout the United States, and that takes you into a lot of civil rights discussion,” says Wilson. “I’m sure there are a lot of people who know that it goes back into African and Cuban cooking styles, but for some, that might be surprising information.”
“Stuff You Missed in History Class” is one of the best things you can listen to. Wilson and Frey have a firm grasp on a variety of subjects, everything from classic Hollywood directors to the role of fashion in wartime. They even know about this weird period of Prague’s history where people were being thrown out of windows.
As the name implies, a lot of it is stuff that you’re not likely to come across in general education. Wilson and Frey deliver it all with a personable, comfortable back and forth that makes most of their work family-friendly in addition to educational. For Texas, they wanted to have something that could excite people.
“We try to make (tour subjects) not downers,” says Frey. “We want to do fun topics. With so much of the tour in Texas, we wanted to do something more regional.”
“Having the audience in front of us gives it a performance quality that’s not in the studio, says Wilson. “We have a slightly looser energy on stage. We spend the ad breaks talking with the audience or telling stories about the road. It adds to the energy and makes them feel more special.”
That said, it is a post-fact world. Sometimes the pair runs into vehement opposition as they guide listeners through the ages. History cannot be apolitical by definition, and occasionally, Wilson and Frey’s attempts to teach modern audiences the lessons of old hit too close to home for some.
“Usually we have backlash, we expect it,” says Frey. “We did a two-part episode on Executive Order 9066, the incarceration of Japanese-Americans in World War II. We did it as part of a calendar milestone about the order, but it coincidentally happened right around the time of the Muslim ban. So we got some stuff like ‘you didn’t care about executive orders when Obama
was president.’ We also got people who seemed to think the mass incarceration of American citizens was the correct course of action. It was disappointing, but not completely surprising.”
“A lot of people who love history love it because it seems settled,” says Frey. “So they get upset when it becomes unsettled. They think they have a handle on it, unlike current events. When you apply a shift, it can make for a difficult transition. But you need to remember there is always more story. We’re living in a world where, say, archaeology is getting better, so we’re understanding new things about history all the time.”
Despite a few random bits of anger, Wilson and Frey keep on every week with their illuminating work. It’ll be interesting to see how their take on barbecue — by no means a noncontroversial subject in Texas — is received. In all likelihood, the audience will walk away full of new knowledge and with a hearty appetite.
“We see a misconception that history is a static thing that is over in the past rather than something that is constantly being explored again from different angles,” says Wilson. “So we’ll hear that we’re ‘rewriting’ history as though that’s a bad thing. Every field is continually rewriting itself as it advances. History is no different.”