Our Missouri Podcast

Welcome to Our Missouri, a podcast about the people, places, culture, and history of the 114 counties and independent city of St. Louis that comprise the great state of Missouri. Your host is SHSMO oral historian and lifelong Jefferson City resident Sean Rost, who earned his PhD from the University of Missouri specializing in twentieth-century US, Missouri, and African American history.

Engaging with subject matter experts, each episode focuses on a topic related to the state's complex history and culture, from publications about Missouri’s history to current projects undertaken by organizations to preserve and promote local institutions.  Join Rost as he explores what makes Our Missouri.

Our Missouri is free and generously provided thanks to the support of State Historical Society of Missouri members and donors. Books featured on the show are available for purchase through the SHSMO Richard Bookstore; purchases support the State Historical Society of Missouri.

New episodes are posted twice a month. You can also subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher.

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Season

Episode 100: Suds Series - J. Daniel (Covering the Bases, Part 1)

As the seasons change from summer to fall, baseball, America’s pastime, transitions from the regular season to the postseason and World Series. To open Season 7 and coincide with the exhibit “Covering the Bases: The Evolution of Baseball in Missouri,” which is on display at the Wenneker Family Corridor Gallery at the Center for Missouri Studies in Columbia from now until January 2025, Our Missouri launches a seven-part series on Missouri’s baseball history.

Summer Series 2024: Unexplained in the Archives (Missouri Mysteries, Part 4)

If you are an avid listener of Our Missouri, you know that each summer we set aside four episodes for a special summer series. This summer we are headed outdoors to sit around a campfire…albeit virtually…and tell stories with special ghost hosts, Kathleen Seale and Haley Frizzle-Green, for our summer series on…Missouri Mysteries. To conclude the Summer Series, Haley, Katie, and Sean share stories about mysteries they came across while working at the State Historical Society of Missouri.

 

Summer Series 2024: Piedmont Lights (Missouri Mysteries, Part 3)

If you are an avid listener of Our Missouri, you know that each summer we set aside four episodes for a special summer series. This summer we are headed outdoors to sit around a campfire…albeit virtually…and tell stories with special ghost hosts, Kathleen Seale and Haley Frizzle-Green, for our summer series on…Missouri Mysteries. In Part 3, Sean shares one of his favorite unexplained stories...the Piedmont Lights of 1973.

 

Episode Image: Clearwater Lake, Piedmont, Missouri, 1953 [Missouri Ruralist Photographs (P0030), SHSMO]

Summer Series 2024: Blue Pyramid in Phelps County (Missouri Mysteries, Part 2)

If you are an avid listener of Our Missouri, you know that each summer we set aside four episodes for a special summer series. This summer we are headed outdoors to sit around a campfire…albeit virtually…and tell stories with special ghost hosts, Kathleen Seale and Haley Frizzle-Green, for our summer series on…Missouri Mysteries. Katie continues the Summer Series with the story of a mysterious blue pyramid in Phelps County, Missouri, and the man who built it.

 

Summer Series 2024: Strangest of All (Missouri Mysteries, Part 1)

If you are an avid listener of Our Missouri, you know that each summer we set aside four episodes for a special summer series. This summer we are headed outdoors to sit around a campfire…albeit virtually…and tell stories with special ghost hosts, Kathleen Seale and Haley Frizzle-Green, for our summer series on…Missouri Mysteries. Haley opens up the summer series with the story of Frank Edwards and the Strangest of All.

Episode 98: Broadcasting the Ozarks - Kitty Ledbetter (On the Bookshelf, Part 8)

This episode features a conversation with Kitty Ledbetter about her new book, "Broadcasting the Ozarks: Si Siman and Country Music at the Crossroads."

 

Episode Image: May Kennedy McCord sitting on a porch with a guitar, ca. 1930s [Vance Randolph Ozark Folksongs Collection (C3774), SHSMO]

Banner Image: A crowd in Springfield, Missouri, 1952 [Robert Lipscomb Papers (SP0053), SHSMO]

Episode 97: Men of No Reputation - Kimberly Harper (On the Bookshelf, Part 7)

This episode features a conversation with Kimberly Harper about her new book, "Men of No Reputation: Robert Boatright, the Buckfoot Gang, and the Fleecing of Middle America."

 

Episode Image: Main Street in Joplin, Missouri, ca. 1902-1906 [Kay Kirkman and Roger Stinnett Photograph Collection (P0178), SHSMO]

Banner Image: House of Lords, Main Street in Joplin, Missouri, ca. 1900 [Kay Kirkman and Roger Stinnett Photograph Collection (P0178), SHSMO]

Episode 96: Ozark Voices - Alex Primm (On the Bookshelf, Part 6

This episode features a conversation with Alex Primm about his new book, “Ozark Voices: Oral Histories from the Heartland,” and his 40+ year career alongside the rivers, gravel bars, forests, and people of the Missouri Ozarks.

 

Episode Image: Agent Tom Wright at the Lake of the Ozarks, 1953 [Missouri Ruralist Photographs (P0030), SHSMO]

Banner Image: Group gathered for a picnic at the Lake of the Ozarks, 1940 [Bernard Dickmann Photograph Collection (S0555), SHSMO]

Episode 95: Fighting for a Free Missouri - Sydney Norton (On the Bookshelf, Part 5)

If you missed her keynote address at the 66th Missouri Conference on History, don't worry, because Sydney Norton joined host Sean Rost to discuss her new book, Fighting for a Free Missouri: German Immigrants, African Americans, and the Issue of Slavery.

 

Episode Image: Arnold Krekel, date unknown [Mit Feder Und Hammer: The German Experience in St. Louis Collection (S0941), SHSMO]