Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Logo for the podcast, Drafting the Past. The American Historical Review is pleased to present this conversation with historian and history podcaster Kate Carpenter about her innovative podcast Drafting the Past. Carpenter spoke with AHR consulting editor Daniel J. Story for the June 2025 episode of AHR’s podcast History in Focus. The two covered Carpenter’s own journey as a historian and podcaster, what got her interested in the craft of writing history, and the approaches, themes, and challenges that have come up in conversations she has had with guests on Drafting the Past. The following transcript of their conversation has been minimally edited for length and clarity. The full episode can be found at https://www.historians.org/podcast/the-craft-of-writing-history/. Daniel J. Story: Thanks, Kate, for joining me today. Really nice to talk to you. Kate Carpenter: Thanks for having me, Daniel. It’s great to talk with you. DJS: For those who might not know who Kate Carpenter is, can you say a line or two introducing yourself? KC: I’m Kate Carpenter. I’m a doctoral candidate at Princeton University in the history of science where I’m working on a dissertation about the history of storm chasing. And I am also the host and producer of Drafting the Past where I interview historians about the craft of writing history. DJS: Terrific. I thought we could start with your journey, Kate. I’m really fascinated by the little bit that I know of your background, because you haven’t only been in academia, right? You had other kinds of careers and ventures along the way that brought you to this point. So, would you mind taking us along a little bit of that road that led you into the research you’re doing and into the work of Drafting the Past? KC: Sure. So in what feels like a lifetime ago now, I got my undergraduate degree in journalism at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and I worked for a little while as a newspaper reporter and copyeditor, primarily for a small town newspaper in Pocatello, Idaho. And then I left that, for a variety of reasons, and did a bunch of random things while I was following my husband around as he finished his PhD, internship, and postdoc, which I’m sure is a story familiar to many academics in academic partnerships. And then, I decided to go back to school to get a master’s degree in history, and specifically public history, at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, because I was living, and still live, in Kansas City, and the program seemed really great. I really enjoyed my experience there and felt like I wasn’t really done with grad school by the end of my master’s program. My research there focused on environmental history, and I knew that what I wrote my thesis on wasn’t going to be my dissertation. So I was looking around for something that would fit my interests in environment and technology. And at the same time, I was actually just looking for a book on the history of storm chasing. I’m not from the Midwest originally, and I am the person that when the sirens go off, I go right for the basement. So I just wanted to understand the people. DJS: So you wanted a book to read about it? KC: Exactly, and I couldn’t find one. There are a lot of great books out there by storm chasers themselves recounting their experience and a couple of journalistic pieces on specific storms or specific events, but nothing about how [storm chasing] got started. And so that was the inspiration for a dissertation. And so that ended up taking me to Princeton, where I am now. And then the podcast side of it kind of came in that master’s program. I took a great class from Chris Cantwell, who’s now at Loyola, on podcasting history. He walked us through each step of how you create a podcast. It was an awesome experience. I didn’t have a chance to do anything with it for a while, and then while I was at Princeton, I got to take the National Humanities Center’s podcasting bootcamp, which was a really wonderful experience. And that was the jumpstart to get me back into it. But as you know, podcasting takes a lot of time and energy. And so I didn’t want to just podcast for the sake of podcasting. I wanted to make sure there was an audience. So I spent some time thinking about it and then realized that I have often complained that historians don’t talk about writing that much, even though it’s really at the heart of what we do. In journalism school, we talked writing constantly. And I was always the weirdo in [history] seminars who would say but wait, how do you organize your notes? How do you convert that into research? And so it seemed like that might be a good fit for a podcast. And I did the very scientific process of listener research by asking on Twitter if people were interested in such a thing, and it got a much bigger response than I expected. So that was how I launched it. DJS: And when was that? KC: February, I think, of 2022. So I’m in the third year of the podcast now. DJS: And how frequently do you release episodes? KC: I try to release episodes every two weeks. I have periodically had to take some breaks as I work on my own dissertation and I had a baby, but otherwise every two weeks. DJS: So thinking about your work with Drafting the Past, thinking about people who maybe haven’t heard an episode yet, or maybe have just barely dipped in, can you paint us a picture of what kind of things you explore in these interviews? And do you interview exclusively historians? The focus is on writing history, right? KC: Yeah, exactly. So I do focus on writing history. I don’t interview exclusively historians, although primarily historians. I have occasionally interviewed journalists, people who are sort of historian adjacent, and in a couple of instances even people trained as historians who primarily write fiction. So in each episode I just try to dig into the writing process. I always think of the episodes in a kind of three act structure: In the first part, I like to ask practical questions, nosy questions, the kind of stuff that I think a lot of writing people eat up about where people do their writing, what kind of tools they use, if they have a routine, that sort of thing. Then in the second part, I ask them to read an excerpt from their work, often whatever they’ve had come out recently. I have them read it, and then we talk about that passage to try to really talk concretely about writing and not just in kind of vague terms. And then finally, I try to ask about inspiration, what other people they like to read, what kind of good writing advice they’ve gotten, and open it up that DJS: you think back about what are some of the that in writing or things that are a little bit out of the that you found or thought in of the of how people their right way to be a of history KC: My is that every time I ask people how they organize they and are and me that they they themselves And I that because it is just a spent a lot of time thinking about how the of process is, I think, often where the good stuff So I don’t know that we be so But a kind of is in the that if my has a it’s that right way to be a of history. people have very and what for kind of write when they people have and that they’ve thought out and the And some people just have that have which I think is awesome DJS: Yeah, and I do that that we think that we be than we a sort of it’s that not that the experience that having is actually to what are So for me as a it took me a while to that an writing and or going back to the things that And I what kinds of things have out at you about the way people their process. KC: So there are the people who a lot as they on they’ve it Then there are other people who try to write really for the first and then go back and do a lot of also heard that for many historians, is an of the process. It’s not they it to and this doing what I wanted it do they really get in there and go back and it or at try to get it to what they were to And then it’s always really to me that frequently people me that the kind of the thing, that I about the didn’t really come about the very end of the and that it just kind of at which I think, to the that writing is and often we don’t know what to say to say it for a I am really interested in that, because I am in the of a dissertation. a lot of about and it has I think, the to really concretely in DJS: KC: the people who concretely who can been to me how it But for a lot of I think it’s a lot of and and it’s to how it DJS: is maybe going in the writing I what you found people say about the of their writing to their of or the to their that KC: Yeah, I not a I do find that it like if they’ve been writing for a while, find it really to start writing as often that is writing that even make it into the But doing that kind of to as is because it them think, or have that often not even sure what kind of research they to do to the book they’ve And so for it’s to start writing so that the writing and the can be in and of each there are people who say they have to get of the research done they really like they can kind of their around it and start DJS: there that you think are of the conversations had or of the of history KC: me this are my I always you know, it’s the that I which is You know, some of the that really out at me are the that are a little out of the So I that interviewed a couple of people who are actually trained as historians. I think those are really because how those to I just an interview with a writing which I thought was really but I wasn’t sure how people would But so much on that so I was not the only person out there who wanted to know about what writing do. some of my are the very I which is a because I don’t like to to the episodes because so much has you know, a lot that we covered in DJS: is it about the do you think, that out in your mind so KC: I think, for I done a lot of at that point. And so it still felt And I think it felt really to the people I was I still interview people who say this is the first time them about their writing process of just the But now a lot people are familiar with the and so it’s a little in those it felt like a really way to talk about writing history. DJS: You were KC: I I people have been about writing history for a very My interview with was about how he and have focused on this for a But about it in this felt kind of DJS: I if had on the writing and there an those for KC: You know, to some I do a lot of history in my in the that those I also find that when people ask me about how to I talk about sort of following my that I often have but also people just say things that me and I like to And because I that are about things something I try to of mind as I’m writing So, you know, following what interests me, even if it up I think it’s for an interview and the writing process. DJS: that you because the that I often think of when I think about and in history work I like for It you to KC: I don’t know if had the experience of to an history interview has done with a that you’re and did you not ask a up about that? so much I people say that about my the time, but I try to think about what people. DJS: For There can be a little bit of for at in having a of so you always know what to say It can be a little to go and start following or your but I think it’s very much So I what kinds of writing you have you talked to a lot of people about books they’ve You your with Drafting the Past, where are historians going with their is history writing taking KC: writing and the But I talk a lot to people about the writing they do for the when their books are focused on a but a lot of historians are also writing or on their So we talk a lot about I have talked to a couple of about writing and history in that which I find really talked to people who have done those great or for where they present history in that sort of but and I did though I this wasn’t history writing, to about her experience doing writing, writing for when she worked in the was a really way to think about other of writing and how in that the way she would come to write history. DJS: really So, how do you to for your interviews? KC: I read a lot of I try to at work only so much time in my but if they write stuff for the public I go and out some of that to get a of their writing And then I try to do a lot of they’ve talked about writing I try to or or or read on where it lot of people but I sort of that they’ve done with other people and if I can find anything It to be I would sort of their Twitter to if anything about writing or their work as a is now a little bit to And then, you know, like I I read the books and take a lot of it’s as I’m that I about specific of how the book came to or how they think about And my is that I read because I find that there are a lot of in there about how a book came I can find out often if they have a writing really to or if they into some sort of in the and those me to ask And then a sort of the is out what passage I’m going to have people read in their and that often is by what kinds of I want to ask about the try to find a passage that, you know, if I want to ask about that the kind of challenges they or that sort of thing. DJS: I that about a of a book that often but it’s an story in the KC: I had a I for that, because he us to read the although in his he was us that where the good can be read the But I have found it for how people are DJS: me of that I in to a of your that about history writing kind of a on a of of as a historian in a of that is the of research and writing, or the of writing, but I think, the of a to that has been into this for a how much into the of KC: And with to the it and the it’s done a in how have time and to write people still working on or people who are who are not working in the at And where you really those kinds of come in writing in at often you know, writing and and how that in their don’t always think about the of the people writing but it the way that they their I also always really out how a has been you know, how they’ve been working on it, because when books come so and finished and sort of like So to that has been into this for a you know, to the book you’re in your I think it how much into the of DJS: there challenges I in the of history that about writing has for KC: I I don’t know if it has because I don’t know if you can be a in history about many of these but the we know, that the is and that a lot of people with in history from every some people because they don’t want to work in academia, and great. But there are a lot of people out there who would like to be who don’t have that I’m not the first to about has really on there are a lot of people books we are because just and to write those books if not in a or people make it work, and but I think that a lot of people it out and to some degree ask themselves they not a lot of in writing a history of and if you don’t have an it’s kind of to make that make in your But I think of the things been about are the challenges of that people have brought up in it’s an editor who your in the of a or just the challenges of a book at a specific in the occasionally talked to books I thought were would have been to And they’ve just at that was this of And to we don’t always think about that sort of of but it DJS: I think you’re right that these are things that be to not be of if you’re in academic history, but I think this is of Drafting the Past, taking this at the of what this kind of work for the KC: DJS: there other kinds of about the that you have found about writing a good of KC: Yeah, I the of in of how people but then in the of who are we doing this work And a lot of my guests have I didn’t want to write a book that only a people were going to I wanted to write a book that I could to my and they would actually read and not just on the but the And as I often and my guests to say it’s not that writing at your academics is or that not an for that, but I think also a lot of for out to people. And we like writing, even if the work is at your I find that a lot of are also really to read, and I think a for So the of who writing for up and and I think a that every has to ask It to the writing but it also to bigger in the right now of in this in history and what the have to DJS: Yeah, I like that you have a on Drafting the and that KC: Yeah, I often end by don’t write And when I first doing that, it was kind of I think I was in a bit of a when I it the first time, but I have kind of it And I that people I don’t know, be by it, but even if they I think kind of the I that to be if you don’t have to And I think there are a lot of to try to not be I think we from about of my in an interview on the was when was about when he of his work to people to read, he them to where they got and wanted to and heard a historian say that if we for that In I got some from people on that not taking with it but that they would be to ask people to that kind of And I think a I think we talk about DJS: So I what doing this sort of work with Drafting the Past has or how it has you in your own research and writing process. KC: You know, I into a program thinking that I might want to focus on journalism really And doing the podcast has in many that for me and me a lot into how that process and what the the can be a of inspiration for me in my I’m sort of it can me the I to get back to it. I that it feels like much And so I always if they that to step from the podcast, like I right way to And I think that we to about how other people work, because that of them into the and the to how you do And the is that there is the work and the So it can go in my work, but I find a lot of inspiration, and even just practical that I can take back to my own and try to out how to make a come to and how to those into something than just a in my when I’m about scientific how I can make that something that want to DJS: you mind a little bit about where you’re at in your research and And this is not the of how you’re but me about what kind of story you think that you might be about the history of storm chasing. And am I to have my mind go to the when you this KC: not I am into the dissertation. I have come to with the that the dissertation end in time than the book just so that I can the dissertation at some point. So the dissertation is sort of like storm but in the a in how storm to be So I’m about into a dissertation and looking at the of the end you know, for me, been a with the that I really want to a history, and not how are And so been some and and having to make to the grad school and dissertation that I go back and write it the way that I to it which I think is of that books DJS: of American and maybe there in the this story KC: So many of my has been to how to it because it on so a on going into and sort of the from a and and a of people with great into a that is a story of I think from the through the that is in storm chasing. also a really at and of and how those things come some of and of the and the of on the and how they themselves in history. the really as I get the end of the of how and the what a like and how it but it with many of the conversations about the of and and that in storm And of of there was the of the and the to storms and then the and get that has to with and So many DJS: It really that it would on so many what now, the very in to I don’t know if that into the story those or KC: so we know, have about for a time, and that for of In part, storms didn’t that as a it’s to how much even at the But then, it was a But I think we still some of the same that about what is to the and an that we be to it out or have the and an that the are a lot than we thought that they So some of those things that just the or but the that we think about and have to DJS: you think that the of podcasting has the way that you I you also have a in so that you as But as who in the of and I do think about how that into my writing in other kinds of KC: In journalism we talked the time and I’m not the not going from the start of the to the and that you to really them in to get them to make the And that up the time in podcasting with people about how you have to your listener every three in to them So I think having that in mind as you’re writing is a good that, you know, people don’t have to read you. I think we that it to the and we it to to make sure that we are them to to DJS: kind of work do you to do in the and is podcasting of what you for yourself? there be a storm podcast, KC: that which is that I there were a storm podcast. so much good stuff and if would like to such a thing, or to me in that, I would be interested in about it. I like storm at a time is But as been doing history for the I have thought the time about what a great this could that there are a couple of storm at the storm at that actually has had guests on to talk about storm and kind of So there is a little bit in that your when I’m the I want to do is write and to write in a way that a to really about the that people think about how we in the For me, I’m not sure that going to be in academia, and working in a even if I could get a So how that start with the storm book and go from I would for podcasting to be a of I host an interview podcast right now, because what for the but also because what I have time I we know, and know, that that and and history and journalism take a lot of are the I so to get to do some podcast work I’m always looking for the right in the that I might have something to So I think when it to going back to following your what is often the way to DJS: with like a great to Kate, for to me, and you for the great work you’re doing with Drafting the Past. KC: Thanks so much for having me Kate Carpenter is a doctoral candidate in the history of science at Princeton that, she a of from the University of and a of in history an in public from the University of not and Drafting the Past, she is working on a dissertation about the history of science and storm in the second of the Daniel J. Story is a at the University of He is a consulting editor for American Historical Review and host and producer of the podcast, History in Focus. He was producer of the podcast from the about the and on
Source: The American Historical Review
DOI: 10.1093/ahr/rhaf051
Authors: Kate Carpenter, Daniel J. Story
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,620
OpenAlex ID: W4411329471