In The Corner Back By The Woodpile

On July 11th of last year protests broke out all over Cuba over several issues, ranging from lack of food and medical access to the general state of oppression. For a moment the world’s eyes were on the island and the prospect of a free Cuba seemed to be within grasp. But as humans tend to do, they quickly lose interest and turn their gazes to other matters and distractions. The Cuban dictatorship became more brazen in their oppression of the Cuban people, especially of those who embarrassed them on the world stage. To help us to put names and faces on just a few of those who as I write this are enduring prison, beatings and worse, is Vicky Collado. Vicky wears many hats but one of them she wears is while trying to get the true condition of Cubans out to the worlds ears. (Rosa Maria Paya, Vicky Collado and Vanessa Garcia before the US Congress) To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Filmmaker Todd Zeller comes Back By The Woodpile to talk about his experiences with Gene Eugene and the band Adam Again while working on his upcoming documentary This Band Is Our House. (BAI roster at Cornerstone) (Todd Zeller and Greg Lawless) To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Uncle Paul is back a second time by the woodpile to share some more stories and thoughts from his life. This time around we talk fainting trumpet players, creepy evangelists, a broken legged chicken, the fine art of dumpster diving and how a good spit can help anyone sing better! To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Welcome to part four of our conversation with Dr. Carlos Eire, historian, Yale Professor and author of Reformations, a history of the reformation era of Europe. Today we’re going to talk anabaptists, Mennonites, torture, and the mystery of why prostitutes get so disappointed with modern historical conferences.   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

  It didn’t take long for the people of Cuba to realize after the "revolution" of 1959, they were now under the rule of an even more cruel dictator. In an attempt to protect their children from indoctrination, persecution and being sent to the Soviet Union for “special training”, many parents looked for a way to get their young off the island until at least this newest dictatorship was overthrown. So a plan was hatched by an Irish priest in Miami and with the help of many others, including the Eisenhower administration, a British woman who had helped Jewish children exit Nazi-occupied Europe and even a Kentuckian working in Havana. When it was all said and done, over 14,000 Cuban children were flown to a safe but uncertain future in the United States. The first historian to write a book about this incredible feat- eventually known as Operation Padro Pan- was Victor Triay. The book is called Fleeing Castro and he’s Back By The Woodpile to talk about some of the finer points and mysteries of this modern day exo

Henry Clay was an American statesman of the 1800’s that was so vital to the survival of the Republic that it was assumed by many in his time that the man would at some point become president. But as of this moment we have yet to have had a President Clay. So, who was this man largely forgotten that the whole world might owe much to? To help us answer that question Dr. Jason Stevens, a professor of history and political science at Ashland University joins us Back By The Woodpile!   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Music journalist and insider Bill Adler comes Back By the Woodpile with a big bag full of musical Christmas goodies, including tunes by Kurtis Blow, Run-DMC, Sonny Boy Williamson, Irma Thomas and others. We also discuss the publication of his chat book "The Making of Kurtis Blow’s Christmas Rappin’". To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Uncle Paul Buchanan comes Back By The Woodpile to talk about fire alarm candy, weenie water, misplaced children, a dog called Icky Sticky Stombo for short and much more!   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

  Poet Juana Rosa Pita returns to the Woodpile to talk about and read selections from her new compilation of poems, The Miracle Unfolds. In addition, the book’s translator Erin Goodman also shares some of her favorite pieces of Juana Rosa Pita’s verses while talking about how the release came together. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on iTunes, click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

On July 11th of this year, the streets throughout the island of Cuba erupted with chants of “Libertad! Libertad!”. Immediately, both Cuban communist state media and their leftist allies in the free democracies framed the protests as actually being about such issues as Covid 19 or opposition to the US embargo. Historian and author Victor Triay comes Back By the Woodpile to give us the bigger, clearer picture of what lay at the heart of the peoples’ cries. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!  

Mike Roe of the 77s and Randy Layton of Alternative Records come Back By the Woodpile to talk about the music and work of Robert Vaughn, including the up coming re-release of the seminal album Love and War. To check out the IndieGogo project, click here!   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Dr. Carlos Eire is back at the Woodpile to talk about cooperation between church and state in governing, the government helping the ‘deserving’ poor, Charles the 5th’s days of hunting down Protestants before going fishing for the rest of his life and how different political ideologues see their own passions and causes in aspects of the Reformation period. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!  

Singer-songwriter Jeff Graham shares his music and story Back by the Woodpile, telling stories of the legendary Jack's Guitar Bar, the miracle of Dunkirk and that time the police commandeered a guitar amplifier.  To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

In the early 1960’s as the Castro regime began to transform Cuba into a socialist, militarist regime, part of that including training children to become atheist Marxists soldiers. And so a plan was quietly hatched by those on and off the island to get as many children out as soon as possible. The result was Operation Padro Pan, an exodus of Biblical proportions that helped over 14,000 children flee the increasingly ruthless communist party rule. One of those children, Dr. Carlos Eire, wrote of his experiences in the books Waiting for Snow in Havana and Learning to Die in Miami and joins us Back By the Woodpile to talk about both his experiences and the future of his suffering homeland. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!    

Welcome to the series where mostly old guys share their stories from the 1980s when we were trying to figure life out, with varying degrees of success. This time around we’re talking fashion, crushes and technology with a few D&D tales tagged on To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

We’re back with another conversation about the Reformation with Dr. Carlos Eire, who not only teaches this time period at Yale University but wrote a thick book called Reformations which seeks to tell the whole story of all the changes religious, social and political that started in the 1500’s. This time around we talk Zwingli vs. Luther, eating sausage as an act of religious devotion and how thought mobs seem to show up in every generation. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

On this episode we talk judging and bail bonding in upstate New York and a GI in South Korea. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

If you fancy yourself a revolutionary, we've got a nice primer and introduction to the path you've set out on. You'll get to hear about your heroes including Che Guevara, Fidel and Raul Castro, Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, Chairman Mao, Peng Dehuai, Huey Newton, Maximilien Robespierre, Antifa, Black Lives Matter and so much more!    To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

Five hundred years ago a guy nailed a sheet a paper with a litany of gripes on it, which changed world civilization in dramatic ways that are still with us today. Dr. Carlos Eire comes Back By the Woodpile to tell about what lead up to that man- Martin Luther- causing the event we call the Reformation and other figures both before and during this time frame that also had similar aims. To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!

We're back in the 1980s talking summer camps and trips, dancing, the film Scarface and the Mariel Boatlift.   To hear on Stitcher, click here! To hear on Apple Podcasts click here! To hear on Spotify, click here!