Over the course of the past year on PreserveCast, we’ve explored several crossovers between heritage preservation and entertainment – with a particular focus on the BBC “farm” series – and this week’s episode is a further dive into this concept with the founder of Past Preservers, a firm dedicated to that very work of connecting experts with media.
In Burgundy, France, around forty workers are taking up an extraordinary challenge: to build a fortified castle using the techniques and materials used in the Middle Ages. It’s almost a surreal project and today we’re talking with Sarah Preston, a bilingual tour guide at Guédelon, a site that is literally resurrecting age old trades in the name of preservation, history and understanding.
As a preservationist, I cut my teeth on battlefield preservation – working for what’s today the American Battlefield Trust. I led an effort to defeat a proposed Gettysburg casino – so the idea of how we preserve and protect hallowed battlefields has always interested me. That’s why when I heard about a controversial proposal to build a so called, “D-Day land,” I knew we had a good fit – and so on this week’s PreserveCast, we’re heading to the bocage country to talk about heritage preservation with a French twist.
On this first edition of PreserveCast Conversations: The Professor and the Practitioner, a new monthly feature of PreserveCast, co-hosts Nicholas Redding and Dr. Whitney Martinko explore the trends, topics and issues that are making headlines in the world of preservation this month.
To regular listeners of PreserveCast, you know that I’m a huge fan of the BBC “farm” series – which have explored Tudor, Victorian, Edwardian and other eras of British history. Alex Langlands rounds out our interviews with each of the presenters from the series – and Alex also recently published a new book, Craeft: An Inquiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts, which is a perfect topic of conversation at a moment when the world is almost entirely virtual.
Connecting place to story to digital resources is a challenge confronting communities across the globe. That’s why when I learned about nashvillesites.org, I knew we had a winner for PreserveCast. Not only is Nashville an amazing town – but this story holds many lessons for countless other places looking to bring their history to life. […]
Like the rest of the internet – I came across Seamus Blackley’s incredible story via Twitter and knew he’d make for an incredible PreserveCast guest. A true renaissance figure, Blackley is known widely as the “father of the Xbox,” and has also spent several years perfecting the art of extracting yeast from unusual environments to save and savor the taste of the past. A perfect slice of history for this week’s PreserveCast.
Candacy Taylor is an award-winning author, photographer and cultural documentarian working on a multidisciplinary project based on the Green Book. In her book, “Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America,” Taylor has masterfully pulled together this story of resilience and segregation in a way that elevates and memorializes this history – a history still rooted in countless towns and cities across America.
Like many episodes, this week’s guest came from a personal passion and fascination – in this case with historic blends of teas. After my first sip of Oliver Pluff tea, I knew we had to get to the bottom of this story and learn how this Charleston, South Carolina based company has cornered the market on heritage tea in the United States. It’s a story brewed over several thousand years and one we’re serving up piping hot on this week’s PreserveCast.
If these walls could talk is an old refrain used by lovers of historic places and buildings, and thanks to the in-depth research and loving care of today’s guest, a historic log cabin in West Virginia’s panhandle is talking again.