Our Missouri

Episode 101: Big Cat - Jerry Grillo (Covering the Bases, Part 2)

In this episode of the Covering the Bases series, host Sean Rost talks with Jerry Grillo about his new book, Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize.

Episode Image: Cardinals player sliding into home plate, 1941 [Arthur Witman Collection (S0717), SHSMO]

About the Guest: For almost thirty years, Jerry Grillo worked as a staff editor, writer, photographer and designer for newspapers and magazines in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, South Carolina, and Georgia. Presently, he is a science writer at Georgia Tech, as well as a freelancer. He is the author of The Music and Mythocracy of Col. Bruce Hampton as well as Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize.

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.

To lead off the series, host Sean Rost talks with J. Daniel about his new book, Suds Series: Baseball, Beer Wars, and the Summer of ’82.

Episode Image: Editorial cartoon by Tom Engelhardt entitled “Redbird of Happiness,” 1982 [Editorial Cartoon Collection (SHS 2013), SHSMO]

About the Guest: Jonathan “J.” Daniel currently works in communications for Indiana University, and spent twenty years working in sports, both in front and behind the camera. He spent five seasons producing Rays Magazine, a weekly television show about the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team, and also worked as a sports producer at Fox affiliates in Tampa and Chicago. He is the author of Phinally!: The Phillies, the Royals, and the 1980 Baseball Season That Almost Wasn’t and Suds Series: Baseball, Beer Wars, and the Summer of ’82. He blogs at https://80sbaseball.com/.

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.

Episode Image: Children sitting around a campfire, 1940 [Arthur Witman Photograph Collection (S0717), SHSMO]

About the Guests:

Katie Seale holds a master's degree in history from Oklahoma State University. A native of the Missouri Ozarks, she worked at the State Historical Society's Springfield Research Center before becoming the coordinator for the Society’s Rolla and Springfield research centers.

Haley Frizzle-Green holds a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Presently, she is an archivist for the State Historical Society of Missouri at the Springfield Research Center.

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]

About the Guests:

Katie Seale holds a master's degree in history from Oklahoma State University. A native of the Missouri Ozarks, she worked at the State Historical Society's Springfield Research Center before becoming the coordinator for the Society’s Rolla and Springfield research centers.

Haley Frizzle-Green holds a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Presently, she is an archivist for the State Historical Society of Missouri at the Springfield Research Center.

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.

Episode Image: Image from a newspaper article on the Blue Pyramid, 1977 [St. James Leader-Journal, 18 May 1977]

About the Guests:

Katie Seale holds a master's degree in history from Oklahoma State University. A native of the Missouri Ozarks, she worked at the State Historical Society's Springfield Research Center before becoming the coordinator for the Society’s Rolla and Springfield research centers.

Haley Frizzle-Green holds a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Presently, she is an archivist for the State Historical Society of Missouri at the Springfield Research Center.

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.

For more information on RadiOzark and Strangest of All please visit: https://collections.shsmo.org/manuscripts/springfield/sp0071

Episode Image: Record of “Strangest of All,” date unknown [Radiozark Record Collection (SP0071), SHSMO]

About the Guests:

Katie Seale holds a master's degree in history from Oklahoma State University. A native of the Missouri Ozarks, she worked at the State Historical Society's Springfield Research Center before becoming the coordinator for the Society’s Rolla and Springfield research centers.

Haley Frizzle-Green holds a master's degree in library and information science from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Presently, she is an archivist for the State Historical Society of Missouri at the Springfield Research Center.

Episode 99: Sudden Deaths in St. Louis - Sarah Lirley (On the Bookshelf, Part 9)

To conclude the On the Bookshelf series, host Sean Rost talks with Sarah Lirley about her new book, "Sudden Deaths in St. Louis: Coroner Bias in the Gilded Age."

Episode Image: James A. Love standing beside the grave of his first wife Ann George and child in Fulton, Missouri, 1888 [James A. Love Papers (C0131), SHSMO]

About the Guest: Sarah Lirley is an associate professor of history at Columbia College. She holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She previously served as a Center for Missouri Studies Fellow. She is the author of "Sudden Deaths in St. Louis: Coroner Bias in the Gilded Age."

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]

About the Guest: Kitty Ledbetter is professor emerita of English at Texas State University. She formerly served as editor of the Journal of Texas Music History. She is the author of "Broadcasting the Ozarks: Si Siman and Country Music at the Crossroads."

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]

About the Guest: Kimberly Harper holds a master's degree from the University of Arkansas. Presently, she is the editor for the Missouri Historical Review. She is the author of "White Man's Heaven: The Lynching and Expulsion of Blacks in the Southern Ozarks, 1894-1909" and "Men of No Reputation: Robert Boatright, the Buckfoot Gang, and the Fleecing of Middle America."

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]

About the Guest: Alex Primm has been a freelance oral historian since the 1980s. He has worked on projects in the Ozarks for the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Forest Service, and the United States Army. His book, “Ozark Voices: Oral Histories from the Heartland,” was published by McFarland.