
Read Beat (...and repeat)
If you're like me, you like to know things but how much time to invest? That's the question. Here's the answer: Read Beat--Interviews with authors of new releases. These aren't book reviews but short (about 25-30 minutes on the average) chats with folks that usually have taken a lot of time to research a topic, enough to write a book about it. Hopefully, there's a topic or two that interests you. I try to come up with subjects that fascinate me or I need to know more about. Hopefully, listeners will agree. I'm Steve Tarter, former reporter for the Peoria Journal Star and a contributor to WCBU-FM, the Peoria public radio outlet, from 20202 to 2024. I post regularly on stevetarter.substack.com.
Podcasting since 2022 • 211 episodes
Read Beat (...and repeat)
Latest Episodes
"Southern News, Southern Politics" by Rob Christensen
Rob Christensen’s new book, Southern News, Southern Politics (University of North Carolina Press), is more than the history of the newspaper, the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., described at one point by a politician as ...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 49
•
29:50

"Baseball's First Superstar" by Alan Gaff
When Christy Mathewson burst upon the scene with the New York Giants in 1900, baseball had a less-than-perfect image. It was a rowdy game played by roughnecks known for their consumption of alcohol and chewing tobacco, said Alan Gaff, author of...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 48
•
29:58

"Mrs. Cook & the Klan" by Tom Chorneau
True crime accounts are all the rage these days. But Tom Chorneau didn’t want to just add another cold case to the national docket.Instead, the unsolved murder of Myrtle Cook in 1925 is related to political forces flowing through the sta...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 47
•
27:57

"Rebranding the Western: A History of Comics and the Mythic West" by William Grady
How did you learn about the American West? Books came first. Reading material included notorious dime novels that made legends of Buffalo Bill and Jesse James. Newspapers and magazines, meanwhile, focused on the American West in the 19th centur...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 46
•
32:51

Pink Cars & Pocketbooks: How American Women Bought Their Way into the Driver's Seat" by Jessica Brockmole
Chrysler released a special edition of the Dodge Royal Lancer that Chrysler in 1955 called LaFemme. Marketed as “a car for the modern woman,” the model offered a pink-and-white color scheme along with matching accessories. There was only one pr...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 45
•
31:52
