Colin E. Woodward's Official Site

Part two of Colin’s talk with author and historian G. J. Meyer goes deeper into the writing life. It’s an honest discussion of how the business works and how success is fleeting and difficult to predict amid what Jerry calls the “sorry state of the American publishing industry.” Jerry is…

He lives in England now, but historian G. J. Meyer is a native of St. Louis, who developed his journalism chops at newspapers in the mid-west. Jerry rose in the ranks at the St. Louis Dispatch, and his writing won him a Neiman fellowship at Harvard. He published a book…

Colin welcomes back Dana Buckler, the Florida-based host of the popular movie podcast, The Dana Buckler Show (formerly How is This Movie?). Dana tells Colin about his path to success as a podcaster, including an honest discussion of some missteps he’s made along the way. Dana, however, has seen his…

  Writer and editor Adam Bulger returns to American Rambler to discuss the recent death of legendary Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart. He also talks about the band’s back catalogue. Rush has always existed somewhere between contemptuous critics and adoring fans. Robert Christgau once called the Canadian trio “the…

Eric Foner is one of the most accomplished historians of the 19th century United States. His first book, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, about the rise of the Republican Party, is a classic. So too is his 1988 work Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, which won the Bancroft Prize.…

Wilco put out a new album in 2019 called Ode to Joy. To talk about it, Colin brings back historian and music expert Court Carney, a professor at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas and a longtime Wilco fan. Together, Colin and Court discuss not just Wilco’s new record,…

Musician and actor Ben Dickey is the star of the 2018 biopic Blaze, where he played the doomed, legendary singer-songwriter Blaze Foley. Blaze was from Arkansas and so is Ben. As he tells Colin, he learned music from his grandfather, who sang and played guitar, turning him on to country…

  Winston Hodges is a Richmond comic. He started doing comedy and experienced quick success back in 2015. A native of rural Virginia, he graduated from Virginia Tech before winning a contest at the Funny Bone, where he riffed on roller coasters. It was his first time doing comedy on…

Wiseguy Adam Bulger stops by for an unprecedented third American Rambler appearance to talk about Martin Scorsese’s new flick The Irishman. Adam thinks Scorsese is the best filmmaker of the 20th century, but how has he fared in the 21st? Does The Irishman measure up to expectations? How does it…

  Virginia native Ben Cleary is the author of Searching for Stonewall Jackson, a non-traditional military history of one of the Civil War’s most famous generals. As Ben tells Colin, his interest in “Old Jack” stems from how different the general seems to modern students of the war. Ben’s book…