American Esoterica

08/14/2025

Remember that time some guy almost assassinated JFK? Probably not, I reckon. Out now - Episode 80 - JFK, Not Blown Away, available at your streaming place and at our steaming place - www.americanesoterica.com.

08/12/2025

Did you enjoy Episode 13 - As Good As A Wink? If so, you may be interested in an event on August 16th, at the Lyric Theater in Lexington, Kentucky, where author Joe Drape will be the featured speaker. He wrote "Black Maestro - The Epic Life of an American Legend" about that episode's subject, Jimmy Winkfield. Go check it out, if you're local. Or come spend a frigid August weekend in Kentucky, if not.

https://historiclyrictheatre.com/event/phoenix-rising-lex-presents-10th-anniversary-awards-recognition-image-phoenix-rising-lex-presents-10th-anniversary-awards-recognition/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMIKU1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFQYkFJRVFBRzFDSWJZVXNlAR5vtT3lOZ-AyFHIxWayZMhxiHl_X6MYs-ZgdyRUrVJihm5Tl5z4JvUcNr9buA_aem_Hym_7bDJNC2EfxrEHAdgxQ

Join Phoenix Rising Lex for its 10th Anniversary Awards and Recognition event featuring Joe Drape, New York Times columnist and author of Black Maestro. This special gathering will be held […]

08/04/2025

Like listening to host Brian Powers? Like listening to host Brian Powers on a podcast? Did you answer "yes" to both of these questions? Then have we got something for you - here's an interview with the world's gratingest podcast host, on a great podcast that features local and regional Kentucky writers - Writer's Rotation, with Kathie Stamps. Go give it a listen today, and then go listen to the other interviews as well - Kathie is a fantastic interviewer.

Kathie Stamps interviews people in various professions about words and writing.

07/31/2025

A baker's dozen colonies? A regular dozen? Fourteen? Fifteen? Twenty-six? HOW MANY COLONIES WERE THERE? Out now - Episode 79 - Thirteen-ish Colonies, available in all the original colonies and even some you've never heard of on your streaming services, or at www.americanesoterica.com.

07/30/2025

RedBubble is not happy that we haven't been flogging our wares, and there have been some new things added lately, so here's the link to the store:

https://www.redbubble.com/people/BassmanBP/shop?asc=u

07/15/2025

In what is becoming a yearly and ever-less random trend, Management is taking an episode cycle off to rest and recover from an attempt to paint a house that resulted in a case of a full-body poison ivy rash, prescription steroids, and a definitely not all the way painted house. There will be no new episode this week so that Management can rest and reconsider poor life choices.

07/04/2025

You know what you should be listening to today, on this most patriotic of days? DAMN RIGHT, this podcast.

07/03/2025

Here's another round of lightning-fast-ish presidential trivia, from the devil to the Beast and everything in-between, and the dog demanded to be in the recording booth with me for this one. Out Now - Episode 78 - A Second Non-Consecutive Term of Presidential Potpourri, available at the streaming places and also at www.americanesoterica.com.

06/19/2025

Even though the Civil War had informally ended through Lee's surrender to Grant in April of 1865, pockets of Confederate states dug in and responded by moving enslaved folks further and further out. Ever since the Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863, Union troops had been delivering the news to enslaved folks in captured territory, so keeping their enslaved away from emancipation - or even the idea of it - was a high priority for Confederate slaveholders. On June 19, 1865, two thousand Union troops rode into Galveston Bay, Texas, to deliver the news of emancipation to some 250,000 people still in bo***ge.

The 13th Amendment would be ratified that December, officially ending slavery throughout the entire nation, but to many, June 19th, 1865, marks an Independence Day for those who weren't guaranteed their freedom on July 4th, 1776. It's a day when the country came just a hair closer to living its ideals, and it has been celebrated on its anniversary every year since.

For more information on Juneteenth, visit https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-juneteenth.

Juneteenth is an often overlooked event in our nation’s history. On June 19, 1865, Union troops freed enslaved African Americans in Galveston Bay and across Texas some two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

06/19/2025

The tip of Lake Michigan is just the tip of the iceberg that spins out into a war between the states. Two states, that is. Out now - Episode 77 - Holy Toledo, available on all streamers and a website in disputed territory, http://www.americanesoterica.com.

06/19/2025

Just a note that Definitely Not Just A Closet Studios got a slight upgrade finalized-ish last weekend. Management is still chasing a few frequencies down, but this week's episode is the first done with everything mostly in place.