Dakota Datebook

From 2008 to 2012, I was a writer for the Prairie Public Radio program "Dakota Datebook." Dakota Datebook broadcasts unique stories from North Dakota history that are heard across the state and much of the Upper Plains. The short narratives were fun to write, and I learned much about the history of the region as I hunted through research centers for fresh ideas. My Datebooks are currently archived online, regularly rebroadcast, and some have even been re-purposed as newspaper articles and instructional aids for teachers of North Dakota history.

More recently in 2019, the University of North Dakota published a Dakota Datebook collection, and Prairie Public followed up with a second volume in 2021. Many of my stories are featured in both volumes.

Dakota Datebook: North Dakota Stories from Prairie Public — Volume One
(University of North Dakota, 2019)

Dakota Datebook: North Dakota Stories from Prairie Public — Volume Two
(Prairie Public, 2021)

Dakota Datebook is an important component of the education missions of the North Dakota Humanities Council, the State Historical Society of North Dakota, and Prairie Public Radio. And I am honored to have been a part of it. More personally, it has been the genesis of some of my best memories as a historian and a teacher. From time to time when I am in North Dakota for the holidays, casual acquaintances stop me on the street just to say how much they enjoyed my stories, and Dakota Datebook more generally. It just doesn't get any better than that in the history field. Below is a sample of my work.