As we've approached the 250th anniversary of American independence, I've been thinking a lot about what this milestone means for our nation, so on the Fourth of July I sat down to put those thoughts on the record. Watch the reflection here.
An investigation into one of the world's richest men, his basketball team, and an attempt to go around the NBA salary cap sent me looking back to investigative journalism of the past. In a rapidly devolving media landscape, the digging done by Pablo Torre and his team is reminiscent of how the muckrakers of the Gilded Age uncovered the truth about the world's richest and most powerful men. Read my full reflection.
John Adams predicted July 2nd would be America's great anniversary. For the 250th, Seminary Ridge Museum is making him right — with a reading of the Declaration, a historian panel, and an outdoor screening of John Adams. I'll be participating on the panel. It's free and open to all. Learn more and plan your visit.
Letters from War: 1861 was featured by WVIA News this week. Roger DuPuis and I talked about the project, the chaotic opening months of the Civil War, and what these Coal Region soldiers' letters still reveal 165 years later. Read more and find the full interview.
“So why did we invade Iraq?” Two editorials from a Coal Region newspaper. One written in the opening days of the war, full of certainty about what must come next. The other, just a year later, asking harder questions as the cost became clearer and the answers more uncertain. Read the Full Story.
In the late 1920s, coal companies promised modernization. Instead, centralized breakers closed collieries and hollowed out towns like Mahanoy City and Shamokin. Jobs vanished and communities unraveled. In my latest article, I trace that collapse and ask what it warns us about warehouses, automation, and data centers today. Read the Full Story.
Each January, King in the Wilderness reminds me how unfinished Martin Luther King Jr.’s work was—and how uncomfortable it made people then and now. The film focuses on his final years, when he spoke plainly about war, poverty, and power. It’s an honest portrait worth revisiting. Read the full story.
2025 was a full, difficult, and meaningful year—spent writing, traveling, podcasting, and chasing stories from Pennsylvania’s Coal Region to Ireland’s northwest coast and beyond. This reflection looks back at the moments, places, and people that shaped the work. Read the full story.
My 2025 reading list leans hard into the big, difficult stuff - atomic fire over Japan, mass graves in Rwanda and Bosnia, the Molly Maguires, Irish soldiers in blue, and one unforgettable novel about a single patch of New England ground. These are the books that shaped his thinking this year about memory, violence, grief, and how we tell stories. Read the full story.
The Wynning History website just crossed a big milestone: 11 years online and more than 1 million views. What began as a small personal blog has grown into a community curious about Pennsylvania’s past and its place in the American story. Here’s what’s next for the project—and for me. Watch the update.