UP FRONT

Back in high school, Lindsay Graham aka “Not the Senator” was your standard geek with a penchant for listening to, writing and making music. His genre partialities run the gamut — Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, Miles Davis, Tom Waits — and inspired his life’s soundtrack.

He launched a local music podcast long before Ira Glass made the medium mainstream. Graham played (primarily) guitar in Timmy and the Sinister Clan, a teenage “circus-y rock band” that coined seven original songs and played exactly two shows, Graham says. These ventures, propagated little popularity or prosperity, but his passion-driven pursuits put him on a path leading there.

Serendipity and imprecise preparation proved pivotal to Graham’s current success as the host of the hit podcast “American History Tellers.”

Perhaps it arose with Comedy Central’s “Drunk History,” wherein a cast of celebrities reenacts historical events while an inebriated guest-star narrates, or Lin-Manuel Miranda’s portrayal of Alexander Hamilton as plucky, sharp-witted, rapping/singing, swaggering badboy romantic.

Whatever the root, history went hip.

“I hadn’t thought about the history-as-beingtrendy angle,” Graham says, considering the suggestion. But he was aware of a closely related societal shift: “The acceptance of nerd culture.”

He expounds, “You can be as geeky as you want today. We have license to publicly show enthusiasm for history” … or science and topics once reserved for dudes who sat alone at lunch.

Then there was the great podcast craze of 2014. It came some years after Graham graduated University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia (the town fueled his fascination with American lore).

Graham’s aforementioned audio outfit operated in a Junius Heights home and secured work for Wondery, a podcast network started in 2016. Today it claims some of its industry’s biggest buzz building shows.

But this was before Wondery became the “prominent podcast producers,” as USA Today puts it. Eventually the Wondery crew beckoned Graham and his inviting baritone voice to narrate “American History Tellers.” He could compose the score, an essential piece of podcast production, too. He recognized the catchiest podcasts “possessed a certain musicality,” proper pacing, he says.

A paid opportunity to combine his foremost obsessions and skills? “I grabbed it,” he says. Graham dubs the series “pop history, rooted in entertainment.”

Its stupendous reception is a testament to powerful storytelling.

“Imagine you’re a tavern keeper in Liverpool in year 1776 …,” “Imagine it’s 1794. You’re a Scottish immigrant …,” — this is Graham’s trademark intro. What follows is an examination of critical events, eras, and people that shaped the United States, delivered by your coolest-ever and most sanguine professor. He maintains this infectious faith that we still can learn from our past and live better.

Graham — and his relatively small team of researchers, writers, editors — turns lessons about the Cold War, space race and prohibition, for example, into dramas with complex characters, binge-worthy plots. Storytelling sans imagery can be challenging, he says. For example, he feared the National Parks episode might be a bore, without those majestic visuals Ken Burns had at his disposal. He was wrong. Now a six-part series, “It turned out amazing.”

He voices episodes out of the East Dallas studio and lives in Lochwood with wife Libby and 3-year-old daughter.

He doesn’t plan to move to LA seeking superstardom, he says, though he did fly there once to meet the Wondery team. “That was a great experience,” he says. “It upped everyone’s motivation.”

A new podcast, “American Scandal,” is on the horizon. “The format will be similar [to AHT], but we dive deeper into scandalous, salacious events,” Graham says. Think steroids corruption, Eliot Spitzer, Iran Contra.

“I got in early,” he says. “It’s been a ride.”

By WILL MADDOX

This Maltese just loves to say “cheese.” EBONY is DIANNE RAMOS’ furry friend who has never met a camera she didn’t like. When she hears “Instagram” or “Facebook,” she smiles and poses just so. Ramos agreed to foster Ebony when the pup was just six months old, but she foster-failed, and they have been together ever since. Neighbors can find Ebony strutting her stuff to the Lakewood Starbucks or chasing ducks at White Rock Lake. She is not even 2 years old but always makes her opinion known when she isn’t getting her way. She loves trips to the beach and isn’t afraid of big waves, but is just as happy in her own doggie pool at home, where she sports her doggo bikini in summer.

5731 Swiss Ave. and Harryette Ehrhardt have many stories to tell

HARRYETTE EHRHARDT AND HER HUSBAND, JACK, bought the house at 5731 Swiss Ave. in 1970, when the neighborhood was nothing like the pristine row of mansions it is today. The homes were in disarray, and Ehrhardt called it an inner city slum. Parts of the street had been purchased by developers and were set to become apartments. But it was a neighborhood where her children could go to integrated schools in very segregated Dallas, and they made the street their own. Built in 1919 for Theodore Marcus, brother of Herbert Marcus (of Neiman Marcus), the home’s next owners were the Van Winkle family, who owned a Pontiac dealership. The Ehrhardts were the third owners, purchasing the house for $30,000, with the adjacent empty lot running them $35,000. They discounted the lot with the house, as it was assumed the home would be torn down. As a teacher, SMU professor, Dallas ISD school board trustee and state representative, Ehrhardt made it her home, and it has quite a story to tell.

1 THIRD FLOOR APARTMENT

Originally home for the live-in maid, the efficiency apartment hosted numerous foreign exchange students over the years, as well as recent graduates and political operatives on many of the campaigns that Harryette Ehrhardt helped coordinate over the years.

2 GUEST BEDROOM Glen Maxey, the first openly gay member of the Texas legislature, would often stay at Ehrhardt’s home while in Dallas. It also housed political volunteers who would camp out and sleep on the floor while working campaigns here.

3 SECOND FLOOR OFFICE During a 1984 event for Geraldine Ferraro, the first female vice presidential candidate in history, Ferraro came down with an eye infection. Ehrhardt’s late husband, Jack, was an eye surgeon, and treated her infection right in the office.

4 DINING ROOM Meeting with famous Dallas oilman H.L. Hunt’s wife Helen Hunt, Ehrhardt helped form the Dallas Women’s Foundation, which is the largest regional women’s foundation in the country and helps raise money to support women and improve opportunities for women in North Texas.

A plan to keep East Dallas students in the neighborhood was born during the integration of Dallas schools. The plan said naturally integrated neighborhoods like East Dallas could not be split apart to integrate other segregated areas of town. It became the law of the land after the Supreme Court ruled in their favor.

By WILL MADDOX

5 LIVING ROOM Nancy Pelosi held an event while running for Congress, and a stage was built for her to help mask her short stature. In 1982, then future governor Ann Richards attended a meeting of the Dallas Women’s Political Caucus, which was formed in the home after the Equal Rights Amendment failed to be ratified. 1984 Presidential candidate Walter Mondale’s wife Joan also hosted an event here, and the decorations were hustled down the street to decorate a neighbor’s house hosting an event for Mondale’s opponent’s wife, Barbara Bush.

With the help of former Dallas mayor Wallace Savage, the Historic Preservation League (which became Preservation Dallas) was formed to try and protect Dallas’ architectural history in 1972. The Swiss Avenue Historic District was also part of the process, protecting the historic estates in the area.

6 CARRIAGE HOUSE Originally home to the cook and manservant (whose job was to shovel coal into the furnace all day in the winter), a group of flower children inhabited the space when the Ehrhardt’s moved in. They had been squatting in the main house, painting it saffron pink, and cut holes in the doors so that they could check on each other during their drug trips.

7 SOLARIUM After sitting next to each other at a Turtle Creek Chroale performance, Ehrhardt and former first lady Laura Bush scheduled a private lunch in the addition. Bush was Ehrhardt’s student when she attended SMU, and the two remain friends despite political differences. Laura Bush honored Ehrhardt by dedicating the library at Zan Wesley Holmes Jr. Middle School to Ehrhardt.

When Abrams Was Greenville

At what was once the edge of town in the 1920s, the train tracks ran parallel to what was then Greenville Road, not to be confused with Greenville Avenue. The cross street looks to be about where Richmond Avenue crosses Abrams, between the Whole Foods and Chipotle in modern day Lakewood. A sign warns commuters of a road closure ahead, and how they would have to find another way to Garland Road. Greenville Road was eventually changed to Abrams, named after a developer who helped build homes in the area. Storefronts, a streetcar and a couple vintage vehicles can be seen up the road, with two water tanks beyond. The water storage tanks were known as the Twin Standpipes and were built to provide water for the exploding neighborhood in the 1920s. They stood at the corner of Greenville and what was then Aqueduct Avenue, Goliad and Abrams today. The standpipes were each 100 feet tall and 60 feet wide. A 1923 Dallas Morning News article details how the new towers would ensure adequate water pressure for the Lakewood area. —WILL MADDOX

Up Front

What Gives

East Dallas loves to keep its dollars local, including charity. Here are a couple ways you can give back to the neighborhood this month while exercising and appreciating the unqiue chatacter of the neighborhood.

Short run for Long

The family friendly Long run will start and end at J.L. Long Middle School, and will run down Santa Fe Trail and East Dallas neighborhoods. There will be 5k and 1k routes, starting at 5 p.m. to benefit J.L. Long Middle School. Afterward, enjoy food, refreshments and entertainment at the school. Entry fee includes T-shirt and a meal. Proceeds from the race have benefitted the International Baccalureate program, instruments for band and orchestra, entrance fees for competitions and new science labs.

When: Oct. 18

Where: J.L. Long Middle School, 6116 Reiger Ave.

More info: jllong.com

Price: $25

Party on the porch

Dallas PorchFest is an old-fashioned block party with live music and artist showcases, plus food and drinks for sale. Walk the historic neighborhood from house to house, listening to live music, purchasing drinks and food along the way. This year, 16 local bands perform on historic front porches. All proceeds benefit Peak’s Addition neighborhood programs and beautification. Last year, the event raised $18,000 for the neighborhood. They are always looking for more musicians and artisans, so check out the website below to get more involved.

When: Oct. 20

Where: 4300 block of Junius Ave.

More info: dallasporchfest.org

Price: free