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Motown History Detroit History Podcasts showcase Hammerin’ Hank Greenberg and other local Jewish history.
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re you a baseball fan? Or interested in Detroit Jewish history? If so, then you will love the latest episode of the Detroit History Podcasts: “Hammerin’ Hank Greenberg. How a Jewish Kid from the Bronx became a Tiger Great.” The Detroit History Podcasts (detroithistorypodcast.com) are the brainchild of Tim Kiska, a professor at the University of MichiganMike Smith Dearborn. Kiska earned his Alene and Ph.D. in history at Wayne Graham Landau Archivist Chair State University in 2003 and specializes in the history of Detroit. Prior to entering academia, he worked in journalism for many years at the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News and WWJ-AM radio. Kiska decided to create the Detroit History Podcasts to “mine this city’s history, telling its story through this town’s cultural, social, political, musical and automotive heritage. Our chosen tool is the podcast.” As Kiska tells it, he “fell in love with this medium after listening to one of Malcolm
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DECEMBER 23 • 2021
Tim Kiska and son, Eric, interviewing Detroit Red Wing Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay.
Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcasts. I immediately said: ‘I’ve got to do this. This is an enormously exciting way of telling history.’ My hero is Edward R. Murrow, who once did a program, Hear It Now.” The production of the Detroit History Podcasts is also a family affair. Kiska is the host of each episode, and son, Eric, along with daughter-in-law, Kelley, work on the podcast. Kiska’s good friends also contribute: Bob Koski as associate producer/ audio specialist and Tom Ferguson as copy editor. Kiska launched the Detroit History Podcasts on Dec. 10, 2017. The first episode was “When the Beatles Came to Town,” the story of the Beatles’ two appearances in Detroit in 1964 and 1966. Both shows were wild affairs at Olympia Stadium. The first episode set the audio standard for the podcasts. The introduction to the Beatles episode nicely sums up the Kiska approach to telling history. Along with a solid historical narrative, as he states it: “We’ll listen to the screams when the Fab Four took the stage. We’ll hear Detroit’s intense reaction to the group. And what
Tim Kiska
was up with the jelly beans raining down on stage?” In short, the podcasts relate historically accurate and compelling stories, greatly enhanced with thoughtful and entertaining additions of voices, music and sounds. Because of this formula, the Detroit History Podcast won the “best media” award from the Historical Society of Michigan in 2021. HAMMERIN’ HANK The latest episode of the Detroit History Podcasts about Hank Greenberg is, like
