Unabridged: The Art of Oral History with Garrett M. Graff
The Stacks
Traci Thomas
4.8 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 22 August 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
*Patreon and Substack-only bonus episode teaser, click here for the full episode*
Another bonus episode this month? Heck yes! We're doing a deep dive into oral history with friend of the pod, journalist, and oral historian, Garrett M. Graff. He has written three stellar books of oral history: The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb, When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day, and The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11. Today we get Garrett's insights into the key characteristics and importance of oral history, and the challenges that come with the form. We also spend some time on the decision to drop the atomic bomb, and workshop future oral history projects for Garrett.
You can find links to everything we discuss on today's show on The Stacks' Website: https://www.thestackspodcast.com/unabridged/2025/8/21/tsu-50-garrett-graff
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everybody, it's Tracy. I want to tell you about something new that I am offering this fall. |
| 0:05.1 | I will be teaching an online class all about understanding Shakespeare. The course is five weeks |
| 0:10.8 | long. It will begin on Wednesday, September 17th. It will go for the next five Wednesdays. |
| 0:15.8 | It is a class geared toward giving you the tools and concepts you need to understand the work of William Shakespeare. |
| 0:22.3 | I am so excited to teach this class. As you all know, I love Shakespeare's plays. And we are going to be |
| 0:27.5 | using two of my most beloved plays, 12th night and Richard III, to break down the crucial components |
| 0:34.0 | of Shakespeare's work, verse antithesis and argument. So if this sounds like something |
| 0:38.8 | you'd be interested in, head to the stackspodcast.com slash understanding dash Shakespeare. |
| 0:46.1 | The class is open now for all to enroll. There are limited spots. So grab your spots before it's |
| 0:51.4 | too late. Welcome to another episode of the Stacks Unabridged. |
| 0:55.8 | I'm Tracy Thomas, your host. |
| 0:57.4 | These are our extra special bonus episodes exclusive for members of the Stacks Pack |
| 1:01.5 | on Patreon and paid subscribers of my newsletter unstacked on Substack. |
| 1:06.5 | Today, I have an episode all about the art of oral history with our generation's greatest |
| 1:13.4 | oral historian, if I do say so myself, Garrett M. Graf, he wrote the oral history of D-Day. |
| 1:18.5 | He wrote the oral history of 9-11. |
| 1:20.8 | And his latest book is called The Devil Reach Toward the Sky, an oral history of the Making |
| 1:25.1 | and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb. |
| 1:27.5 | If you're listening to this episode and you get about 10, 15 minutes in and it cuts off, |
| 1:32.6 | that means you're not a paid member of the substack or the Patreon. |
| 1:36.1 | So you need to go to patreon.com slash the stacks to join or go to Tracy Thomas. |
| 1:41.7 | dot substack.com to subscribe. |
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