Category: Media Interviews

Mike Dixon, a public historian, is often asked to do media interviews on his areas of scholarship for radio and television stations, magazines, and newspapers.

Media Outlets Interested in Mason-Dixon LIne

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On the Pennsylvania Line doing an interview with a Baltimore Television Station about the Mason Dixon Line.

All around parts of the Mason Dixon Line communities are observing the start of the 250th anniversary of the beginning of one of America’s most famous boundaries.   The work by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, establishing the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, took five years, running from 1763 to 1768.  To settle royal land grants for the proprietors of the adjacent colonies, the skilled English surveyor-mathematicians measured out the boundary that had involved bitter quarreling and bloodshed.

To mark this special anniversary places along the Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware boundaries have been conducting programs as there has been growing interest in the history of the line.  As a result, I have done a couple of media interviews on the subject for Fox 45 Baltimore, and WYPR, a Maryland public radio station.

In Calvert, MD. talking about the Mason Dixon Line to a Baltimore Television Station.
In Calvert, MD. talking about the Mason Dixon Line to a Baltimore Television Station.

Marriage Discussed on National Public Radio Show

Two broadcast journalists from “Back Story with the American History Guys,” a public radio show, interviewed me a few weeks ago for a show titled “Committed: Marriage in America.” The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia sponsor the shows, which bring “historical perspective to the events happening around us today. On each installment, renowned U.S. historians . . . tear a topic from the headlines and plumb its historical depths.” As they explore the roots of what’s going on today, they seek to reveal connections or disconnections between the past and the present.

For this past week’s airing the headline under the magnifying glass concerned marriage in America.  From the colonial era to the present, the hosts examined a range of issues.  I talked to them about quickie marriages in Maryland in the 1930s, a time when one place in the State was “Vegas before Vegas was Vega.”  By the time of the Great Depression eloping to Elkton had entered the nation’s lexicon” so I explained how that all came about for the University of Virginia broadcasters.

Marriage in America a radio show from BackStory on NPR
Committed: Marriage in America

Taping a Public Television Segment on Covered Bridges

This week Maryland Public Television aired an Outdoors Maryland feature on covered bridges in the region. For the program called “Spanning Time,” I talked about the history of some of these old structures, examining how spans evolved over time.

Taping a public television piece on covered bridges.