{"podcast":{"title":"History As It Happens","slug":"history-as-it-happens-7112446","podcast_index_feed_id":7112446,"rss_url":"https://feeds.libsyn.com/317972/rss","website_url":"https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/4/4/d/1/44d17a1c5092053027a2322813b393ee/Martin_Square_241008.png","author":"Martin Di Caro","episode_count":611,"summary":"Discover how the past shapes the present with the best historians in the world. Everything happening today comes from something, somewhere. History As It Happens features interviews with today's top scholars and thinkers, interwoven with audio from history's archive. Subscribe for ad-free episodes, early access, and bonus content. https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/","last_synced_at":"2026-07-30T18:21:01.807043+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-as-it-happens-7112446"},"episode":{"title":"Moby-Dick and Democracy","slug":"moby-dick-and-democracy","published_at":"2026-07-14T11:43:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-as-it-happens-7112446/moby-dick-and-democracy","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-as-it-happens-7112446","url":"https://historyasithappens.libsyn.com/moby-dick-and-democracy","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/historyasithappens/HH-FREE-565-260714.mp3?dest-id=2566565","summary":"Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Herman Melville's masterpiece Moby-Dick has something to teach us about democracy, citizenship, and the rule of law. A flop when published in the mid-nineteenth century, Moby-Dick has long been considered a quintessential American novel — an epic adventure story layered with allegory. In this episode, historian Michael Kimmage revisits the novel with a focus on the character Starbuck, the first mate who clashes with Captain Ahab over his mad pursuit of the white whale. Recommended reading: Citizen Starbuck, or Democracy and the Whale by Michael Kimmage (Liberties Journal) Subscribe: https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/","meta_description":"Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Herman Melville's masterpiece Moby-Dick has something to teach us about democracy, c…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2718,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/history-as-it-happens-7112446/episodes/moby-dick-and-democracy/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-as-it-happens-7112446/moby-dick-and-democracy.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}