Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told
"Flower in the River" podcast, inspired by my book of the same name, explores the 1915 Eastland Disaster in Chicago and its enduring impact, particularly on my family's history. We'll explore the intertwining narratives of others impacted by this tragedy as well, and we'll dive into writing and genealogy and uncover the surprising supernatural elements that surface in family history research. Come along with me on this journey of discovery.
Flower in the River: A Family Tale Finally Told
Latest Episodes
Ink Against Indifference: The Eastland Cartoonists
A capsized ship at a Chicago dock should not have happened. Except, it did.Today, we go looking for the people who translated that shock into a demand for justice while the city was still counting its dead: the editorial cartoonists. The...
Dwight Boyer: The Man Who Spoke for “the Little Feller”
As we get closer to the 111th anniversary of the Eastland Disaster (July 24, 1915) in the Chicago River, we learn what careful writers actually put on the page--and what modern revisions often leave out.We look at why poets and journali...
Olive Carruthers: Chain-Smoking, Gravel-Voiced Chronicler of the Eastland
Sometimes, a single newspaper article can pull lives back from the shadows. Today, I want to share the story behind one of my most treasured discoveries: writer and journalist Olive Carruthers. Her 1952 Evanston Review piece, “How Evanstonians ...
Rand McNally to the Chicago River: Agnes Lee's Eastland Story
The Eastland disaster didn't vanish into the Chicago River — it scattered into poems, magazines, archives, and family research, waiting for someone to go looking.In this episode, I push back on the idea that “history forgot” the Eastland...
A Hell of a Job: Carl Sandburg's Eastland
As the 111th anniversary of the Eastland disaster approaches, the podcast turns toward the writers, poets, artists, and witnesses who captured the tragedy in their own words. Their voices, once alive with urgency, have too often been pushed asi...
