Stephanie Bastek

Stephanie Bastek is the senior editor of the Scholar and the producer/host of the Smarty Pants podcast.

Coming Home

Craig Thompson digs up memories of farm labor and the history of ginseng

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday April 25, 2025

Muscle Memory

Michael Joseph Gross on the importance of strength, past and present

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday April 11, 2025

The Most Famous Unknown Artist

David Sheff puts Yoko Ono in the spotlight

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday March 28, 2025

The Root Cause

Padraic X. Scanlan tells the real history of the Irish Potato Famine

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday March 14, 2025

Something New in the West

Kurt Beals on translating All Quiet on the Western Front

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday February 28, 2025

Family/History

David Levering Lewis digs into his own origin story

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday February 14, 2025

The Epic Viking Saga of the Everyday

Eleanor Barraclough on the ordinary people of Norse history

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday January 31, 2025

Keepers of the Old Ways

Eliot Stein on the people keeping cultural traditions alive

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday January 17, 2025

The Snow Maiden

Our final episode of 2018 is a send-off to the solstice

By Stephanie Bastek | Monday December 30, 2024

Ho Ho Horror

Why not make this Christmas a little darker?

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday December 27, 2024

From Beer to Eternity

By Stephanie Bastek | Tuesday June 27, 2017

From the Horse’s Mouth

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday June 9, 2017

Twin Peaks

By Stephanie Bastek | Tuesday May 16, 2017

The Fox in the Big House

By Stephanie Bastek | Thursday April 20, 2017

All the Rage

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday March 17, 2017

Unlikely Encounters

By Stephanie Bastek | Friday March 3, 2017

Red: The History of a Color

By Stephanie Bastek | Tuesday February 14, 2017

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