Bruce Coville: Revisiting the McCarthy Era through ghost stories (Season 13, Ep 23)

About this episode

Acclaimed children's author Bruce Coville joins us to discuss teaching history through ghost stories. He shares the 30-year journey behind a long-gestating manuscript, the local Syracuse, NY history uncovered along the way, and the parallels he sees between the McCarthy era and modern-day threats to civil liberties. Plus, Bruce reflects on the formative influence of Mad magazine, landing as a New York Times crossword clue, sounding early alarms on AI scraping books, and paving the way for fart jokes in children's literature. Links & Resources: • Full audio library of Blue Vote Café episodes: https://bluevotecafe.com • Register and request your overseas ballot: https://www.votefromabroad.org/ • For more information, visit https://sdfcu.org/ or email overseas@sdfcu.org.