#05 "The Battle Fought in Space"

Media: Episode Recording -- "The Battle Fought in Space"; Episode Preview -- "The Battle Fought in Space"

Podcast Teaser Trailer: Episode Preview -- "The Battle Fought in Space"
Link to Podcast: Episode Recording -- "The Battle Fought in Space"
Guest Biography: Host Tanner Gray is a fourth-year student at Sewanee: The University of the South studying politics. As a politics majors, communism is something he has spent a lot of time studying and something he knows a lot about. Comparing and contrasting the differences between a communist form of government and a democratic form of government is a skill he has experience in due to his rigorous politics courses at Sewanee. The mention of Presidencies like John F. Kennedy’s and Dwight D. Eisenhower’s is a familiarity for Tanner and something he excels at speaking on.
Episode Number: Student Podcasting History Episode #05
Episode Title: #05 "The Battle Fought in Space"
Episode Date: April 24, 2025
Key Words: United States, Soviet Union, Communism, Democracy, Cold War, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM), National Security Council, Red Scare, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, NASA, Space Race, Sputnik, Apollo, Gemini, Mercury, Oppenheimer, Rockets,
Episode Introduction: The Space Race was a time of exploration and unique expansion to history it had never seen before. Satellites and Rockets being thrusted into orbit marked the beginning of a new era for history in the U.S. during a hostile standstill with Russia that was the Cold War. With war afoot and many people living in constant fear of communist espionage and nuclear attacks, the Space Race seemed like an exciting escape from all the madness that ensued in daily life. Though, the Space Race was not all it seemed; it had a sneaky element of competition in there. Many historians judge space exploration by the success and timing of US and Soviet missions, where the U.S. hailed superior over the latter.

Through my historical podcast, Tanner and I will be examining how the Cold War led to the development of competition for the Space Race and how ballistic missile technology led to the development of rocket science that made the space race possible. Then, we look at the missions of the Space Race, and the back-and-forth competition between US space missions and Soviet space missions. This would lead to a series of ways the U.S. would strive for peace, strength, and diplomacy at home and abroad after the Cold War.
Hosted By: Jake Walling
Host Biography: Host Jake Walling is a third-year student at Sewanee: The University of the South studying finance, with a minor in business and environmental studies. Growing up, he was always fascinated by rockets and rocket science. From an early age, he learned from a teacher that was an ex-astronaut about space missions, the Cold War, and the way the space race developed. That led to the motivation for this episode, and for the dive into Cold War politics, rocket/missile technology and different space missions that defined the early Space Race. The series “Students Podcasting History” that this episode is a part of is an educational resource developed by students in Dr. Andrew Maginn’s History of the United States II course to highlight crucial movements in American History through podcasting. The students research and interpret primary and secondary sources to discuss pivotal themes, people, and events in the United States' history from 1865 through the present. Through creatively sharing these narratives and learning digital tools, these students hope to make history more accessible and exciting for the public.
Guest: Tanner Gray
The Show: Students Podcasting History is an educational resource developed by students in Dr. Andrew Maginn’s History of the United States II course to highlight crucial movements in American History through podcasting. The students research and interpret primary and secondary sources to discuss pivotal themes, people, and events in the United States' history from 1865 through the present. Through creatively sharing these narratives and learning digital tools, these students hope to make history more accessible and exciting for the general public.
Source: Andreas Reichstein, “Space—the Last Cold War Frontier?” Amerikastudien / American Studies 44, no. 1 (1999): 136. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41157439.
Christpher Gainer, The Bomb and America’s Missile Age, (Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), 156-157.
Dr. Andrew Maginn, “DuckandCover1951.mp4,” HIST 202: History of the United States II, (In-Class Video, Sewanee: The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, February 5, 2025).
Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Atoms for Peace” in The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook, Volume 2: Since 1877, ed. Joseph L. Locke and Ben Wright, (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2023). https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/25-the-cold-war/nsc-68-1950/
John F. Kennedy, “President Kennedy’s Speech at Rice Universty,” NASA Video, posted on May 18, 2013, YouTube video, 3:13-31, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZyRbnpGyzQ.
Joseph L. Locke and Ben Wright, The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History
Textbook, Volume 2: Since 1877, (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2023), 25, https://www.americanyawp.com/text/25-the-cold-war/.
Joseph McCarthy, “Joseph McCarthy on Communism,” in The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook, Volume 2: Since 1877, ed. Joseph L. Locke and Ben Wright, (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2023). https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/25-the-cold-war/joseph-mccarthy-on-communism-1950/
“NSC-68,” in The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook, Volume 2: Since 1877, ed. Joseph L. Locke and Ben Wright, (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2023). https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/25-the-cold-war/nsc-68-1950/
Contact Information: https://www.andrewwyattmaginn.org/Digital_Humanities/s/studentspodcastinghistory/page/home