Talking pirates with Press Herald Live, May 13, 7pm

For subscribers of the Portland Press Herald: I'll be talking with colleague Katherine Lee about the real pirates of the Caribbean, what it was like to write and research Republic of Pirates, and the experience of being an on-camera expert for Netflix's recent hit docudrama series "Lost Pirate Kingdom." Should be fun and I'll be answering audience questions as well.

The pandemic is still on so this is a virtual event. Good news is you don't have to travel, but you do need to subscribe. But, hey, if you do it's free and you get to support local journalism here in Maine. 

It all kicks off online this Thursday, May 13 at 7pm. Registration details here.

Telling the pirates' story on Netflix's "Lost Pirate Kingdom"

Netflix's new historical docudrama story on the Caribbean pirates, "Lost Pirate Kingdom," came out Tuesday and is already a hit, standing at #3 of all titles on Netflix's US site, #4 for them in the UK and #1 in Denmark.

It essentially tells the story I revealed in my 2007 work of history The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and The Man Who Brought Them Down, and I appear throughout as one of their taking head experts. But the voice of the show is Derek Jacobi, appropriately enough, the actor who played the aging Duke of Windsor in The Crown, among other roles.

Hope you enjoy the six-episode series. For more on the real story of Blackbeard and his gang, do consider the book, which is also available in UK and Danish editions.

Speaking on the Scots-Irish legacy in Maine and the nation, Aug. 14, Brunswick, Maine

This is the 300th anniversary of the coming of the Scots-Irish to New England and to mark the occasion, there's a multi-day conference taking place this week at Bowdoin College sponsored by the Maine Ulster Scots Project.

The 2018 Diaspora Conference and Reunion opens tomorrow morning, August 14 at Bowdoin's Kresge Hall and continues through Thursday, with presentations from scholars on both sides of the Atlantic.

I'm pleased to be giving the opening keynote Tuesday night on the impact of the Scots-Irish migration on both Maine and North America, issues I wrote about in some detail in The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier and American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America respectively. I'm preceded by Norman Houston, director of the Northern Ireland Bureau, the diplomatic mission of that part of the UK to the US and Canada.

Conference information can be found here.

At 1 pm tomorrow I'm also speaking about the political ramifications of American Nations in Maine Public radio's live interview and call-in program, "Maine Calling." Tune in if you can.

Talking American Nations with CityLab, Sen. Collins' Roe position with CSPAN

I recently spoke with CityLab's Laura Bliss about the American Nations framework, where it came from, and how I came to create it. Here's her piece, which appeared last week. (The framework has been getting renewed attention on account of a New York Times OpEd that appeared July 26.)

With a Supreme Court nomination struggle looming, all eyes remain on Republican Senate centrists Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Last CSPAN's Washington Journal about Collins' position on Roe v Wade and the nomination, and what outside legal experts have to say about it. You can find the clip here.

month I spoke with

I last appeared on CSPAN last summer, talking about American Character and The Lobster Coast with their mobile crew on their visit to the Portland, Maine area. Previously, they broadcast my full American Nations talk at Iowa State.

And to round matters out, I appeared in the UK's Bristol Post recently discussing pirates, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Blackbeard's death. (This the subject of my third book, The Republic of Pirates.)

The Independent on American Nations

Early this morning I did an interview with a reporter from The Independent, Bridie Pearson-Jones about American Nations. Here's the resulting feature, with lots of maps and not a few quotes from me.

Note that not all the quotes are quite accurate -- I invited a comparison between the 1916 and the 2008 or 2012 presidential county result maps, rather than the 2016 one (which has some distinctive features), and I said we're *not* becoming a purple nation because of the self-sorting phenomenon -- and also that my last name is rendered throughout with an extra w"... but I'm nonetheless pleased book has continued to draw attention on the other side of the Atlantic. [Update, 5/11/17: The Independent has kindly corrected all of this as of yesterday.]

UK discovers Republic of Pirates

The media is a fickle beast, and most especially the British print variety, which suddenly last week decided they needed breaking news about Blackbeard, the infamous pirate who died 298 years ago. Thus, out of the blue, some of the revelations my nine year old biography of Blackbeard and his gang, The Republic of Pirates, have been making headlines there.

It started with the Bristol Post, the daily in the city that may have been Blackbeard's port of birth. Someone there discovered the two-year old U.K edition of the book and, therein, that Blackbeard's real name was actually Edward Thatch, rather than Edward Teach as is commonly thought. I had an enjoyable conversation with reporter Tristan Cork, who wrote this piece, "Bristol pirate Blackbeard's real name was NOT Edward Teach, American historian conforms." He includes my full email response to his question on this score, for those wanting the details.

The next day, an editor for SWNS.com, a news and PR site out of Bristol contacted me on behalf of the Daily Mail, which apparently outsources to them the troublesome task of actually reporting their stories. I had a thoughtful interview with one of their reporters about Blackbeard, which informed this Daily Mail story on Thursday. The Mail managed to get my name wrong and the erroneously state that I'm based in New York and the byline for the story is of someone I never spoke to. They go on to, ironically enough, report how "the guidebooks, plaques, posters, and history books have been getting [Blackbeard's] name wrong all this time." Fancy that.

But they do say I'm the "leading authority and writer on the golden age of piracy" and give some nice plugs for the book, so I'm not complaining. After all, "it's absolutely true because I read it in the Daily Mail."

The Sun, not to be left out, ran this story Friday which, umm, "borrows" all of its reporting from the Daily Mail story. The tabloid -- Britain's largest circulation paper -- is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

In any case, I'm pleased the pirates' story is getting attention in the country where many of them were born, and glad that my newspaper career has largely centered on this side of the Atlantic.

In Downeast Maine, an innovative attempt to save U.S. Atlantic salmon

Buffeted by dams, loss of habitat, commercial fishing off Greenland, and climate change, U.S. runs of Atlantic salmon are threatened with extinction and their numbers have been trending in the wrong direction.

In this week's Maine Sunday Telegram I write about an innovative, Icelandic-funded project in eastern Maine that hopes to turn the tide. Here's a taste:

The approach, which turned a blighted river on the Scotland-England border into one of the greatest salmon angling locations in the British Isles, focuses on growing fitter fish. Pioneered over four decades by the late Peter Gray, the Scottish manager of a hatchery on the River Tyne, it hatches and raises baby fish in on-river hatcheries using local, unfiltered water and a variety of techniques that more closely mimic the natural environment of early life-stage salmon.

For more background on the problems facing Atlantic salmon in the U.S. and the Canadian Maritimes, please read this article from "Mayday", my recent six-part Press Herald series on climate change in the Gulf of Maine.

Talking American Nations with Monocle 24

While in Marrakesh for Atlantic Dialogues 2014, I sat down with Monocle editor Andrew Tuck to talk about the thesis laid out in American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America and why its essential for foreigners seeking to understand the United States.

That interview airs during the current edition of "The Urbanist" on Monocle 24, the magazine's radio arm. It's available online here; my conversation with Tuck begins at almost precisely 0:35.

I also have an essay in Monocle's recently released Forecast publication for 2015. It's not available online, but here's a preview of the edition, which is currently on newsstands in Britain and the capitals and airports of at least several global cities.

Thanks to Monocle for their interest.

Gotham is Dutch: my take in The Monocle

For those of you in the United Kingdom, I have an essay in The Monocle's "Forecast" edition on New York City and how its having been founded by the Dutch has determined so much about the city it has become and will continue to be. It's an idea developed further in American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, a book that should have a U.K. edition but, alas, doesn't (though the U.S. one can be bought from Amazon.uk.)

There's no digital tease or online version, bless their hearts, beyond this little bit on the issue, so you'll have to actually get it in the newsstands.

Talking pirates with BBC Five; Nestle Waters gets a setback in Maine

Very, very early this morning, GMT, I had an enjoyable talk with BBC Five Live's "In Short" about how pirates really talked and behaved. Here's a short excerpt (on walking the plank) from our longer interview.

The interview was occasioned by International Talk Like A Pirate Day yesterday. The UK edition of my history of Blackbeard and his pirate gang, The Republic of Pirates, was released earlier this year by PanMacmillan, so perhaps it will have attracted a few insomniac readers.

Also, in today's Portland Press Herald I reported on a surprising new development in Nestle Waters North America's effort to conclude a longterm, low-price contract with Fryeburg, Maine's (privately-held) water utility.

Staff of the Maine Public Utilities Commission has recommended the proposed contract not be approved, in part because the local utility's charter doesn't permit it to sell water in bulk to Nestle, which then bottles and sells it under the Poland Springs brand. Could this derail Nestle's decades-long pumping operations in Fryeburg? It's all up to the PUC commissioners to decide.

Remembering Andrew Ian Dodge

(c) 2014, Portland Press Herald

Andrew Ian Dodge, former Tea Party organizer and US Senate candidate in Maine, died earlier this month at 46. A few months ago, Dodge contacted me and asked if -- in the case that his ongoing rematch with cancer was unsuccessful -- that I'd write his obituary. I was humbled and honored to be asked, especially as Dodge was one of the most interesting people in Maine politics and displayed a combination all to rare amongst politicos: consistency, integrity, passion and humor.

The piece ran in yesterday's Maine Sunday Telegram, and was the lead of the Insight section.

For more on Dodge, here's a piece I wrote for Newsweek a few years back, when he was leading a rear guard action in the emerging struggle between libertarians and social conservatives over the future of the Tea Party movement. 

So long, AID. You'll be dearly missed on both sides of the pond.

UK edition of Republic of Pirates on sale tomorrow

I'm pleased to announce that the United Kingdom and Commonwealth edition of my third book, The Republic of Pirates: Being The True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down, goes on sale tomorrow.

The new edition -- which includes an exclusive Afterword with some new material -- is published by Pan Macmillan and is also available in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and such pirate haunts as the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Barbados. (The US and Canada edition, first published in 2007, is from Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt.)

Republic of Pirates is the inspiration for Neil "Luther" Cross's new NBC series, Crossbones, starring John Malkovich. It also helped inspire the new Ubisoft video game Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and, based on the previews, probably shaped the thinking of the maker's of Starz' forthcoming series "Black Sails" as well.

For those new to the book, here's an interview I did with National Public Radio's Weekend Edition a few years back, plus a fun VICE Media mini documentary series filmed last summer ahead of AC4's release.

So check out the book -- and the incredible historical events -- that inspired this latest wave of pirate pop culture. You won't be disappointed!

Talking American Nations on BBC, MSNBC, NPR, others

As I wrote yesterday, my most recent book, American Nations, has gone viral more than two years after it was originally published. Now major media outlets are taking interest as well. Here's a compendium for anyone who wants to follow along:

Yesterday, I was a guest on BBC World Service Radio's Newshour. You can hear the program here, and my segment starts at 44:00.

This afternoon, November 11, I was on NPR's Tell Me More, which you can listen to here. They also created this blog post, which has been mirrored on dozens of public radio affiliates around the country.

Tomorrow, listeners in Greater Los Angeles can tune in to my discussion with Airtalk's Larry Mantle on Southern California Public Radio flagship KPCC. It sounds like it will be at about 11:30 Pacific. [Update, 11/15/13: Listen to it here.]

On Wednesday morning, watch my appearance on MSNBC's The Daily Rundown with Chuck Todd. That should start at about 9 Eastern. [Update, 11/12/13: That's now scheduled for the same time Friday instead.] [Update 11/16/13: Watch it here.]

And for those of you in the Bay Area, start your day with me over at KPFA in Berkeley, the first and oldest listener-supported radio station in the country. I'm scheduled to appear on Morning Mix at about 8am Pacific.

For those who prefer to read, today there's this on American Nations from the (lowbrow) New York Post and this from the (highbrow) American Conservative.

And if you're in western Maine and are totally sick of hearing about American regionalism, come to my live, old fashioned talk at the University of Maine Farmington on the past, present, and future of coastal Maine, subject of one of my previous books, The Lobster Coast. That kicks off Wednesday at 5pm in the Thomas Auditorium, Preble Hall.

[Update, 11/16/13: The media frenzy continues.]

On pirates in Connecticut, Britain, and video games

The golden age pirates, the subject of my third book, The Republic of Pirates, are returning to the zeitgeist with gusto. Yes, there's the NBC series based on the book coming in February, with Neil Cross writing the script and John Malkovich playing Blackbeard, but that's not all. Consider:

There's a worldwide publicity drive afoot for the new Assassin's Creed video game release, Black Flag, which is also set among the Golden Age Pirates. This week, The Telegraph of India interviewed the game's chef scriptwriter, Darby McDevitt, who kindly plugged Republic of Pirates: "Colin’s book provided us with the answer to one crucial question we had –– how do we get all of the most famous pirates in history together in the same story? It turns out that The Republic of Pirates was the answer." (For more on the golden age pirates, enjoy my recent Game Informer interview.)

Meanwhile, UK's PanMacMillan has revealed the forthcoming publication of the UK and Commonwealth edition of Republic of Pirates. The release date is set for January 2014, just ahead of NBC's "Crossbones." As is often the case in Britain, it's going straight to paperback, retailing for just £8.99, or about the annual wages of an ordinary sailor in 1715. (Thank you, inflation.)

Examiner.com, an online sweatshop for freelance writers, today named "Crossbones" one of the "top five promising premises for the fall tv season", which is even more impressive given that it's a mid-season replacement, so not out in the fall at all. "Old ‘Blackbeard’ is played by the incomparable John Malkovich," the writer notes. "‘Nuff said." I'd actually add a bit about writer Neil Cross being the creator of BBC's crime drama "Luther" too, but point taken.

Finally -- and unrelated to any of the above -- The Hartford Courant ran this piece on pirates in Connecticut and approaches, drawing heavily from an interview I did with them earlier this year.

Europe:managing offshore wind conflicts with fisheries

The 2011 edition of Island Journal is out, including my feature on how various European countries have negotiated (or failed to negotiate) the inevitable conflicts between offshore wind farms and fishermen. It has particular valence for the Gulf of Maine region, where numerous offshore projects are in the works.

In short, the European experience points to the need to plan ahead and for potential developers to engage the fishing community early on, well before they start thinking about where they want to put their turbine arrays. Countries that haven't done this -- Germany among them -- have regretted it, while those that have (Denmark jumps to mind) have managed conflicts reasonably well.

The article isn't available online, but New Englanders can find Island Journal at better bookstores, or can order a copy from the Island Institute, which publishes it, as well as the monthly newspaper Working Waterfront, where my Parallel 44 column runs.

As an aside, I've covered wind energy for fifteen years now, filing stories from Denmark and Prince Edward Island along the way.