Obviously, it’s no surprise to people that I’m a huge fan of history. Working in news for years, I’ve always appreciated that the stories breaking each day (and the people reporting them) are contributing to what will eventually become history.
“News is just history in real time”, right?
I’ve long been fascinated by how social media, AI, and mass communication have reshaped the way we experience and understand those moments.
Last week, I spoke to Manny Marotta. He’s the creator and curator of the Live History Project, which takes a couple of accounts on X and posts in real time what’s happening in that moment in history.
There’s:
25 years ago - @25YearsAgoLive
50 years ago - @50YearsAgoLive
100 years ago - @100YearsAgoLive
and 250 years ago - @250YearsAgoLive
Right now, that means we’re living through 2001, 1976, 1926, and 1776 simultaneously.
It’s an interesting insight into what was happening at that moment in history on those days, but also Manny does a great job at showing us how the news was covering those events. He doesn’t editorialize. He simply presents the news as it is.
Much of our conversation focused on the 2001 account. It’s no secret that there’s a century-defining event taking place later that year, and we get into it all in the episode.
But more than anything, the account taps into a powerful sense of nostalgia among his 205,000 followers (this number is significantly growing after some viral posts in the last few days).
No one really has nostalgia for 1776, and few people can personally remember 1926 — but 25 years ago? That many of us remember. I remember reading those headlines, following those stories as they happened, and it’s strange to realize some of what he posts now is a quarter century old.
So we talk about his project and his passion for it, and we also talk about our relationship to the news and to the mass media that reported the news to us.
Social media has transformed how we consume information, but by showing us exactly what audiences saw at the time, his project helps explain how we arrived at the present.
It was a really interesting conversation, and I really wish that we could have spoken for hours in more depth. I’m sure we’ll speak again at some point in the future, but for now, please enjoy our introductory conversation.
