Local legends, fished from the archives and fact-checked.
Navigating History pairs Mimi Cirbusova and Andrea Knies for chatty, affectionate episodes, each built around one theme: booze, radio stations, agriculture, ghost stories, quirky cures. The warmth never softens the method, and when a cherished legend fails to turn up in the sources, the hosts say so plainly.
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Navigating History is presented by Compass Rose History Experiences and hosted by Mimi Cirbusova and Andrea Knies. The idea is simple. Pick a theme, go digging, and bring back whatever the records turn up. One episode says as much, comparing historical research to fishing: cast the nets and see what comes up from the murky bottom. The themes are everyday ones, including alcohol, radio stations, agriculture, ghost stories, fishing, and medicine and quirky cures. What the hosts do with them is narrow and local. In Gone Fishin', one host pictures the town of Cortez getting its name through an improvised reply to a federal post office application. A 1921 hurricane then all but demolished the town, and it rebuilt. The same episode notes that Cortez is cited as one of the only communities in the United States that got no financial aid during the Great Depression. Radio Stations follows a station that first aired on December 7, 1939, joined the CBS network in 1943, and carried Arthur Godfrey and Perry Mason alongside local shows such as the Hank Swain Show. Its manager, John Browning, came from a prominent Scottish family that settled in Sarasota. Medicine and Quirky Cures spends happy time on two mischievous mascots: a smirking Pluto, god of the underworld, for Pluto Water, and Spurtle, a German gnome depicted in stone on a fireplace at West Baden. The chemistry between the two hosts drives all of it. They tease each other, egg each other on and react to each other's stories as they go. Mimi gets ribbed for being scared of Scooby Doo. A running 'historical hotties' list comes up in more than one episode. In Agriculture, Mimi finally gets to talk about Bertha Honoré Palmer, a figure she loves less for the glamour than for the things she did. What keeps the affection honest is the checking. In They Call it Booze, a favorite legend about an investigator pouring out whiskey runs into his own letter to the Braden Town mayor, which praises the town as clean, and one host concludes on the spot that the story wasn't real. In Ghost Stories, a self-described skeptical believer won't rule on whether the Arcadia Opera House is haunted but finds no sources behind its origin tales, and wonders aloud about the moment some high schooler first made one up. Every episode ends by inviting listeners to email in local stories, followed by the same toast: save history, share it, make it. They Call it Booze is a strong first stop, because that is where a great tale runs straight into the record.
Made for: Suits a listener who enjoys small-town and regional history told as a conversation, and who likes to see a good legend checked against the sources rather than simply retold.
What sets it apart: The hosts clearly love a great tale but will debunk it on air, as when an investigator's own letter undoes a whiskey legend. Its themed episodes stay rooted in specific towns, radio stations and local figures.
Navigating History takes you on adventures through the archives as hosts, Mimi Cirbusova and Andrea Knies of Compass Rose History Experiences sail the high seas of historic research.
Uncle Sam's initials look awfully convenient once you start questioning the meatpacker story.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A festival opens onto Cortez's fishing history, from hurricane recovery to the institutions keeping its maritime culture alive.
Fishing opens a steady route into Cortez, Florida, as Andrea Canis and Mimi Sarbasova use the Cortez Fishing Festival to trace the character of a working waterfront.
Florida alcohol lore becomes more interesting when a favorite local legend is held up against the record.
Navigating History treats local alcohol history as something messier, and more interesting, than a cleanly told legend. The episode moves from Charles Macy, who came to the area around 1850 to recover from consumption, died in 1852, and feared burial in Florida, to the…
A warm, skeptical look at the local lore that keeps Arcadia Opera House haunted.
Ghost Stories treats the legends around Arcadia Opera House as local history with a chill in the room. Mimi Cervasova and Andrea Canis look at the rumored apparition and the familiar tale of a girl falling from a window, then ask what evidence, if any, sits behind them.
A lively look at fountain-of-youth hopes, medicinal springs, and the dangerous promise of radium.
Fountain-of-youth dreams give this episode its clean line of inquiry: the recurring urge to turn a spring, substance, or place into an answer for aging and whatever else might trouble the body.
A Sarasota station carries radio history from D-Day news to its modern FM afterlife.
Radio Stations tunes radio history to one Sarasota frequency, letting national events and local memory share the dial. Mimi Cervasova and Andrea Canis move from early electromagnetic theory to a station that first aired on December 7, 1939, joined CBS in 1943, carried Arthur…
Favorite historic figures turn agriculture into a warm tour of local memory.
Agriculture enters through local history here, with the hosts giving generous attention to two figures they plainly enjoy discussing: Pliny Reisner and Mrs. Bertha Honore Palmer.
Miller Beach chaos, served breakfast-style.
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Nebraska culture, live and close to home.
Navigating History's "Gone Fishin'" traces Cortez, Florida, from Safety Harbor chiefdoms around 900 through Calusa fishing culture, Cuban ranchos, and North Carolina settlers in the 1880s.
Navigating History examines local alcohol stories, including the reported 1852 shipment of Charles Macy’s body from Florida to Nantucket in a whiskey barrel.
Mimi Cervasova and Andrea Canis examine ghost stories from the Arcadia Opera House and Bond’s Chapel through historical records and family folklore.
Mimi Cervasova and Andrea Canis trace medicinal springs and supposed cures from St.
Navigating History centers on Florida radio stations, from WJBB's oranges-by-mail reach test to WSPB's claim that it was first in Florida to report the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944.
Mimi Cervasova and Andrea Canis connect Pliny Reisner's 1880s botanical work with Bertha Honoré Palmer's 15,000-acre Florida ranch.
Navigating History's "Weird Publicity" examines a 1909 Tampa-to-Jacksonville automobile endurance run that took four days across 543 miles to publicize Florida's poor roads.
Navigating History: Nature profiles Marie Selby, who won a 1923 Bird Key tournament with a 61-pound tarpon and later became associated with Selby Botanical Gardens.
Navigating History examines magical tourism through Andrea Canis’s account of Spook Hill in Lake Wales, Florida, where visitors put cars in neutral and watch them appear to roll uphill.
Navigating History examines the Crying Indian advertising campaign and the John Henry legend as American stories whose polished versions obscure difficult histories.
Navigating History examines how Smokey Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog turned government-linked public-service campaigns into recognizable cultural characters.
Mimi Sarbasova and Andrea Canese compare Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and Davy Crockett as American mythological figures shaped by oral storytelling, popular entertainment, and Walt Disney.
Navigating History’s “Advertising America: Sam and Rosie” examines how Uncle Sam and Rosie the Riveter became American symbols through posters, songs, and public reinterpretation.
Mimi Cervasova and Andrea Canis compare the original and 1959 rewritten versions of Carolyn Keene’s Nancy Drew stories, using The Bungalow Mystery as their example.
Navigating History examines how Samuel Kress turned five-and-dime stores into individualized examples of “civic art” across the United States.
Navigating History hosts Mimi Serbisova and Andrea Canis investigate Kenilworth Lodge after Mimi and her 19-year-old nephew Ben find its boarded windows, intact furniture, newspapers, and 1990s televisions near Sebring, Florida.
The hosts discuss the legacy of Hernando DeSoto and places named after him, starting with the legend of Sarah DeSoto.
Hosts Mimi and Andrea explore a bonus episode about Ben's brother Amos, uncovered during their research on a shared headstone mystery.
Hosts investigate the unusual shared headstone of two unmarried, unrelated men, exploring their adventurous lives and trying to uncover how they became lifelong friends.
The hosts investigate the mysterious Captain Leach and his connection to Ben Stickney using census records and newspaper archives.
Hosts explore the life of Ben Stickney, a historical figure in Sarasota, uncovering details about his personality and community contributions.
Hosts interview a historic preservation expert about the importance of saving historic buildings.
Co-hosts Mimi and Andrea discuss their passion for local history and interview each other about how they became interested in it.
Hosts interview an anthropology professor about how the environment influenced early Florida pioneers and local history.