Iconography

A LOOK AT OUR CULTURE’S ICONIC PLACES AND THINGS TO SEE WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT CULTURE ITSELF.

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Iconography is a history podcast written, edited, and produced by Charles Gustine. It’s about the icons, real and imagined, that define and are defined by the places where they arise.

How do we understand the places we visit, and even the places we’ve never been? As a shorthand, we use agreed-upon touchstones—places (like monuments and gravesites), people (like statesmen and singers), objects (like food and fashion), and, of course, dreams (dreamed-up people and dreamed-up places and dreamed-up things). Iconography looks at these touchstones to see what they say about the culture itself, as well as the outsiders who've elevated those icons above others.