Abby Epplett, Historian

In her MasterClass, U.S. Presidential History and Leadership , award-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin discussed topics surrounding leadership, such as whether leaders are born or made, how emotional intelligence factors into leadership decisions, the ability to help rivals work together, and ways to relax from work. With each topic, she related stories from the lives of her four favorite presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt (TR), Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), and Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBR). The course is based on her book, Leadership in Turbulent Times , published by Simon & Schuster in 2018 , which followed the lives of these four presidents, while she won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1995 for her biography of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt . Additionally, the 2012 Steven Spielberg film Lincoln was based on her biography, and she conducted a popular “exit interview” of president Barak Obama for Vanity Fair in 2016 .

I recently finished watching Tracing Your Roots through Food with Michael W. Twitty , a video series hosted on the streaming service MasterClass. During this course, Twitty used his vast knowledge of international cuisine, genetics, lingustics, and history to describe the food culture of the American South. Based in part on his book, The Cooking Gene , published by Amistad and winner of a  James Beard award in 2018 , Twitty emphasized the importance of understanding the relationship of the transatlantic slave trade and Black Diaspora to modern American cooking, especially the soul food tradition. His style of delivery balanced his kind, generous demeanor with serious discussion on heavy topics. Twitty described how he grew up in a family that loved to cook, citing his parents and grandmother as influences on his culinary interests. He turned a family interest into an academic passion. In 2011, he started the blog Afroculinaria as a platform for examining African Amer...

During the month of February, which has been designated as Black History Month since 1976, the online learning platform Masterclass hosted the video series Black History, Black Freedom, and Black Love: Lessons from Influential Black Voices . Seven speakers led this remarkable, three-part series, focusing on the past, present, and future of Black Americans. The class spanned across 54 videos, totaling 10 hours and 47 minutes of screen time, and broached a staggering number of topics, including: Democracy, Elections, & Voting Rights The Constitution, especially the 13 th , 14 th , and 15 th Amendments The Plantation, Enslavement, & Emancipation The Civil War and Reconstruction Linguistics and Black English Segregation in Education & Historically Black Colleges / Universities (HBCUs) Redlining & Housing The Prison-Industrial Complex & Policing The 1619 Project, Critical Rac...