Pennsylvania is the Keystone State, and its history holds so many of the stories that shaped America. We Love PA History! is an every-other week conversation featuring authors, historians, preservationists and storytellers. Each episode will dive into events, people, and places that define Pennsylvania's heritage, showing how the past still shapes our present. Pennsylvanian's love their history, and we want to celebrate that.
Quick Links to our episodes:
William Penn and "The Holy Experiment", Andrew Murphy
Carpenters' Hall, Michael Norris
Why Pennsylvanians Love Our History, Andrea Lowery
Release Date: July 1, 2026
Click here to be directed to the Podcast
William Penn and
"The Holy Experiment"
Andrew Murphy, Professor and Dept Chair
Political Science
University of Michigan
You can't understand Pennsylvania history - "The Holy Experiment" - without knowing about William Penn. There's no better source than the man who wrote the biography of William Penn.
Reflecting his interest in the intersections between political theory and political action (as well as his status as a born-and-raised Pennsylvanian), Murphy has engaged deeply with the life, career and political thought of William Penn, a figure who brought theory and practice together in the early modern British Atlantic. He is the author of William Penn: A Life (Oxford, 2019) and Liberty, Conscience, and Toleration: The Political Thought of William Penn (Oxford, 2016); and co-editor (with John Smolenski) of The Worlds of William Penn (Rutgers, 2019). A scholarly edition of Penn's political writings for the Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought series appeared in 2021.
Murphy's research takes up the intersections between politics and religion, in both historical and contemporary contexts. He is particularly interested in the emergence of religious liberty and liberty of conscience in early modern England and America, and the ongoing ramifications of these debates as they continue to unsettle American politics. He is the author, most recently, of Toleration: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2025), which canvasses the history, development, and contemporary global status of toleration as both a concept and a contested legal practice. His current research continues to bring together the political and the religious, exploring the concept of political martyrdom and the ways in which studying politically-charged deaths can help us make sense of the complex interplay of death, religion, politics, collective memory, and symbolic power.
Release Date: June 17, 2026
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Michael Norris, Carpenters' Ha… - We Love PA History! - Apple Podcasts
Carpenters' Hall
Michael Norris, Executive Director of
Carpenters' Company of the City of Philadelphia
As the Executive Director of the Carpenters’ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia, which owns and manages Carpenters’ Hall, a National Historic Landmark in Philadelphia’s historic district whose members constitute the nation’s oldest continuously operating craft guild, Michael oversees all of the Company’s programmatic and operational activities. Michael joined the Company in June 2019, after a seven-year tenure as Vice President of External Relations and Chief Strategy Officer at the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, where he oversaw the organization’s policy, advocacy and community-engagement programs and its fundraising activities. Before that, Michael served for eight years as the Executive Director of Art-Reach, which connects underserved audiences with cultural experiences. Prior to leading Art-Reach, Michael spent nine years at the Arden Theatre Company, managing all aspects of fundraising, marketing, public relations and community outreach. Michael began his career in nonprofit administration as the Assistant Development Director at Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre, the nation’s oldest continuously operating theatre and a National Historic Landmark. He started his professional career in editing and publishing, working as an editorial researcher at TV Guide magazine in Radnor, PA, and then editing the regional leadership directory Who’s Who in the Delaware Valley. A native of Chester County, PA, Michael received a B.A. in journalism from Temple University in Philadelphia. He received a certificate in fundraising from the University of Pennsylvania and has received supplemental education in nonprofit management through coursework offered by National Arts Strategies, the Fundraising School at the University of Indiana and the Stanford University Business School. He is a 2008 graduate of Leadership Philadelphia, which named him one of the region’s top 76 “Creative Connectors.” He serves on the board of PA Museums, the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and the Histories Collaborative of Philadelphia.
To find out more about Carpenters' Company, Carpenters' Hall, and its amazing history, go to: Story of Carpenters' Hall | Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia
Release Date: June 3, 2026
Click here to be directed to Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/andrea-lowery-why-pennsylvanians-love-our-history/id1896660499?i=1000771047030
Why Pennsylvanians Love Our History
Andrea Lowery, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission
Andrea Bakewell Lowery, a preservationist with more than 20 years of experience, has served at the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC) most recently as chief of the agency's Division of Architecture and Preservation. She managed the budget for PHMC's capital improvements across the state and spearheaded the agency's master planning initiatives.
Lowery brings broad experience to the agency's diverse programs, having worked in both the private and public sectors as a preservation architect, architectural historian, and state preservation specialist. She has led a variety of projects, including assignments for the Architect of the Capitol, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the US General Services Administration, and Yale University. Lowery holds a bachelor's degree in history of art from Bryn Mawr College and a master's degree in architecture from the Ohio State University.
We Love PA History! Podcast is sponsored by Markosky Engineering Group, Inc.
