Making History Human: A Conversation with Dana Schwartz

Image courtesy of Dana Schwartz.

Society tends to value the present and the future above all else. We’re inundated with current events, potential investments, and what comes next. In an era defined by immediacy, why should we care about the past?

When I told my high school English teacher, Mrs. Winrow, that I had declared a history major in undergrad, she joked, “Well, at least you’ll be great at cocktail parties.” While history majors may have a reputation for trivia, studying the past offers something far more valuable: perspective.

After graduating from University of Central Florida, I didn’t want my love of history to fade. I wanted to keep learning. Around that time, I discovered podcasts, and Noble Blood by Dana Schwartz became my introduction to the medium. It wasn’t just the stories she told, but the way she told them. She sounded like the kind of person you’d want to talk to at a cocktail party.

When I started this blog, I knew she was someone I wanted to interview. Today, I spoke with her about her career, her storytelling, and why history still matters.

Image courtesy of Dana Schwartz.

1. Why do you think history still matters today?

I can’t tell you how often I read about something that happened 500 years ago or so and find myself astonished by how modern it feels. I keep learning, over and over, that human behavior is fundamentally the same across centuries. People want to feel safe, important, powerful, and loved. People want their enemies to suffer, and want to celebrate their heroes. It’s a cliche to say that history teaches us lessons, but it does—it teaches us about people. And almost everything we take for granted as the foundation of our modern society (laws, religion, family structure) emerged from historical precedent. Learning history helps you to understand why we have a five-day workweek, or why we drive on the right side of the road in the United States.

2. Can you walk me through your professional journey and how it led you to your current work?

I had a fairly roundabout way to reaching my career. I moved to New York City after graduating from college to try to make it as a writer, freelancing for a number of publications. I wrote some historical content (for Mental Floss), but I mostly wrote humor and pop culture pieces. Eventually, I got a job with Entertainment Weekly that brought me out to Los Angeles, which helped me pivot to screenwriting. It was while I was living in LA that I pitched Noble Blood to iHeartRadio (almost seven years ago, I think?) just because I loved historical stories and wanted a place to tell them. Throughout all of this, I built an audience on Twitter (back in the good old days), which was invaluable to me early on in making connections and meeting editors.

3. How has your career and approach to storytelling evolved over time?

I’ve written a lot of very, very disparate things over my career. I do my history podcasts (Noble Blood and HOAX!), write YA novels, and write adult novels (my new dark academia romantic fantasy, THE ARCANE ARTS by S.D. Coverly, comes out May 19). I also do a lot of screenwriting for TV and film. I think, as someone who works as a writer, I always try to remind myself that what I do is a job, not a hobby, which means I need to work and sit down to write even when I don’t feel like it. And ironically, it’s usually when I don't “feel” it that the good stuff begins to come after a while. Experience has made me more pragmatic in my approach: I know on instinct which ideas are good enough to pursue, and I’m more ruthless about how I use my time.

4. What perspectives or themes do you find yourself consistently drawn to in your work, and why?

I love darker stories and tragedies, people who died in mysterious circumstances and unsolved mysteries, especially when juxtaposed with glamor and wealth. That, really, was the core behind Noble Blood. I wish I had a good reason for why I like those stories so much, but my therapist and I are still working on it.

5. What advice would you give to students or young professionals interested in pursuing a career in media?

Oh god. Who knows what media will look like in two, three, or ten years? The only advice I can give is to read a lot, and write by hand. Being too online can dull your motivation and your voice. (This is advice I try my best to follow. Also, make work and put it out in the world! No one will come to you and ask what you’ve got; you have to make something first.

6. Looking ahead, what kinds of projects or stories are you most excited to explore next?

I’m so excited about my new book, The Arcane Arts, which I co-wrote under the pseudonym S.D. Coverly with my friend Dan Frey. It’s about a student and a professor in a graduate program, studying forbidden magic that lets you control other people. We got to explore power dynamics, secret societies, and professor fantasies—and we sold the book to be developed as a film with Paramount, so we’re working on the screenplay right now. It was incredibly fun to get to explore a sexier, more grown-up aspect of my writing, and I hope to do more of it.

7. What do you hope listeners or readers take away from your work?

Empathy and curiosity. And plenty of fun facts that they can bring to their friends.

Image courtesy of Dana Schwartz.