It was a pleasure to talk about Myths of the Rune Stone: Viking Martyrs and the Birthplace of America with Kristian Petersen from the New Books Network. I was able to share a bit about how I got interested in the scholarly study of history and religion. I also discussed the process of how I transformed my fairly voluminous dissertation (around 360 pages) into a slim and readable volume intended to reach a broad audience.  This hour-long interview provides some of the highlights of the book and touches on topics such as myth, small town life and Minnesotan civic identity, martyrdom, secularization, the Cold War, Vikings, Marion devotion, Native Americans, Christian identity in Minnesota, American civil religion, and the multiple venues for using the book in the classroom.

If you are visiting this website for the first time, be sure to explore the various resources here to help you dig deeper into the topic. To learn about how the book can useful in a classroom setting, you can read this blog post from last year. Thanks for stopping by!