The Hamilcast: A Hamilton Podcast

For the first time on the podcast, we proudly welcome one of the many wonderful #Hamilkids of the world: the insightful and funny 10-year-old Caleb Fumusa. At first Caleb was going to talk to us about his love of the cast recording but as luck would have it he ended up seeing “Hamilton” the night before we recorded this episode.

This week we welcome the lovely Ilana Levine (You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Seinfeld) and the Hamilton references are actually non-stop. Ilana tells us all about her Little Known Facts podcast and we have ourselves a bit of a love fest.

Carrie-Rachel Dean tells Gillian, Bianca, and Ashley all about growing up doing Revolutionary War reenactments and gushes (to put it lightly) over seeing Javier Munoz in Hamilton. 

We launched this podcast on January 30th, 2016 and this week we thought we’d have a little half birthday celebration. Ashley Graffeo is back again and Carrie-Rachel Dean joins us for the first time as we do some reminiscing and read some of your incredible emails. Thank you so much for listening and being so interactive with us. We love doing this podcast and there’s a lot more to come. We can’t wait to see - ahem - what comes next.

We are once again joined by Kelly Warne and! It’s the “Guns and Ships” episode! Mike makes good on his promise and totally nails the Lafayette’s rap and it’s so much fun. Pop culture references include: That Thing You Do! (again), The West Wing (again), and Bette Midler’s Bathhouse Betty days. Oh! And we YASSSSS KWEEN over a flawless Abigail Adams quote. All while bracing the New York City summer heat.

We have a LOT to cover this week! Our friend Kelly Warne shares her stressful, emotional, and rewarding experience buying last minute StubHub tickets to see Hamilton. It results in the most beautiful moment we've had on the show to date (spoiler: there are tears). After we pull ourselves together, we dive into Chernow's "Dr. Pangloss" chapter which is basically "What'd I Miss" and "The Room Where It Happens" while we also dissect how this chapter is (brilliantly) portrayed in the show.  

Michael Paul Smith is back again! This week we talk about Lin's Periscope experience, impatiently discuss how long it'll take for the filmed version to be released, compare iPods, and Mike fills us in on Alexander Hamilton showing up in AMC's "Turn." Plus we sip on Mike's shot aptly called The Bastard Orphan.

Happy Independence Day, friends! …Or not? Nicole Scholet de Villavicencio from the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society is back to tell us about how we should really all be celebrating on July 2nd, and drops knowledge on Chernow’s Chapter 15 “Villainous Business.” We’re also joined by Gillian’s husband Michael Paul Smith and discuss all of the Alexander Hamilton events thrown by the AHA Society this summer.

*Recorded on May 19th* This episode is all about Chernow's Chapter 14: "Putting the Machine in Motion." We talk George Washington's sense of "doom" about the presidency, Angelica's Disney princess status, and the first writings referencing A.Ham's infidelity. Have you read this?!

This is a milestone episode! We meet with and interview a ‘Hamilton’ cast member for the first time! Seth Stewart (@IAMSethStewart) talks backstage at the Tonys, his responsibilities as the Green Captain of ‘Hamilton,’ the moment he realized he’d be best friends with Lin-Manuel Miranda, and why we should all #StayWeird. He also speaks directly to the Hamilfans. Jam!!!

On June 9th, 4PM, Eastern Standard Time we spoke to none other than Anthony Rapp! We chatted everything including his love of Hamilton, what it’s like being in the eye of the hurricane of a phenomenon (um RENT!), the Chicago Cubs, and what he thinks is missing on Broadway. Plus! We cast Hamilton characters and Rent characters. Well, as much as we could. Bonus! We channel Alexi Darling for our sign off. 

It's almost time for the Hamiltonys! Well, Tony Awards to the non-Ham people out there. This week we talk Tony predictions (as painful as it may be), and tell you all about our new partnership with Broadway Radio. 

We’re back talking Chernow with The Federalist Papers. These men truly did write they were running out of time, it’s crazy. We also read listener emails, Bianca tells us about Hamilton yoga, and we discuss how to deal with people who don’t match your enthusiasm for Hamilton.

Our guest this week is Kate Powers, a facilitator and teacher with Rehabilitation Through the Arts at Sing Sing and Fishkill Correctional Facilities. We talk about how Kate uses Shakespeare and Hamilton to inspire inmates. We were so moved talking to Kate about the work she does that we decided to skip Chernow, so the book discussion will pick up next week.

This week, we're joined by Nicole Scholet de Villavicencio, Vice-President and co-founder of the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society, also known as the AHA Society, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to educating about the life and legacy of Alexander Hamilton. We talk the Constitutional Convention (or #ConCon), Trinity Church, and how Mercury in retrograde gave us allllll the technical difficulties.

It’s a bummer, but we have to talk about the crazy level of hypocrisy surrounding our Founding Fathers fighting for freedom yet still owning slaves. It sucks. We break down who was the biggest hypocrite and… we hate to say it, but there’s a good possibility Alexander and Eliza Hamilton owned some slaves of their own. But we balance things out with some awesome listener emails! Silver lining? Yes, because we have the best listeners of all time.

We’re back talking Chernow and this week we really #FeelTheBurr (especially since we’re sipping on some Aaron Burr Cidery goodness). It’s pretty much a therapy session for Aaron Burr. In spite of Gillian and Ashley’s best efforts to have a Harry Potter-centric episode, Bianca and Meg keep things on track. Fun fact: Ham4Ham didn’t start with the Broadway show we know and love. Intriguing right?

Look around, look around, at how lucky we are to be alive right now! Thanks to total strangers moved to kindness by Gillian's story of not having seen Hamilton, we both to got to be in the room where it happens! We saw Hamilton the very same night Lin-Manuel Miranda won the Pulitzer Prize. A very generous listener bought us tickets, and friends of friends got us backstage. We are so overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude. We couldn't wait to tell you all about it so we bumped our previously scheduled episode to next week and recorded an emergency podcast so we could tell our stooooorrrryyyy. 

Gillian and Bianca take a break (get it?) from Chernow to focus on the brand new Hamiltome aka Hamilton: The Revolution. Ashley Graffeo joins in on the conversation and designer extraordinaire Meg Smith of Sweet Lady Designs sits in with us for the first time.

Gillian and Bianca are once again joined by Gillian's husband Michael Paul Smith. They talk Hamilton SoulCycle and get into some awesome listener emails. Things take a bit of a sad turn then discussing Chapter 9 in Chernow, "Raging Billows." Sadfaces.