ABOUT THIS EPISODE
What happens when ambition becomes more important than humanity?
In the late 1800s, America is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Coal mines are expanding, fortunes are being built, industrialists are becoming powerful, and entire communities are being reshaped by the machinery of the Industrial Age.
But beneath the booming industry is another story—one about the people living in its shadow.
In Dr. James Gregory's new novel, Ghost Town, we meet Sammy Murphy, a young man growing up in the isolated coal-mining town of Sulphur Creek. His world is one of solitude, shadowy tunnels, and secrets.
And then there's Barry Bacon, an ambitious industrialist who dreams of becoming a titan like Andrew Carnegie. Bacon believes power and success are within his grasp—but his unchecked ambition may ultimately threaten everything he's built.
As Sammy discovers love and begins to emerge from his isolation, and Bacon watches his empire begin to unravel, the two men are forced to confront very different questions about power, connection, and what it means to truly belong.
Today, Dr. James Gregory joins us to talk about Ghost Town, America's industrial past, the psychology of ambition, the meaning of love, and why a story set in the coal fields of the nineteenth century may have something surprisingly urgent to say about our lives today.
