Updated 12:45 p.m., Feb. 7 | The Charleston Time Machine, an award-winning podcast hosted by Charleston County Public Library historian Nic Butler, celebrated its 300th episode on Thursday.
Butler has spent his career as an interdisciplinary historian with a passion for storytelling dedicating himself to uncovering and sharing the intricate details of Charleston’s storied past. Since the Time Machine’s debut in 2017, the podcast has served as a gateway for its audience to the deep history of the Lowcountry.
“In the months prior to the launch, I was having a chat with my supervisor at the library,” he told the City Paper. “I had been saying for a couple years, ‘I’m doing all these in-person programs, and we can make a flyer, and we can advertise, and people can come hear me talk. But an hour later, it’s done, and they go home.’”
Without fail, he said, he would be asked when he would do it again or when he would publish the material so people could continue to learn from and enjoy his talks.
“So I just started recording episodes and putting them out there,” Butler said. “I wrote scripts based on programs I had already done — I already did the research, and I knew the topics pretty well, so I basically wrote an essay and recorded it as a script. … It was a way to record the programs I was doing and had already done, and get ahead on programs I still wanted to do.”
And the return-on-investment, he said, was greater than he could have ever expected. The podcast, which boasts 137 hours of audio content, has amassed over 650,000 total plays, reaching listeners in 50 countries. An extensive archive is available for new listeners to explore past episodes. In addition, Butler has written 1.3 million words on Charleston’s history through the podcast, further solidifying his role as a leading voice in historical storytelling.
“I developed a way of telling these stories about specific people in Charleston’s history that I didn’t think I had the talent to do,” he said.
Charleston Time Machine was voted best Local Podcast in the Charleston City Paper’s Best Of Charleston 2019 contest, and has been nominated several times since.
The podcast’s 300th episode, “Frederick Douglass in 1888 Charleston,” is available online at ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine and on major podcast platforms, including iTunes, SoundCloud, Spotify, iHeart Radio and more.
And that backlog will serve listeners well for the next few weeks, Butler said, as he takes a bit of a break.
“For the last eight years, I’ve been scrambling to produce the next podcast, so I need to build up a bit of a buffer,” he said. “I have lots of new episodes planned, and I think the best is yet to come.”
Editor’s Note: Below is an earlier version of this story that ran on Feb. 6, 2025:
The Charleston Time Machine, an award-winning podcast hosted by Charleston County Public Library historian Nic Butler, celebrated its 300th episode today.
Since the Time Machine’s debut in 2017, the podcast has served as a gateway for its audience to the deep history of the Lowcountry. Butler has spent his career as an interdisciplinary historian with a passion for storytelling dedicating himself to uncovering and sharing the intricate details of Charleston’s storied past.
“This milestone is a testament to the enduring curiosity and enthusiasm of our listeners,” Butler said in a press release. “Charleston’s history is filled with incredible stories that continue to shape our community today, and I’m honored to share them through the library, its programs, and the Charleston Time Machine.”
Charleston Time Machine was voted best Local Podcast in the Charleston City Paper’s Best Of Charleston 2019 contest, and has been nominated several times since.
The podcast, which boasts 137 hours of audio content, has amassed over 650,000 total plays, reaching listeners in 50 countries. An extensive archive is available for new listeners to explore past episodes. In addition, Butler has written 1.3 million words on Charleston’s history through the podcast, further solidifying his role as a leading voice in historical storytelling.
The podcast’s 300th episode, “Frederick Douglass in 1888 Charleston,” is available online at ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine and on major podcast platforms, including iTunes, SoundCloud, Spotify, iHeart Radio and more.
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