Gerald Patnode on History, Empathy, and Untold Stories

2 plays · Sep 1, 2026

"What must it have felt like to be a white attorney defending a Black man in 1890, at the height of racism in the United States? I think there are lessons to be learned by those stories that we can tell about history in general." - Gerald Patnode

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Gerald Patnode has lived many lives - Navy veteran, police officer, serial entrepreneur, television host, political analyst, university professor, academic dean - and now, bestselling author. His debut novel The Stirling Defense transforms a largely forgotten true story from 1889 Baltimore into a gripping historical legal thriller about forced labor, racial injustice, and one attorney's quest to defend a Black man at enormous personal cost. Mike and Gerry talk about discovering a family connection to the story in his grandmother's attic at age fifteen, how his academic research skills gave his fiction its backbone, why he arrested his first wife at a pot party in Ocean City, and how Archibald Stirling's fight for justice led to the creation of the public defender's office.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Great stories start with a question, not an answer. Gerry's academic career taught him that facts alone don't move people. When he started asking "What must it have been like to be those people?" - that's when the fiction came alive.

2. History has a way of repeating itself. The racial injustice at the heart of The Stirling Defense - set in 1890 - still resonates today. Gerry believes uncovering these forgotten stories is a form of truth-telling that we need now more than ever.

3. A family secret lit the fuse. At fifteen, Gerry found a steamer trunk in his grandmother's attic filled with his great-grandfather's diaries, maps, and letters - revealing a direct family connection to Navassa Island and the incident that inspired the novel. His great-grandfather wasn't the man the family stories made him out to be.

4. Justice has a price. The real Archibald Stirling lost his family, his fortune, and his law practice for defending a Black man. But his sacrifice helped establish the principle that everyone - regardless of race or wealth - deserves legal representation.

5. Every life you've lived feeds the work. From undercover vice work to academia to broadcast television, Gerry draws on the totality of his experience. "We are all the sum of our parts," he says - and he tries to make that sum bigger than the individual pieces.

6. Give historical figures grace. Rather than judging people of the past by today's moral standards, Gerry tries to understand the times they lived in. That empathy is what makes his characters feel human rather than like moral lessons.

GET THE BOOK

The Stirling Defense by Gerald Patnode

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3Un7rWY

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=The+Stirling+Defense

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/250703966-the-stirling-defense

CONNECT WITH GERRY

Website: https://patnodemedia.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geraldrpatnode/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gerald.patnode

CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST

Mike Carlon | Uncorking a Story

Website: https://uncorkingastory.com