Kenneth Rogoff is professor of economics at Harvard University and former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist. In his most recent book, "Our Dollar, Your Problem," he argues that America's currency might have reached today's lofty pinnacle without a certain amount of good luck. However, as Professor Rogoff nears the end of his 345-page book, he writes, quote: "If rapidly rising debt is left unchecked, and there seems to be little political appetite to rein in massive deficits, the ...
Jun 03, 2025•1 hr 8 min
Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley, author of "The Affirmative Action Myth," argues that the racial preference policies of the 1960s and 70s have had an overall negative impact on the success of Black Americans. He says that Black incomes, homeownership, and educational attainment were all on an upward trajectory prior to these policies being implemented. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 02, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Rick Atkinson has just published the second volume of his American Revolution trilogy. The book is called "The Fate of the Day" and covers years 1777 to 1780. His initial 800-page volume, titled "The British Are Coming," was published in 2019 and focused on years 1775 to 1777. Mr. Atkinson won the George Washington prize for this beginning look at the revolution. His second book in the trilogy covers the middle years. Stationed in Paris, Benjamin Franklin was wooing the French. In Pennsylvania, ...
May 27, 2025•1 hr 15 min
Travel writer Rick Steves talks about his 1978 journey along the "Hippie Trail" and the 60,000-word journal he kept of the trip which he recently published as a book. During the 3,000-mile trek, the then 23-year-old Steves and a friend visited Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. He talks about the people he met along the way, the challenges of travelling in foreign countries in the 1970s, and the lifelong impact the trip had on him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit mega...
May 26, 2025•59 min
On November 17th, 2002, 23 years ago, Rick Atkinson appeared on the Booknotes television program to discuss his book, "Army at Dawn." This was the first of three books Atkinson called the "Liberation Trilogy," a full history of the European theater of World War II, which is a total of 2,512 pages, including notes and indexes. Beginning in 2019, Rick Atkinson switched trilogies. This time, it's the history of the American Revolution. In this episode of Booknotes+, we are repeating the 2002 interv...
May 20, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Former U.S. Congressman Christopher Cox (R-CA), author of "Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn," takes a critical look at the 28th President of the United States and his attitudes towards racial equality and women's suffrage. Mr. Cox also talks about Wilson's intellectual development and his tenure as president of Princeton University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
May 19, 2025•1 hr 5 min
University of Michigan law professor Leah Litman explains why she believes the Supreme Court isn't making rulings based on legal principles. She was interviewed by author and Nation Magazine justice correspondent Elie Mystal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 18, 2025•1 hr 1 min
"Ernest Cuneo played Ivy League football at Columbia University and was in the old Brooklyn Dodgers NFL franchise before becoming a City Hall lawyer and 'Brain Trust' aide to President Franklin Roosevelt." While on the payroll of national radio columnist Walter Winchell, Cuneo "mingled with the famous and powerful. But his status as a spy remained a secret, hiding in plain sight." All of this is the way Hanover Square Press introduces readers to Thomas Maier's book, "The Invisible Spy." Maier, a...
May 13, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Former Ohio governor John Kasich (R) talks about the good work done by religious institutions and people of faith in the United States. In his book "Heaven Help Us," Mr. Kasich profiles over a dozen religious Americans involved in combating homelessness, hunger, human trafficking, and other issues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 12, 2025•55 min
Atlantic Magazine staff writer Sophie Gilbert looks at the pop culture of the '90s & early 2000s and its impact on women and the feminist movement. She's interviewed by Jennifer Pozner, author and founder of Women in Media & News. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 11, 2025•1 hr 2 min
McCarthyism, Whitaker Chambers, Alger Hiss, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Paul Robeson, House Un-American Activities Committee, the Smith Act, the Hollywood 10, the Joint Anti-Fascist Committee, the Truman Loyalty Program, the Blacklist, book burning, and communism – all subjects of controversy during the 1930s, 40s, and 50s here in the United States. Clay Risen, a reporter and editor at the New York Times, has a fresh look at all this in his book, "Red Scare." Mr. Risen writes in his preface that...
May 06, 2025•1 hr 5 min
Education Design Lab founder Kathleen deLaski, author of "Who Needs College Anymore?," questions if the U.S. higher education system, with its skyrocketing costs and declining enrollment, is currently suited to meet the needs of future generations of students. She talks about alternatives to the 4-year college degree, including educational bootcamps, skills-based learning, and apprenticeships. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
May 05, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Journalist David Graham looks at how parts of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 document is being implemented by the Trump administration. He's interviewed by author and George Washington University professor Matthew Dallek. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 04, 2025•1 hr 2 min
After a career in investment management and some time as a credit risk specialist at the US Treasury Department, Jill Eicher has written her first book titled, "Melon vs. Churchill: The Untold Story of Treasury Titans at War." It's all about the collection of war debts from World War I, which was fought between 1914 and 1918. Andrew Mellon, a wealthy industrialist, served as Secretary of the Treasury for Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover. 11 years total. He took on Chancellor of the Exche...
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr 5 min
Sports journalist and academic Jane McManus, author of "The Fast Track," discusses the rise in popularity of women's sports since the early 1970s and the challenges female athletes have faced since then, including unequal pay and lack of media coverage. Prof. McManus talks about the experiences of Billie Jean King, Venus and Serena Williams, Caitlin Clark, Riley Gaines, and other female competitors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Apr 28, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Journalist Stephen Witt profiles the company Nvidia, its founder Jensen Huang, and the development of their microchip. He's interviewed by Business Insider reporter Emma Cosgrove. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 27, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Dr. Hassan Tetteh, in his latest book, opens the introduction with a question: "How do we prepare for the future with AI?" His primary focus is on healthcare and AI, but it's subtitled "Harnessing Military Medicine to Revolutionize Healthcare for Everyone Everywhere." Dr. Tetteh is currently based at Howard University and Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Virginia, after serving 25 years in military medicine. His specialty is as a thoracic surgeon doing heart and lung transplants. He retired from the N...
Apr 22, 2025•1 hr 9 min
Technology reporter Nicole Kobie, author of "The Long History of the Future," talks about how technology evolves and discusses why many predicted technologies – including driverless and flying cars, smart cities, hyperloops, and autonomous robots – haven’t become a reality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 21, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen reflected on how society can build allegiances beyond racial identity & have more global solidarity. He's interviewed by author Ijeoma Oluo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 20, 2025•58 min
British writer Phil Tinline has written a book titled "Ghosts of Iron Mountain." The publisher Scribner calls it "an investigative masterpiece for readers curious about the surprising connection between John F. Kennedy, Oliver Stone, Timothy McVeigh, QAnon, Alex Jones, and Donald Trump." In his introduction, author Tinline says the book is the true story of a hoax. A hoax that shocked the nation in the late 1960s and that once created seemed impossible to extinguish. Those involved in the hoax i...
Apr 15, 2025•1 hr 5 min
Travel writer Rick Steves talks about his 1978 journey along the "Hippie Trail" and the 60,000-word journal he kept of the trip which he recently published as a book. During the 3,000-mile trek, the then 23-year-old Steves and a friend visited Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. He talks about the people he met along the way, the challenges of travelling in foreign countries in the 1970s, and the lifelong impact the trip had on him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit mega...
Apr 14, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Senator James Lankford (R-OK) speaks about his faith, the challenges the country faces, and what he believes needs to happen to improve the country. He's interviewed by Wall Street Journal congressional reporter Siobhan Hughes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 11, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Richard Overy is a British historian who has spent most of his professional life writing books about war, primarily World War II. Professor Overy's current work is called "Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima, and the Surrender of Japan." Liner notes on the cover of the book say: "With the development of the B-29 Super Fortress in the summer of 1944, strategic bombing, a central component of the Allied war effort against Germany, arrived in the Pacific theater. In 1945 Japan experienced the three most...
Apr 08, 2025•55 min
Journalist and musician Lee Hawkins, author of "I Am Nobody's Slave," talks about the impact that slavery and Jim Crow have had on his family through multiple generations. Mr. Hawkins examines the relationship between the past violence experienced by family members, often at the hands of white people, and the way his parents raised and severely disciplined him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Apr 07, 2025•1 hr 5 min
New York Times investigative journalist David Enrich argues that the rich & powerful are using free speech laws to suppress dissent. He's interviewed by author and George Washington Law School professor Mary Anne Franks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Apr 06, 2025•1 hr 3 min
As a follow on to Stuart Banner's history of the Supreme Court, this week's Booknotes+ podcast features a 2002 interview with Dennis Hutchinson, a University of Chicago law professor emeritus. The subject matter: the forgotten memoir of John Knox, a law clerk to former justice James McReynolds, a native of Kentucky. Knox's year was the term beginning October 1936. In history, it is very rare that a law clerk at the Supreme Court has published an insider's view of the court or of a justice. Profe...
Apr 01, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Author and writer George Will, whose nationally syndicated column has been running since 1974, discusses his life and career in the opinion business. Mr. Will talks about the impact of his work on U.S. politics over the past 50 years, conservatism in the age of Donald Trump, his love of baseball, and other topics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 31, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Writer Paul Blustein made the case for why he believes the dollar will remain the world's dominant currency. He was interviewed by author and Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Zongyuan Zoe Liu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 30, 2025•1 hr 2 min
UCLA law professor Stuart Banner's book, "The Most Powerful Court in the World," is a history of the United States Supreme Court from the founding era to the present. In his introduction, Stuart Banner writes that: "Today, critics on the left accuse the justices of deciding cases on political rather than legal grounds. This book shows that the Court's critics have always leveled this criticism at decisions they did not like. These attacks have usually come from the left because the court has usu...
Mar 25, 2025•1 hr 7 min
Activist and professor Loretta Ross, author of "Calling In," discusses the excesses of cancel culture and the need for a more inclusive way to hold people accountable in the age of social media. Prof. Ross, who was sexually abused as a child, also talks about her past work with convicted rapists and white supremacists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Mar 24, 2025•1 hr 4 min
