The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution enshrines citizenship by birthright, but a combination of a SCOTUS decision endorsing Trump's executive order that has led to snatch-squads dragging mostly Hispanic immigrants to prison without due process calls the Amendment's survival into question. This conversation with Damon Silvers, law professor and veteran of many Capitol Hill crises, looks at all the ramifications of SCOTUS' 6-3 decision in Trump v CASA and casts a cool eye over the prospects fo...
Jun 29, 2025•35 min
The US attack on Iran's nuclear sites June 21st brings to mind the last of Donald Rumsfeld’s infamous unknowns at the start of the Iraq War the "unknown unknowns" aka blowback. What is it possible to know about what will happen next, or is everything an unknown? In this hour-long FRDH podcast special, recorded the day after the US joined Israel in a war on Iran, Professor Roxane Farmanfarmaian of the University of Cambridge, and Ned Temko, a columnist for the Christian Science Monitor. who have ...
Jun 23, 2025•1 hr 3 min
We are in an age of authoritarian democracy, and Turkey and its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan is its paradigm. Erdogan has been in power more than 2 decades and created the template men like Victor Orban and Bibi Netanyahu have been followingin using democracy's tools to become authoritarian leaders. And now there's Donald Trump. Veteran journalist Andrew Finkel who has been reporting from the country for decades explains the process. You can hear parallels to what is unfolding in the US. Give us ...
Jun 05, 2025•40 min
Does Donald Trump have a rhyme or reason for starting the 21st century's first major trade war? The Financial Times' Martin Sandbu isn't sure but he has some ideas and also helpful hints about how to interpret Trump's "deals" that aren't anything of the sort. He gives FRDH podcast host a 44 minute long tutorial in the rhyme and reason behind Trump's actions and how the rest of the world is likely to react.
May 17, 2025•45 min
All over the world people are on the move, fleeing from war and environmental catastrophe caused by climate change. Many take insane risks to reach Britain in hope of safety and a chance at a better life. Author Horatio Clare has written about this migration in We Came By Sea: Stories of a Greater Britain. In the book, Clare goes to the human stories beyond the headlines on the migration "crisis" to write about the human beings trying to get in and the surprisingly large number of Britons who do...
Apr 27, 2025•47 min
America is in the midst of a constitutional crisis with a President who clearly wants to be king no matter what the Constitution says and ironically the constitution says nothing about what to do in this kind of crisis. Dr. Helen Castor, medieval historian, sees in America's current situation echoes of a constitutional crisis six hundred years ago in England when King Richard the Second put himself above the law and defied anyone to do anything about it. Give us 44:43 to explain it to you.
Apr 08, 2025•45 min
In this FRDH podcast first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, host Michael Goldfarb looks at the history of NATO since its founding in 1949 and asks Now What? Can NATO survive the second coming of the Trump regime. Using archive sound and interviews with former NATO ambassadors and national security and defense experts he tells the Alliance's story, goes on patrol with American soldiers on a NATO mission in the Balkans and looks at whether European nations will ever be able to breakaway from US dominance...
Apr 06, 2025•58 min
China: now what? Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on China but even before that news the country was watching and waiting for the US to make mistakes in the international arena. What happens now that Trump has made so many in such a short time? What is the China of today compared to ten, twenty or even thirty years ago? In this FRDH podcast, Mary Kay Magistad, who lived in China and southeast for more than twenty years as a public radio journalist provides deeper perspective on the country and n...
Mar 04, 2025•50 min
The last week has seen the dramatic beginning of a new historical era based on a US and Russia alliance. Donald Trump has thrown in with Vladimir Putin and thrown Ukraine and 80 years of the Transatlantic Alliance under a bus. In this FRDH podcast Michael Goldfarb speaks with Charles Hecker, who has lived an worked in Moscow for the last thirty years. His new book Zero Sum looks at the lessons learned -- and not learned by Western businessmen since the collapse of the Soviet Union. They also tal...
Feb 16, 2025•54 min
As the 250th anniversary of the start of the American revolution approaches and with America in crisis it's time to return to the Founders' Words. In the first of an occasional feature, FRDH podcast host reads through Tom Paine's pamphlet Common Sense for words of wisdom to help guide people through Trump and Musk's destructive takeover of the American government. You should listen because as Paine wrote 250 years ago, "The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind."
Feb 04, 2025•14 min
The mourner's Kaddish is the Jewish prayer for the dead. In this program, originally broadcast on the BBC World Service, he looks at the origins of Kaddish, its changing use over the years and into the present and discusses saying Kaddish for Jewish dead at Auschwitz on the 80th anniversary of the camp's liberation.
Jan 26, 2025•27 min
The cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris nearly burned to the ground five years ago, now, fully restored it is about to re-open. It is a remarkable rebirth. Agnes Poirier, native Parisienne, journalis and author of Notre Dame: the Soul of France, talks to FRDH host Michael Goldfarb about the fire, the restoration and the deep meaning of the cathedral being re-born for contemporary France. Give them 30:34 to tell you about it.
Nov 27, 2024•31 min
Since November 5th, 2024 the question on many lips is, So now what?, and the Financial Times' Edward Luce has some thoughts on Trump's second term, aka the Revenge Tour. Trump has promised retribution, will he follow through? In this wide-ranging conversation Luce and FRDH host Michael Goldfarb look at his cabinet appointments, his courtiers, and the likely trajectory of American history in the next four years and global history for the next century. Give us 38:56 to explain.
Nov 24, 2024•39 min
How do you price the political risk of the second Trump term and America's imperial decline from democracy to autocracy? In this podcast, Michael Moran, veteran foreign correspondent turned political risk consultant, takes a realistic look at what the second Trump term will mean for America's relations with the world. He also discusses the greatest source of instability and risk at the present moment. Give us 45 minutes to explain.
Nov 23, 2024•45 min
Georgia will be as important to Election 2024 as it was in 2020 when Donald Trump accused official of rigging the vote. This laid the foundation for his mendacious and deadly claim that the vote was stolen. IN this FRDH podcast Michael Goldfarb speaks with University of Georgia professor of History James Cobb about the state's inglorious tradition of using rules to thwart the will of the people.
Oct 24, 2024•24 min
The death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is not the beginning of the end for the terror group. That's the view of journalist Mitchell Prothero, who has spent much of the last two decades covering the Middle East based in Beirut. In this FRDH podcast he provides a turorial on the beginnings of Hezbollah, the end of its leader, and why this will not stop the group from continuing to be a threat to Israel.
Sep 29, 2024•37 min
"We’ll Always have Paris," Rick tells Elsa in Casablanca but what happens when the place where you knew love is lost and with it the language you have to express that feeling? Author Scott Carpenter learned the answer when his wife, Anne, was diagnosed with dementia. In this FRDH podcast he talks about his new book which with great good humor and insight looks at why people fall in love with the city (and fall in love in it), what happens when memories of the place disappear, and how to rebuild ...
Aug 30, 2024•42 min
The fact that the Gaza War caused by the pogrom of October 7th is still going on underlines the absence of truth in the search for peace. Telling the truth about what peace will really mean and the compromises on both sides needed to end war, is something very few people are willing to do. Brown University professor Omer Bartov is one of the truth tellers on the Israeli side. A veteran of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and a renowned scholar of the Germany Army's role in the Holocaust, in this FRDH pod...
Aug 24, 2024•54 min
The world is waiting for the next round in the Iran, Israel conflict: will it be all out war or ritual -- and ineffectual -- retaliation for the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran July 31st? In this FRDH podcast two veteran Middle East reporters, Liz Sly, former Middle East Bureau Chief of the Washington Post and Catherine Philp, World Affairs Editor of the Times, discuss the current situation, which way the conflict is heading and how it will affect people in Israe...
Aug 06, 2024•44 min
Anti-Semitism in places without Jews is a strange historical phenomenon in Poland where most of the deaths in the Holocaust took place. It is a tale of History vs Nationalism the story of how Poles deal with the Holocaust. In this FRDH podcast Professor Jan Grabowski, author of, Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland, and host Michael Goldfarb explore anti-Semitism without Jews in the country where before the war more than 3 million Jews lived and where today the Jewish...
Jul 27, 2024•48 min
The SCOTUS decision on Donald Trump's claim of presidential immunity in the various indictments against him for the January 6th events has ramifications not just in American but also international law. In this podcast, noted human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, author of the award-winning best seller East West Street looks at how the concept of "absolute immunity" outlined in the decision works in relation to laws enacted to punish crimes against humanity and genocide. Give us 35 minutes to expla...
Jul 07, 2024•36 min
2024 was always going to be a year of elections globally but not in France, now President Emanuel Macron has taken a huge gamble and called a snap general election for the French parliament. Why did Macron risk the final three years of his presidency? What are the chances of his big gamble paying off? Author Agnes Poirier and former BBC present Gavin Esler look at France, the EU elections and Britain's upcoming general election and try to figure out Macron's odds.
Jun 11, 2024•51 min
The last week of May 2024 in Anglo-American politics saw a verdict in the trial of Donald J Trump and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have his electoral parade rained on. In these surreal times FRDH turns to Robin Lustig to calmly, rationally analyze the verdict in the Trump Trial and the curious local disinterest in the UK's elections.
Jun 01, 2024•39 min
The US Supreme Court is considering what Presidential immunity means in 2024 in the case of Donald J. Trump. In this wide-ranging conversation with constitutional law professor Frank Bowman FRDH podcast host Michael Goldfarb discusses the case, its merits, where political considerations enter Supreme Court discussions and whether Trump is just another guy, in the legal sense.
Apr 28, 2024•34 min
The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has expanded as Hamas’s overseers Iran entered the fray with a massive launch of airborne ordnance at Israel. The internet is alive with fevered speculation that the Iran-Israel confrontation will touch off World War 3. In this FRDH podcast Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations provides a calm analysis of the situation.
Apr 20, 2024•39 min
The Ukraine war is now in year 3 and its people still want to fight. Why? We are witnessing the birth of a political nation. In this conversation with journalist and author Vladislav Davidzon who has lived in Ukraine on and off for the last 14 years, FRDH podcast host Michael Goldfarb looks at the tensions attending this birth to find the explanation for why, after 3 years of bloody, destructive conflict Ukrainians still fight.
Mar 31, 2024•24 min
Brian Klaas on why everything we do matters and nothing is really a fluke. Klaas is a political scientist specializing in the study of corruption and how authoritarian's gain power but in Fluke he turns his mind to what isn't random in our world even if it seems like it. A fast paced far reaching 43 minute long conversation.
Feb 10, 2024•44 min
2023 was marked by two terrible wars of disproportion in Israel/Palestine and Ukraine and Channel 4 News's International Editor Lindsey Hilsum spent most of the year on one frontline or the other. In this FRDH podcast she talks with host Michael Goldfarb about what she learned covering Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza and Ukraine's fight against the Russian invasion. Hilsum learned a lot particularly covering Israel's war with Hamas. Give us 45 minutes to tell you about it.
Dec 31, 2023•45 min
Britain in 2023 is a country where much has gone wrong and it is not a happy place. Gavin Esler, former BBC news presenter, has noticed and written a book, Britain is Better Than This, about how so much went wrong. In this FRDH podcast he explains why to host Michael Goldfarb.
Dec 08, 2023•45 min
On the sixtieth anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination, two people who lived through that day share their memories of Kennedy's assassination and the days and decade that followed. FRDH host Michael Goldfarb talks with Richard Parker, former professor at Harvard, and co-founder of Mother Jones magazine about what might have been had JFK lived and the meanning of the President's assassination today.
Nov 21, 2023•59 min
