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Q&A

Intriguing hour-long conversations with people who are making things happen. Hosted by Peter Slen. New episodes every Sunday evening. From the network that brings you "Washington Today" and "Lectures in History" podcasts.
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Episodes

V. P. Franklin, "The Young Crusaders"

Hundreds of thousands of children and teenagers were active participants in the Civil Rights Movement. They took part in boycotts, strikes, marches, and demonstrations and faced many of the same risks as their adult counterparts. Professor of history emeritus V. P. Franklin, author of "The Young Crusaders," joins us to talk about the stories of these sometimes overlooked contributors to social justice in the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Feb 28, 20221 hr 3 min

Ryan Walters, "The Jazz Age President"

On almost all presidential rankings lists, you will find Warren Harding's name at or near the bottom. On C-SPAN's 2021 survey of presidential historians, he was 37 out of 44. Historian Ryan Walters argues that while Harding had his faults, his accomplishments – including bringing the country back to normalcy after WWI and setting out an economic plan that led to the Roaring Twenties – are often overlooked when assessing his presidency. In his book "The Jazz Age President," Mr. Walters lays out h...

Feb 21, 20221 hr 4 min

Erin Thompson, "Smashing Statues"

Since the summer of 2020, roughly 214 public monuments have been taken down across the United States, either through official processes or by force. Erin Thompson, professor of art crime at the City University of New York and the author of "Smashing Statues," talks about the history of American monuments, the motivations for putting them up, and the current debates over which ones should be taken down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Feb 14, 20221 hr 2 min

Amy Zegart, "Spies, Lies, and Algorithms"

Hoover Institution senior fellow Amy Zegart talked about the espionage threats facing the United States from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea and assessed whether our intelligence agencies are prepared to deal with them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 07, 20221 hr 4 min

Ben Raines, "The Last Slave Ship"

The last slave ship carrying captives from Africa to America arrived in Alabama in 1860, more than fifty years after the transatlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. The 110 slaves aboard the ship were brought to U.S. shores as the result of a bet made by a wealthy Alabama slaveholder who bragged that he could circumvent the prohibition. To cover his tracks he burned and scuttled the ship, named Clotilda, in a swamp just north of Mobile, where it remained until it was discovered ...

Jan 31, 20221 hr 3 min

Robert Sutton, "Nazis on the Potomac"

Robert Sutton, the former Chief Historian of the National Park Service, tells the story of a secret military intelligence facility near Washington, DC, where 3,000 high-value Nazis were interrogated by U.S. servicemen during World War Two. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 24, 20221 hr 4 min

NASA's DART Mission & James Webb Space Telescope

2022 is a big year for space science. NASA has two major missions underway. The first – DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) – will test the agency's ability to defend Earth against asteroids. The second – the James Webb Space Telescope (the successor to Hubble) – will be used to study the origins of the universe and search for possible life in the universe beyond Earth. We talked about these missions with Nancy Chabot, Planetary Chief Scientist at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics L...

Jan 17, 20221 hr 2 min

Jorge Contreras, "The Genome Defense"

Can human genes be patented and owned? That's the question behind Jorge Contreras' book "The Genome Defense." The author and professor of law at the University of Utah tells the story of the 2013 Supreme Court case Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics. The longshot case, brought by the ACLU, challenged the right to patent human genes, a practice that had been used by biotech companies for decades. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Jan 10, 20221 hr 4 min

Presidential Recordings Ep. 2 - Creation of the Warren Commission

Calls between President Lyndon Johnson & members of Congress & the administration on the establishment of The Warren Commission which would look into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This program begins with background information from Max Holland author of "The Kennedy Assassination Tapes: The White House Conversations of Lyndon Johnson Regarding the Assassination, the Warren Commission & the Aftermath" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Jan 03, 202248 min

Joshua Prager, "The Family Roe"

Joshua Prager talks about the complicated life and times of Norma McCorvey - aka “Jane Roe” - and the 1971 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case over the right to have an abortion that bears her name. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 20, 20211 hr 4 min

Jim Byron, President & CEO of the Nixon Foundation

Jim Byron started working at the Nixon Foundation in 2007 as a marketing intern. He was 14-years-old. This past November, at age 28, he was appointed president and CEO of the foundation. Mr. Byron joined us to talk about the Nixon Foundation and its role in operating the Nixon Library & Museum site in Yorba Linda, California. He also talks about his goals for the foundation, including getting more young people interested in the life and career of President Nixon. Learn more about your ad cho...

Dec 13, 20211 hr 3 min

J.B. MacKinnon, "The Day the World Stops Shopping"

Journalist J.B. MacKinnon discussed what would happen to the economy and the environment if the world cut consumption by twenty-five percent. He argued that we are currently using up the world's resources at a rate that is unsustainable and questioned what it would take to get people - especially consumer-driven Americans - to buy fewer things. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 06, 20211 hr 3 min

About Books: Former Rep. Steve Israel D-NY on Opening a New Bookstore

A conversation with Former Representative Steve Israel (D-NY) who opened a book store in Oyster Bay, New York. Plus, a look at current non-fiction books featured on C-SPAN's BookTV for the week of November 28, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 29, 202135 min

Mayukh Sen, "Taste Makers"

Mayukh Sen, a James Beard Award-winning writer and adjunct professor of food journalism at New York University, discusses his book "Taste Makers," in which he profiles seven immigrant women who transformed American cuisine during the second half of the 20th century. Two of the women profiled are Elena Zelayeta a blind chef and bestselling cookbook author from Mexico, and Chao Yang Buwei, who was a physician in China before becoming an influential writer on Chinese cooking in the United States. L...

Nov 22, 20211 hr 4 min

Randy Barnett & Evan Bernick, "The Original Meaning of the 14th Amendment

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws," is one of the most adjudicated amendments. The 1868 adoption of it has led to numerous Supreme Court cases and interpretations. Profes...

Nov 15, 20211 hr 4 min

Beth Levison & Jerry Risius, "Storm Lake"

Filmmakers Beth Levison and Jerry Risius discuss their documentary “Storm Lake,” about the Storm Lake Times, a small-town family-run newspaper in Iowa, and its efforts to stay afloat amidst shrinking ad revenues and the coronavirus pandemic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 08, 20211 hr 5 min

Howard Husock, "The Poor Side of Town"

Howard Husock, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of "The Poor Side of Town," takes a critical look at the more than 100-year effort by the federal government, private developers, and others to create low-cost housing in the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 01, 20211 hr 5 min

LaDoris Cordell, "Her Honor"

Retired California superior court judge LaDoris Cordell, author of "Her Honor," takes a critical look at our legal system and offers suggestions on how to improve it. She talks about the importance of judicial independence, mandatory minimum sentencing, racial bias in jury selections, police reform, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 25, 20211 hr 4 min

David Wessel, "Only the Rich Can Play"

Opportunity Zones were created under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law by President Trump in December 2017. Originally the brainchild of Napster co-founder Sean Parker and supported by both Republicans and Democrats, the idea was to attract investment to poor communities across the U.S. by offering tax breaks for investors. Brookings Institution senior fellow and former Wall Street Journal economics editor and columnist David Wessel author of "Only the Rich Can Play," talks about the cr...

Oct 18, 20211 hr 2 min

Martin Dugard "Taking Paris"

Paris was overtaken by the Nazis on June 14, 1940, and brutally occupied for more than four years. Thousands of Parisians died as a result. Martin Dugard, co-author with Bill O'Reilly of the bestselling "Killing" series and author of the new book "Taking Paris," talks about Paris during the time of the German occupation and the liberation of the city by the U.S. and French forces in August 1944. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Oct 11, 20211 hr 3 min

Peter Canellos, "The Great Dissenter"

Peter Canellos, Politico editor-at-large and the author of The Great Dissenter, talked about the life, career, and legacy of Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan of Kentucky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 04, 20211 hr 5 min

Lawrence Wright "The Plague Year"

Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Looming Tower" and New Yorker staff writer, discusses his latest book "The Plague Year: America in the Time of COVID." He talks about the origins of COVID-19, the response to the outbreak by the Chinese government, and the handling of the pandemic by the Trump administration and CDC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 27, 20211 hr 1 min

Jason Riley, "Maverick"

Wall Street Journal columnist and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Jason Riley talks about the life and influence of economist Thomas Sowell ("SOUL"), now 91, whose writings on economics, race, culture, education and politics have inspired conservatives and libertarians for a half-century. Mr. Riley is the author of the biography "Maverick" and is also the host of a documentary on Mr. Sowell that came out in January 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Sep 20, 20211 hr 3 min

Jessica DuLong, "Saved at the Seawall"

Jessica DuLong, the former chief engineer on NYC fireboat John J. Harvey, talks about the rescue of nearly 500,000 people, by boat, off the island of Manhattan following the 9/11 attacks. It was the largest maritime evacuation in history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 13, 20211 hr 4 min

Lectures in History: Guerilla Warfare in the Civil War

Brown University professor Megan Kate Nelson teaches a class about guerilla warfare, which is largely characterized by its tactics, including ambushes and surprise raids on unsuspecting troops and towns. She talks about the guerrilla soldiers fighting on both the Union and Confederate sides during the Civil War. These small bands of men on horseback were nimble and difficult to capture, especially Confederate guerrillas who often did not wear uniforms and blended back into the population after a...

Aug 30, 20211 hr 21 min

Booknotes+ w/ Harlow Giles Unger: "Thomas Paine, Forgotten Hero of the American Revolution"

Historian Harlow Unger chats with Brian Lamb about the work and legacy of Thomas Paine. Mr. Paine's political writings inspired American revolutionaries, but his later writings on religion made him a pariah. Harlow Unger's book, "Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence," is the latest of 27 he has written, including many on the Founding Fathers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

Aug 16, 202138 min

Booknotes+ w/ Eleanor Herman: "Sex with Presidents"

Historian Eleanor Herman joins Brian Lamb to talk about her book, "Sex with Presidents," about sex scandals involving U.S. presidents going back to the early years of the Republic. Eleanor Herman is the author of many other books, including "Sex with the Queen" and "Sex with Kings." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 09, 202145 min
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