That is the actual title of a wonderful book of short stories by  Joseph Epstein who is, in fact, a good friend of the host. Interestingly, one of his best known books is titled “Friendship: An Expose.” He is as well one of the great talkers and story tellers – as is well evident in this conversation from 2003.

Robert Hughes was for many years the art critic for Time magazine. At the same time he was, as an Australian, an émigré to the United States who studied and deeply understood our culture, history and politics. He was one of the most fascinating talkers we ever had on the program and here he is in brilliant form, in a 2006 conversation.

Yeltsin opened the files in 1992. The first  American who got full access was Harvey Klehr. Here in 2003 we discuss with him the evidence of Soviet penetration of the American government and its full management of the American Communist party. This is not loose “McCarthyism” but, rather, effective if delayed counterespionage. Of special interest is the way in which American historians turned blind eyes until Klehr’s book appeared.

That is the number of galaxies – on average, each containing a hundred billion suns – that we used to think composed the total universe. In this 2001 conversation we learn that that is merely the number for the “visible universe,” but that there is much more out there. Even more exciting there are quite likely many other universes – perhaps an infinity of them.

Modern American divorce has become “a system for plundering the father” says our guest in this program from 2006.  The “no fault” approach in divorce law has done considerable damage to all concerned except, of course, the lawyers. Baskerville, a sociologist, argues that the way the law brings marriages to termination can, should and must be changed and, in the opinion of his interlocutor, makes a very persuasive case.

…was not what Hannah Arendt claimed she had discovered. Rather than being merely a  routinized bureaucrat who represented “the banality of evil,” he was a willing and enthusiastic organizer of the destruction of European Jewry. One of the first to lay out the detailed historical proof was Neal Bascomb, who joined us in this riveting 2009 discussion. Also heard here is the prosecutor at the Jerusalem trial and a portion of Eichmann’s testimony.

Yes it is, says Martin Kramer, long-time director of the major strategy research center at Tel Aviv University and now President of Shalem College in Jerusalem. How and why the Islamic State movement has become a potent rallying cause – and who will do what with which to turn them back – is discussed here by Kramer and  political scientist Charles Lipson.

…the more it will go on changing. That is the one great truth that stands out when historians examine one another on their respective fields. Here from a 2005 conversation we bring together an historian of Russia, another who specializes in Tudor England, and a third who specializes in Catholicism in 19th century France. Great stories abound and the tale goes on, as yesterday continues to shape today.

Bart Ehrman, former fundamentalist pastor who became an agnostic student of the origins and evolution of Christianity, joins us in a 2008 discussion of the most pressing issue in modern, post-Holocaust theology: How can a just God countenance the suffering and early death of the innocent?  Of the many scholars of religion we have talked with, he is simply the most illuminating and moving on this central dilemma of “theodicy.”

Thus from the beginnings of World War II to Blair’s entry of the UK into Iraq. One of the great generation of post-war British historians, Cannadine in this 2003 conversation combines wonderful stories in high narrative style with a rich theory of the changing nature of British politics and culture. The show includes some wonderful sound clips of Churchill at the top of his form as war leader.