In a conversation from 2005 we talk with “presidential historian” Michael Beschloss about the struggle, in Roosevelt’s last year, over what future should be planned for, or imposed on, Germany. Some historical sound clips heighten the narrative and the discussion raises the counter-factual question: What would have happened if the “Morgenthau Plan” to reduce Germany to an “agricultural nation” had been implemented?

It began with military needs and opportunities and it has gone on to change the very texture of our lives. Just think: “Smart Phone!” How everything on earth came to be viewable from space (whether your vehicle’s position or a moving ISIS squad about to be “droned”) is due to the pervasive new technology, still expanding, of Global Positioning Systems. We speak with Richard Easton, author of a fine new book, GPS Declassified, about the history of GPS technology. He is also the son of the man, Roger Easton, who gets the deserved lion’s share  of the credit for inventing GPS.

Michael York went from Shakespeare to “Cabaret”and “Austin Powers” and back again to Shakespeare. This discussion from the late ’90s attempts to define the nature of the actor’s art and to show how it can be mastered.

Religious historian Stephen Prothero joined us in 2007 to discuss his just-published book on religious illiteracy. The conversation begins with a quiz testing what people do or don’t know about the major religions. You can test yourself, get your grade and then go on to a quite informative conversation about religion in national and international politics.

The broadcasters, stations, talent, programs and sponsors of early radio – with lots of illustrative sound clips, and beginning with the coverage of the national election of 1920!

The ultimate “achiever” in western history may well have been Napoleon. Here, in 2006, two historians examine his astonishing career and its consequences for the history that followed.

Charles Murray locates some 4000 eminent persons and asks of the available biographical data: what explains their super-significant contributions? His answers in this 2003 conversation, are fascinating and surprising.

A contentious evaluation of American foreign policy – or the lack of it – is put forward by the two members of our A-Team, Chris Robling and Charles Lipson, who are again joined by Democratic publicist Kitty Kurth. Under close discussion are Ukraine, Russian ambitions, Chinese expansionism, Nigeria, the collapse of Iraq, ever-looming Iran, embattled Israel and the confused or confusing performances of the Obama-Kerry team.

Hundreds of scholars have translated the Hebrew Bible into English since those appointed by King James. Robert Alter brings great literary skill and a modern Jewish sensibility to that same task – and turns up some wonderful new illuminations which he shared in this richly detailed 2004 discussion.

In the judgment of our two distinguished archeological guests, the answer is “probably.” But what they see as more certain is that Egypt laid the foundation for the classical world that followed and is thus the beginning of “our story.” James Phillips and Emily Teeter bring that long, long history into sharp and informative focus in this 2006 conversation.