From February 16, 2007,  Milt talks with three former students of political theorist and philosopher Leo Strauss about his career and his influence on contemporary politics.

From April 2, 2003, Milt talks with film critic Richard Schickel about his book Good Morning Mr. Zip Zip Zip: Movies, Memory and World War II.

From March 12, 1980, Milt talks with playwright and humorist Abe Burrows about his life and works, including How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Guys and Dolls, among many others.

While the doomed  Syrian “peace negotiations” proceed in Geneva and the suicide bombings go on all over Iraq – and as Iran announces “We ain’t dismantling no centrifuges” – what’s the view from the democratically conflicted state of Israel? Here’s another briefing from journalist Caroline Glick, then one of the top editors at the Jerusalem Post.

Milt talks with historian Stephen Ambrose about his book Nothing Like it in the World, the story of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Milt talks with Lt. General Dave R. Palmer, former Superintendent of West Point and author of George Washington and Benedict Arnold: A Tale of Two Patriots.

Albert Salomon (of the Frankfurt School) said that “The political intellectual enters history through the door of the French Revolution.” It might also be said that systematic political murder by the State entered via the same route. We discuss that, related questions, and why and how the revolution occurred and with what lasting consequences. David Jordan, one of the major historians of that period, is our guest.

The former Secretary of Defense did another and earlier book when he finished his term as Director of the CIA. Here he is, telling Milt how the Air Defense Command almost got us into a full nuclear war with the Soviet Union because somebody goofed down under the mountain in Colorado. This is a short five-minute conversation Milt had with him in the mid-90s.

You can figure out the other four, but here’s Charles Lipson, a colleague at the University of Chicago. Charles says that he is officially a Democrat, but he hasn’t talked or written like one in all the years we have known him. Instead, he analyzes politics and politicians with appropriate but amused cynicism. And on foreign policy and international relations he is as sharp as a moralist Machiavelli. He is also – as you will discover by listening – simply one of the best talkers to be heard anywhere within academic precincts.

Something has gone profoundly wrong in  American higher education. It is visible at the top – that is, at the leading universities – and, as usual, it then tends to filter down to the more standard institutions.  Yale University gave me my first academic job (Assistant Professor of Psychology) many years ago and, since then, I have often heard from former colleagues about disorder and decline in its “sacred halls.”

Nathan Harden, a frequent contributor to Ricochet and recent graduate of Yale, has done a  book telling the sad story and trying to search out its causes. Here’s our recent discussion about how hedonism and mindlessness have undermined tradition and intellectual seriousness at one (and not the only one) of our great educational strongholds.