Added 4.18.19. Decorated Marine, Vietnam War rifle platoon leader, novelist, Yale grad and Rhodes Scholar Karl Marlantes discusses with Milt his non-fiction exploration, “What It’s Like To Go To War.” He begins by noting that “the overwhelming feeling of war is a combination of sadness at the deaths of friends and foes,” and of “exhilaration” about both survival the killing of one’s mortal enemies. It is, he says, quite a lot for a young man to experience, and then have to describe upon return home. Marlantes previously authored an acclaimed Vietnam novel, Matterhorn.

Added 4.2.19. Milt interview the father-daughter author team Marvin and Deborah Kalb on their then-new book, “Haunting Legacy: Vietnam And The American Presidency From Ford To Obama.” Together they unearth how, why and to what effect U.S. presidents in the years since the Vietnam War’s end, have  let our nation’s unsatisfying experience in that conflict shape subsequent military and foreign policy decision making. Deborah Kalb is a writer, editor, and author, and has written several books about politics and history for adults and children. Marvin Kalb was for three decades a noted correspondent for CBS and NBC television news, and later founded the Shorenstein Center of Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Added 3.7.19. Renowned war historian Max Hastings, a former editor of the The Telegraph newspaper in the U.K., sits down with Milt to discuss his then-new account of World War II titled “Inferno: The World At War – 1939-1945.” It was time, Hastings tells Milt, to turn the focus away from generals, prime ministers and presidents, and examine the age-old question of “what was the war like” from the perspective of those far from the headlines. The focus turns to participants such as an American paratrooper, a French collaborator, a Polish Jew, and many others. Everyone’s story was different but most shared a variation of the phrase, “and then, all hell broke loose.” Exploring those stories and the war’s place in our minds and history is the focus of this lively conversation.

Added 10.30.18. Milt in 2011 interviews historian Deborah Lipstadt on her then-new book, “The Trial of Adolf Eichmann.” Sitting behind bulletproof glass in court in Jerusalem, Eichmann was tried and subsequently sentenced to death for his central role serving Hitler by overseeing the transport of millions of Jews to death camps, in The Holocaust. Eichmann was a Nazi Obersturmbannfuhrer, or senior assault unit leader. After World War II he fled Germany for first Austria, then Argentina. He was captured there in 1960 by Israeli agents. Lipstadt is the author of “Denying The Holocaust,” and other books. She is a  Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies, at Emory University.

Added 10.10.18. In this 2011 episode Milt talks with two authors about the 2008 financial meltdown in the U.S. and necessary course corrections going forward, as economy-builders traverse the slippery slopes of growth. One guest is Economist columnist and former Financial Times writer Philip Coggan. He is author of “Paper Promises: Debt, Money, And The New World Order.” Another is former Wall Street investment banker and hedge fund partner, later an adjunct professor at the International Affairs School of NYU, Ann Lee. She is author of “What The U.S. Can Learn From China: An Open-Minded Guide To Treating Our Greatest Competitor As Our Greatest Teacher.” Flashing forward: As of late August 2018, the U.S. public debt had grown 50 percent since this episode aired, from $14 trillion to $21 trillion. Seventy percent of that more recent U.S. public debt was owned by either the U.S. government, the U.S. Federal Reserve, or U.S. investors. The rest was owned by foreign investors, foremost those in China and Japan. Coggan accents in the episode that rising public debt means many public health care and Social Security beneficiaries will not be paid all or most of what they are owed. Meanwhile, context around China’s impressive economic growth over recent decades has advanced since the episode aired. This 2017 PBS analysis pinpoints three big risks for China: financial instability from bad lending; accelerating private de-capitalization; and growth constraints stemming from authoritarian mis-rule.