Of the many authors who have written about the Kennedy assassination from every possible conspiracy angle and who appeared on our program over the many years, one that really stands out is political scientist John McAdam. He wrote, “JFK Assassination Logic: How to Think About Claims of Conspiracy,” and joined us for a richly detailed discussion. Here is the full program.

That is to say, the language, literature, music and spirit of the culture of the East European Jews. The key to the post-Holocaust  survival of that culture was and remains the Yiddish language. Our guest in this podcast, Jonathan Brent, is the Executive Director of YIVO, the Yiddish Research Institute which was founded in Poland in 1925 and fled the Holocaust by moving to New York in 1940. Before he came to YIVO about three years ago Jonathan was Editorial Director of Yale University Press and helped to open the Stalin Archives in Moscow. He then commissioned more than 20 books revealing the barbarism and evil of that epoch.

The greatest persisting mystery from the twentieth century is the career of Adolf Hitler and his “success” in leading his military and his “Volk” into the ultimate abyss of mass murder in the Holocaust. The impossible task of “explaining Hitler” was confronted by many and, in the consensual judgment of the historians, none came closer than Sir Ian Kershaw. Here is the full interview that I did with him after the publication of the second volume of his great study of this freakish figure who was at the center of unaccountable, ultimate evil.

It’s Yemen. Does that surprise you? That may be because you’re a little light on your knowledge of the fifth century AD. Glen Bowersock, a great historian located at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, is our guest in this podcast as we discuss his new book The Throne of Adulis, about the Jewish rulers and people of Yemen who ultimately were overwhelmed by the newly risen force of Islam. The world was full of more things than were dreamt of in your college course on the history of the pre-Islamic middle east.

David McCullough’s biography of John Adams won the Pulitzer Prize and this discussion with him preceded the award by some months.  John Adams was short, tubby, passionate, often angry and, in McCullough’s judgment, could never have won the presidency in the electronic age. How fortunate we were in having him as one of the “Founders” – and as President – is one of the main themes of this chat. The other great theme is, simply, a fascinating life which is here recounted by America’s foremost popular historian.