Added 2.27.19. The sun: it is the constant in the life of the earth and its current inhabitants, but it is not all that trustworthy or stable. It has made great trouble for us in the past, and could make even more trouble in the not-distant future. At least, so posits science writer Lawrence E. Joseph in his book, “Solar Cataclysm: How The Sun Shapes The Past, And What We Can Do To Save Our Future.” Milt discusses with Jospeh the book, plus how our future may conceivably be threatened by the brilliant burning orb above.

Added 2.21.19. Milt in this 2011 conversation with rancher, author, historian and Hoover Institution scholar Victor Davis Hanson, applies a historical filter to present-day controversies over U.S. engagement in the Middle East, and our domestic rhetoric of redistribution, among other things. Hanson had just authored a historical novel titled, “The End of Sparta.”

Added 2.13.19. When the Nazis purged non-Aryans from the ranks of cabaret performers, there were almost none left. That’s because, remarkably, most of them in the Weimar Republic, were Jewish. How was is that they were compelled to be there then? Love of the art and its cultural resonance is something deeply felt to Rebecca Joy Fletcher. She is an actress, playwright, ordained cantor, scholar, researcher, and performer of international Jewish cabaret shows popular in 1920s and 1930s Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, and Tel Aviv. Here she joins Milt to discuss what she does, why, and what she’s learned along the way.

Added 2.5.19. In this vintage 1993 episode Milt and two classicists examine how the Ancient Greeks endured a not-entirely hostile takeover by the nascent Roman Empire, and what happened after that. How, within several centuries, did a bunch of Roman provincials dwelling on seven hills and embroiled in feuds with other narrowly-focused rivals, gain control of southern Europe and develop a polity encompassing something like universal citizens’ rights and reasonably bright expectations for the future? And how was it – other than their well-known foibles and indulgences – that the Romans could not maintain their primacy? Driving this lively discussion along with the host were Daniel H. Garrison and Edwin P. Menes. Garrison was a classics professor at Northwestern University and Menes a classics scholar at Loyola University, Chicago.

Added 1.8.19. Italian immigrants with anarchist leanings are arrested with no warrant; tried based on no real evidence; and convicted and executed for a 1920 Massachusetts payroll heist that resulted in two deaths. How did authorities, the press, and the public see their way clear to this seemingly stunning miscarriage of justice? Milt explores the troubling tenor of the times with attorney and historian Theodore W. Grippo, author of, “With Malice Aforethought: The Execution of Nicolo Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.”