That is, they secretly recorded conversations with friends, staff, advisors and unsuspecting political visitors. Doyle achieved access to a great, hitherto-unheard archive of such tapes. And here they are, from FDR to LBJ. Some of the content of these conversations is amusing – but more of it is revealing and one or two items generate astonishment.

Was it the worst week since 2009? Chris Robling and Charles Lipson do so aver as they examine:

• the new civil war in Iraq and how we helped bring it on;
• the flooding of the border with some 60,000 Latin American children;
• the dysfunctionality of Obamacare;
• the edging toward crime by the IRS;
• and the many other crises and regressions of prior weeks that are now obscured by those that hit the air-circulator this last week.

From Pericles and Cicero to Churchill and Roosevelt, David Zarefsky, a specialist in the oratorical dimension of historical process, examines the nature of the art. We listen to and analyze sections of speeches as recorded or – for the older great figures – as read by us from the available annals. This program was done on the eve of the mid-term elections of 2006.

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.

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.