Added 6.5.18. The practice of psychiatry in recent decades has grown in sophistication and diagnostic capabilities. Milt in this 2010 probe discusses the state of modern psychiatry with three prominent researcher-practitioners. They are: Mani Pavuluri, Founding Director of the Pediatric Mood Disorders Program, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine; Will Cronenwett, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavorial Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University; and Murali Rao, Department Chair, Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Loyola University Medicial Center. They delve into a range of topics, including: the hard-wiring of the human brain; how advances in biomedical technology and analysis have fostered earlier detection and treatment of psychiatric pathologies; and the ongoing tension between  the need for involuntary treatment and the individual’s right to autonomy. Discussants also briefly wrestle with whether, in fact, the world’s vast proportion of psychiatrists are based in the United States, and what that might mean.

Added 6.5.18. Some of the major charismatic preachers who made a difference in religious life, have also changed the course of history.  For starters, think Martin Luther King, Jr., Mohammed, and Rabbi Hillel. How exactly does this happen, and why? Milt explores the anatomy of religious leaders’ influence on society. He is joined by Chicago Tribune religion reporter Manya Brachear Pashman, and Dartmouth religion professor and author Randall Balmer.  He is the author of numerous books, including, “The Making Of Evangelism,” and “God In The White House: How Faith Shaped The Presidency From John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush.”

Added 6.5.18. Was the U.S. Civil War really inevitable, or was the firing of the first shots of battle in Charleston in 1861 more contingent – upon a series of events and circumstances that might very well have played out differently? Milt in this 2011 conversation digs deeper into the roots of that epic conflict, with two distinguished guests. One is Adam Goodheart, lecturer in history and American Studies, and Director of the C.V. Starr Center For The Study of the American Experience, at Washington College in Maryland. He is also author of the bestseller, “1861: The Civil War Awakening.” Also joining in is Bruce Levine, then professor of history and African-American studies at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Among his published books was, “Half Slave, Half Free: The Roots Of The Civil War.”

Added 5.29.18. Milt talks in 2010 with noted scholar Richard Rhodes, who had just authored his fourth major book on nuclear weapons. It was titled, “The Twilight Of The Bombs: Recent Challenges, New Dangers, And The Prospects For A World Without Nuclear Weapons.” Rhodes won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction for his 1986 book, “The Making of the Bomb.” It covered the discovery of nuclear fission in the 1930s, the Manhattan Project, and the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.

Added 5.29.18. Milt talks with numismaticists Robert Feiler and Robert Leonard of the Chicago Coin Club about how exactly it is that money makes the world go round. In this 2010 conversation, they delve into the history of currency, its political uses, how its value is actually guaranteed, and the role of currency in economic  considerations including debt, purchasing power and inflation.