A good politician knows how to deliver a speech that pulls at the heartstrings. An effective politician knows how to work in a joke or some clever wordplay to put the people at ease. And then there’s the political gaffe, which can sink a campaign or make a mockery of one’s rule. Rich Rubino is a fine political reporter, pundit and author who has given us a great collection of odd and obscure political facts in a previous work. He has just published a collection of humorous political quotations that is great fun. He joined Milt to share some of his favorites.

Michael Shermer, editor of Skeptic magazine, takes on and sees through some of the major realms of pseudoscience and the higher forms of fakery. Among his targets are: Deepak Chopra, “intelligent design,” mind reading and the deceits of Sigmund Freud.

…..who was Winston S. Churchill, Member of Parliament and editor of a major volume of his Grandfather’s speeches. We hear many excerpts from the great war-time speeches and, with the younger Churchill, discuss the many persisting problems not solved by the war. And, of course, of equal fascination are the grandson’s memories of what Churchill looked like to the boy who was his favored grandson.

The basic unanswered (unanswerable?) question is how did language originate. Are we uniquely structured (larynx, throat, tongue, etc.) and intelligent (brain) so that we are the only linguistic animals? And, if not, what is the nature and extent of the “languages” of other species? For that matter, does thinking require language itself? We are joined by three professors of linguistics in this vivid 2001 discussion.

In this comparatively early venture in pessimism about the moral strength pf the West, two leading historians of the classical world voice their doubts about whether Europe can (or will) resist the second coming of Islam. They are Victor Davis Hanson and Bruce Thornton who joined us in this prescient discussion in 2008.