One of the best analysts I know makes a point of never voting! That’s Robert Schmuhl, Chairman of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Insights about the current and rather disheartening political scene abound in any extended conversation with this clear-eyed fellow who keeps his distance (the better to see behind their masks) from the pols and their acolytes. And here is just such a conversation  in which a good time was had by two old friends, the one still learning from the other.

That’s one way to define Robert Parker, who was the master of that literary genre – though personally he was a great friend and an always amusing companion. I was lucky enough to know him for many years before his too-early demise. Here is one of our conversations which covers a hell of a lot in a mere 22 minutes.

That was the sub-title of Bob Woodward’s book about William Casey, who ran the CIA as a war operation. Before Casey’s death in 1987 Woodward interviewed him deeply and fully – and shortly after that published this astonishing account and gave us this rather stunning discussion of the hidden history he had uncovered.

The language of the Jews of Europe persists despite the devastating effects of the Holocaust. Here in 1995 we discuss that language and its influence upon American English and popular culture with three masters of the language and its history.

For what? For seizure of power and subsequent authoritarian rule. In this program from 2008, Professor Phillip Freeman, author of a new biography of the leading Roman, tracks his rise, conquests, and dramatic fall on the Ides of March.  It is noteworthy that in many languages the term for the King (such as Tsar and Kaiser) are variants of Caesar. Some crucial scenes from Shakespeare’s play of the same name punctuate the discussion.