Added 12.10.18. Milt interviews Joe and Teresa Graedon about their then-new book, “Top Screw-ups Doctors Make And How To Avoid Them.” The noted consumer health writers had a syndicated newspaper column, and a show on PBS. They also run the informative web site peoplespharmacy.com. Each year in the U.S., report the Graedons, about 500,000 people die from health system mistakes including incorrect diagnoses, procedures gone wrong, and hospital-acquired infections. Dig in to this lively and eye-opening conversation to learn more.

Added 12.5.18. Guest Richard Epstein – a legal and political scholar – lays out the tenets of classical liberalism versus modern day progressivism. The differences are fairly vast, and instructive. He was, at the time of this interview, the author most recently of “Why Progressive Institutions Are Unsustainable.” Epstein is a professor of law and director of the Classical Liberal Institute at New York University, and a senior lecturer at The University of Chicago. His book, “Takings: Private Property And The Power Of Eminent Domain,” proved controversial for its arguments about limits on the government’s power, but has been cited in several Supreme Court rulings. He is also the author of “Simple Rules For A Complex World,” in which he argues for more limited and clear government rule-making.

Added 11.27.18. Here in the fast and furious times of late 2018, the Catholic Church’s priest sex scandal has led to intensifying debate about the legitimacy of the faith itself. But, argues one current analyst in The Federalist, it’s a problem of conduct, not doctrine. There remains much that is timeless and beneficial – and yes, ripe for change – within Catholicism, it’s present-day supporters posit. In this episode from several years back, Milt with three guests explores the nature of the Catholic faith, current issues facing the church, and why and how it is that Catholic schools can be so effective in raising the bar on academic expectations and performance for at-risk minority youth. He is joined by Patrick McCloskey, author of “The Street Stops Here: A Year At A Catholic High School In Harlem;” former Canadian broadcaster Michael Coren, author of “Why Catholics Are Right;” and Rev. Thomas Baima, then Vice-Rector of Mundelein Seminary and author of “What Is A Parish? Canonical, Pastoral And Theological Perspectives.”

Added 11.14.18. If the Greek gods of antiquity were alive today, their lives would make for maximum clickbait. Their heroic exploits were equalled only by their grand appetites for sin and self-regard. Naturally, there is much to mine from their legends. With two noted classics scholars Milt delves into the gods of the Greek pantheon in ancient mythology, and follows the thread forward in history to trace their influence on the development of modern thought, religion, moral codes, and storytelling. One guest is Phillip Freeman – then of Luther College, and now Chair of Western Culture at Pepperdine University. He was author of the then-newly released, “Oh My Gods: A Modern Re-telling of Greek And Roman Myths.” The other guest: University of Chicago professor of humanities, history and classics Jonathan M. Hall, author  – among other volumes – of “History Of The Archaic Greek World, 1200-479 B.C.“

Added 11.6.18. It’s been said that to be a U.S. Presidential contender requires “ambition, stamina, and pure shamelessness.” There’s a tradition among writers and political analysts of putting successful – and unsuccessful – U.S. Presidential campaigns under the microscope. It dates back at least as far as Theodore White’s classic of the genre titled “The Making Of The President 1960,” on JFK’s White House conquest; and includes Richard Ben Cramer’s classic “What It Takes,” on the ’88 contest. Mark Edward Taylor, an ordained minister with a doctorate in communications from Northwestern University, in his 2011 analysis “Branding Obamessiah: The Rise Of an American Idol,” posits – and seeks to painstakingly document – that President Barack Obama won his first term in office in an especially remarkable manner. It was, Taylor argues, with a carefully calibrated communications strategy inspired by religious images; religious words; a creation story; sacred rituals; true believers; and “an exceptional chief” defined as “an inexplicably impressive solution to all the nation’s problems” and by his “sense of hope in himself and the nation.” Milt and frequent guest Charles Lipson, a prolific author and professor emeritus of political science at the University of Chicago, sit down here in late 2011 with Taylor to dive deeper.