Brother Billy and sister Ruth joined us one memorable night in 1978 as the conversation veered toward Billy’s politically incorrect (as they would be now) social aversions. Sister Ruth who was a “lay evangelist” somehow finessed the difficult moment to the delight of the host and of Jim Wall, then the editor of Christian Century magazine.

Here’s a head-on and confrontational discussion of some of the main issues – immigration, health care, decline of marriage and family-formation, economic recovery – that differentiate liberal and conservative these days. Chris Robling and Charles Lipson are mainstays of our A-team and Kitty Kurth is partner in her own political public relations firm.

That was the purpose of “neoconservatism” according to one of movement’s founders, Irving Kristol, writing in 1977. Our discussion of the intellectual biography of Kristol and of his equally influential wife Gertrude Himmelfarb, is with Jonathan Bronitsky. His Phd thesis was to be published around the time of this discussion. You can follow Jonathan on Twitter at @jbronitsky

That is the basic question of paleontology. Here, from a discussion in 2004, we are joined by some leading members of that scientific discipline who track how homo sapiens (us!) evolved and ultimately won out over all other hominid competitors.

With three historians of the winning, settlement and turmoil of the American West, we recount the realities behind the mythology. This memorable discussion occurred in 2002.