Professor Joel Richard Paul joins guest host John McCaa to discuss orator, lawyer and politician Daniel Webster, who argued that binding the states together was the only way to end slavery.
Read more
In Mexico, some enslaved people found freedom
Alice L. Baumgartner joins guest host John McCaa to discuss the Civil War and how thousands of enslaved people found freedom in Mexico.
Read more
The legendary hypocrisy of Thomas Jefferson
Prof. Thomas S. Kidd joins guest host John McCaa to discuss the ways Thomas Jefferson diverged from his own moral compass and the complicated portrait of the man we know from history books.
Read more
The forgotten story of how Lincoln tried to bring together a divided nation
Political analyst John Avlon discusses Lincoln as a peacemaker, his approach of reason over brute strength, and how that was derailed after his assassination.
Read more
The FBI was never the same after WWII
Author Beverly Gage discusses why worries about homegrown conspiracies led to erosions in civil liberties and set up Hoover to gain significant power.
Read more
Did the Founding Fathers really expect us to think like them?
Professor Erwin Chemerinsky talks about why he thinks originalism is not a viable path to interpreting what the framers intended.
Read more
Imagine finding a T. Rex
David K. Randall, a reporter for Reuters, tells the story of Barnum Brown’s discovery of the T-rex and how this discovery amazed the world.
Read more
How Lincoln calibrated his moral compass
Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham discusses his biography of the 16th president, from birth to assassination, and Lincoln’s conviction that slavery must be ended as a moral evil.
Read more
How the planet’s physical features shape global affairs
Associate professor Daniel Immerwahr talks about why map reading is key to understanding hot spots around the globe and how topography is related to history.
Read more
Indigenous people tell their own story through photography
Will Wilson talks about a collection of the works of more than 30 indigenous artists who have used their lenses to chronicle issues of identity, culture loss and representation.
Read more
How should we memorialize those who were enslaved?
Clint Smith, a staff writer at The Atlantic, discusses the shortcomings of America’s reckoning with its treatment of indigenous populations and enslaved peoples, and what should be done to address deeper questions of public memory.
Read more
Democrats’ new strategy for 2022
Staff writer Nicholas Lemann discusses the blind spots the Democratic party has – like focusing too heavily on college-educated voters – and which policies the Republicans might be messaging in a clearer fashion.
Read more