Q&A

Mayukh Sen, a James Beard Award-winning writer and adjunct professor of food journalism at New York University, discusses his book "Taste Makers," in which he profiles seven immigrant women who transformed American cuisine during the second half of the 20th century. Two of the women profiled are Elena Zelayeta a blind chef and bestselling cookbook author from Mexico, and Chao Yang Buwei, who was a physician in China before becoming an influential writer on Chinese cooking in the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws," is one of the most adjudicated amendments. The 1868 adoption of it has led to numerous Supreme Court cases and interpretations. Professors Randy Barnett (Georgetown University Law Center) and Evan Bernick (Northern Illinois University College of Law) argue in their book "The Original Meaning of the 14th Amendment" that the amendment, which gave the federal judiciary and Congress new powers over the states, has been misinterpreted by conservative and liberal judges alike. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Filmmakers Beth Levison and Jerry Risius discuss their documentary “Storm Lake,” about the Storm Lake Times, a small-town family-run newspaper in Iowa, and its efforts to stay afloat amidst shrinking ad revenues and the coronavirus pandemic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Howard Husock, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of "The Poor Side of Town," takes a critical look at the more than 100-year effort by the federal government, private developers, and others to create low-cost housing in the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Retired California superior court judge LaDoris Cordell, author of "Her Honor," takes a critical look at our legal system and offers suggestions on how to improve it. She talks about the importance of judicial independence, mandatory minimum sentencing, racial bias in jury selections, police reform, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Opportunity Zones were created under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law by President Trump in December 2017. Originally the brainchild of Napster co-founder Sean Parker and supported by both Republicans and Democrats, the idea was to attract investment to poor communities across the U.S. by offering tax breaks for investors. Brookings Institution senior fellow and former Wall Street Journal economics editor and columnist David Wessel author of "Only the Rich Can Play," talks about the creation of Opportunity Zones and discusses the impact they have had. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paris was overtaken by the Nazis on June 14, 1940, and brutally occupied for more than four years. Thousands of Parisians died as a result. Martin Dugard, co-author with Bill O'Reilly of the bestselling "Killing" series and author of the new book "Taking Paris," talks about Paris during the time of the German occupation and the liberation of the city by the U.S. and French forces in August 1944. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Canellos, Politico editor-at-large and the author of The Great Dissenter, talked about the life, career, and legacy of Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan of Kentucky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Looming Tower" and New Yorker staff writer, discusses his latest book "The Plague Year: America in the Time of COVID." He talks about the origins of COVID-19, the response to the outbreak by the Chinese government, and the handling of the pandemic by the Trump administration and CDC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wall Street Journal columnist and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Jason Riley talks about the life and influence of economist Thomas Sowell ("SOUL"), now 91, whose writings on economics, race, culture, education and politics have inspired conservatives and libertarians for a half-century. Mr. Riley is the author of the biography "Maverick" and is also the host of a documentary on Mr. Sowell that came out in January 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jessica DuLong, the former chief engineer on NYC fireboat John J. Harvey, talks about the rescue of nearly 500,000 people, by boat, off the island of Manhattan following the 9/11 attacks. It was the largest maritime evacuation in history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three House lawmakers - Reps. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Jason Crow (D-CO), and Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) - recount their first-hand experiences on January 6, when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brown University professor Megan Kate Nelson teaches a class about guerilla warfare, which is largely characterized by its tactics, including ambushes and surprise raids on unsuspecting troops and towns. She talks about the guerrilla soldiers fighting on both the Union and Confederate sides during the Civil War. These small bands of men on horseback were nimble and difficult to capture, especially Confederate guerrillas who often did not wear uniforms and blended back into the population after an attack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlow argues that the mainstream media has destroyed its credibility. He's interviewed by Reason Magazine editor at large Matt Welch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historian Harlow Unger chats with Brian Lamb about the work and legacy of Thomas Paine. Mr. Paine's political writings inspired American revolutionaries, but his later writings on religion made him a pariah. Harlow Unger's book, "Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence," is the latest of 27 he has written, including many on the Founding Fathers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historian Eleanor Herman joins Brian Lamb to talk about her book, "Sex with Presidents," about sex scandals involving U.S. presidents going back to the early years of the Republic. Eleanor Herman is the author of many other books, including "Sex with the Queen" and "Sex with Kings." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former Clinton administration aide Gary Ginsberg, author of "First Friends," talked about the personal confidants of U.S. presidents and the influence they wielded. He talks about banker and businessman Bebe Rebozo, who Richard Nixon knew for 44 years, and civil rights leader Vernon Jordan, one of Bill Clinton's closest advisers for much of his political career, among others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Washington Post syndicated finance columnist Michelle Singletary discusses how people should react financially during an economic downturn. She also talks about her love of budgets, her hatred of debt, and the future of the U.S. economy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jessica DuLong, the former chief engineer on NYC fireboat John J. Harvey, talks about the rescue of nearly 500,000 people, by boat, off the island of Manhattan following the 9/11 attacks. It was the largest maritime evacuation in history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Ritchie, historian emeritus of the U.S. Senate, talks about the influence of Drew Pearson’s muckraking “Washington Merry-Go-Round” columns, which derailed many political careers in Washington and drew the ire of every president from FDR to Nixon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist and historian Craig Fehrman analyzes American presidents through the lens of the books they've written. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why do people like to get intoxicated? Edward Slingerland, professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia, tries to answer the question in his latest book, "Drunk," which looks at the evolutionary purpose of intoxication and the role that drinking has played throughout history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Were government-mandated lockdowns in the U.S. necessary to stop the pandemic? John Tamny, director of the Center for Economic Freedom at FreedomWorks, says they weren’t and argues they have done more harm than good. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Harvard professor Annette Gordon-Reed talks about the history and legacy of Juneteenth - June 19th - the day in 1865 that enslaved African Americans in Texas were informed of their emancipation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Osnos, a longtime reporter, editor, and publisher and the author of An Especially Good View: Watching History Happen, talked about his family’s escape from Poland in 1939, working for I.F. Stone, covering the Vietnam War and publishing books by former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Osnos was vice president and senior editor at Random House from 1984-1996 and publisher and CEO at PublicAffairs, which he founded, from 1997-2005. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During World War II, the U.S. Army created a "Ghost Army" that used inflatable rubber tanks, sound effects, fake radio transmissions, and performance art to fool the Germans into miscalculating the strength and location of American troops. Its mission remained classified until 1996. Filmmaker and author Rick Beyer ("BY"-er) talks about the 1,100 men who served with the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops – aka the Ghost Army – during the war. Mr. Beyer has directed a documentary and co-written a book about the unit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Attorney Greg Francis discusses his book “Just Harvest,” about a class-action discrimination lawsuit brought by black farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1997, resulting in a billion dollar settlement two years later. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former Wall Street Journal reporter and Washington, DC, resident Neil King talks about his nearly 300-mile walking trip to New York City this past April to connect with American history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Theoretical physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein talks about subatomic particles, the mysteries of the universe, and the journey she took to become one of less than one hundred black American women to receive a PhD in physics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investigative journalist Lawrence Roberts talks about the “Spring Offensive” of 1971, during which tens of thousands of anti-Vietnam War protesters, including Vietnam War veterans, came to Washington, DC, in an effort to shut down the federal government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page, author of "Madam Speaker," talks about the life and political career of Democratic congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who became the first female Speaker of the House in 2007 and is currently serving her second term in the position. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Washington Post political columnist Karen Tumulty discusses her biography of former First Lady Nancy Reagan. She talks about the role Mrs. Reagan played as political adviser to Ronald Reagan and as a mother. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Julia Sweig, senior research fellow at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin, talks about the influence Lady Bird Johnson had on Lyndon Johnson’s decision-making, both before and during his presidency. www.oracle.com/goto/cspan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and Pedro Noguera, dean of the school of education at USC, debated education policy and talked about the importance of having civil discussions over political disputes, especially when principled differences of opinion are involved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Elizabeth Becker tells the story of three women - Australian correspondent Kate Webb, French photographer Catherine Leroy, and American intellectual Frances FitzGerald - who reported on the Vietnam War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kansas City-based Susan Vollenweider and Beckett Graham, co-hosts of The History Chicks podcast, talk about the origins of the now 10-year-old podcast, its growing popularity over the years, and some of the women they've covered on their fortnightly look into U.S. history, including Queen Lili'uokalani of Hawaii and inventor Lydia Pinkham. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

George Weigel, a Catholic theologian, author and distinguished senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, talks about some of the people he profiles in Not Forgotten, his new book of elegies and reminiscences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jayme Lemke, senior fellow with George Mason University’s Mercatus Center’s F. A. Hayek Program, talks about the social and economic disruption caused by the COVID pandemic and the response by the U.S. government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Erica Armstrong Dunbar, professor of history at Rutgers University, talks about her book, "She Came to Slay," about the life and exploits of Underground Railroad conductor and Union Army spy, Harriet Tubman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Texas history professor Peniel Joseph talks about the activism and converging ideologies of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., and the importance of their thinking on the fight for civil rights in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Rikha Sharma Rani discusses her profile of Vice President Kamala Harris’s late mother, Shyamala, who came to the United States from India in 1958, and Prof. Devesh Kapur talks about the larger story of Indian immigration to the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wall Street Journal reporter Aruna Viswanatha talks about the federal investigation into the January 6th attack on the Capitol and Northeastern University political science professor Max Abrahms discusses whether the government needs new authority to properly deal with domestic extremists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investigative journalist Lawrence Roberts talks about the “Spring Offensive” of 1971, during which tens of thousands of anti-Vietnam War protesters, including Vietnam War veterans, came to Washington, DC, in an effort to shut down the federal government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of California at Berkeley historian of medicine Elena Conis talks about the development of the polio vaccine in the 1950s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarada Peri, senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama, and John McConnell, senior speechwriter for President George W. Bush, join us to talk about presidential inaugural addresses, from JFK to the upcoming inaugural address of President-elect Joe Biden. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Helen Andrews, senior editor at The American Conservative magazine, takes a critical look at the Baby Boomer Generation and argues that they have left subsequent generations, especially Millennials, worse off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Actor Nic Novicki, founder and director of the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge, talks about the 2020 entries and the winning films in three categories: best awareness campaign, best editor, and best film. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jake Wood talks about serving with the U.S. Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan and with Team Rubicon, the disaster response organization that he co-founded with a fellow Marine in 2010. Seventy percent of the over 100,000 U.S. volunteers that serve with Team Rubicon are military veterans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Q&A we talk with the youngest women in the freshmen class of 117th Congress, Republican Kat Cammack of Florida and Democrat Sara Jacobs of California. They discuss their backgrounds and what they hope to accomplish in office. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Historians Susan Schulten and Eric Rauchway talk about two of the most contentious presidential transitions in U.S. history - in 1861, between James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln, and in 1933, between Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices