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Q&A: Malcolm Gladwell, "Revenge of the Tipping Point" Dec 09, 2024

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Twenty-five years ago, author Malcolm Gladwell published "The Tipping Point," about how ideas and behavior spread in a society to create positive change. The book was an international bestseller, having since sold over 2 million copies in the U.S. alone. In his follow-up, "Revenge of the Tipping Point," Mr. Gladwell looks at the downside of social epidemics, including the rise of opioid abuse and Medicare fraud.

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AW: T.J. English, "Los Muchachos," Dec 07, 2024

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Journalist T.J. English spoke about the rise and fall of "Los Muchachos," one of the most successful cocaine empires in U.S. history. He was interviewed by author and Brookings Institution senior fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown.

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AB: Glory Edim on the Well-Read Black Girl Book Club Dec 06, 2024

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Well-Read Black Girl founder Glory Edim discussed the book club she began in 2015 to celebrate black, brown and indigenous women. She also discussed her latest book, "Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books that Saved Me."

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BN+: Evan Thomas, "The Wise Men" Dec 03, 2024

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A book called "The Wise Men" was first published in 1986. The cover copy says that "it was about six friends and the world they made." The names Harriman, Lovett, Acheson, McCloy, Kennan, and Bohlen are only to be found in the history books today. Co-authors Evan Thomas and Walter Isaacson were in their mid-thirties. In the updated 2012 introduction to the paperback, they wrote: "In their time, the wise men operated largely behind the scenes, little known by the public, but they achieved great things." According to Thomas and Isaacson, those great things included the shaping of the world order today, the creation of international institutions, and the forging of lasting peace in a perilous time. We asked Evan Thomas, now in his 70s: Who are the wise men of today?

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Q&A: Jochen "Jack" Wurfl, "My Two Lives" Dec 02, 2024

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Half Jewish and a member of the Hitler Youth who saw Adolf Hitler in person, Jochen "Jack" Wurfl, author of "My Two Lives," talks about surviving in Nazi Germany and his later life and success in the United States. To hide their identities after the Nazis took over in 1933, Mr. Wurfl and his brother were baptized Catholic and later joined the Hitler Youth. His Catholic father, deemed a political enemy by the state, was sent to a concentration camp in Austria, while his Jewish mother was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz, where she perished.

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BN+: Corey Brettschneider, "The Presidents and the People" Nov 26, 2024

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According to professor Corey Brettschneider, author of "The Presidents and the People," the following presidents in history threatened democracy: "John Adams waged war on the national press…prosecuting as many as 126 people who dared criticize him…James Buchanan colluded with the Supreme Court to deny constitutional personhood to African Americans….Andrew Johnson urged violence against his political opponents…Woodrow Wilson nationalized Jim Crow by segregating the federal government…Richard Nixon committed criminal acts – ordering the Watergate break-in." Corey Brettschneider teaches constitutional law and politics at the Providence, Rhode Island-based Brown University.

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Q&A: Peggy Noonan, "A Certain Idea of America" Nov 25, 2024

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Peggy Noonan, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Wall Street Journal and former speechwriter for President Reagan, discusses her book "A Certain Idea of America," a collection of her columns from over the past quarter century. She also talks about her time working in the White House and her career in radio after graduating from college.

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AW: Stephanie Gorton, "The Icon and the Idealist - Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry That Brought Birth Control to America" Nov 24, 2024

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Stephanie Gorton looked at the lives & rivalry between two key figures in the early movement for birth control & reproductive rights. She was interviewed by author and UC Davis School of Law professor Mary Ziegler.

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BN+: Talmage Boston, "How the Best Did It" Nov 19, 2024

Show notes

Talmage Boston considers himself a full-time lawyer and a full-time historian. His latest book is called "How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons from Our Top Presidents." He chose the first 4 of 8 off the face of Mount Rushmore: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. In addition, Mr. Boston chose 24 distinct leadership traits he says were exhibited by these presidents. The other 4 presidents include FDR, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. Seventy-one-year-old Talmage Boston lives in Dallas, Texas.

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Q&A: Maureen Callahan, "Ask Not" Nov 18, 2024

Show notes

Investigative journalist Maureen Callahan talks about the physical and psychological abuse, and worse, that she says was experienced by women and girls connected to the Kennedy family going back to Joe Kennedy, Sr. In her book, "Ask Not," Callahan tells the stories of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy, Martha Moxley, Mary Richardson Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, and others.

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