FRDH Podcast with Michael Goldfarb

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FRDHMosul: ISIS Defeated But Is It Victory? Jul 10, 2017

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In Mosul ISIS has been defeated but does it count as victory? America’s misadventure in Iraq show that defeating your enemy on the battlefield is not the same as victory. ISIS defeated in MOsul but that won’t mean victory in Iraq’s second city, any more than the overthrow of Saddam Hussein meant victory there, or the killing of his sons in Mosul a few months later, or the frequent attempts by the US to buy off the networks funding insurgents of various stripes that are headquarted there. How can you measure victory in Iraq? This FRDH podcast offers a personal definition of victory. Mosul is a city that is well-known even if you are not aware of it. The opening sequence of the, The Exorcist, was filmed there. Mosul was called the Pearl of the North, in the old days. It was the envy of all Iraq. With sounds of battle recorded on site this podcast traces Mosul's history since George W. Bush declared victory in 2003. This city was never pacified and now that ISIS has been defeated can it ever enjoy the blessings of victory. Listen to the podcast to find out how you will know when victory has been secured.

July 4, 2017: Hanging Together or Separately Jul 03, 2017

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July 4, 2017. America is not a happy place. It is splitting apart rhetorically and if only a fraction of the threats posted in social networks are acted on it will split apart in other ways. In this FRDH podcast Michael Goldfarb looks at how Americans have forgotten Benjamin Franklin's words on hanging together versus hanging separately. How can Americans rediscover their links to one another? Extremely violent rhetoric amplified by broadcast media always precedes violent acts. Nations, particularly multi-ethnic nations like the US, can disintegrate in months with a concentrated campaign of angry words against a particular group in the society: Yugoslavia, Rwanda … it took less than six months to foment civil war. Hanging together, keeping the faith, solidarity ... unity has been challenged by this new epoch of economic instability. Liberals are concerned but don't risk their own security to help and Evangelicals go to Church but don't risk talking to those who won't pledge allegiance to their political faith. Neither side makes contact with one another. Thousands of individual acts of solidarity grow into a social norm. On July 4, 2017, it is clear: the terrible rent in America's social fabric can not be repaired without it.

FRDH Six Day War 50th Anniversary Meditation Jun 07, 2017

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On the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War, Michael Goldfarb has a meditation on how that event changed what it meant to be Jewish and Israeli. The Six-Day War was an epic victory for the young country of Israel and for Jews worldwide. Coming two decades after the Holocaust it restored a sense of pride but it also brought with it an onerous burden: the Occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and rule over 1 million Palestinians. Over the last 50 years this has fundamentally altered Israeli society. It has also changed the way Jews of the diaspora see themselves. At each stage of their modern history what it meant to be authenticallyJewish was analyzed again and again. After 1967 this questioning has grown more intense. Since 1967 Israel has replaced religion as the touchstone of Jewish identity.

FRDH: Bible Study for Atheists May 30, 2017

Show notes

Bible Study for Atheists is an occasional feature of FRDH podcast. Michael Goldfarb looks at Bible stories and the Bible's poetic books and talks about their history and their meaning in contemporary life. In this first Bible Study for Atheists podcast he looks at psalm 52, which he read just after watching President Trump on TV: "Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs; like a sharp razor working deceitfully. Thou lovest evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righeousness." He explains how the bible is is a draft of the history of our civilization, and how even Atheists need faith sometime.

FRDH Episode 15: Trump's First Hundred Days: How to Survive the Next 100 and the next Apr 29, 2017

Show notes

Trump's First Hundred Days in office have been like no other presidents. There is no deep channel you can follow in trying to write the First Rough Draft of History for this man’s presidency you are constantly going this way and that on jagged currents. This FRDH podcast rambles looking at Trump as an avatar of a new society which emulates what it watches on TV unable to distinguish between reality and reality TV programs. “It’s a Kardashian world and he’s the Kardashian candidate.” It also analyzes the precedents for Trump and the resistance to him. Ronald Reagan was the first president to gain the presidency following a television career. It looks at what resistance to Reagan was able to achieve. It also criticizes the current practice of journalism via social networking sites, particularly Twitter. Do you think Woodward and Bernstein would have got to the bottom of Watergate if they had been tweeting every little twist and turn of the story. Give FRDH podcast 17 minutes and forty-five seconds and I will give you something to think about for the next hundred days.

FRDH Episode 14 Trump & Security: What's the Policy? Apr 13, 2017

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President Trump's foreign and security policy: What is it? Does the military know? As American war ships steam towards the Korean peninsula and American diplomats argue with Russian leaders about Syria this FRDH podcast is a conversation with historian Robert Batement, Lt. Col (ret) of the US Army. Bateman, a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq is currently a fellow at the New America think tank and a contributing columnist for Esquire magazine. He gives a nuanced analysis that non-specialists can understand explaining Trump's doctrine ... or lack of it. He also comes up with some surprising historical analogs for the chaos president.

FRDH Episode 13 Brexit & Churchill & United States of Europe Mar 29, 2017

Show notes

Brexit: An apostate thought: the EU will be better off without UK. Churchill saw it clearly in a speech given on the 19th of September 1946 at the University of Zurich. The war had been over for just over a year. Continental Europe had been partitioned, Much of it was in ruins. Millions were displaced and homeless. There was a way out of the catastrophic conditions around the continent, Churchill told his audience, “It is to re-create the European Family, or as much of it as we can, and provide it with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom. We must build a kind of United States of Europe." He added, "The first step in the re-creation of the European family must be a partnership between France and Germany.” The United States of Europe is inevitable the questions are will it be created by war or peace? And can Britain be part of it?

FRDH Episode 12: episode 12: Statistics>Facts>News>Truth>History Mar 13, 2017

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Facts are the building blocks of journalism leading, hopefully, to the truth, and the FRDH, First Rough Draft of History. In a world overwhelmed by data and statistics facts are easy to come by, but can numbers alone tell a story? In 2016, the bulk of institutional journalism missed the rise of Donald Trump because the numbers said his victory wasn’t possible … then it was. In this FRDH podcast, Michael Goldfarb says journalism’s increasing reliance on data is behind this failure. Lies, damned lies and statistics have led reporters down a blind alley. He argues for a different approach to reporting the world, one that places a deeper reliance on the rational imagination. He borrows a word from the German enlightenment for this technique, “einfühlung.” It’s a word coined by philosopher, historian, and clergyman Johann Gottfried von Herder in the 18th century. Google translate says Einfühlung means empathy which is accurate up to a point but doesn’t quite get at Herder’s intention. Einfühling means “in feeling,” feeling your way into a story. For an example he takes listeners on a journey through his past to Northern Ireland and the years he spent getting to know Protestant paramilitaries. Then returns to the present to Ohio in 2016 at the height of the Presidential campaign. In writing FRDH, the first rough draft of history, who you gonna trust: a data set or an eyewitness story?

FRDH Episode 11 Resistance Is Not Futile, But It Ain't Easy Feb 28, 2017

Show notes

Resistance is a beautiful word. It is a Romantic word. It is the word of the moment. But what does resistance really mean? Are you a resister if you simply say you are? Anyone can call themselves a resister and put a hashtag in front of it. Does that make them part of the “#resistance?” Real resistance has an objective and it comes at a price. This FRDH podcast tells several stories of resistance from recent history to see if they have something to teach those who want to resist President Trump. French resistance: Almost from the moment the German Army overran France in June 1940 there was resistance: acts of non-cooperation with German orders or scrawling anti-Nazi graffiti on walls. It was spontaneous and uncoordinated and it had little effect. The new administration of the country took shape: a zone of occupation run by the Germans in the north headquarted in Paris. A French run government based in Vichy oversaw the south. Very quickly this new normal became established fact. From the beginning, the resistance - think of it as being written without a capital “r” at that point - was as disparate as French society. All manner of people and groups “resisted’ without any central coordination. The resisters came from the right and the left, men and women. They were catholics, protestants and jews. Vietnam War resistance: Non-cooperation with the draft was called resistance. An organization named “Resistance” was started by David Harris. Harris served time in a Federal Prison for his anti-draft activities. Artistic resistance from the 1930's in America. Resistance is a beautiful word … but it is just a word. It is a name for something, it is not the thing itself. It is not action. If it helps people get over the shock of change to add hashtagresistance to their messages … fine but more important than the word is this question: What is a meaningful way to act in a political order you find wicked or shameful? Should you act as an individual or be part of an organization? Is speaking out resistance? or just a first step towards it? Give FRDH 15 minutes and I will give you the past as prologue to the present.

FRDH Podcast Episode 10: PTSD, Donald Trump, and Civil War Feb 15, 2017

Show notes

This is a meditation on PTSD and Donald Trump and does the shock from PTSD make it impossible to see Trump and his actions clearly. In this FRDH podcast, Michael Goldfarb analyzes whether his experience of war and reporting from societies that slipped from stability to civil war affect his judgment about the state of America in the Age of Trump. He asks whether committing journalism in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Iraq has left him with PTSD. Does his knowledge of how quickly well-established societies can disintegrate into Civil War render it impossible to see the Trump effect clearly. What percentage of a society wanting to fight is necessary for a civil war to start? In Northern Ireland and Bosnia, Goldfarb learned that civil war is a minority occupation. How many people on each side are willing to fight - not metaphorically, but physically fight - for their vision of what their country should be? Is there a critical mass at which point violence becomes inevitable? There is no data set on this question, of course, so it’s a matter of speculation. Listen for nine minutes and 48 seconds and you will hear how the past can provide a meditation for the present on American Society, PTSD and Donald Trump

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