FRDH Podcast with Michael Goldfarb

Latest Episodes:

Trump And The Politics Of Paranoia Jun 20, 2016

Show notes

This draft of history - first b'cast on BBC Radio 4 just before the 2016 primaries - looks at the long history of irrational fear being used by American politicians to win office.

British Jihad Apr 16, 2016

Show notes

First draft of history: my documentary on British Jihadis made a year before the London bombings of 7/7. It won an award from the Overseas Press Club of America.

Topeka Kansas 1993 Jun 20, 2015

Show notes

Draft History: A story recorded in Topeka KS in 1993 about the successes and failures of integration. Part of my Sony Award-winning series Homeward Bound.

Yellow Springs Ohio 1993 Jun 20, 2015

Show notes

This draft of history is from 1993: Race, violence, fear. It was part of my Sony-Award winning series, Homeward Bound. Listen to the voices recorded from the radio.

Whitman To Woodstock Jun 01, 2015

Show notes

Whitman to Woodstock was originally made for the BBC on the 25th anniversary of the music festival. It aired on BBC Radio 3 as a Proms interval talk. It's a cultural draft of history tracing the historical chain of American bards and poets from Walt Whitman to the Woodstock festival. Something I hope will teach the children well. If you like it, share it and in the spirit of Woodstock, visit www.goldfarbpod.com and make a donation ... to keep the podcasts - new and from the archive coming.

Piano Tales: a social history of the Piano Mar 11, 2015

Show notes

A social history of the piano with lots of interesting facts and lovely playing.

FRDH podcast, Episode 7: King's College Choir Dec 23, 2014

Show notes

A Christmas treat from the FRDH archive. A musical feature about the boy choristers of King's College Choir at Cambridge University. The piece is a backstage look at the boys' daily schedule of academics and rehearsal in the great Chapel of King's College. The King in question was Henry VI. Built in phases between 1446 and 1515, the chapel is one of the monuments of late Gothic architecture and possesses unique acoustics. There has been a choir associated with the building since its founding. Director Stephen Cleobury explains the history of the choir and the practical demands of the chorister's life.

Charlottesville, Virginia 2017 > Natchez, Mississippi 1995 Nov 30, 2014

Show notes

Charlottesville: “What happens to a dream deferred” wrote Langston Hughes in the poem Harlem. Hughes was referring to the frustrations of African-American life 90 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Does the deferred Dream explode, the poet asked. What happens, ironically when the deferred dream is that of white supremacy and the Confederacy risen? Does it also explode? Charlottesville is the latest detonation in a process that has been left unaddressed for decades, for more than a century and a half really. Arguably since the founding of the United States. This piece from the FRDH archive is from 1995 is based on an evening I spent with the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Natchez Mississippi which nearly ended in a fistfight over the meaning of the Constitution. Hughes poem in full: “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?”

Clarksdale Mississippi 1995 Nov 26, 2014

Show notes

Draft history. Race in America. A piece from 1995 reported from the Mississippi Delta

FROM KABUL TO KENT pt 2 Oct 21, 2014

Show notes

History on the move: the story of Ali, his two-year long journey from Afghanistan and his new life in the UK