Soyoung Kwon joins us to talk about North Korea’s interests in meeting with President Donald Trump in Singapore and how internal North Korean politics operate. Guest: Dr. Soyoung Kwon, professor of Global Affairs at George Mason University and a fellow at the Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies at Yonsei University. Then in the second half of … Continued


Mitch Jeserich speaks to John Nichols of the Nation Magazine about last night’s primaries, this year’s midterms and the state of the Republic. Then, marking the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, Mitch Jeserich speaks to journalist and historian Ellen Meacham, author of the book Delta Epiphany: Robert F. Kennedy in Mississippi. … Continued


Mitch Jeserich is in conversation with renowned Greek scholar, Paul Cartledge, about the history of democracy in ancient Greece. Its rise, its fall and why still matters today. Professor Cartledge is the author of several books on this topic, his latest is Democracy: A Life. About Democracy: A Life Ancient Greece first coined the concept of … Continued


Profoundly intertwined with human civilization, milk has a compelling and a surprisingly global story to tell, and historian Mark Kurlansky is the perfect person to tell it. Tracing the liquid’s diverse history from antiquity to the present, he details its curious and crucial role in cultural evolution, religion, nutrition, politics, and economics. Also, host Mitch … Continued


Mitch Jeserich speaks with renown geographer Richard Walker about the immense wealth, politics and contradictions of the San Francisco Bay Area. Richard A. Walker is professor emeritus of geography at U.C. Berkeley and author of the book Pictures of a Gone City: Tech and the Dark Side of Prosperity in the San Francisco Bay Area. … Continued


Virtually no part of the modern United States—the economy, education, constitutional law, religious institutions, sports, literature, economics, even protest movements—can be understood without first understanding the slavery and dispossession that laid its foundation. Historian Gerald Horne digs deeply into Europe’s colonization of Africa and the New World, when, from Columbus’s arrival until the Civil War, … Continued


Fearful of an incoming President Thomas Jefferson, outgoing President John Adams in his last month in office helped create the U.S. federal judicial system, in part, as a check against Jefferson’s power. Arguably the battle between the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans in the early days of the nation makes today’s political battle appear tame. We dive … Continued


Mitch Jeserich speaks to Laura Dassow Walls, author of Henry David Thoreau: A Life, about Thoreau’s work on Civil Disobedience and his seemingly contradicting support of John Brown’s violent raid on Harper’s Ferry, and witnessing the oncoming Industrial Age. Guest: Laura Dassow Walls, Willliam P. and Hazel B. White Professor of English Graduate Program in … Continued