My guest for today’s episode is Adam Cohen, lawyer, journalist, writer, and author of five books on law and history. He has taught at Yale Law School, served on the New York Times editorial board, and written for the Washington Post, LA Times, and the Atlantic, among others

His latest book is The Captain’s Dinner, a shipwreck, an act of cannibalism, and a murder trial that changed legal history forever, which is a story of the 1884 sinking of the yacht Mignonette, the killing and cannibalization of its cabin boy, and the landmark legal case the changed British history.

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On today’s podcast, my guest today was Peter Stark, adventurer, writer, and historian. I brought him on to talk about his book Astoria: Astor and Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire.

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On today’s episode, my guest is James Traub, writer, journalist, and author of John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit, which in my estimation, is the best single-volume biography of our 6th president in existence.

Mr. Traub is here with me today to talk about the book, and I feel it only appropriate that on the 250th year anniversary of our nation, we give John Quincy Adams the tremendous credit he deserves, not only as the possibly the greatest diplomat in U.S. history, but also as one of the most incredible minds of his generation.

I’m happy to announce that my podcast is now available on Apple Podcast as well as Spotify. If you enjoy this episode, please share with a friend.

My guest today was Kai Bird, columnist, biographer and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, a book he co-wrote with Martin J. Sherwin.

In this episode, we explore Oppenheimer’s brilliant achievements and his humiliating defeat, his formidable intellect and his inexcusable foolishness.

My podcast is also now available on Spotify. If you enjoy the episode, please share either the Substack link or the Spotify link with the history lovers in your life.

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If you enjoy this episode, please like/comment and share the link with the history lovers in your life.

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In this interview, we’ll explore not only how Teddy’s beliefs shaped the modern presidency—but also how his muscular foreign policy was responsible for the 20th century being dubbed the American century.

If you enjoy the episode, please like / comment and share the episode link with all the history lovers in your lives.

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This is my conversation with Talmage Boston, lawyer, historian, and author of How the Best Did It: Leadership Lessons from Our Greatest Presidents. In this episode, Talmage joins me to distill decades of historical study and conversations with top presidential scholars into a clear, compelling framework for understanding what true leadership looks like at the highest level.

We explore the traits, habits, and decision-making approaches that defined the most effective American presidents—and what modern readers, leaders, and ordinary citizens can learn from them.

If you like the episode, please like, comment, and share it with both the future leaders and history lovers in your life.

Here is my conversation with Yuval Levin, director of social, cultural, and constitutional studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a leading thinker on politics, culture, and history, and the author of the book The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left.

It’s about book two men who came to embody the great divide in modern politics — the revolutionary idealism of Paine and the cautious reform of Burke. Their argument wasn’t just about policy — it was about what human beings are, what society is for, and how change should happen.

Once again, if you enjoy the episode, please like and/or comment, and share the episode link with the history lovers in your life.

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Here is my conversation with Edward Fishman — a man who has served in the U.S. state department in sanctions, economic statecraft and foreign policy roles, and now teaches at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

He sat down with me to talk about his new book Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare. The book traces how the United States has increasingly weaponized aspects of the global economy—financial systems, technology, supply chains—to confront rivals like Russia, China, and Iran.

Once again, if you enjoy the episode, please like and/or comment, and share the episode link with the history lovers and economic nerds in your life.

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My guest for this episode was none other than H.W. Brands, professor, historian, and author of more than 30 books about U.S. history. He was kind enough to sit down with me to talk about his book Founding Partisans: Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and the Brawling Birth of American Politics.

In our conversation, he and I explore how the bitter rivalries among the Founders gave rise to the nation’s first political parties—and how their struggles over power, principle, philosophy, and personality still echo in our politics today.

If you enjoy this episode, please like and/or comment, and be sure to share it with any and all history lovers you know.

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Here is my interview with Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, about his new book, The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America.

This conversation was so much fun to record, and I hope you all enjoy it. If you enjoy it, please like and/or comment, and be sure to share it with all the history lovers in your life.

In this week’s episode, I interviewed special guest Jeffrey Boutwell on his new book Boutwell: Radical Republican and Champion of Democracy.

Jeffrey grew up in Concord, Massachusetts, began his career as a reporter and editor, and spent a brief 2-year stint working for the Carter Administration. He holds a history degree from Yale, a master’s degree in economics and politics from the London School of Economics, and a Ph.D. in political science from MIT.

Boutwell had a 30-year career as a foreign policy analyst with the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (1995 Nobel Peace Prize) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has traveled to more than 50 countries. His work included nuclear weapons arms control and many other international security issues.

This week, he was gracious enough to sit down with me for an interview on the book. I hope you enjoy it. I hope to interview many other brilliant guests in the future.

If you enjoy this episode, please like and/or comment below, and if you have a favorite historian or book you would like to me to cover, let me know in the comments.

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