Q&A

2022 is a big year for space science. NASA has two major missions underway. The first – DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) – will test the agency's ability to defend Earth against asteroids. The second – the James Webb Space Telescope (the successor to Hubble) – will be used to study the origins of the universe and search for possible life in the universe beyond Earth. We talked about these missions with Nancy Chabot, Planetary Chief Scientist at Johns Hopkins University's Applied...

Can human genes be patented and owned? That's the question behind Jorge Contreras' book "The Genome Defense." The author and professor of law at the University of Utah tells the story of the 2013 Supreme Court case Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics. The longshot case, brought by the ACLU, challenged the right to patent human genes, a practice that had been used by biotech companies for decades. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Calls between President Lyndon Johnson & members of Congress & the administration on the establishment of The Warren Commission which would look into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This program begins with background information from Max Holland author of "The Kennedy Assassination Tapes: The White House Conversations of Lyndon Johnson Regarding the Assassination, the Warren Commission & the Aftermath" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marc Selverstone, Chair of the Presidential Recordings Program at the Miller Center of the University of Virginia explains the background of the LBJ tapes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joshua Prager talks about the complicated life and times of Norma McCorvey - aka “Jane Roe” - and the 1971 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case over the right to have an abortion that bears her name. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jim Byron started working at the Nixon Foundation in 2007 as a marketing intern. He was 14-years-old. This past November, at age 28, he was appointed president and CEO of the foundation. Mr. Byron joined us to talk about the Nixon Foundation and its role in operating the Nixon Library & Museum site in Yorba Linda, California. He also talks about his goals for the foundation, including getting more young people interested in the life and career of President Nixon. Learn more about your ad...

Journalist J.B. MacKinnon discussed what would happen to the economy and the environment if the world cut consumption by twenty-five percent. He argued that we are currently using up the world's resources at a rate that is unsustainable and questioned what it would take to get people - especially consumer-driven Americans - to buy fewer things. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A conversation with Former Representative Steve Israel (D-NY) who opened a book store in Oyster Bay, New York. Plus, a look at current non-fiction books featured on C-SPAN's BookTV for the week of November 28, 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mayukh Sen, a James Beard Award-winning writer and adjunct professor of food journalism at New York University, discusses his book "Taste Makers," in which he profiles seven immigrant women who transformed American cuisine during the second half of the 20th century. Two of the women profiled are Elena Zelayeta a blind chef and bestselling cookbook author from Mexico, and Chao Yang Buwei, who was a physician in China before becoming an influential writer on Chinese cooking in the United...

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws," is one of the most adjudicated amendments. The 1868 adoption of it has led to numerous Supreme Court cases and interpretations....

Filmmakers Beth Levison and Jerry Risius discuss their documentary “Storm Lake,” about the Storm Lake Times, a small-town family-run newspaper in Iowa, and its efforts to stay afloat amidst shrinking ad revenues and the coronavirus pandemic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Howard Husock, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of "The Poor Side of Town," takes a critical look at the more than 100-year effort by the federal government, private developers, and others to create low-cost housing in the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Retired California superior court judge LaDoris Cordell, author of "Her Honor," takes a critical look at our legal system and offers suggestions on how to improve it. She talks about the importance of judicial independence, mandatory minimum sentencing, racial bias in jury selections, police reform, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Opportunity Zones were created under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law by President Trump in December 2017. Originally the brainchild of Napster co-founder Sean Parker and supported by both Republicans and Democrats, the idea was to attract investment to poor communities across the U.S. by offering tax breaks for investors. Brookings Institution senior fellow and former Wall Street Journal economics editor and columnist David Wessel author of "Only the Rich Can Play," talks about...

Paris was overtaken by the Nazis on June 14, 1940, and brutally occupied for more than four years. Thousands of Parisians died as a result. Martin Dugard, co-author with Bill O'Reilly of the bestselling "Killing" series and author of the new book "Taking Paris," talks about Paris during the time of the German occupation and the liberation of the city by the U.S. and French forces in August 1944. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Peter Canellos, Politico editor-at-large and the author of The Great Dissenter, talked about the life, career, and legacy of Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan of Kentucky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Looming Tower" and New Yorker staff writer, discusses his latest book "The Plague Year: America in the Time of COVID." He talks about the origins of COVID-19, the response to the outbreak by the Chinese government, and the handling of the pandemic by the Trump administration and CDC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wall Street Journal columnist and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Jason Riley talks about the life and influence of economist Thomas Sowell ("SOUL"), now 91, whose writings on economics, race, culture, education and politics have inspired conservatives and libertarians for a half-century. Mr. Riley is the author of the biography "Maverick" and is also the host of a documentary on Mr. Sowell that came out in January 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jessica DuLong, the former chief engineer on NYC fireboat John J. Harvey, talks about the rescue of nearly 500,000 people, by boat, off the island of Manhattan following the 9/11 attacks. It was the largest maritime evacuation in history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three House lawmakers - Reps. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Jason Crow (D-CO), and Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) - recount their first-hand experiences on January 6, when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices