How We Got Here #30

Check out the latest episode of the history podcast:  Marco Werman of PRI’s The World interviews James David Robenalt about his new book The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage during the Great War. Robenalt is a Cleveland lawyer with deep roots in Ohio. He was lucky enough to get his hands on a microfiche copy of Harding’s love letters to his mistress; the originals are still under seal in the Library of Congress. The resulting tale is full of surprises, about Harding, about his lover Carrie Phillips, and about the politics and foreign relations of the day.

Awards and Analogies

This week’s stories:

Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize October 9

Herta Muller wins Nobel Liberature Prize October 8

The Vietnam Analogy October 7

Afpak Strategy October 6

Afghan Vote Recount October 5

Audio storytelling

This is great–as much for the audio journalists out there as those who listen to them:

http://niemanstoryboard.us/2009/09/29/8-reasons-to-put-noise-in-your-narrative/

How We Got Here #29

New history podcast is up–long versions of my interviews this week with Haleh Esfandiari, author of My Prison, My Home and Peter Maass who wrote Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil.  There’s also an interview with the Canadian health care expert and former politician Roy Romanow on the origins of the Canadian system. Finally an excerpt that didn’t make it into the radio segment from my interview Tuesday with Anne-Marie Goetz of UNIFEM, The UN Development Fund for Women, about rape as a weapon of war.  I include it in the history podcast  because Goetz includes a great deal of historical perspective in answering the question of why it’s so urgent to address epidemic levels of sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict zones around the world.  More info on HWGH#29 at www.theworld.org/history as soon as I have time to post there.