American politics was held hostage in the first week of 2023. Once again the hostage takers were from the extremist right-wing of the already  radical faction called the Republican Party who forced one of their own, Kevin McCarthy to go through 15 ballots before finally being elected Speaker of the House. The hostage takers extracted maximum concessions before giving their votes. In this extended, pull no punches conversation, Norman Ornstein, who has been studying Congress since the 1970s as a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute traces the history of how the party became the threat to American democracy it has become.

America Held Hostage: Week 1 of 2023

The Ukraine war is now in year 3 and its people still want to fight. Why? We are witnessing the birth of a political nation. In this conversation with journalist and author Vladislav Davidzon who has lived in Ukraine on and off for the last 14 years, FRDH podcast host Michael Goldfarb looks at the tensions attending this birth to find the explanation for why, after 3 years of bloody, destructive conflict Ukrainians still fight.

Why They Still Fight: Ukraine Year 3

The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has expanded as Hamas’s overseers Iran entered the fray with a massive launch of airborne ordnance at Israel. The internet is alive with fevered speculation that the Iran-Israel confrontation will touch off World War 3. In this FRDH podcast Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations provides a calm analysis of the situation.

Israel, Iran, Gaza, Hamas: World War 3?

The US Supreme Court is considering what Presidential immunity means in 2024 in the case of Donald J. Trump. In this wide-ranging  conversation with constitutional law professor Frank Bowman FRDH podcast host Michael Goldfarb discusses the case, its merits, where political considerations enter Supreme Court discussions and whether Trump is just another guy, in the legal sense.

Presidential Immunity 2024: the Founders vs Trump's Supreme Court

The last week of May 2024 in Anglo-American politics saw a verdict in the trial of Donald J Trump and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have his electoral parade rained on. In these surreal times FRDH turns to Robin Lustig to calmly, rationally analyze the verdict in the Trump Trial and the curious local disinterest in the UK's elections.

Trials, Elections: A Week in Anglo-American Politics 2024

2024 was always going to be a year of elections globally but not in France, now President Emanuel Macron has taken a huge gamble and called a snap general election for the French parliament. Why did Macron risk the final three years of his presidency? What are the chances of his big gamble paying off? Author Agnes Poirier and former BBC present Gavin Esler look at France, the EU elections and Britain's upcoming general election and try to figure out Macron's odds.

Elections 2024: France & Macron’s Big Gamble

The SCOTUS decision on Donald Trump's claim of presidential immunity in the various indictments against him for the January 6th events has ramifications not just in American but also international law. In this podcast, noted human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, author of the award-winning best seller East West Street looks at how the concept of "absolute immunity" outlined in the decision works in relation to laws enacted to punish crimes against humanity and genocide. Give us 35 minutes to explain.

The SCOTUS Presidential Immunity Decision and International Law

Anti-Semitism in places without Jews is a strange historical phenomenon in Poland where most of the deaths in the Holocaust took place. It is a tale of History vs Nationalism the story of how Poles deal with the Holocaust.  In this FRDH podcast Professor Jan Grabowski, author of, Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland, and host Michael Goldfarb explore anti-Semitism without Jews in the country where before the war more than 3 million Jews lived and where today the Jewish population is a mere four thousand.

Anti-Semitism Without Jews

The world is waiting for the next round in the Iran, Israel conflict: will it be all out war or ritual -- and ineffectual -- retaliation for the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran July 31st? In this FRDH podcast two veteran Middle East reporters, Liz Sly, former Middle East Bureau Chief of the Washington Post and Catherine Philp, World Affairs Editor of the Times, discuss the current situation, which way the conflict is heading and how it will affect people in Israel and, if it is all out war, Lebanon, home to Iran's proxy army, Hezbollah.

Iran and Israel: War or Retaliation?

The fact that the Gaza War caused by the pogrom of October 7th is still going on underlines the absence of truth in the search for peace. Telling the truth about what peace will really mean and the compromises on both sides needed to end war, is something very few people are willing to do. Brown University professor Omer Bartov is one of the truth tellers on the Israeli side. A veteran of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and a renowned scholar of the Germany Army's role in the Holocaust, in this FRDH podcast Bartov speaks truth about his native country and its futile quest for security by violent occupation. Give us 53:35 to explore what Hamas's October 7th outrage has revealed about the truth of Israeli politics and society.

October 7th, the Gaza War and the Absence of Truth

"We’ll Always have Paris," Rick tells Elsa in Casablanca but what happens when the place where you knew love is lost and with it the language you have to express that feeling? Author Scott Carpenter learned the answer when his wife, Anne, was diagnosed with dementia.  In this FRDH podcast he talks about his new book which with great good humor and insight looks at why people fall in love with the city (and fall in love in it), what happens when memories of the place disappear, and how to rebuild a life after great tragedy. Give us 41:43  to tell you about it. It's almost -- but not quite -- like going to Paris for the weekend.

Paris: Love, Loss, Language

Host FRDH podcast. Radio essayist and documentarist for the BBC and NPR. Historian and author of Ahmad's War, Ahmad's Peace and Emancipation.

America Held Hostage: Week 1 of 2023

FRDH Podcast with Michael Goldfarb

Recent comments

User 768247375

Related tracks