FINAL EDITION
March 30, 2018
Episode 53
As Truth Politics and Power winds up weekly production, host Neal Conan puts Donald Trump and Trumpism into historical context. Historian Heather Cox Richardson argues that we’re in the convulsions of a major political realignment, like those of the 1850s, the 1890s and the 1920s. Then, Historian John Mearshiemer on Trump’s deconstruction of the world order that’s been in place since the Second World War and we conclude, with a conversation with broadcaster Ted Koppel. That’s a “Final Edition” of Truth Politics and Power.
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POLITICALLY CORRECT
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PRESIDENTIAL MILESTONES
March 16, 2018
Episode 51
The slave owner who founded the Democratic Party and, much later, a favorite of Donald Trump. The first President to be impeached. The history of Ronald Reagan’s most famous speech. In a compilation from the archives of Truth Politics and Power, host Neal Conan hears about the disruptive Andrew Jackson, the lurid impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, and how a junior speechwriter came up with the line: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” It’s a “Presidential Milestones” Edition, of Truth, Politics and Power.
HOW CIVIL WARS END
March 9, 2018
Episode 50
The final phase of the civil war in Syria is descending to new levels of agony as Syrian and Russian jets reduce a suburban of Damascus to rubble, forcing 400,000 people to live underground. On the next “Truth, Politics and Power,” Neal Conan refreshes our episode “How Civil Wars End.” Listen back to groundbreaking comparative analysis of the causes, resolutions, duration and lasting impact of civil wars, to a conversation with Deborah Amos on the history and the future of the conflict in Syria. Plus historian Annette Gordon Reed on the long legacy of the civil war we know best…our own.
POLITICS OF OIL
March 2, 2018
Episode 49
The boom in oil and gas production in the US has profound effects on the economy and foreign policy – the technology that created the boom, fracking, has industrialized and polluted many communities. In a “Politics of Oil” edition of Truth, Politics and Power, host Neal Conan asks about the trade-offs in the oil and gas glut, about how it changes politics around the world and whether it will delay any transition to clean sources of energy, and thus accelerate the catastrophe of climate change. Also, a conversation about the energy crisis of the 1970s and President Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech.
GUN RIGHTS AND GUN CONTROL
February 23, 2018
Episode 48
As the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, reignites the debate on guns, we update the “Gun Rights and Gun Control” episode of Truth Politics and Power, produced after a gunman murdered dozens in Las Vegas last fall. Host Neal Conan delves into the history of the debate between gun rights and gun control with UCLA constitutional law specialist Adam Winkler, author of “Gun Fight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America.” The Founding Fathers required every adult white male to own a musket, and bring it to musters where it was inspected and registered. On the next Truth Politics and Power, how a duty for community self defense evolved into an individual right to bear arms and how the laws changed with both weapons technology and the rise of the National Rifle Association. Plus a conversation on restrictions on research into guns and gun deaths.