
EPISODES
Truth, Politics and Power launched on January 13, 2017 with an “Inauguration Special.” You can hear that and all of our episodes here.
FAMILY TIES AT THE WHITE HOUSE

February 16, 2018
Episode 47
For more than half a century, Presidents based major decisions on a deliberative process that invited input from all the government agencies concerned. In the next Truth, Politics and Power, a critic describes President Trump’s style as “sultanism,” with impulsive decisions based on personal relationships rather than the interagency process. In a conversation with George Washington’s fifth great-grand nephew, host Neal Conan learns why our first president rejected political ties of blood or friendship and why many of his successors were not so meticulous. “Family Ties at the White House”, next Truth, Politics and Power.
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PRESIDENTS, POLITICS and the FBI

February 9, 2018
Episode 46
While the FBI is no stranger to political controversy, the bureau is now the target of an unlikely attack. President Trump and his allies have launched a campaign to discredit the FBI…and, by extension…the Russia Investigation headed by former FBI director Robert Mueller. In “Presidents, Politics and the FBI”, host Neal Conan speaks with former FBI Agent Asha Rangappa about declassified memos, smoking guns and the culture of the bureau. Plus NPR’s Ron Elving on the political history of the FBI from gangbusters to Watergate, and Garrett Graff, on how the bureau’s changed since 9/11.
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AMERICA FIRST

February 2, 2018
Episode 45
In his address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, President Trump turned to a slogan he trumpeted during his campaign and his inaugural address to describe American trade policy. “America First”. Host Neal Conan asks whether the slogan more accurately describes a nationalist revision of American foreign policy that threatens to make the world more chaotic and more dangerous. Plus we revisit interviews on the original America First movement, when the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh campaigned to keep the US on the sidelines of the Second World War and on the issue that underlies much debate on US foreign Policy since the 1890s – intervention.
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THE POLITICS OF OIL

January 26, 2018
Episode 44
Turkey’s escalation in it’s war against US backed Kurdish fighters puts the United States on a collision course with a NATO ally and offers a window into the contradictions of U.S. Middle East policy in a post ISIS Syria. For Syria’s Kurds, it means being caught in between President Erdogan’s plan to eliminate a “mortal enemy”, and President Trump’s overarching goal in the region … to confront Iran.
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INAUGURAL EDITION: One Year Later

January 19, 2018
Episode 43
A year ago, as Donald Trump took office as the 45th President of the United States, many compared elements of his campaign with fascism. This week, we invite you to revisit the Inaugural Edition of “Truth, Politics and Power,” where host Neal Conan asked whether it was fair or accurate to use terms like fascist, Nazi or make direct comparisons to Adolph Hitler. A year later, the conversations with Hitler biographer Volker Ullrich and historian Robert Kagan resonate with the tumultuous events of President Trump’s first year in power.
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CONFRONTING IRAN

January 12, 2018
Episode 42
As President Trump makes a crucial decision on the deal to contain Iran’s nuclear weapons program, two old enemies confront each other in eastern Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan and in the waters of the Persian Gulf. In “Confronting Iran ” Truth, Politics and Power host Neal Conan considers the consequences of the current stand-off, and re-visits conversations on two crucial periods – how Iran emerged as the winner of the US lead invasion of Iraq, and the small naval war between Iran and the US in 1988.
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7 DIRTY WORDS

January 5, 2018
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WHEN THE WORLD OUTLAWED WAR

December 29, 2017
Episode 40
Two law professors from Yale argue that a now-obscure treaty, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, marked a major turning point in world history; prior to its ratification in 1928, war and territorial conquest were entirely legal. Their book, “The Internationalists” has been hailed as one of the books of the year by, among others, The Economist. In a re-run of one of our favorite episodes of Truth Politics and Power, they tell host Neal Conan how an agreement to outlaw war transformed the world conflagration that erupted only a few years later into a war between the Old World Order and the new. The pact also enabled the Allies to try German and Japanese leaders for an unprecedented crime – waging aggressive war. Since then, wars between states and territorial conquest have declined dramatically. “When the world Outlawed War” on Truth Politics and Power
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KING GOAL

December 22, 2017
Episode 39
Donald Trump’s promise to end what he called the war on coal played a critical role in his presidential campaign. On a “King Coal” edition of “Truth, Politics and Power,” host Neal Conan asks what Trump has done in his first year in office to redeem his promise to revive the industry. We’ll also go to Appalachia to listen to the men and women whose jobs and way of life are threatened by cheaper, cleaner energy alternatives and mechanization; and we’ll learn about the critical role coal played as America emerged as an industrial and military power. It all started with delivering the mail.
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PLEA DEAL

December 8, 2017
Episode 38
After Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former National Security Advisor, admitted that he lied to the FBI and agreed to co-operate with the Special counsel, host Neal Conan and his guests re-evaluate the case for obstruction of justice on a “Plea Deal Edition” of “Truth, Politics and Power.” Plus a conversation with Dana Priest of the Washington Post on why two presidents fired Flynn, and what we can learn about what might be going on inside the Trump White House, from a look back at the besieged administrations of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
WAR POWERS

December 1, 2017
Episode 37
From Korea, Vietnam, Kosovo to the War on Terror, presidents have gathered more and more authority to start and conduct wars on their own. In a “War Powers Edition” of Truth, Politics and Power, Host Neal Conan asks how the commander in chief acquired that authority, why Congress has surrendered its constitutional role and whether there are any checks and balances on President Trump’s ability to launch a nuclear first strike on North Korea.
THE POLITICS OF DENIAL

November 24, 2017
Rebroadcast
Legions of lobbyists and lawyers obscured the facts on tobacco and cancer for decades…even when tobacco companies knew their products caused cancer. Host Neal Conan talks with writer Alan Schwarz, who found that the football industry followed the same pattern in response to discoveries about the long term effects of concussion, and with Science Historian Naomi Oreskes, who argues that the chorus of climate deniers also follows tobacco’s lead, and that the result, will be global calamity.
THE U.S. & SAUDI ARABIA

November 17, 2017
Episode 36
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has overthrown the political order to install his 32 year old son as Crown Prince. Mohammed bin Salman now controls the army, police and the National Guard, He’s also in charge of an enormous program to modernize the economy. As the head of a new anti-corruption unit, he’s arrested hundreds of prominent Saudis in what some describe as a purge. And MBS, as he’s known, is conducting aggressive proxy wars as part of an escalating conflict with Iran. On the next Truth Politics and Power, host Neal Conan discusses how Saudi Arabia’s radical new policies destabilize the Middle East. Plus the history of the US-Saudi alliance from FDR to President Trump.
THE PRESIDENTS’ CLUB

November 10, 2017
Episode 36
With Europe in chaos at the end of WWII, President Harry Truman called on a logistical genius to sort out food delivery to Europe …disgraced former president Herbert Hoover. Hours after he was sworn in, Lyndon Johnson told Dwight Eisenhower, “I need you more than ever.” From political exile, Richard Nixon phoned Ronald Reagan with advice on the Soviet Union, and Reagan took it on himself to teach Bill Clinton how to salute. In the next Truth Politics and Power, Host Neal Conan talks with Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, the authors of “The President’s Club,” about the co-operation, competition and consolation among presidents and their predecessors.
TAX REFORM EDITION

October 27, 2017
Episode 35
As the White House and Congressional Republicans press for sweeping tax reform, Truth Politics and Power Host Neal Conan explores the economic and political history of the federal tax system. From the tariffs and excise taxes that funded government in the 18th and 19th century to the 16th amendment and a permanent income tax to “Taxes to beat the Axis” in WWII which created the federal tax system as we know it. How both political parties became allergic to tax increases and the hidden tax benefits of the welfare state that subsidize the middle class..
FORSEEABLE FUTURE EDITION

October 27, 2017
Episode 34
While details of the future obviously remain unknowable, we can predict that the next few decades will be profoundly affected by climate change, that unmanned weapons systems – drones – will come to play bigger and bigger roles in war and that changes in the populations of Japan and China will be a major factor in the destiny of East Asia and the Pacific Rim. In a “Foreseeable Future” Edition of Truth Politics and Power, host Neal Conan holds in depth conversations with leading climatologist Michael Mann, Missy Cummings, an expert on the development of unmanned systems and Howard French, author of “Everything Under the Heavens.”
New World Order

October 20, 2017
Episode 33
Just a decade before the outbreak of World War II, most of the world’s countries agreed to make war illegal. The Kellogg-Briand Pact may have seemed like a failure, but two law professors from Yale argue in their new book, The Internationalists, that the treaty marked a major turning point in world history. In a “New World Order Edition” of Truth Politics and Power, they tell host Neal Conan the agreement to outlaw war made the world conflagration that erupted only a few years later into a war between the Old World Order and the new, and enabled the Allies to try German and Japanese leaders for an unprecedented crime – waging aggressive war. Since then, war between states and territorial conquest have declined dramatically.
Gun Rights & Gun Control

October 13, 2017
Episode 32
Host Neal Conan delves into the long history of the debate between gun rights and gun control going back to the Founding Fathers who required every adult white male to own a musket, and bring it to musters where it was inspected and registered. 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 restrictions on research into guns and gun deaths.
Brinksmanship

October 6, 2017
Episode 31
As President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un exchange insults and threats, host Neal Conan puts the nuclear standoff between Washington and Pyongyang into historical and intellectual context in a Brinksmanship Edition of Truth Politics and Power. Conversations about strategist Thomas Schelling and the risks of gaming nuclear conflict; Josef Stalin, Harry Truman and the lessons of the first crisis of the Cold War; and how hyperbolic rhetoric and apocalyptic threats affect the calculus of deterrence.
Politics of Disaster

September 29, 2017
Episode 30
As people in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico struggle to recover from storms, the Politics of Disaster is the next edition of Truth, Politics and Power. Host Neal Conan with conversations about how federal policy contributes to catastrophe, how an enormous flood in 1927 changed the way Americans think about the size and role of government , and the secret history of FEMA, the agency created to manage the ultimate disaster…nuclear apocalypse.
Ethnic Cleansing

September 22, 2017
Episode 29
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled across the border of Myanmar…they say the military is mounting a campaign of murder, rape and arson that a senior UN official calls a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. On the next Truth Politics and Power, Host Neal Conan explores how and why nations unleash mass violence on minorities, what’s happening in the fledgling democracy of Myanmar, and, after Rwanda and Kosovo and too many others, what we’ve learned about how to answer the atrocities of ethnic cleansing.
The United States and Iran

Episode 28
September 15, 2017
The United States and Iran confront each other in Yemen and the Gulf, while the longtime enemies act as uncomfortable allies against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Meanwhile, President Trump faces a crucial decision on the nuclear agreement he’s long vowed to tear up. Host Neal Conan explores the consequences of that decision, and delves into two crucial periods in the troubled history between the US and the Islamic Republic..…The Iran-Iraq War, when the US sided with Iran’s bitterest enemy…and the Invasion of Iraq, which left Iran as the principal beneficiary.
Politics of Denial

Episode 27
September 8, 2017
Legions of lobbyists and lawyers obscured the facts on tobacco and cancer for decades…even when tobacco companies knew their products caused cancer. Host Neal Conan talks with writer Alan Schwarz, who found that the football industry followed the same pattern in response to discoveries about the long term effects of concussion, and with Science Historian Naomi Oreskes, who argues that the chorus of climate deniers also follows tobacco’s lead, and that the result, will be global calamity.
States’ Rights

Episode 26
September 1, 2017
The tension between the States and the Federal Government animates American History from the Constitutional Convention to Charlottesville. Host Neal Conan traces the political history of States Rights which turns again and again on the issue of race, from the fugitive slave law of 1792 through the Civil War and on into the Twentieth Century, where the term became a code word for Jim Crow racism. Plus a look at how both left and right use the States Rights playbook today, on issues including marijuana, abortion and same sex marriage.
Propaganda

Episode 25
August 25, 2017
While every country puts the best possible face on events, Vladimir Putin’s Russia has devised a post modern propaganda designed to undermine truth itself. On this edition of “Truth Politics and Power” host Neal Conan discusses the Russian state’s wide scale use of blackmail known as “kompromat,” managed democracy and non-linear warfare. Plus a conversation on information agencies operated by the US in both world wars and the cold war.
North Korea Update

Episode 24
August 18, 2017
After the recent exchange of threats between President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, host Neal Conan updates earlier edition of Truth Politics and Power on the crisis in North East Asia. Fresh interviews with Ambassador Chris Hill, a former North Korea negotiator, and Michele Flournoy, a senior official in the Pentagon during the Obama Administration on how the diplomatic snd military situations has changed after north Korea’s tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles and the unanimous approval of new sanctions by the United Nations. We also hear historian Sheila Miyoshi Jager on the 70 yea struggle between the two Koreas and how the US found itself in a nuclear standoff with an impoverished cold war relic.
The Wall

Episode 23
August 11, 2017
Candidate Donald Trump described his big, beautiful wall along the Mexican frontier in existential terms; If you don’t have a border, you don’t have a country. Host Neal Conan explores how secure borders became part of the definition of a state, how well walls worked through history and talks with Peter Robinson, the speechwriter who came up withPresident Ronald Reagan’s famous line in Berlin: “Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
Voter Fraud

Episode 22
August 4, 2017
As congress and a special counsel investigate allegations of Russian meddling and collusion by the Trump campaign, a presidential commission looks into charges, that millions voted illegally last November. In a “Voter Fraud” edition of Truth Politics and Power, Host Neal Conan learns that non citizens were allowed to vote in 40 states- conversations on why, how that changed, and what happens if we find proof that the 2016 election was a fraud: do we get a do-over?
Impeachment

Episode 21
July 28, 2017
With investigations of the President and his campaign staff underway in Washington, Host Neal Conan talks about the procedure for the removal of the Chief Executive. An “Impeachment Edition” of Truth politics and power explains how and why the Constitutional Convention decided to constrain the powers of presidents and the meaning of “high crimes or misdemeanors.” Plus in-depth conversations on our two presidential impeachment trials: Nina Totenberg, on William Jefferson Clinton, and David O. Stewart on the dramatic case of Andrew Johnson.
Loyalty

Mission Creep

Big Government

Gerrymander

National Security Council

“Unthinkable”

Politics of Fear

How Do Civil Wars End?

You’re Fired

Strongman

Politically Correct

The EU: Trouble in Paradise

Party Politics

Chemical Weapons

DPRK

America First

Deep State

South China Sea

Enemy of the People

Inauguration Special

Episode 1
January 12, 2017
In this hour-long special, host Neal Conan delves into one of the most provocative questions being asked about our next President. Is it fair to compare Trumpism to Fascism? While Donald Trump and his supporters ridicule the comparison to fascism, critics on the right and left find troubling parallels. “Truth, Politics and Power” will examine the similarities and differences between the fascists of the 1930s and ’40s and the 45th President of the United States with Volker Ullrich, author of the brilliantly reviewed new biography “Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939,” and historian Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of, among many others, “Dangerous Nation: America’s Place in the World from its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the Twentieth Century.”