History As It Happens

Fifty years after Nixon's move to open the door to Mao's China, the world's most populous country is vying to become the most militarily and economically powerful one. In 1971, few Americans might have foreseen the dramatic changes China would undergo, as it began incorporating market reforms into its one-party, Communist state. Is the door now open to conflict, competition, or cooperation? The Washington Times' Guy Taylor and Johns Hopkins University SAIS scholar Carla Freeman join the conversation.

Facing the biggest migrant surge in 20 years, the Biden administration is struggling to cope with the influx. Beyond its immediate causes tied to the president's new policies, however, the wave of unaccompanied children is part of a larger historical pattern fueled by varying “push” and “pull” factors and created by decades of political corruption, U.S. interventionism, civil war, and economic dislocations. The Washington Times' Stephen Dinan and Catholic University historian Julia Young join the discussion.

Is American capitalism broken? The 2020 presidential campaign, in the midst of an economy-shattering pandemic, reignited the debate over whether our version of capitalism needs some socialism to survive. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders offered a full-throated defense of democratic socialism, for instance, while his opponents on the Republican side warned against tilting too far to the left. Harvard economist Benjamin Friedman, author of 'Religion and the Rise of Capitalism,' joins the podcast for a nuanced discussion about these competing economic systems.

Since Richard Nixon won about 30 percent of the Black vote in 1960, at a time when Black people were disenfranchised wholesale in the South, no Republican presidential candidate has been able to crack 15 percent (Gerald Ford in 1976) for the past half century. Donald Trump won as much as 12 percent of the Black vote in 2020, but he left the Republican Party facing accusations that it embraces racism and white supremacy after four divisive years in the White House. What has to happen to change that? 

What's more important to U.S. foreign policy, human rights or oil and regional alliances? What should take precedence, morality or realpolitik? President Biden's decision not to directly punish Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi raises questions that date to 1945, when FDR became the first U.S. president to meet a Saudi king. Philip Zelikow, who was the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, joins the podcast to discuss balancing human rights with national interests in diplomacy. 

One year after the rhythms of daily life were upended by the unchecked spread of an invisible, deadly pathogen, Americans have a degree of optimism that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is behind them. Glimmers of hope are mixing with dark realities, however, as more than 1,000 Americans people are dying each day. Historian John Barry, author of 'The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History,' joins the podcast to discuss the similarities between 1918 and today.

The U.S. faces a May 1 deadline to withdraw its last 2,500 troops from Afghanistan, nearly 20 years after invading to avenge the 9/11 terrorist strikes by al-Qaeda. What will it take to end this forever war? Washington Times national security reporter Guy Taylor and the Quincy Institute's Adam Weinstein, a U.S. Marine veteran, join the conversation. 

If the Reagan era is long over, and if the Tea Party has had its day, the makeup of a post-Trump Republican Party, as well as the broader conservative movement, remains unclear. Princeton historian Sean Wilentz, author of 'The Age of Reagan: A History 1974-2008' says Trump and the current GOP share important similarities but also differ sharply from the party during the Reagan era -- and that makes predicting the future impossible. 

Abraham Lincoln was neither a faultless hero nor an irredeemable white supremacist. Remembered as the Great Emancipator who saved the Union, Lincoln's lesser-known views about race are coming under scrutiny as Americans reckon with their nation's history of racial injustice. Historian David S. Reynolds, winner of the prestigious Lincoln Prize for his biography of the sixteenth president, Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times, joins the podcast to clear up any confusion about what Lincoln stood for.

President Biden’s decision to order airstrikes against targets in Syria, as a warning to Iran against backing militias in Iraq, served Americans an important reminder. The situation remains unstable and dangerous, and relations between the U.S. and Iran remain at a low point. But it does not have to be this way, says Middle East expert John Ghazvinian. He explains what the U.S. keeps getting wrong about its chief foe in the Middle East.