
Booknotes+
Taking the concept from Brian Lamb's long running Booknotes TV program, the podcast offers listeners more books and authors. Booknotes+ features a mix of new interviews with authors and historians, along with some old favorites from the archives. The platform may be different, but the goal is the same – give listeners the opportunity to learn something new.
Latest episodes

Apr 22, 2025 • 1h 15min
Ep. 215 Dr. Hassan Tetteh, "Smarter Healthcare with AI"
Dr. Hassan Tetteh, in his latest book, opens the introduction with a question: "How do we prepare for the future with AI?" His primary focus is on healthcare and AI, but it's subtitled "Harnessing Military Medicine to Revolutionize Healthcare for Everyone Everywhere." Dr. Tetteh is currently based at Howard University and Inova Hospital in Fairfax, Virginia, after serving 25 years in military medicine. His specialty is as a thoracic surgeon doing heart and lung transplants. He retired from the Navy in 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 15, 2025 • 1h 11min
Ep. 214 Phil Tinline, "Ghosts of Iron Mountain"
British writer Phil Tinline has written a book titled "Ghosts of Iron Mountain." The publisher Scribner calls it "an investigative masterpiece for readers curious about the surprising connection between John F. Kennedy, Oliver Stone, Timothy McVeigh, QAnon, Alex Jones, and Donald Trump." In his introduction, author Tinline says the book is the true story of a hoax. A hoax that shocked the nation in the late 1960s and that once created seemed impossible to extinguish. Those involved in the hoax included Victor Navasky, E.L. Doctorow, John Kenneth Galbraith, and Leonard Lewin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 8, 2025 • 1h 1min
Ep. 213 Richard Overy, "Rain of Ruin"
Richard Overy is a British historian who has spent most of his professional life writing books about war, primarily World War II. Professor Overy's current work is called "Rain of Ruin: Tokyo, Hiroshima, and the Surrender of Japan." Liner notes on the cover of the book say: "With the development of the B-29 Super Fortress in the summer of 1944, strategic bombing, a central component of the Allied war effort against Germany, arrived in the Pacific theater. In 1945 Japan experienced the three most deadly bombing attacks of the war." Professor Richard Overy is 77 and lives in Great Britain and Italy. He has written close to 30 books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 1, 2025 • 1h 9min
Ep. 212 Dennis Hutchinson, "The Forgotten Memoir of John Knox"
As a follow on to Stuart Banner's history of the Supreme Court, this week's Booknotes+ podcast features a 2002 interview with Dennis Hutchinson, a University of Chicago law professor emeritus. The subject matter: the forgotten memoir of John Knox, a law clerk to former justice James McReynolds, a native of Kentucky. Knox's year was the term beginning October 1936. In history, it is very rare that a law clerk at the Supreme Court has published an insider's view of the court or of a justice. Professor Hutchinson gives the background on where he found the memoir, which hadn't been published before. Justice McReynolds, as you will hear, was, according to historians, arguably one of the most disagreeable justices ever to sit on the bench. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 25, 2025 • 1h 13min
Ep. 211 Stuart Banner, "The Most Powerful Court in the World"
UCLA law professor Stuart Banner's book, "The Most Powerful Court in the World," is a history of the United States Supreme Court from the founding era to the present. In his introduction, Stuart Banner writes that: "Today, critics on the left accuse the justices of deciding cases on political rather than legal grounds. This book shows that the Court's critics have always leveled this criticism at decisions they did not like. These attacks have usually come from the left because the court has usually been a conservative institution." Author Stuart Banner has a law degree from Stanford and clerked for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in 1991. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 20, 2025 • 1h 16min
The C-SPAN Story
C-SPAN Founder Brian Lamb is in conversation with Sam Feist, the network's CEO, and Susan Swain, C-SPAN's former co-CEO, about his quest to bring live, gavel-to-gavel coverage of Congress into every American home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 18, 2025 • 1h 8min
Ep. 210 Steven Gillon, "Presidents at War"
Steven Gillon was a scholar in residence at the History Channel for more than 20 years. He has written 12 books on subjects including a history of the United States, the Kerner Commission, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the Life of John F. Kennedy Jr. His latest book is titled "Presidents at War: How World War II Shaped a Generation of Presidents from Eisenhower and JFK through Reagan and Bush." Steven Gillon closes his book saying: "Ironically, the threats facing America in the third decade of the 21st century are very real and, in many ways, similar to the challenges the nation confronted in the 1930s." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 11, 2025 • 1h 15min
Ep. 209 Alexandra Richie, "Warsaw 1944"
As a follow up to our recent podcast regarding the life and times of Anne Frank, we asked author Alexandra Ritchie to tell us more about the horrors of World War II and Poland. Ritchie, a citizen of Canada, now lives in the city which is the title of her book, Warsaw. Her focus is on 1944 and what was called the Warsaw Uprising. In her introduction, she writes, "Himmler and Hitler had decided that the entire population remaining in one of Europe's great capital cities was to be murdered in cold blood. Himmler referred to Warsaw as the great abscess, which was to be completely destroyed." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 4, 2025 • 1h 5min
Ep. 208 Katherine Carter, "Churchill's Citadel"
In the years right before World War II started in 1939, Winston Churchill had been out of government. However, even though he was far from power, his country home, Chartwell, became Churchill's headquarters of his campaign against Nazi Germany. Catherine Carter is a curator and historian who has managed the house and collections at Chartwell. Her new book is called "Churchill's Citadel: Chartwell and the Gatherings Before the Storm." Catherine Carter reveals how Churchill used Chartwell, which is 35 miles from London, as his base during the pre-war years to collect key intelligence about Germany's preparation for war. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 25, 2025 • 1h 8min
Ep. 207 Ruth Franklin, "The Many Lives of Anne Frank"
80 years ago, in early 1945, 15-year-old Anne Frank died from a typhus epidemic in the Nazi German-based concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. As the 7500 square foot replica of the Otto Frank family secret annex in Amsterdam opens in New York City, writer Ruth Franklin is publishing her new biography called "The Many Lives of Anne Frank." According to Franklin, the title of the book refers to the multiplicity of ways in which Anne Frank has been understood and misunderstood. Anne Frank's diary is one of the best-selling non-fiction books of all time. Reportedly over 30 million copies have been sold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.