Booknotes+

Judy Shelton has been appearing on C-SPAN since 1989 and in this edition of the Booknotes+ podcast, she talks about the role of the Federal Reserve in our economy. .Her first visit was on Booknotes to discuss her book titled "The Coming Soviet Crash." During the past 33 years since her first appearance on C-SPAN, Judy Shelton has been in and out of politics. She worked for a time with three presidential candidates, including Bob Dole, Ben Carson, and Donald Trump. It was President Trump who nominated her to serve on the board of the Federal Reserve. Her selection to the Fed was controversial, and eventually, President Joe Biden's administration withdrew her nomination in February of 2021.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Locke was born on August 29, 1632, in Sommerset, England. He lived for 72 years. University of Montana professor Claire Arcenas, in her new book, calls him "America's Philosopher." She writes in the preface: "Though he never set foot on America soil and died long before the creation of the United States, John Locke stands and has always stood at the center of American intellectual life." Prof. Arcenas focuses on how Locke has captivated our attention for three centuries and has had an unparalleled influence on the development of American thought and culture.      Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On August 16, 1977, 45 years ago, Elvis Presley died at age 42. The autopsy found eight different drugs in his body. Just seven years earlier, Presley was with Richard Nixon in the Oval Office to offer his assistance in fighting the war on drugs. He asked for a special agent badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. A copy of the photo of President Nixon and Elvis on that occasion is the most requested from the National Archives. Our guest, cultural journalist Alanna Nash, has spent a lot of her professional life telling the story of Elvis and his well-known manager, Colonel Tom Parker. She reveals in her book "The Colonel" that Parker was not an American and wasn’t originally named Tom Parker.         Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey all you teachers and all you parents, and all you professors and all you students: Season #2 of the C-SPAN in the Classroom podcast drops this fall!Whether you're mowing the yard, on a peaceful weekend drive, or just relaxing on the couch with your favorite blanket, make sure to tune in to the first episode of Season #2 of C-SPAN in the Classroom on September 10th, available at c-span.org, on the free C-SPAN Now app, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Make sure to like, subscribe, and share, and visit us at www.c-span.org/classroom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ron Liebman and Tim Baker are former assistant U.S. attorneys who were part of the prosecution team that brought down Vice President Spiro Agnew on October 10, 1973. On that day, Mr. Agnew appeared before the federal court in Baltimore and pleaded "no contest" to one felony charge for tax evasion in 1967. Messrs. Liebman and Baker talked about their role as the case unfolded. Agnew was fined $10,000 and placed on three years of unsupervised probation. This conversation was originally recorded in 2019.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Terence Smith's media career went from the Stamford Advocate the New York Times, then to CBS News, and finally the PBS Newshour. In his short memoir of his working life, titled "Four Wars, Five Presidents," Terrence Smith writes: "There is a great deal of hand-wringing these days about the news business. Young people don’t read, don’t know anything beyond what they see on their screen, and don’t see the value of independent knowledge as long as they have Google and can look it up. The sky, we are told, is falling."   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Kertzer has studied and written about Italy, the Catholic Church, Nazism, communism, and fascism for over 40 years. His latest of 13 books is about the secret history of Pope Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler. It's titled "The Pope at War." In 2020, Pius XII's archives were finally open in the Vatican. Brown University professor Kertzer, according to Random House, his publisher, "paints a new, dramatic portrait of what the pope did and did not do as war enveloped the continent and as the Nazis began their systematic mass murder of Europe’s Jews."  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the history of Pulitzer Prizes and the Oscars, very few winners have turned down these awards. One of those who did was a famous Armenian-American, a writer from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. His name was William Saroyan. He turned down the Pulitzer for the drama called "The Time of Your Life" in 1940. Saroyan said he was opposed in principle to awards in the arts and was quoted as saying "such arts awards vitiate and embarrass art at its very source." His son Aram, a well-known poet in his own right, has written a lot about his father and his relationship with him. We asked him to talk about his book "Last Rites: The Death of William Saroyan."   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the heart of Washington, DC, is a unique place for kids. It's called the Little Blue House. For 31 years, it's been the first love of its director, a man named Carl Foster. On the website of the Little Blue House, it says that there is a single core mission: "to foster the development of vulnerable and at-risk children and youth in the District in a safe, stable, and healthy environment." Carl Foster, a Vietnam War veteran, says that for over 30 years, the Little Blue House "has provided whatever service was needed by our kids to give them a chance to become self-sufficient adults."  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Americans react to homeless with a mix of anger, compassion, perplexity, and frustration. Little progress ever seems to be made." Those are the thoughts of Stephen Eide, from his book "Homelessness in America." Mr. Eide is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute with a PhD in political philosophy from Boston College. He focuses a good deal of the 151-page book on the housing issue. In Chapter 11 he suggests: "When housing is all that anyone debates, nothing winds up getting done about public disorder, drug addiction, and untreated mental illness."  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices