Bookstack

In a time of division, difference, and cancel culture, what can we learn from Shakespeare (who himself has been caught in the crossfire of today’s culture wars)?On today’s episode, author Paula Marantz Cohen joins host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, as well as her new book Of Human Kindness: What Shakespeare Teaches Us About Empathy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe

Roya Hakakian joins host Richard Aldous to talk about her new book A Beginner’s Guide to America. Moved to write the book amid the uproar over immigration kicked off during the Trump presidency, she talks about her own experiences as a new immigrant from Iran, the challenges and rewards of adapting to a new country, and the difficulties of leaving the familiarity of home behind. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe

Enlightenment thinking across Europe addressed the full breadth of human experience. From the nature of beauty to practical improvements in administering prisons, the array of viewpoints and subjects stretches well beyond today’s shorthands for the era.Ritchie Robertson joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his new book, The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness 1680-1790. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe

Fashion matters. Clothes both tell a story about power, prestige, and privilege, and can serve as important means of critiquing and subverting these very same things.Richard Thompson Ford joins host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, along with his new book, Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe

Why is it that some small countries do so well at tackling large, difficult problems that trip up their larger competitors?R. James Breiding joins host Richard Aldous to discuss his new book Too Small To Fail: Why Some Small Nations Outperform Larger Ones and How They Are Reshaping the World. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe

"History from below” is usually an effort at social history seen through statistics and figures. Our guest this week, Emma Rothschild, takes a different approach in her new book, An Infinite History: The Story of a Family in France Over Three Centuries, by recounting a vast narrative at times resembling a period novel. What does this story tell us about the events that transpired, about the nature of time and history, and about what should matter to us today in an increasingly atomized world? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe

An unassuming high-school dropout, the son of Holocaust survivors, Bob Gersony became the U.S. government’s most intrepid researcher and reporter, a humanitarian icon who never lost sight of the importance of reconciling values with national interests.Bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan joins Richard Aldous to discuss human rights, activism, realism, and his new book, The Good American: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government’s Greatest Humanitarian. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe

The multiculturalism and pluralism of the Habsburg Empire gave way to the nationalist agitation of the flamboyant poet-soldier Gabriele D’Annunzio in a small Adriatic port city in 1919. And yet the Fiume crisis played out differently than other post-World War I episodes around Europe.This week, Dominique Kirchner Reill joins host Richard Aldous to discuss fascism, resilience, the indeterminacy of history, and her new book, The Fiume Crisis: Life in the Wake of the Habsburg Empire. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe

Congress is in a bad way. Why is this the case, when all the instruments for its revival are literally within its grasp? What can we do to encourage change? And will the Biden era move the needle?The American Enterprise Institute’s Kevin Kosar joins host Richard Aldous to discuss all this, as well as a new volume he has edited, Congress Overwhelmed: The Decline of Congressional Capacity and Prospects for Reform. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe

With the transfer of power to President Joe Biden complete, American Purpose Editorial Board member Larry Diamond joins host Richard Aldous to take the temperature of American democracy. While there was plenty to lose sleep over, is there cause for optimism about American democracy? What kind of reforms are still necessary? And how is the next generation of young Americans thinking about the challenges?Tune in for the discussion, and read Larry Diamond’s Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, now in paperback. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.persuasion.community/subscribe