On October 3, 1993, about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopter into the teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead, they found themselves pinned down through a long and terrible night fighting against thousands of heavily-armed Somalis. The following morning, eighteen Americans were dead and more than seventy had been badly wounded.Drawing on interviews from both sides, army records, audiotapes, and videos (some of the material is still classified), Bowden’s minute-by-minute narrative is one of the most exciting accounts of modern combat ever written—a riveting story that captures the heroism, courage, and brutality of battle.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, six US presidential administrations of both parties pursued policies for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia that emboldened Russia, playing into its imperialist, centuries-long mythos of regional hegemony. The result: military aggression and full-scale invasion. It was all too foreseeable.In The Folly of Realism, leading national security expert and bestselling author Alexander Vindman argues that America’s mistakes in Eastern Europe result from policymakers’ fixation on immediate, short-term problem-solving and misplaced hopes and fears. He proposes a new long-term, values-based approach that insists on the fundamentals of liberal democracy and a rules-based world order.Alexander Vindman, lieutenant colonel US Army (retired), was the director for European Affairs on the White House’s National Security Council, former Political-Military Affairs Officer for Russia, and diplomat at the American Embassies in Moscow and Kyiv. He is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute, the author of the New York Times–bestselling memoir Here, Right Matters, and leads the Here Right Matters Foundation organization which focuses on helping Ukraine win the war against Russia.Michael previously spoke with Col. Vindman about his book "Here, Right Matters" in 2022, listen in Episode 162.

Vivek Wadhwa, co-author of "Your Happiness Was Hacked" and a respected professor at Carnegie Mellon, dives into the challenging relationship we have with technology. He discusses how digital devices can lead to addiction and emotional struggles, especially among teens. Wadhwa highlights the stress of constant connectivity and its toll on work-life balance. He advocates for establishing boundaries with technology to reclaim focus and enhance personal well-being, encouraging listeners to navigate their digital lives more mindfully.

Since his election to the U.S. Senate in 2006, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown has sat on the Senate floor at a mahogany desk with a proud history. In "Desk 88: Eight Progressive Senators Who Changed America", he tells the story of eight of the Senators who were there before him. Listen to his conversation with Michael from 26 November 2019. The book was published on 5 November 2019.

Yoni Appelbaum is a deputy executive editor of The Atlantic and a social and cultural historian of the United States. Before joining The Atlantic, he was a lecturer on history and literature at Harvard University. He previously taught at Babson College and at Brandeis University, where he received his PhD in American history.

The epic story of how America turned the world economy into a weapon, upending decades of globalization to take on a new authoritarian axis—Russia, China, and Iran. It used to be that ravaging another country’s economy required blockading its ports and laying siege to its cities. Now all it takes is a statement posted online by the U.S. government. In Chokepoints, Edward Fishman, a former top State Department sanctions official, takes us deep into the back rooms of power to reveal the untold history of the last two decades of U.S. foreign policy, in which America renounced the gospel of globalization and waged a new kind of economic war. Listen to his conversation with Michael about "Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare." Original air date 5 February 2025. The book was published on 25 February 2025.

In Craig Fehrman’s groundbreaking work of history, "Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote" opens a rich new window into presidential biography. Listen to his conversation with Michael here to experience a different side of Presidents past and present. From volumes lost to history—Calvin Coolidge’s Autobiography, which was one of the most widely discussed titles of 1929—to ones we know from more recent times—Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father, which was very nearly never published—Fehrman unearths countless insights about the presidents through their literary works. Presidential books have made an enormous impact on American history, catapulting their authors to the national stage and even turning key elections. Original air date 14 February 2020. The book was published on 11 February 2020.

Michael welcomes Nicholas Carr, author of "Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart," a bracing exploration of how social media has warped our sense of self and society. From the telegraph and telephone in the 1800s to the internet and social media in our own day, the public has welcomed new communication systems. Whenever people gain more power to share information, the assumption goes, society prospers. Superbloom tells a startlingly different story. As communication becomes more mechanized and efficient, it breeds confusion more than understanding, strife more than harmony. A celebrated commentator on the human consequences of technology, Nicholas Carr reorients the conversation around modern communication, challenging some of our most cherished beliefs about self-expression, free speech, and media democratization. Original air date 30 January 2025. The book was published on 28 January 2025.

He doesn't believe in diets, and says we should exercise less. Meet Dr. Fredrik Nystrom, professor of medicine at Linkoping University in Sweden. He joins Michael with his book "Lighten the load on your shoulders!" Dr. Nystrom is professor and senior consultant in internal medicine in the Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences. Original air date 28 January 2025. The book was published on 29 October 2024.

Michael talks with Tim Harford, author of "The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics." Today we think statistics are the enemy, numbers used to mislead and confuse us. That’s a mistake, Tim Harford says in The Data Detective. We shouldn’t be suspicious of statistics—we need to understand what they mean and how they can improve our lives: they are, at heart, human behavior seen through the prism of numbers and are often “the only way of grasping much of what is going on around us.” If we can toss aside our fears and learn to approach them clearly—understanding how our own preconceptions lead us astray—statistics can point to ways we can live better and work smarter. Original air date 10 February 2021.