Danny and Derek welcome back to the pod Margaret O’Mara, historian and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America, to conclude the story tracing Silicon Valley’s rise until the 21st century. The discussion starts in the late 70s/early 80s and covers the rise of biotech and the personal computer, competition from Japan, government interventions like SEMATECH and the High Performance Computing Act of 1991 (HPCA), the dot-com boom (and bust), and more.

Check out the rest of the series here.

Be sure to grab a copy of the book! You can find Margaret’s other work at her website.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

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Danny and Derek welcome to the pod Marc J. Selverstone, head of the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, to discuss what John F. Kennedy might have done had he lived and oversaw America’s involvement in Vietnam. Using his book The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment to Vietnam as a launching …

Danny and Derek speak with Leigh Claire La Berge, author of Marx for Cats: A Radical Bestiary. They discuss Leigh Claire’s unique approach to Marxist critique through the lens of cats, feline usage in the lexicon from the royal (Richard the Lionheart) to the proletarian (“wildcat strike”), how our feline friends help illuminate watershed moments in the advent and development of capitalism, and more.

Be sure to pounce on a copy of the book!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

Danny and Derek welcome David Silverman, professor of Native American, Colonial American, and American racial history at George Washington University, for a discussion of the historical Thanksgiving holiday. They get into the the origin and proliferation of the holiday’s myth, the historical Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony, the Wampanoag Indians, their culture, politics, and relationship with the English settlers, who and what the holiday serves in 2022 America, and more.

Be sure to grab a copy of David’s book This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving!

Originally published November 22, 2022

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

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Danny and Derek continue the conversation with Aaron Good of American Exception on the JFK assassination.

Check out the first part here.

Originally published Dec 18, 2021

Danny and Derek speak with the political scientist Aaron Good, author of American Exception: Empire and the Deep State and the new podcast American Exception, about the JFK assassination. They delve into the conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination, the  idea of Kennedy as a "peacenik," why it's important to study the assassination, and much more.

Fredrik Logevall's essay "Kennedy and What Might Have Been" can be found in The Vietnam War: An Intimate History by Ken Burns and Geoffrey C. Ward.

Check out the second part here.

Original published December 12, 2021

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

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Danny and Derek welcome back Andre Pagliarini, assistant professor of history at Hampden-Sydney College, for a breakdown of how so-called “anarcho-capitalist” Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina, what he can actually enact of his, er, ambitious plans, what this means for the country, and more.

Recorded Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Danny welcomes back to the pod Margaret O’Mara, historian and author of The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America, to continue the story of how Silicon Valley came to be. They pick up in the midst of the Space Race, touching on the sources of tech capital the 1950s and 1960s, how the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) reshapes Stanford, figures like Stewart Brand and Steve Jobs, the transition from 60s counterculture to 70s “founder culture”, and more.

Check out the first episode here.

Be sure to grab a copy of the book! You can find Margaret’s other work at her website.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

Disclaimer: There are no musical numbers.

At long last, Producer Jake returns to tee up subscriber queries for Danny and Derek. In this edition, we explore whether nations “deserve” to exist, if Mearsheimer has stumbled onto something about China, the notion of military intervention on behalf of Mother Nature, what the gang thinks about the show “The Ame…

Danny and Derek speak with Mariam Barghouti, a journalist and writer based in Ramallah, about where things stand in Palestine. In addition to the situation in Gaza, they catch up on what’s been happening in the West Bank, particularly since October 7.

Recorded Friday, November 17, 2023

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com