American Prestige

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Danny and Derek speak with Greg Grandin, author of Kissinger's Shadow: The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial Statesman, about the life and legacy of Henry Kissinger.

The Tryptophan Twins return from the holiday to bring you up to speed. This week: an update on Gaza (0:42); Kuwait’s emir has a brief health scare (5:50); the U.S. accuses the Indian government of complicity in a murder plot in New York (6:59); the DPRK (North Korea) puts a spy satellite into orbit (9:32); a failed coup attempt in Sierra Leone (12:43); far-right populist Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) wins the Dutch parliamentary elections (14:54); a Ukraine update (19:37); Henry Kissinger shuffles off this mortal coil (24:55); and the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference kicks off in Dubai (26:33).

Check out all the latest updates on Gaza/Israel-Palestine here.

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

Danny and Ben Burgis, host of the Give Them an Argument podcast, share their immediate thoughts upon the expiration of the infamous statesman.

Check out GTAA on Patreon and YouTube.

Stay tuned for a more in-depth follow-up discussion with Greg Grandin, author of Kissinger’s Shadow, coming tomorrow (Friday, December 1).

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

Danny and Derek give subscribers a news update on the situation in Israel/Palestine, including the temporary pause in (some) hostilities, Ansar Allah/Houthi actions, and more.

Check out the rest of our specials on the current conflict.

Recorded Tuesday, November 28, 2023

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

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

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

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

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