Delving In with Stuart Kelter

Merryl Goldberg and Vince Houghton are the co-authors of Notes of Deception: How a Quartet of Musicians Outwitted the KGB, which chronicles a mission in 1985 by Merryl and three other members of the Klezmer Conservatory Band to smuggle information to and from Soviet Refusniks – we’ll explain that term in a moment – by encoding it in their music, all while being monitored, followed, and interrogated by the KGB. Merryl was a saxophonist for the first thirteen years of Boston’s Klezmer Conservatory, founded in 1980 by Hankus Netsky, who also made the trip along with mandolinist Jeff Warschauer and vocalist Rosalie Gerut. Merryl is a professor in the School of Arts at California State University San Marcos. She is the Executive Director of Center ARTES, which is dedicated to restoring the arts to education. and has written books on that theme.

Vince Houghton is an American historian specializing in diplomatic and military history, with a focus on intelligence studies. He is the curator of the National Security Agency’s National Cryptologic Museum and formerly served as chief historian and curator of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. When Vince heard the Klezmer Conservatory Band’s trip to Russia, he couldn’t believe that the Klezmer Conservatory Band, the KCB, had outwitted the KGB. He reached out to Merryl and wound up becoming a co-author of Notes of Deception.

Recorded 10/14/26.

Joseph Laycock is an associate professor of religious studies at Texas State University, with a focus on the sociology of religion, among other topics, He has written several books on new religious movements and on American religious history, including the recently published second edition of New Religious Movements: The Basics. He is also a co-editor for the journal Nova Religio. He currently serves on the Programming Committee for the American Academy of Religion.

Recorded 9/22/26.

Awais Aftab. is a psychiatrist in Cleveland, OH and a professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University. He is a member of the executive council of Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry and has been actively involved in initiatives to educate psychiatrists and trainees on the intersection of philosophy and psychiatry. His is the author of Conversations in Critical Psychiatry, an edited volume of interviews published in 2024 and the Psychiatry at the Margins Substack newsletter, which explores critical, philosophical, and scientific debates in psychology and in psychiatric practice.

Recorded 9/14/26.

Maiwand Banayee grew up in the 1980s and 90s in war-torn Afghanistan during the war against the Soviets and the civil war that followed. He left for the UK at 22 years old in the opening years of the U.S. war on the Taliban. His recently published memoir, Delusions of Paradise: Escaping the Life of a Taliban Fighter recalls these harrowing years, as well as the next couple of decades after his emigration to the UK and Ireland. In crystal clear, direct and forthright, English prose, not his native language, the book poignantly explores the complicated, interwoven themes of gender, religion, trauma, immigration, and more. Currently, Maiwand works as a physiotherapist and diabetes-remission coach in the UK.

Recorded 9/7/26.

Samantha Barbas is a legal and cultural historian and the author of several books on media history and legal history topics, with a focus on journalism, privacy, defamation, and the First Amendment. A Professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, she is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award. Samantha was previously on Delving In three years ago to discuss her book, Actual Malice: Civil Rights and Freedom of the Press in New York Times v. Sullivan, about the landmark case that reaffirmed freedom of the press by establishing a high bar for libel suits against journalists. Today’s interview will focus on her latest book, Hate Speech: The Legal and Cultural History of an American Dilemma, due to be published on September 15, 2026.

Recorded 9/2/26.

Jenny Radesky is a developmental behavioral pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, where she directs the Division of Developmental Pediatrics and runs a research laboratory focused on family media use, digital design, and tech policy. She is also co-medical director of the American Academy of Pediatrics Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health and editor of the textbook, Encounters with Children, 5th Edition. Today’s interview will focus on her book, co-written with Megan Moreno, Connecting: Raising Kids in the Digital World, to be published this October. The book tackles an area of concern not just for parents, but also for educators and society at large. It seems that parenting has become more and more difficult in this digital age and combating negative influences requires that parents develop extra savvy in order to steer their children through potential mine fields.

Recorded 8/26/26.

Mia Bennett is a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Washington, who focuses on the geopolitics of the arctic, the current dramatic transformation the region is undergoing due to climate change, and the interests and power dynamics of both state actors and indigenous groups in or near the region. She is the author of the blog, Cryopolitics and co-author, with Klaus Dobbs, of a recent book-length treatment of the subject, Unfrozen: the Fight for the Future of the Arctic, published in December of 2025.

Recorded 8/24/26.

Joseph Margulies is an attorney who has worked with death row convicts and prisoners at Guantanamo. His new book, Cast Out: A Call for a Forgiving Society in an Age of Incarceration, presents poignant case studies of people who were convicted of heinous and brutal crimes. Each endured an extraordinarily difficult childhood, some in a gang-infested neighborhood, most with a dehumanizing level of poverty, all of them survivors of physical or sexual abuse – circumstances, that in his view don’t exonerate them, but should call for our empathy and understanding, rather than the more typical response of demonizing them as irredeemable monsters. Margulies sums up his personal philosophy – which clearly guides his professional life – to eight words: “There is no them, there is only us.”

This episode includes graphic descriptions of child abuse. Listener discretion is advised.

Recorded 8/18/26.

Lee Kuhnle and Nathan Radke are professors at Humber Polytechnic College in Toronto and authors of the recently published, Uncover Up: How to Think Clearly in an Age of Conspiracies. They are also co-hosts of the Uncover Up podcast, a show dedicated to evidence-based and entertaining analysis of conspiracies and related issues.

Recorded 7/27/26.

Ian Bogost is an administrator at Washington University in St. Louis and a professor in multiple disciplines: computer science, engineering, film and media studies, and art and design. He is also an award-winning digital game designer, an internationally-exhibited artist, a contributing editor and frequent writer for The Atlantic since 2013, and the author of eleven books, including Play Anything: The Pleasure of Limits, the Uses of Boredom, and the Secret of Games, published in 2016. Today’s interview will focus on his latest book, The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life, published earlier this month.

Recorded 7/21/26.