For the Ages: A History Podcast

Please enjoy this re-release of a past episode of For the Ages. New episodes will return Fall 2024. Walter Isaacson discusses his career as a preeminent historian and biographer, how he chooses the people he writes about, and why he is fascinated by them. This includes his books Steve Jobs, the authorized biography of the Apple Inc. co-founder written by Isaacson at the subject’s request, and Leonardo da Vinci.
Recorded on December 18, 2018

Please enjoy this re-release of a past episode of For the Ages. New episodes will return Fall 2024. The fight for LGBTQ civil rights is long and hard-fought—and it still continues today. Award-winning author and renowned scholar Lillian Faderman discusses the history of the movement, from the 1950s up through the fight for marriage equality and beyond.
Recorded September 25, 2020

Of all the threats facing the country today, perhaps the most critical are those coming from within. In the face of rising apathy, anger, division, and disinformation, how can U.S. citizens ensure the survival of the American experiment? Richard Haass, an esteemed diplomat and policymaker, looks beyond the nation’s Bill of Rights and emphasizes key commitments that citizens can make to one another and to the government to safeguard the future of democracy.
Recorded on February 9, 2023

While institutional and systemic racism is well documented in the Postbellum and Reconstruction South, its effects on African Americans in the Northern United States, as well as how those practices have shaped contemporary society, is often less understood. Scholar and historian Khalil Gibran Muhammed sits down with David M. Rubenstein to shine a light on the 19th and 20th century manipulation of racial crime statistics that has erroneously guided much of American public policy—influencing everything from education to incarceration—for over a century, tracing our nation’s codified persecution of African Americans from slavery through the Great Migration and beyond.
Recorded on December 21, 2023

Marking one of the shortest presidencies in American history, James A. Garfield died less than seven months after inauguration due to a bullet wound sustained during an attempted assassination. A Civil War hero born into abject poverty, President Garfield’s attempted assassination set off a bitter struggle for power in the American government—even extending to contention surrounding the medical care used to treat his wound. Candice Millard, in conversation with David M. Rubenstein, offers an extraordinary account of Garfield’s momentous, if brief, presidential career and the legacy left not only by his work but by his death.
Recorded on April 11, 2023

After serving for three months as vice president, Harry S. Truman, at age 60, suddenly inherited the White House. The nearly eight years that followed were unusually turbulent—marked by victory in the wars against Germany and Japan, the first use of an atomic weapon and the development of far deadlier weapons, the Cold War, the Red Scare, the Marshall Plan, and the fateful decision to fight a land war in Korea. How did Truman become the steadfast leader who, in the rush of events, helped shape the postwar world?
Recorded on March 15, 2023

Following America’s violent entrance into World War II with the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States needed to swiftly mobilize for its fight in the Pacific Theater. In those tense days following the attack, President Roosevelt tapped Chester W. Nimitz to lead the charge. With the nation calling for swift justice against a complex backdrop of military challenges and internal politics, Nimitz rose to the challenges of his time and station to lead the United States in the fight for victory in the Pacific. Craig L. Symonds joins David M. Rubenstein to explore this pivotal figure and moment in American history.
Recorded on January 10, 2023

John F. Kennedy was one of the most iconic political figures of the 20th century, a man known universally by his initials. From his college days to the end in Dallas, he was fascinated by the nature of political courage and its relationship to democratic governance. David M. Rubenstein is joined by historian Frederik Logevall to discuss how we should understand JFK and his role in both US and world politics, particularly during this time of growing threats to democracy both at home and abroad.
Recorded May 3, 2023

Today, Latinos represent 20% of the US population, with census reports projecting that one-third of Americans will identify as having Latino heritage by 2050. Exploring the complex history of immigration across the Americas, demographic diversity within US borders, and the impact on US politics, inaugural literary director of the Library of Congress Marie Arana joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss this extremely diverse set of Americans, with a focus on the broad range of racial, political, and historical backgrounds of the nation’s fastest growing minority group. 
Recorded on May 30, 2023.

In popular memory, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the quintessential political “natural.” However journalist and author Jonathan Darman argues that this political acumen was the hard-earned result of Roosevelt’s seven-year journey through illness and recovery from polio. In that decade of adapting to the stark new reality of his life, he discovered how to find hope in a seemingly hopeless situation—a skill that he employed to motivate Americans through the Great Depression and World War II. In conversation with David M. Rubenstein, Darman underscores the link between Roosevelt’s struggles with polio and his growth as both a man and leader, drawing attention to the shrewdness and compassion that made Roosevelt so effective.
Recorded on March 28, 2023