On the latest LGM podcast I had the good fortune to speak with Dr. Ian Ona Johnson about his book Faustian Bargain: The Soviet-German Partnership and the Origins of the Second World War. The subject is interwar cooperation between the Red Army and the Reichswehr, a subject near and dear to my own academic interests. Ian and I talk through the origins of the cooperation, the organizational dynamics at play in both the Reichswehr and the Red Army, the nature of the technical and intellectual collaboration, the German experience living in the Soviet Union, and finally the long-range outcomes of the cooperative projects.

From the cold open:

They want to test this new mustard gas equivalent, and they have 800 young conscripts march down a road and then an aircraft flies over them and sprays them. I don’t know if they’re briefed. Only the front row are given protective equipment. And then doctors come and they take a look at them. Even the Germans, who are using, interestingly enough, graduate students in some instances to do smaller scale testing voluntarily, they comment. They said, “The Soviets, you require extraordinary discipline of your soldiers.”

Transcript is here. The Vladimir Putin op-ed on the interwar period (referenced in the podcast) is available here.

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Dave and I had a terrific discussion with UMich Law’s Leah Litman about her terrific new book, Lawless. We discuss (truth in subtitling!) how conservative jurisprudence runs on vibes and resentments rather than the grand theories it claims, how much Republican doctrine derives from the principle that being accused of discrimination is infinitely worse than invidious discrimination, how the brief and aberrational Warren Court era has inexplicably dominated the public’s perception of the Supreme Court for decades, how Neil Gorsuch resembles Patrick Bateman, and many other topics. Enjoy, and consider buying or borrowing Leah’s book.

Transcript is here.

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On the latest LGM Podcast, the OG LGM Trio of Scott, Dave, and myself talked through Canada’s upcoming election. We discussed the historic collapse of the Conservative Party’s electoral explanations, the negative coattails of MAGA and other parties associated with the transnational Right, the legacy of Justin Trudeau, the current state of polling as an art and science, and finally some points where the wisdom of Canadian constitutional governance may exceed that of its neighbor to the South.

Transcript is here.

Photo Credit: By Policy Exchange – https://www.flickr.com/photos/policyexchange/19631517244/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64192687

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Last week friend-of-the-blog Charles Dainoff and myself had the opportunity to speak with Gail Helt of King University In addition to being the director of the security and intelligence program at King, Gail is a retired CIA employee and as such has a particular perspective about the genre. We worked vaguely from this list but were selective in our approach.

Films we discuss at some length:

Transcript is here.

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On the latest LGM podcast Scott and I had the opportunity to sit down with Erin Petrey, senior contributor and cocktail editor of bourbonbanter.com and longtime friend-of-the-blog. We talked through the modern history of bourbon (stretching back to Prohibition), the transformation of the bourbon industry in the 21st century, and the importance of bourbon to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. We then shifted to the tariff issue, which threatens to upend the ways in which the industry has structured itself over the last two decades. We concluded with some of Erin’s recommendations for underappreciated local bourbons. Give it a listen!

Transcript is here.

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Earlier this week Scott, friend-of-the-pod Charles Dainoff, and myself talked the late, great Gene Hackman. We talked generalities (and made the point that this is not a True Crime Podcast), then got into the movies.We worked mostly off of this list, with these films discussed at any length:

Transcript here.

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On the latest LGM podcast Erik and I had the extraordinary opportunity to interview John Bleasdale, author of The Magic Hours: The Films and Hidden Life of Terence Malick from the University Press of Kentucky. I heartily recommend the book, which for the most part takes a film-by-film approach to Malick’s career. We weren’t able to get nearly as far as we would have liked, but we did discuss Malick’s early life (which is absolutely fascinating), Badlands, Days of Heaven, the “Long Gap,” and bits and pieces of Thin Red Line, Tree of Life, and the New World.

Give it a listen, and take a look at the book! Transcript is here.

Photo Credit: By Jester-being – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46871956

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I had the opportunity to sit down yesterday with my colleagues Geoff Williams and Charles Dainoff to talk about the financial aspects of the Russia-Ukraine War. As some may recall we were writing a book on financial conflict when the war started, a book that now happens to be available in paperback. Here’s what we talked about:

There’s a lot here and I’m proud of how it turned out, so give a listen. Transcript is here.

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Scott and Erik and myself jibber-jabbered for a good long time about the Big Game this weekend. There were… digressions, including the Revenge of the Dad Bods, and the Hall of Fame case of Eli Manning.

Transcript is here. And subscribe!

Photo credit: By Infrogmation of New Orleans – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=107911642

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Last week, I sat down with Scott and Robert for a freewheeling conversation focused largely on all things Dylan, at least of recent vintage. This included talking about the 27 disc box set of Bob Dylan’s live recordings from 1974 with The Band, which I wrote the liner notes for. Scott is an avowed fan of Before the Flood, and has spent the last several months inhaling all of the shows in the set, which is no small feat, indeed. (Real heads may also remember the time that Robert, Scott and I did a laudatory podcast remembering Robbie Robertson, where Scott’s love of The Band and Robbie was revealed anew.)

We also talked A Complete Unknown, the new biopic from James Mangold about Zimmy starring Timothee Chalamet. Did we like the picture? Find out right now.

Um, let’s see what else? I believe there was some discussion of the Rolling Thunder Review and the piece I wrote for Pitchfork about Desire. You should also check out Ratso Sloman’s essential book On the Road With Bob Dylan if you really want to get under the hood on the Rolling Thunder Review. 

We also reminisced fondly about the late Garth Hudson, the wild, beautiful, eccentric keyboard player for The Band, who left us a couple of weeks ago. For those in need of a comprehensive look at Garth’s incredible career and talent, I encourage you to spend some time with Franz Nicolay’s excellent essay about the man that he wrote for The Ringer. 

Also, if you wanna hear a rad version of “Tough Mama” from the 1974 tour that I recommended to Scott since it’s one of his favorites from Planet Waves, head here. 

I’m sure there’s a bunch of things I’m forgetting, so just listen to the pod.

Transcript available here.

Find the LGM podcast at:

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