Q&A

Peter Osnos, a longtime reporter, editor, and publisher and the author of An Especially Good View: Watching History Happen, talked about his family’s escape from Poland in 1939, working for I.F. Stone, covering the Vietnam War and publishing books by former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Osnos was vice president and senior editor at Random House from 1984-1996 and publisher and CEO at PublicAffairs, which he founded, from 1997-2005. 

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During World War II, the U.S. Army created a "Ghost Army" that used inflatable rubber tanks, sound effects, fake radio transmissions, and performance art to fool the Germans into miscalculating the strength and location of American troops. Its mission remained classified until 1996. Filmmaker and author Rick Beyer ("BY"-er) talks about the 1,100 men who served with the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops – aka the Ghost Army – during the war. Mr. Beyer has directed a documentary and co-written a book about the unit.   

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Attorney Greg Francis discusses his book “Just Harvest,” about a class-action discrimination lawsuit brought by black farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1997, resulting in a billion dollar settlement two years later.

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Former Wall Street Journal reporter and Washington, DC, resident Neil King talks about his nearly 300-mile walking trip to New York City this past April to connect with American history.

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Theoretical physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein talks about subatomic particles, the mysteries of the universe, and the journey she took to become one of less than one hundred black American women to receive a PhD in physics.

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Investigative journalist Lawrence Roberts talks about the “Spring Offensive” of 1971, during which tens of thousands of anti-Vietnam War protesters, including Vietnam War veterans, came to Washington, DC, in an effort to shut down the federal government.

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USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page, author of "Madam Speaker," talks about the life and political career of Democratic congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who became the first female Speaker of the House in 2007 and is currently serving her second term in the position.    

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Washington Post political columnist Karen Tumulty discusses her biography of former First Lady Nancy Reagan. She talks about the role Mrs. Reagan played as political adviser to Ronald Reagan and as a mother.

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Julia Sweig, senior research fellow at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas-Austin, talks about the influence Lady Bird Johnson had on Lyndon Johnson’s decision-making, both before and during his presidency. www.oracle.com/goto/cspan.

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Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, and Pedro Noguera, dean of the school of education at USC, debated education policy and talked about the importance of having civil discussions over political disputes, especially when principled differences of opinion are involved.

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