Six decades ago, President Harry Truman made a decision to fire an incredibly popular general with near celebrity status: General Douglas MacArthur. Was it a good decision? Only the future would tell. It was a difficult decision at a critical time. The Cold War had reached a crisis point. People around the world lived in fear of the atomic bomb and the Chinese had joined the Korean War against the United States and its allies. The president wanted to contain the war and the general wanted to

What’s it like to be an octopus? Is it anything like being a human? Is it even possible to know?

What’s it like to be an octopus? Is it anything like being a human? Is it even possible to know? In her book, The Soul of an Octopus, Sy Montgomery explores these questions as she delves into the physical and emotional world of this mysterious and deeply misunderstood creature. Octopuses have three hearts, a brain that wraps around its throat, eight appendages, blue blood, and a covering of slime instead of hair. For centuries, they have been portrayed in popular culture as ugly and frightening

Two hundred and twenty-eight years ago this April, George Washington took the oath of office as the first president of the United States. Since then, 44 Americans have taken that solemn vow, most recently Donald Trump. History has yet to judge our most recent presidents. But as we look farther into the past, which presidents have stood the test of time and are revered today? And which ones are now viewed as less successful leaders, or even as failures?

Domestic terrorism has taken many forms since the horrific events of September 11th. From these disparate acts, a sinister pattern of domestic terrorism has emerged as American Muslim men and women are radicalized from afar by extremist groups like ISIS.

Fifty years after he was assassinated at age 39, Malcolm X remains a controversial and somewhat mysterious figure. During his short but eventful life, he was a minister with the Nation of Islam who went on to found his own mosque, a fiery militant who advocated “any means necessary” to attain racial justice, and a brilliant, charismatic speaker whose legacy is still being determined. Today’s guest, Saladin Ambar, offers insights into how Malcolm X continued to change and refine his philosophy

What does it take for someone with seemingly every advantage in life to turn on their friends, their family and their country, all in the name of a cause? Today’s guest, Kati Marton, explores that question in her new book, True Believer: Stalin’s Last American Spy. True Believer is the amazing true story of an American named Noel Field who spied for the Soviet Union during the 1930s and,’40s . Ultimately, Field was kidnapped and tortured by the KGB and forced to testify against his own Communist

These days, the terrorist organization known as ISIS has much of the world on high alert. How this happened is the subject of a book by today’s guest, Washington Post reporter Joby Warrick.

Washington, Lincoln and FDR are revered as leaders who helped shape the course of history. They are often referred to as “great” presidents. But is it possible to have a great president today? And is greatness a quality that Americans even want in their chief executive? Aaron David Miller examines the history of the U.S. presidency to explore those questions in his book, The End of Greatness. In the book, Dr. Miller makes the case that greatness as a presidential virtue is largely overrated –

Following one of the most divisive and contentious elections in history, it is easy to say that we are a nation in cultural crisis. But what does that actually mean? In the Rust Belt, as well as in rural Appalachia, it means factories closing and good jobs shipped overseas in less than a generation. It means an uptick in drug abuse and violence in the home, an erosion of the education system and trust in our government, and the disintegration of children’s dreams for a better future than that of