Novelists do their best to take you inside the worlds they create for their narratives and characters. Matthew Palmer, has lived inside his novels as a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service.

When Sally Ride flew into orbit aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1983, she made history. As the first American woman in space, Ride helped change perceptions about what women could accomplish and inspired a new generation of girls to literally reach for the stars. But Ride was more than an icon for the U.S. space program – she also was a complex, private woman with singular talents and skills, who continued to contribute to science and education until her death from pancreatic cancer in 2012.

At the height of the Cold War, a seemingly unassuming Soviet electronics engineer reached out to several Americans he encountered in Moscow and offered his services. While he was initially ignored, the engineer, Adolf Tolkachev was eventually accepted by the CIA’s Moscow station as a volunteer spy for the United States. Over a number of years, and under the nose of the ever-watchful KGB, Tolkachev passed on highly classified information about Soviet military technology to U.S. intelligence operatives. The documents he shared were of immense strategic value at a time when tensions between the two superpowers were at their peak.

The recent death of Fidel Castro has once again placed Cuba in the spotlight as the world remembers the fiery dictator who sparred with 11 US Presidents, and questions are what lies next for his country.

The recent death of Fidel Castro has once again placed Cuba in the spotlight as the world remembers the fiery dictator who sparred with 11 US Presidents, and questions are what lies next for his country. One of the most infamous incidents between the US and Cuba involved the ill-fated invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs in 1961. Jim Rasenberger writes about this tense time in his book "The Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs. It's now out in paperback.

Throughout history, brave souls have answered the call to serve their countries, and to risk it all on the battlefield. But few, perhaps, have done it with more guts and gusto than Winston Churchill. In her latest book, “Hero of the Empire,” Candice Millard introduces us to a young Churchill who believed early on that he was destined to lead, and who thirsted for a chance to be a war hero — mostly so he could be recognized for it. During the Boer War of 1899, in which the British Empire drove

Owyhee County is Idaho’s second largest county and yet one of its least populated. Despite its emptiness, Owyhee County has a rich history, one that has been thoroughly explored and documented by today’s guest, John Bieter.

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

In the 1840s, a million Irish citizens died of starvation during what became known as the “Great Hunger.” Taking up the desperate cause of his countrymen was a spirited and wealthy young orator named Thomas Francis Meagher.

In the season of the 2016 general election, we’re discussing the history of voting rights on today’s show with, Michael Waldman. He is the president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU’s School of Law, and the author of a new book, titled The Fight To Vote . In the book, Mr. Waldman describes voting rights as an American struggle as old as the country itself. Today, we are continuing to work through many thorny issues that were first faced by the founding fathers. These include fear of