That Said With Michael Zeldin

Join Michael and former senior speechwriter for President Joe Biden as they discuss his fascinating new book, Undelivered: The Never-heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History. Undelivered presents some of the most notable, never delivered speeches from Richard Nixon’s refusal to resign to Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech; from Dwight Eisenhower’s apology for the failure of the D-Day invasion to Japanese Emperor Hirohito’s apology for his role in World War II.

Guest Jeff Nussbaum

Jeff Nussbaum is an adjunct professor of Public Communication. Nussbaum is a partner in the speechwriting and strategy firm West Wing Writers. He has previously served as a speechwriter for Vice President Joe Biden, Vice President Al Gore, and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Most recently Nussbaum oversaw all speechwriting operations for the 2012 Democratic National Convention. In addition to his speechwriting experience, Jeff was the co-author and collaborator with James Carville on the 2003 bestseller, Had Enough? Jeff also collaborated with Senator Bob Graham on his book Intelligence Matters, which was published to critical acclaim in September 2004 and updated and re-released in 2008. As a co-founder of The Humor Cabinet, Nussbaum has also worked on humor speeches for dozens of elected officials and corporate executives and has served as a creative consultant for the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Join Michael in his conversation with Jim Sciutto about his new book, The Return of Great Powers, Russia, China, and The Next World War which details the realities of this new post–post–Cold War era, the threats posed by an increasingly aligned Russian and Chinese governments, and the flashpoint of a new, global nuclear arms race. It poses a question: As we consider uncertain, even terrifying, outcomes, will it be possible for the West and Russia and China to prevent a new World War?

Jim Sciutto

https://twitter.com/jimsciutto

The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China, and The Next World War

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/80608/jim-sciutto/

Join Michael in his conversation with Professor Jefferson Cowie about his Pulitzer Prize winning book Freedom’s Dominion, A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power which traces this complex saga by focusing on a quintessentially American place: Barbour County, Alabama, the ancestral home of political firebrand George Wallace. In a land shaped by settler colonialism and chattel slavery, white people weaponized freedom to seize Native lands, champion secession, overthrow Reconstruction, question the New Deal, and fight against the civil rights movement. A riveting history of the long-running clash between white people and federal authority, this book radically shifts our understanding of what freedom means in America. 

Join Michael in his conversation with Timothy Ryback about his new book Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power which chronicles Hitler’s rise to power in 1932 all within the democratic structures of Germany’s constitutional democracy.

Tim has written on history and politics for more than three decades. He is the author of Hitler’s Private Library, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and The Last Survivor, a New York Times Notable Book. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and the Financial Times. He is co-founder and director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation, in The Hague.

Timothy Ryback

Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power

https://www.amazon.com/Takeover-Hitlers-Final-Rise-Power/dp/0593537424

Join Michael in his conversation with Jennet Conant about her new book Fierce Ambition, The Life and Legend of War Correspondent Maggie Higgins which tells the remarkable story of Maggie Higgens, the first Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent. 

Jennet started her career as a journalist at Newsweek covering business, technology, and cultural affairs. She later wrote for GQ, Esquire, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times before turning to writing non-fiction full-time. She has written seven books about World War II. An interesting footnote is that Jennet is the granddaughter of James Bryant Conant, one of the leaders of the Manhattan Project and President of Harvard University.

Fierce Ambition: The Life and Legend of War Correspondent Maggie Higgins

https://www.amazon.com/Fierce-Ambition-Legend-Correspondent-Higgins/dp/0393882128

https://jennetconant.com/

Join Michael in his conversation with Fareed Zakaria about his new book Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present which masterfully investigates the eras and movements that have shaped the modern world with a clear-eyed view of the lessons to be learned for our times. 

Fareed is the Peabody Award-winning host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN. An Emmy award winner, Fareed was named a “Top 10 Global Thinker of the Last 10 Years” by Foreign Policy magazine in 2019, and Esquire called him “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation”. This is his fifth book. Fareed earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a doctorate in political science from Harvard University.

Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present By Fareed Zakaria

https://www.amazon.com/Age-Revolutions-Progress-Backlash-Present/dp/0393239233

Join Michael in his conversation with Saket Soni about his inspiring new book The Great Escape, A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America which tells the story of twenty-first century forced labor/human trafficking conspiracy in the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Saket is a labor organizer and human rights strategist working at the intersection of racial justice, migrant rights, and climate change. He is the founder and director of Resilience Force, the voice of the rising workforce rebuilding America after climate disasters. 

He was a 2022-23 Aspen Institute Fellow and was named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business for 2022

The Great Escape by Saket Soni

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Escape-Forced-Immigrant-America/dp/1643750089

Join Michael in his conversation with Rachel Slade about her new book Making it in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A. (and How It Got That Way) which offers a compelling history of American textile manufacturing as told through the story of American Roots, a vibrant Maine company founded by Ben and Whitney Waxman, which sells truly 100% American-made apparel. 

Join Michael in his conversation with Jeffrey Rosen about his compelling new book, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America.

Jeffrey is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia which serves as the country’s leading platform for constitutional education and discussion. He hosts the podcast We the People, a weekly podcast of constitutional debate. 

He is a professor of law at George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor at The Atlantic.

Join Michael in his conversation with Martha McPhee about her compelling new memoir, Omega Farm which chronicles her return to her childhood home during the pandemic to care for her cognitively impaired mother and her homestead and the memories this journey reveals to her.

Martha is the author of five novels. Her work has been honored with fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In 2002, she was nominated for a National Book Award.  Her novels have been Best Books of The Year on The New York Times, Washington Post and Chicago Tribune lists. She is a tenured member of the English Department at Hofstra University where she teaches fiction. She lives in New York City with her children and husband, the poet and writer Mark Svenvold.