Thecuriousmanspodcast

Matt Crawford speaks with author John Oller about his book, Gangster Hunters: How Hoover's G-men Vanquished America's Deadliest Public Enemies. J. Edgar Hoover was the face of the FBI. But the federal agents in the field, relentlessly chasing the most notorious gangsters of the 1930s with their own lives on the line, truly transformed the Bureau. In 1932, the FBI lacked jurisdiction over murder cases, bank robberies, and kidnappings. Relegated to the sidelines, agents spent their days at their desks. But all of that changed during the War on Crime. Hunting down infamous public enemies in tense, frequently blood-soaked shootouts, the Bureau was thrust onto the front pages for the first time. Young agents, fresh out of law school and anticipating a quiet, white-collar job, faced off with murderous felons who were heavily armed, clad in bulletproof vests, and owned cars that outraced the best vehicles the Bureau had. But the federal men were fiercely devoted—to the Bureau, to each other, and to bringing America’s most wanted criminals to justice. The G-men crisscrossed the United States in pursuit of John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker's criminal family, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd. But the green FBI agents were always one step behind and a moment too late, the criminals evading elaborate stakeouts and dramatic ambushes. Facing mounting criticism, with bodies left in their wake, the agents had to learn to adapt. After all, more than their reputations were at stake. Through incredible primary source research, John Oller transports readers right to the most harrowing and consequential raids of the 1930s, with fast-paced action that shows the lengths both sides would go to win.

Matt Crawford speaks with educator and author Kevin B. Smith about his book, The Jailor's Reckoning: How Mass Incarceration is Damaging America. How does a Black man in Austin get sent to prison on a 70-year sentence for stealing a tuna sandwich, likely costing Texas taxpayers roughly a million dollars? In America, your liberty—or even your life—may be forfeit not simply because of what you do, but where you do it. If the same man had run off with a lobster roll from a lunch counter in Maine it’s unlikely that he’d be spending the rest of his life behind bars. The U.S. incarcerates more people than any other industrial democracy in the world. We have more ex-prisoners than the entire population of Ireland, and more people with a felony record than the populations of Denmark, Norway, New Zealand and Liberia combined. Why did the United States become the world’s biggest jailer? And, just as importantly, what has it done to us? What are the costs—socially, economically, and politically—of having the world’s largest population of ex-prisoners? And what can we do about it?

In this landmark book, Kevin B. Smith explains that the United States became the world’s biggest jailer because politicians wanted to do something about a very real problem with violent crime. That effort was accelerated by a variety of partisan and socio-demographic trends that started to significantly reshape the political environment in the 1980s and 1990s. The force of those trends varied from state to state, but ultimately led to not just historically unprecedented levels of incarceration, but equally unprecedented numbers of ex-prisoners. Serving time behind bars is now a normalized social experience—it affects a majority of Americans directly or indirectly. There is a clear price, the jailer’s reckoning, to be paid for this. As Smith shows, it is a society with declining levels of civic cohesion, reduced economic prospects, and less political engagement. Mass incarceration turns out to be something of a hidden bomb, a social explosion that inflicts enormous civic collateral damage on the entire country, and we must all do something about it.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Aran Shetterly about his book, Morningside: The 1979 Greensboro Massacre and the Struggle for an American City's Soul. On November 3, 1979, as activist Nelson Johnson assembled people for a march adjacent to Morningside Homes in Greensboro, North Carolina, gunshots rang out. A caravan of Klansmen and Neo-Nazis sped from the scene, leaving behind five dead. Known as the “Greensboro Massacre,” the event and its aftermath encapsulate the racial conflict, economic anxiety, clash of ideologies, and toxic mix of corruption and conspiracy that roiled American democracy then—and threaten it today. In 88 seconds, one Southern city shattered over irreconcilable visions of America’s past and future. When the shooters are acquitted in the courts, Reverend Johnson, his wife Joyce, and their allies, at odds with the police and the Greensboro establishment, sought alternative forms of justice. As the Johnsons rebuilt their lives after 1979, they found inspiration in Nelson Mandela’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Martin Luther King Jr’s concept of Beloved Community and insist that only by facing history’s hardest truths can healing come to the city they refuse to give up on.

Matt Crawford speaks with veteran award winning sportswriter Tom Shanahan about his book, The Right Thing to Do: The True Pioneers of College Football Integration. The stories of these groundbreaking college football pioneers and the coaches who fought for integration—led by Michigan State’s Duffy Daugherty and his coaching tree, featuring the likes of Dan Devine, Chuck Fairbanks and Bill Yeoman—are compiled for the first time in The Right Thing to Do: The True Pioneers of College Football Integration. From award-winning journalist Tom Shanahan, The Right Thing to Do addresses the official racial quota system in the 1960s college football world and the “Conspiracy of Silence” in the sports press, avoiding any mention of racial politics. It also addresses carefully crafted but totally false myths from the era, including the role of Alabama’s Paul “Bear” Bryant in college football integration—a role where Bryant was a laggard, not a leader.

Matt Crawford speaks with author and artist Eric Drooker about his new graphic novel, Naked City. Eric Drooker has been in the art world for decades. Starting as a street artist putting his work on the streets of Manhattan in the night, to having his work in permanent collections in the Whitney Museum, the MOMA, the Brooklyn Museum and the Library of Congress. Many may also recognize his artwork on a multitude of New Yorker covers. We discuss who gets to define art and its meaning as well as many other topics of note.

Matt Crawford speaks with author Dr. Tim Harris about his book, In Pursuit of Unicorns: A Journey Through 50 Years of Biotechnology. Modern biotechnology―genetic engineering and cell manipulation―originated with the 1973 demonstration that genes from different organisms could be recombined and propagated in Escherichia coli. More than 50 years on, biotech is now a science that defines the 21st century. While still a young scientist, Tim Harris committed himself to this emerging industry. Now an accomplished investigator who became an astute, seasoned, and successful biotech business executive, he has written a captivating memoir chronicling the birth and maturation of the industry that now touches everyone’s lives. He combines accounts of scientific successes and failures with a personal story of ambition, challenge, and discovery. An accessible foray into the scientific community, this is one that is sure to whet the readers appetite for further study. Especially those that may find the subject daunting.

Matt Crawford speaks with Therese Casadesus Rawson about her book, My Musical Notes: A Journey in Classical Piano between the World Wars and Beyond. This is actually her mother's book which she has translated and rereleased on the 25th anniversary of her mother Gaby Casadesus' passing. 

Chronicling nearly a century of music, Gaby Casadesus’ My Musical Notes, recounts the French pianist's remarkable career as half of one of the most extraordinary husband and wife teams in twentieth century classical music, with her husband Robert Casadesus. Told in a lively conversational tone, she evokes the delicate balance between touring and family life, maintaining her own solo career and traveling the world while raising three children. Her decades-long teaching imparted the stylistic legacy of Debussy, Fauré and Ravel, a personal friend to both Robert and Gaby, to generations of young pianists.

In this memoir, we experience the bustling Paris of the 1920s and 30s as well as numerous adventures touring North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia while championing French piano repertoire as the internationally recognized duo Robert and Gaby Casadesus. She also details her encounters and collaborations with the greatest names of 20th century classical music: Fauré, Ravel, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Bruno Walter, Toscanini, Szell, Boulez, Bernstein as well as other celebrities of the era such as Albert Einstein, with whom she played Mozart, Elsa Schiaparelli, Joan Miró and more.

Matt Crawford speaks to National Geographic photographer and author Jason Edwards about his book, Icebergs to Iguanas. Jason Edwards is a National Geographic photographer and television presenter. He’s been bitten, clawed, chased, chewed, shot at, and stoned (with rocks), defecated and urinated on; smuggled, groomed, diseased, lost, injured, incarcerated, frightened, and enamored. He has spent the past three decades exploring the world with a camera in hand, bearing witness to the miracle of Nature and the complexities of the human condition.

After countless frames and unmapped miles, ‘Icebergs to Iguanas’ features a collection of his favorite National Geographic stories and behind-the-scenes tales. Enlightened with fascinating captions and personal observations extracted from his field journals, ‘Icebergs to Iguanas’ has been described as ‘a love letter to planet Earth’.

Photography is more than just capturing beautiful pictures it’s about telling a story. Jason’s goal is to take people on a journey filled with beauty, adventure, hardship and danger, disease, laughter, and wonder. To inspire people about the natural world in which we live, whilst simultaneously celebrating our diverse cultures. ‘Icebergs to Iguanas’ is a bespoke book, a cacophony of composition, color, and contrast.

Matt Crawford speaks with Professor and author William Haldeman about his book: Meeting the Moment. The histories presented here are of a select group of US presidents, their inspired leadership characteristics, and how they may inspire us today. The traits these presidents possessed were cultivated over a lifetime of lived experience and immortalized through the power of the presidential word-speeches, letters, and addresses-which collectively represent the most transcendent documents in American history. Viewed through the lens of nuance, complication, human emotion, pathos, and drama, William Haldeman sets forth the lives of these presidents in ways to help inform our own lives, from leveraging our experience and instincts to making the right calls when they matter the most. Grounded in an interdisciplinary approach, Haldeman appeals to both scholars and general audience readers alike, offering a refreshing view of presidential leadership that not only elevates leadership as a central part of the scholarly field, but also broadly engages American presidency enthusiasts and readers of history, biography, politics, and leadership development.

Matt Crawford speaks with journalist and author Shefali Luthra about her book, Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America. On June 24, 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned, and the impact was immediate: by 2024, abortion was virtually unavailable or significantly restricted in 21 states. In Undue Burden, reporter Shefali Luthra traces the unforgettable stories of patients faced with one of the most personal decisions of their lives. Luthra also points out that these laws have an impact on all of us, not just those seeking an abortion. IVF, Stem cell and medical research laws are all impacted.