The Red Scare & America's Conspiratorial Poli...

When writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths married Salman Rushdie in 2021, she expected her wedding day to be joyful. But the joy was invaded by tragedy, when she got the news her best friend had died. Eleven months later, Rushdie was stabbed and nearly killed onstage. Griffiths describe ...  Show more

He’s the subject of a new two-part HBO documentary by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio called ‘Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!’ It looks at his origins in Brooklyn, his service in WWII, his EGOT-winning comedy career and lifelong friendship with Carl Reiner. We’re returning to ...  Show more

On this episode of the New Books Network, Dr. Lee Pierce (she/they)--Asst. Prof. of Rhetoric and Communication at the State University of New York at Geneseo--interviews Kristen Hoerl (she/hers) on her impressive new book The Bad Sixties: Hollywood Memories of the Counterculture, ...  Show more

What just happened? It’s been almost two weeks since the presidential election, and many Americans are still grappling with the result. The political reckoning will probably last for months, if not years, and we may never know exactly why voters made the choices they did. But one ...  Show more

Much of the peril and persecution of the McCarthy era is well-trodden territory in historical dramas, but the burden that the Red Scare placed on the L.G.B.T. community is another story. The historian and writer Thomas Mallon published a novel called “Fellow Travelers,” drawin ...

Scott speaks with Barbara F. Walter, professor at UC San Diego and author of How Civil Wars Start, about what the Charlie Kirk assassination reveals about America’s political future. They discuss how leaders exploit crises, why the U.S. is at higher risk of civil unrest, and how ...  Show more