What We Were

Jeff Shaara is the author of the American Civil War epics Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure. His father, the late Michael Shaara, is the author of The Killer Angels, a historical fiction novel about the Battle of Gettysburg and winner of The Pulitzer Prize. The Killer Angels and Gods and Generals were made into the major motion pictures Gettysburg (1993) and Gods and Generals (2003).Jeff and I discuss the humanity on both sides of the Civil War and the war, as illuminated by the individual profiles and perspectives of Union and Confederate soldiers in this indispensable Civil War trilogy.Jeff Shaara has not stopped writing, and I encourage everyone interested in American history to check out his other published works, and watch for Jeff's upcoming projects at his website: https://jeffshaara.com/

In his book The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, Dr. Iain McGilchrist paints a picture of our brains and the world in crisis. This episode is meant to be a primer on "McGilchristian thought" in advance of an upcoming conversation with Dr. McGilchrist himself. My hope with this is to establish some of the "basics" about Dr. McGilchrist's theories so that we can waste as little time as possible in diving right into the many implications of his work and what it reveals. Animated video explaining the "Double Slit Experiment"

We sit down with author and historian David O. Stewart about his book The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution. How did America get the Constitution it has? What timeless or transient issues informed their decision-making? And who were these men who painstakingly deliberated for months while away from their homes to reach a compromise that would hold the Union together and set it on a path to uncommon peace and prosperity? For more books from David O. Stewart, check out https://davidostewart.com/

By surviving an assassination attempt, former President Trump had a golden opportunity to have a reset with undecided voters in the 2024 Election. Instead, he delivered another partisan stemwinder to his base. We discuss what would happen if an American politician, equal parts hated and loved, were to be killed in front of our eyes, and our conclusions are as unsettling as the act itself.

In this conversation I talk to Senator Nancy Barto, a longtime state legislator in Arizona. We discuss what the job of a state legislator is, why so few people are even aware of our democratic institutions, and the state of politics in the Grand Canyon State.

While serving as Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, Rusty Bowers found himself at the center of a high-stakes political drama for his decision to hold firm against President Trump and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's pressure to decertify Joe Biden's election victory in Arizona in 2020. We discuss those events and more in this episode.

In this conversation with Dr. Richard Harris, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Rutgers University, we discuss the upcoming presidential election, the political realignment we're now witnessing, and freedom of speech in the midst of the war in Israel and Gaza. Arrow's Paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow%27s_impossibility_theorem#:~:text=Say%20there%20are%20three%20choices,A%20and%20C%20to%20B.

What does the rapid loss of difference and asymmetry in the world portend for us? Does enforced conformity and uniformity clear a path for dangerous contagions to spread unimpeded? We discuss.