Episodes
July 7, 2021
FDR Fireside Chat, December 9, 1941
In this classic Fireside Chat, FDR rallies the Nation two days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. One of his finest Fireside Chats, Roosevelt cleverly ties the mission to retaliate against Japan with the effort, not yet widely shared by Americans, to halt the march of fascism in Europe, represented by Hitler and Mussolini. The next day, December 10, Hitler would clear the way for FDR to accomplish this goal by suicidally declaring war on the United States.
June 23, 2021
Review: “King Richard,” by Michael Dobbs
Rick Reiman reviews “King Richard,” Michael Dobbs’s just-published micro-history of a selected phase of the Watergate scandal, now approaching its Fiftieth anniversary.
June 18, 2021
Sherlock Holmes Explains the “JFK Assignment”
In this “tongue in cheek” audio narration, Dr. Reiman portrays Sherlock Holmes as he would have sounded had he lived in 2021, and had he agreed to help my students understand their big assignment of this summer semester. Of course, our course site contains the complete instructions for the assignment. I hope that this will help as well. If you like this narration, check out my two other, “real” Sherlock Holmes stores below, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and narrated by me.
June 14, 2021
Sherlock Holmes in “Silver Blaze”
“Silver Blaze,” written by Conan Doyle in 1888, was one of his most popular short stories. Doyle provides something new to the Detective drama, the clue that is something that should have happened but did not. Enjoy!
May 17, 2021
First Fireside Chat, The Banking Crisis, March 1933
Roosevelt’s first “fireside chat,” delivered just days after being sworn in as president, was one of his finest. The entire banking system had collapsed prior to the speech. His task was to reassure Americans that their deposits were safe. More important, he had to assure them that the government knew what it was doing in reorganizing and certifying the soundness of banks that were to reopen in days, so that the panic of the days before the shutdown of the banks would not be repeated. Calling th...
May 12, 2021
Freedom, Responsibility and The Strange “Truthiness” of Science
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April 17, 2021
The Need to Remember: Fighting Back Against Bigotry toward Asian Americans
The shocking attacks against Asian Americans in 2021 are outgrowths of a long history of bigotry against these, our fellow citizens. Besides bringing shame to America’s claim of “liberty and justice for all,” these attacks flow from the ignorance of too many Americans in this history of bigotry, especially of the worst violation of civil liberties in all of American history, the relocation and internment of Japanese Americans in World War II. To defeat this legacy of bigotry and to break with th...
April 13, 2021
Demystifying the JFK Assassination: Unit 1, Part 1
In this first Unit of a new online course that seeks to demystify the evidence in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, we look at the first evidence, the evidence against Lee Harvey Oswald in the first eighty minutes following the assassination.
April 12, 2021
“Darkness,” from A Tale of Two Cities (Book Three, Chapter 12)
Carton reconnoiters the Defarge’s wine shop in this episode, and learns of Madame Defarge’s dark plans for the Evremonde family. Dr. Manette, out of the trauma of his son-in-law’s imminent execution (and its connection to his own testimony), returns to his shoemaking once again. Carton instructs Jarvis Lorry on what he should do the next day to save the Evremondes.
April 8, 2021
Book Three, Chapter Thirteen: “Fifty-Two,” from “A Tale of Two Cities”
This is where the plot finally comes together. Carton visits Darnay to change places in LaForce, with the aid of chloroform. Barsad takes Darnay to Lucy and all but Jerry and Miss Pross board the carriage and leave to flee Paris for England. Dickens is herein a master of suspense, which builds to a crescendo near the end of the chapter. Next Chapter: “The Knitting Done.”
April 6, 2021
Final Episode from A Tale of Two Cities: “THE FOOTSTEPS DIE OUT FOR EVER”
Twitter Facebook I have finally crossed the finish line! My audio narration for Librivox is finally complete, with all forty-five chapters now in the can. I can now say “it’s a wrap.” And what a terrific chapter to end on. Dickens is at his most reflective. A novel of horror somehow has wended its way to a chapter that produces a happy ending for all, at least for all of the good-hearted and well-intended. Dickens even has kind things to say about Parisians and the French, which is quite startli...
April 5, 2021
Book the Third, Chapter 14 of A Tale of Two Cities: “The Knitting Done”
Madame Defarge discovers that her prey, Lucy, Little Lucy and Dr. Manette, have fled her clutches and are on the country roads of France, fleeing for England, What she does not know is that her most important enemy, Charles Darnay, is with them, having exchanged places in Laforce prison with Sidney Carton. Standing between Madame DeFarge and death for the fleeing prey is Miss Pross. Who will win the battle to the death? Listen to find out.
March 21, 2021
“The Substance of the Shadow” from Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities
Twitter Facebook In this chapter, Dr. Manette’s long-buried message, found in the Bastille by Ernest Defarge, is used to condemn Charles Darnay, son-in-law of the good doctor and husband of his fair daughter, to death at the Guillotine! In vain does Dr. Manette protest that he no longer condemned the entire Evremonde family to the last of its line, now that the latest Marquis, dear Charles, has his head on the block. Madame Defarge is confidant that her use of the doctor’s note of condemnation w...