Truth, Politics and Power

A hundred years ago, a young man was about to become famous on an entirely new scale. The dawning engines of mass communication, advertising and public relations elevated Babe Ruth into a national phenomenon. When asked why he earned more money than the President of the United States, Ruth honestly answered “I had a better year.” That marked the birth of the celebrity culture that paved the way for everyone from Charles Lindbergh to Donald Trump. In a special edition of Truth, Politics and Power, host Neal Conan speaks with Jane Leavy, author of “The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created.”

Donald Trump lied routinely as a businessman and as a presidential candidate: their frequency did not change once he took office, but, on the next episode of “The Democracy Test,” co-hosts Neal Conan and Heather Cox Richardson hear an argument that the character of his lies took a turn to autocracy when he took office. The corrosive effect of a President’s lies, and why we can’t rely on checks and balances will not constrain the president on their own, but need to be animated by men and women of virtue. Plus Neal and Heather review what we’ve learned in this series and explain their enduring faith in democracy in these dark times. “Truth and Faith” is the final episode of “The Democracy Test.”

A key innovation of the American constitution, is a system of checks and balances to make sure the President can’t govern like a king. In the next Episode of “The Democracy Test,” co-hosts Neal Conan and Heather Cox Richardson explore how that system works, and what happens when Congress and the courts fail to check the chief executive. The program also delves into the unwritten rules that can lubricate the machinery of government - the “norms,” and finds some unexpected lessons from Watergate, where congress, the courts, the free press and the federal bureaucracy exposed and defeated a criminal president.

The right to vote - once limited to white male landowners - expanded to include African Americans and women, but many states enacted literacy tests and poll taxes that almost eliminated the minority vote until 1965. In “Consent of the Governed,” Co-Hosts Neal Conan and Heather Cox Richardson trace the history of Jim Crow, and explain modern techniques to manipulate the electorate, like gerrymandering and dark money. That’s the next episode of the Democracy Test, from Truth Politics and Power.

In the depths of the Great Depression, many Americans lost their faith in a democracy that allowed an enormous gap between the wealthy and the too-often desperate poor. In “Created Equal,” the latest episode of the “Democracy Test,” Presidential biographer Robert Dallek tells us how Franklin Delano Roosevelt restored faith in democratic institutions and built the modern welfare state. We also hear how inequality ballooned again over the past fifty years, how that corrodes democracy, and what we can learn from our history about finding new solutions.

A HOUSE DIVIDED Episode Two of the Democracy Test with co-hosts Neal Conan and Heather Cox Richardson If you think partisan politics are bad now, consider the 1850s, when members of Congress pulled knives and pistols on the floor of the House of Representatives and political arguments turned into brawls. Those dispute lead to the bloodiest war in our history. Next time on “The Democracy Test from Truth Politics and Power,” hosts Neal Conan and Heather Cox Richardson talk with historian Joanne Freeman about the road to the Civil War, scholar Jennifer McCoy discusses the patterns of political polarization and philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah suggests ways to overcome our dangerous tribal divisions.

EPISODE ONE: WHY DEMOCRACY Why did Athens and Rome choose democracy in ancient times, and why did the founders decide to adapt a form of government that had been widely shunned for two millennia? In the first episode of a new six part special series, “The Democracy Test”, Harvard classicist and political philosopher Danielle Allen joins co-hosts Neal Conan and Heather Cox Richardson to argue that democracy arises from a love of liberty and the human desire to shape our own lives. And while she accepts that our democracy faces difficult challenges today, she also sees a surge of civic engagement, “amazing new energies,” that she believes will help us find a way through. “The Democracy Test,” from Truth, Politics and Power.

As Truth Politics and Power winds up weekly production, host Neal Conan puts Donald Trump and Trumpism into historical context. Historian Heather Cox Richardson argues that we’re in the convulsions of a major political realignment, like those of the 1850s, the 1890s and the 1920s. Then, Historian John Mearshimer on Trump’s deconstruction of the world order that’s been in place since the Second World War and we conclude, with a conversation with broadcaster Ted Koppel. That’s a “Final Edition” of Truth Politics and Power.

“Politically Correct” originated as an insult on the fringes of the American left…and migrated over to the conservative rhetorical arsenal. In an archive edition of Truth Politics and Power, Host Neal Conan asks an expert of political rhetoric…Kathleen Hall Jamieson…about Donald Trump’s use of the term, hears about its origins and evolution from linguist John McWhorter, and talks with comedian Josh Blue, who dances along the PC line every night as part of his stand-up routine. “Politically Correct,” next Truth, Politics and Power.

The slave owner who founded the Democratic Party and, much later, a favorite of Donald Trump. The first President to be impeached. The history of Ronald Reagan’s most famous speech. In a compilation from the archives of Truth Politics and Power, host Neal Conan hears about the disruptive Andrew Jackson, the lurid impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, and how a junior speechwriter came up with the line: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” It’s a “Presidential Milestones” Edition, on the next Truth, Politics and Power.

The final phase of the civil war in Syria is descending to new levels of agony as Syrian and Russian jets reduce a suburban of Damascus to rubble, forcing 400,000 people to live underground. On the next “Truth, Politics and Power,”  Neal Conan refreshes “How Civil Wars End.” Listen back to groundbreaking comparative analysis of the causes, resolutions and duration of civil wars, to a conversation with Deborah Amos on the history of the conflict in Syria, plus historian  Annette Gordon Reed on the long legacy of the civil war we know best…our own.

The boom in oil and gas production in the US has profound effects on the economy and foreign policy - the technology that created the boom, fracking, has industrialized and polluted many communities. In a “Politics of Oil” edition of Truth, Politics and Power, host Neal Conan asks about the trade offs in the oil and gas glut, about how it changes politics around the world and whether it will delay any transition to clean sources of energy, and thus accelerate the catastrophe of climate change. Also, a conversation about the energy crisis of the 1970s and President Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech.

Gun Rights And Gun Control by TRUTH, POLITICS AND POWER

In our latest episode, the troubling trend of nepotism in the Trump administration and how it can lead to corruption and the erosion of democracy.

While the FBI is no stranger to political controversy, the bureau is now the target of an unlikely attack.  President Trump and his allies have launched a campaign to discredit the FBI…and, by extension…the Russia Investigation headed by former FBI director Robert Mueller. In “Presidents, Politics and the FBI”, host Neal Conan speaks with former FBI Agent Asha Rangappa about declassified memos, smoking guns and the culture of the bureau. Plus NPR’s Ron Elving on the political history of the FBI from gangbusters to Watergate, and Garrett Graff, on how the bureau’s changed since 9/11.