During the first Trump presidency I produced a radio drama with Jonathan Mitchell at The Truth Podcast about camp MAGA.... more

Earlier this year I read a book called The End of Reality  by the writer Jonathan Taplin. The book is... more

A few years ago I put together a story about the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory with the writer and historian... more

Joel Whitney’s book Finks is a seminal book about American intellectuals and American security agencies,  mainly because it illuminates the... more

Forty years ago in 1984 your host was twelve years old and like George Orwell’s protagonist Winston Smith, he kept... more

We now have many ways to tell the story of America's tilt towards authoritarianism, but for your host one image ... more

Intelligence scholar Hugh Wilford's excellent new book grapples with the paradox at the heart of America’s covert intelligence agency. Many... more

ToE's Cultural Cold War miniseries concludes with three stories about containment and death. Richard Wright delivers his final lecture on... more

]Richard Wright died from a mysterious illness on November 28th, 1960. Or was he murdered? Tune in for a new... more

In 1959, Anti-Americanism surged in the UK. England seethed over America’s treatment of its Prime Minister who was smacked down... more

In the summer of 1959, Nixon and Khrushchev argued over a washing machine in a backstage kitchen in Moscow, while... more

In the fall of 1958, Kenneth Tynan moved from London to New York and upon arrival, clashed with Hollywood mogul... more

In 1956, Richard Wright spoke of islands of free men at the first Congress of Black Writers and Artists in... more

In 1956 London Theater critic Kenneth Tynan helped launch a youth movement committed to exposing social and political issues on stage,... more

In 1956, New Yorker writer Dwight Macdonald joined Encounter, a magazine secretly backed by American and British security agencies. He... more

In the 1950s the CIA weaponized culture to capture hearts and minds in Europe and Africa. We meet three writers... more

The new ToE series Propaganda is Art has a companion podcast called Propaganda Notes & Sources, think audio footnotes! Each episode... more

One of my favorite technology critics has just published a novel about Self Driving Cars (or fake Self Driving Cars).... more

Today we live inside data systems that contain, surveil, and judge us. In his new book, the Hank Show, author... more

Two very different tales about making stuff up about the CIA. Your host shares the story of Sylvia Press, who in... more

Citizens armed only with Molotov cocktails battle with Russian tanks on the streets of… Budapest.  In November of 1956 Russian... more

The life of musician Connie Converse easily reduces down to one of those Hemingway length sad stories: Before Dylan there... more

We hear from two photographers who are masters at showing us what is hard to see, and always has been... more

The war/invasion/fighting is still going. We revisit our program on NFTs, art and war. Your host visits the 59th International... more

One of the episodes in my False Alarm! Series from 2018 imagined a future where Elon Musk stepped up to... more

Back in 2018 your host met Stormy Daniels as part of his 15 part investigation into America’s disinformation complex. You... more

A remixed complete version of our two part Watergate series from last year:  Journalists may write the first draft of... more

Some books have titles that jump out right out at you, Carmela Ciuraru’s new group biography Lives of the Wives is... more

As decibel levels continue to rise, threatening human existence we turn to two listening experts for help. George Prochnik and... more

One of our heroes Barbara Ehrenreich passed away earlier this year. She was one of America’s best undercover journalists. We... more

Jeremiah Moss’s Feral City is much much more than a Covid memoir. In many ways it is a continuation of... more

Yvette Gonzales tells us a first person story about what its like to be transgender in Prison. Gender theorist B.... more

In their new book  Hollywood and Israel, film scholars Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman take us behind and beyond the... more

911 final reprise. George Bush celebrates the anniversary of 911 with some new ‘dark’ paintings. Your host marks the occasion with... more

Growing up in Glasgow in the 1960s James Campbell got into loads of trouble. At the age of 15 he... more

On May 10th 1941 Rudolf Hess flew from Germany to Scotland. He hoped to bring the Nazis and the British... more

“G.S.” was one of the first friends I made when I moved to Bozeman, Montana many years ago. The story... more

One million plus dead Americans into the pandemic and the ‘long covid’ odds are now 1 in 5. What happened?... more

Does art have anything to offer us in these trying times? Your host visits the 59th International Art Biennale in... more

Hitler and Goebbels read Walter Benjamin in the bunker, Orson Wells discovers the magic of the fake crowd. Plus, a profile... more

New York’s new mayor recently announced a new strategy to fight crime. As the New York Daily News proclaims: BROKEN... more

We conclude our investigation into Hollywood’s retelling of the secret crimes, conspiracies and lies that rocked America in the first... more

When he was 16 your host mistook the Hollywood movie The Manchurian Candidate for real life. This confusion led to... more

Journalists may write the first draft of history but Hollywood prints the legends and the myths. The 1976 film All... more

After testing positive in Lisbon, your host assesses Portugal's expat and exile scenes.  Plus! lunch with the writer Joseph Roth... more

*** New ToE series debuting next week about truth, lies, American democracy and the 50 year legacy of deepthroat and... more

Our New York after Rona miniseries comes to an end just in time for the latest Variant. The WHO turns... more

As the Nazi nightmare came to an end Thomas Mann thought long and hard about collective guilt. Can Mann’s idea... more

New York Schools were closed for most of the pandemic. Education reporter Anya Kamenetz explains why she calls it a... more

We visit an empty storefront in Greenwich Village to talk with journalist and curator Alex Brook Lynn about her latest... more