The John Batchelor Show

Gaius and Germanicus: The hosts close on the president's health and psyche, referencing the new book by senior New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman and her colleague, which finds the eighty-year-old relatively healthy—minor hand bruising, blood-thinning aspirin—and fundamentally the same man, simply older, slower, and less articulate, aging traits Gaius admits sharing at seventy-eight. Wit...

Gaius and Germanicus: Germanicus attributes these failures to a psychological myth of omnipotence that has "suckled" every post-Cold War president: George H.W. Bush dipping a toe into Somalia, Bill Clinton's cruise missile war on Serbia, Barack Obama's targeted killings, Donald Trump mesmerized by unlimited power despite "mature" advisers, and Joe Biden's "feckless adventure" in Ukraine, sputterin...

Gaius and Germanicus: On a rainy late summer night in 92 AD Londinium, the hosts convene in their newly expanded wine bar by the River Thames, built so retired centurions of the eighth legion—such as Strabo, who served twenty-seven years—can rest and put their feet up. Gaius apologizes for his tardiness, delayed by a commercial dispute with a Gaulishmerchant demanding extra money for a shipment of...

Jeff Bliss, Wildfire Report #2: The wildfire threatening Reno, Nevada—a city near the California border heavily reliant on tourism and healthcare—has exploded to nearly 100,000 acres after strong afternoon winds breached a 97% containment line. Sparked initially by a motorcycle, the blaze has forced the mandatory evacuation of approximately 42,000 residents, with official estimates warning that up...

Toby Wilkinson, Part Two: The Ptolemaic family's decline is driven by internal civil wars, incestuous marriages, and rising Roman influence. Highly ambitious queens like Cleopatra I and Cleopatra III emerge as central political forces. The narrative culminates with Cleopatra VII, who strategically allies with Julius Caesar, whose military forces accidentally burn down Alexandria's great library. F...

Toby Wilkinson, author of The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra, Part One: The narrative begins with Alexander the Great's conquest of Gaza and his subsequent journey to the Siwa Oasis, where the oracle of Zeus Ammon declared him a god. After Alexander's death, his general Ptolemy I established the Ptolemaicdynasty, wisely integrating Greek and native Egyptian tradi...

Josh Ireland, author of The Death of Trotsky: The True Story of the Plot to Kill Stalin's Greatest Enemy, Part One: The narrative opens with the 1936 executions of original Bolsheviks Zinoviev and Kamenev under Stalin's orders. Ireland explores the contrasting lives and decades-long rivalry of Leon Trotsky (born Lev Bronstein) and Joseph Stalin (born Ioseb Jughashvili). While Trotsky was a brillia...

W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Part Two: The suspension of exchanges leads to massive prisoner concentrations. This is illustrated by a grueling transport to Andersonville, a Georgia camp built to relieve Richmond's strained supplies, and the Union's equally harsh sand spit camp at Point Lookout, Maryland. Conditions at Andersonville deteriorated catastrophically, with over 100 prisoners dying daily due to...

W. Fitzhugh Brundage, author of A Fate Worse Than Hell: American Prisoners of the Civil War, Part One: The narrative begins with the January 1863 capture of the Union gunboat Isaac Smith and three Black sailors. The Confederacy's refusal to exchange these Black captives, coupled with the Lincoln administration's retaliation, triggered the collapse of the systematic prisoner exchange system under t...

Jeremy Zakis, Part Two: Zakis reports on springtime in New South Wales, beginning with magpie breeding and swooping season—the start of nesting and defensive "dive-bombing" behavior, contrasted with the birds' remarkable memory and facial recognition that allow them to remember friendly locals. He notes the arrival of docile currawongs peacefully sharing garden space and pet biscuits with local ma...

Jeremy Zakis, Part One: Zakis discusses the unprecedented 4°C Pacific anomaly—ocean warming not seen in 150 years—its disruption of global trade at the Panama Canal, and the unseasonal heavy rains hitting Sydney rather than a baking heat dome. He explains the science of a wet El Niño: how moisture from the Indian Ocean dipole is driving these downpours, and the meteorological trend showing Austral...

David K. Randall, author of The Monster's Bones: The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World, recounts the historic discovery of the Tyrannosaurus rex by pioneering paleontologist Barnum Brown. The narrative traces Brown's journey from a Kansas farm to his recruitment by Henry Fairfield Osborn for the American Museum of Natural History. Driven by Gilded Age competition funded by wealthy ind...

David Shedd, author of The Great Heist: China's Epic Campaign to Steal America's Secrets, analyzes China's multi-decade campaign of intellectual property and data theft against the United States, costing up to $600 billion annually. He explains how admitting China to the WTO in 2001 failed to foster democratization and details the massive scale of the Ministry of State Security. Using corporate ex...

Dennis Sewell, Part Two: Sewell details Downing's secret diplomacy with Cardinal Mazarin, followed by his opportunistic defection to Charles II upon Cromwell's death. To secure his position under the restored monarchy, Downing orchestrated the capture and rendition of his former regicide allies. (2)

Dennis Sewell, author of Cromwell's Spy: From the American Colonies to the English Civil War, Part One: Sewell introduces George Downing, a brilliant Harvard graduate who rose to become Oliver Cromwell's scoutmaster general during the English Civil Wars. He explores his ideological training, his ruthless perspective on slavery, his intelligence victories in Scotland, and his facilitation of sellin...

Alan Taylor, Part Two: Taylor covers post-1865 developments across the continent, focusing on Canadian confederation under John A. Macdonald, the French imperial intervention in Mexico against Benito Juárez, and the violent realities of Reconstruction under Andrew Johnson. He also outlines the brutal assimilation and subjugation of Native Americans in both the U.S. and Canada. (2)

Max Boot, Part Two: Boot traces Reagan's presidency, beginning with his campaigns and the 1981 assassination attempt. It analyzes his supply-side domestic economics, foreign relations ending the Cold War with Mikhail Gorbachev, and the damaging Iran-Contra scandal. (2)

Max BootBook: Reagan: His Life and Legend Part One (Hour One) explores Ronald Reagan's early life, from a nomadic childhood shaped by an alcoholic father and an optimistic mother, to his success as a lifeguard, sports broadcaster, and Hollywood B-movie actor. It details his marriage to Jane Wyman and his leadership of the Screen Actors Guild during the anti-communist red hunts. Part Two (Hour Two)...

TABLE OF CONTENTS THE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW, 8-21-2026Jeff Bliss reports Las Vegas is planning major upgrades to Allegiant Stadium, with the Raiders seeking $75 million in taxpayer funding to resolve pedestrian choke points and add retail opportunities. In Los Angeles, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass faced criticism after a poor debate performance against challenger Nithya Raman, highlighting her perceiv...

Jonathan Marcus reports American universities are suffering from declining public trust, soaring tuition costs, and a looming demographic drop in enrollment tracing back to the 2008 recession. Schools that became financially dependent on high-paying international students face severe budget cuts and program closures as foreign enrollment drops. This financial squeeze has forced a shift, prompting...

Henry Sokolski warns that while nuclear negotiations focus heavily on Iran's uranium, Iran has a neglected second path to weapons: hundreds of bombs' worth of plutonium stored at the Bushehr plant. Sokolski also criticizes the geopolitical reliance on Elon Musk's Starlink, arguing that a private company should not make critical military decisions, such as approving Ukrainian drone strikes inside R...

Bob Zimmerman reports SpaceX is rumored to be expanding to Louisiana with a massive 130,000-acre launch and data center site, while aerospace startup Castelion is successfully building low-cost hypersonic missiles for the Pentagon. Internationally, China achieved a vertical soft landing of its Zhuque-3 rocket first stage, and Ukraine damaged a key Russian rocket factory. In space science, NASA and...

Lorenzo Fiori reports Europe's severe heatwave is finally breaking as heavy rain and storms across Switzerland and Northern Italy drop temperatures by up to 20 degrees. This rainfall offers critical, long-awaited relief for the dry Po River, which has reached record lows. To escape over-tourism, Fiori recommends Chieti, a historic hilltop town in the Abruzzo region boasting Roman ruins, scenic vie...