FRDH Podcast with Michael Goldfarb

In the fourth of his series of Jewish Ghost Stories, FRDH host Michael Goldfarb goes to Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg, the largest cemetery in Europe, to look for the ghost of Gabriel Riesser. Lawyer, judge and publisher of the shortlived journal of the 1830s, Der Jude.

In the third of this series of Jewish Ghost Stories, FRDH host Michael Goldfarb tells the tale of Frankfurt and its famous ghetto street, the Judengasse, and the struggle of its brightest young Jews in the decades after they were allowed out of the ghetto. A ghost story of identity.

In this second in a series of five Jewish Ghost Stories told by FRDH host Michael Goldfarb goes to Berlins. He explores the identity crises of some of the city's most famous Jewish ghosts: philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, poet and essayist Heinrich Heine and salonniére extraordinary Rahel Varnhagen

The first in a series of five Jewish Ghost Stories told by FRDH host Michael Goldfarb is set in Amsterdam. He goes looking for the ghost of the city's most famous Jewish son: the 17th century philosopher, Baruch Spinoza.

The Bush administration seduced and abandoned Iraq, could the Pope's visit redeem it? In this podcast, FRDH host Michael Goldfarb plays psychoanalyst to explore how the Iraq War led to American withdrawal from global leadership and explore the impact of the Pope's visit on the people of Iraq.

Rush Limbaugh was the voice of those who led America into Calamity. But he was just a front man. In this podcast, first broadcast on the BBC, FRDH host Michael Goldfarb looks at how American broadcasting got to Limbaugh and his hate-filled, fact challenged propaganda. It places the story in its full historical context. From the beginning people understood broadcasting's unique power to sway and in...

Epistemology is the study of how we know what we know - the theory of knowledge. But in the 21st century the objective basis of knowledge has been challenged as never before. In this FRDH special, Baroness Greenfield, Oxofrd University neuroscientist talks to FRDH hos Michael Goldfarb about 21st century epistemology. How can people recognize what is factual truth when bombarded all day long by onl...

What are the historical rules for starting a civil war? What conditions have to be met, how far into irreconcilable hatred must a society fall before fighting becomes inevitable? Is the US close to meeting these conditions? In this FRDH podcast, host Michael Goldfarb looks back at civil wars he has covered and analyzes the current tensions in America against the lessons he learned in places like B...

On January 6, 2021 a mob incited by President Donald Trump broke into the US Capitol building in what has been called a riot, an insurrection, a coup d'État, a revolution. In this FRDH podcast, host Michael Goldfarb tries to find the best word to describe the event and wonders how ti can be stopped from happening again. He draws on his experience covering riots and insurrection in other parts of t...

As 2020 comes to an end veteran BBC journalist Robin Lustig talks about how reality was obscured by twitter as we all tried to understand what was happening in the pandemic. In this FRDH podcast, host Michael Goldfarb and Robin Lustig, who have been front line journalists for a combined 75 years, go through a year like no other and its effect on them. You think you know how the world works and the...

In Netflix hit series The Crown, the Margaret Thatcher on display is far from the woman who has inspired Brexit. As the final Brexit negotiations go down to the wire FRDH host Michael Goldfarb, who covered Thatcher's resignation and the Brexit vote, seeks to correct the record. He remembers the most powerful, focused and radical politician of his lifetime, Margaret Thatcher. A woman who understood...

Everyone loves New York stories, this is FRDH host Michael Goldfarb's from 1985, the year he left his home town New York for London. It's a story of a New York that no longer exists and the pain of leaving home forever. It's a New York story that takes on big questions like "Is God Punishing Us?" Really, take 15 minutes to listen - you will get the definitive answer.

A diary with sound from Philadelphia and other cities in Pennsylvania, the tipping point state in Election 2020. FRDH host Michael Goldfarb records a rough draft of the dramatic 5 days between Election Day and the call that Pennsylvania had been won by Joe Biden and with that state, the election. Give him 25 minutes to tell you the story and even sing you a song.

In this Election 2020 podcast diary MIchael Goldfarb is in Scranton PA to feel the love for Donald Trump at one of his last campaign rallies. He also takes time to think about what the factors in American society that got Trump into the White House. Give him eight minutes to explain.

FRDH host Michael Goldfarb is in Pennsylvania for election 2020 keeping a diary and from Reading writes about how some Democrats are suffering from PTSD and othes used the shock of 2016 to get organizing to defeat Trump Give him 13 minutes to explain.

This edition of All My Presidents looks at Bill Clinton George W Bush and the British Prime Minister who links them, Tony Blair. FRDH host Michael Goldfarb, who reported on all three men during his time working for NPR, reflects on how presidential power can overwhelm the most cynical reporter and the most idealistic Prime MInister. Give him 17 minutes. He has some stories to tell.

As Election 2020 approaches, this All My Presidents episode of FRDH looks at Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Host Michael Goldfarb looks at America as it completed its transition from the New Deal/Civil Rights era of Democratic party dominance to the Reactionary Age of the Republicans. With a bit about the Supreme Court, as well.

Even before the election season, American society was being convulsed by new social/political movements but no one seemed to be in charge of them: QAnon and Black Lives Matter. In this FRDH podcast, host Michael Goldfarb looks at the 21st century history of activist political movements and wonders why so many have failed, except QAnon.

In this podcast originally broadcast on the BBC in 2016, FRDH podcast host Michael Goldfarb looks back at the first presidents whose terms in office he lived through; Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. He reflects on the president's role beyond politics in shaping American's sense of themselves. The stories he tells give a hint at the long downhill run American society has taken from the da...

The Biden/Harris ticket has been announced, now how do the pair campaign in a pandemic? In this FRDH podcast, Michael Goldfarb speaks to Democratic party organizer Meg Ansara, veteran of the 2012 Obama Campaign and the 2016 Clinton campaign about how to overcome the challenges of getting out the vote when you can't just knock on somebody's front door and ask to come in. Give us 17:33 of your time...

With a little under 100 Days til the US Election no one is sure what the reality of the race is. It is a measure of just how norm-shattering, traumatic, and, frankly, bizarre Donald Trump’s years in office have been that virtually no one feels confident that the previous history of US Presidential election is a guide to what will happen on November 3rd. In this FRDH Podcast Michael Goldfarb tries...

Forget about the misery of summer 2020 and let FRDH host Michael Goldfarb tell you a summer story about Bastille Day 1970 in Paris. This departure from the usual subjects of FRDH podcast will take your mind off our present troubles.

A conversation about race from 1995 when FRDH host Michael Goldfarb traveled around Mississippi. Racial tensions are once again convulsing America and these two talks from a series made for the BBC a quarter of a century ago show much and how little has changed. The conversations about race Americans keep saying is necessary, Goldfarb had them in Mississippi 25 years ago, they are like nothing you...

An interview with Martin Sandbu of the Financial Times about his new book, The Economics of Belonging. Even before coronavirus struck many people did not feel a sense of belonging to the economy. Sandbu's book is an analysis of the problem and some suggestions for how to address it post-pandemic. He explains just how to FRDH host Michael Goldfarb in this clear and direct economic discussion.

"Look what's happening out in the streets," sang the Jefferson Airplane half a century ago. Now, as then, the Airplane could sing, "Look what's happening out in the streets" about demonstrations sparked by the murder of George Floyd. In this FRDH podcast Michael Goldfarb looks at the differences and the similarities between two uprisings of people against the police and a government that has lost...