That Said With Michael Zeldin

This week we will re-release our February 2021 conversation with John Dean about his book Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers. Authoritarian Nightmare was the first book to take a deep dive into the psychology of Trump’s voter base in an effort to answer such questions as: Why does his rhetoric continue to appeal to them, while his actions are often contrary to their economic, health...

Join Michael in his conversation with Michael Wolraich about his new book The Bishop and the Butterfly, Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age which tells the gripping story of the rise and fall of the New York Tammany Hall political machine intertwined with a murder-mystery that set everything in motion. Her body lay in the undergrowth beside a road that snaked through Bronx’s Van Cortland...

Join Michael in his conversation with George Stephanopoulos about his new book The Situation Room , The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis which recounts the crises and the decisions that shaped the course of history from its creation in 1961 through to today. No room better defines American power and its role in the world than the White House Situation Room. And yet, none is more shrouded in se...

Join Michael in his conversation with Professor Barbara McQuade about her new book Attack from Within, How Disinformation is Sabotaging America which addresses the issue of how disinformation is polarizing American society and threatening the foundations of our democracy. We are strategically being pushed apart by disinformation—the deliberate spreading of lies disguised as truth—and it comes at u...

Join Michael in his conversation with Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. about his new book, We Are The Leaders We Have Been Looking For which makes the case that the hard work of becoming a better person should be a critical feature of American democracy. Through virtuoso interpretations of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Ella Baker, Glaude shows how we have the power to be the heroes that our de...

Join Michael in his conversation with Robin Bernstein about her new book, Freeman’s Challenge, The Murder That Shook America’s Original Prison for Profit, which tells a gripping story of murder, greed, race, and the true origins of prisons for profit in Auburn, NY decades before the Civil War. Robin Bernstein is a cultural historian who specializes in U.S. racial formation from the nineteenth cent...

Join Michael in his conversation with Jane Ferguson about her recent memoir No Ordinary Assignment, which chronicles her journey from childhood in Northern Ireland in the midst of sectarian violence to becoming one of the most decorated war correspondents in a generation. With an open-hearted humanity we rarely see in conflict stories, No Ordinary Assignment shows what it means to build an authent...

Join Michael in his conversation with Professor author Derek Black about their new memoir, The Klansman’s Son, My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism which tells their journey from the heir apparent leader of the White Nationalist movement in the United States to one of the country’s leading antiracist spokespersons. Derek Black was raised to take over the white nationalist movement in th...

Join  Michael  and former senior speechwriter for President Joe Biden as they discuss his fascinating new book,  Undelivered: The Never-heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History . Undelivered presents some of the most notable, never delivered speeches from Richard Nixon’s refusal to resign to Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech; from Dwight Eisenhower’s apology for the failure of the D-Day...

Join Michael in his conversation with Jim Sciutto about his new book, The Return of Great Powers, Russia, China, and The Next World War which details the realities of this new post–post–Cold War era, the threats posed by an increasingly aligned Russian and Chinese governments, and the flashpoint of a new, global nuclear arms race. It poses a question: As we consider uncertain, even terrifying, out...

Join Michael in his conversation with Professor Jefferson Cowie about his Pulitzer Prize winning book Freedom’s Dominion, A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power which traces this complex saga by focusing on a quintessentially American place: Barbour County, Alabama, the ancestral home of political firebrand George Wallace. In a land shaped by settler colonialism and chattel slavery, white peo...

Join Michael in his conversation with Timothy Ryback about his new book Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power which chronicles Hitler’s rise to power in 1932 all within the democratic structures of Germany’s constitutional democracy. Tim has written on history and politics for more than three decades. He is the author of Hitler’s Private Library, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and The L...

Join Michael in his conversation with Jennet Conant about her new book Fierce Ambition, The Life and Legend of War Correspondent Maggie Higgins which tells the remarkable story of Maggie Higgens, the first Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent.  Jennet started her career as a journalist at Newsweek covering business, technology, and cultural affairs. She later wrote for GQ, Esquire, Vanity Fair...

Join Michael in his conversation with Fareed Zakaria about his new book  Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present  which masterfully investigates the eras and movements that have shaped the modern world with a clear-eyed view of the lessons to be learned for our times.  Fareed is the Peabody Award-winning host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN. An Emmy award winner, Fareed was...

Join Michael in his conversation with Saket Soni about his inspiring new book The Great Escape, A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America which tells the story of twenty-first century forced labor/human trafficking conspiracy in the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Saket is a labor organizer and human rights strategist working at the intersection of racial justi...

Join Michael in his conversation with Rachel Slade about her new book Making it in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A. (and How It Got That Way)   which offers a compelling history of American textile manufacturing as told through the story of American Roots, a vibrant Maine company founded by Ben and Whitney Waxman, which sells truly 100% American-made apparel.  Adve...

Join Michael in his conversation with Jeffrey Rosen about his compelling new book, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America. Jeffrey is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia which serves as the country’s leading platform for constitutional education and discussion. He hosts the podcast We th...

Join Michael in his conversation with Martha McPhee about her compelling new memoir, Omega Farm which chronicles her return to her childhood home during the pandemic to care for her cognitively impaired mother and her homestead and the memories this journey reveals to her. Martha is the author of five novels. Her work has been honored with fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and Th...

Join Michael in his conversation with Janet Wallach about her new book, Flirting with Danger: The Mysterious Life of Marguerite Harrison, Socialite Spy which chronicles the life of Marguerite Harrison, America’s first female spy. Janet Wallach has written extensively about notable women in history, from the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East. Her book, Desert Queen; The Extraordinary Life of Gertru...

Join Michael in his conversation with Katie Couric about her most interesting memoir, Going There , which chronicles her groundbreaking professional career while also intimately telling the story of her life beyond our TV screens. Katie is an award-winning journalist, a New York Times bestselling author, co-founder of her non-profit, Stand Up To Cancer and the co-founder of Katie Couric Media whic...

Join Michael in his conversation with Steven Ujifusa about his new book The Last Ships from Hamburg: Business, Rivalry, and The Race to Save Russia’s Jews on the Eve of World War I which chronicles the efforts to save Russian Jews from Czarist Russian pogroms. Steven is a historian who chronicles the confluence of American business, social, and maritime history. He is the recipient of the Washingt...

Join Michael in his conversation with Fergus Bordewich about his new book, Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction , which tells the story how President Grant, his attorney general, Amos Akerman, and Major Lewis Merrill led the successful, multi-year assault on the Ku Klux Klan. Fergus is one of the leading independent historians writing on 18th and 19th America. He is the...

Join Michael in his conversation with Dave Kindred as they discuss his new memoir My Home Team: A Sportswriter’s Life and the Redemptive Power of Small-Town Girls Basketbal l which details the arc of his award-winning career from one of sports most storied writers to his return home to cover a local girl's high school basketball team. Dave has covered sports for numerous newspapers and periodi...

Step into this insightful conversation between Michael Zeldin and Doug Melville on the latest episode of "That Said." Together, they explore the narrative of Doug's new book, Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America’s First Black Generals. This remarkable true story unveils the pivotal roles played by Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., and Jr., America’s first...

Join Michael in his conversation with Professor Edward L. Ayers about his fascinating new book American Visions: The United States, 1800-1860 which explores the revealing history of this most formative period in US history when voices of dissent and innovation help create visions of America still resonant today. Professor Ayers is Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities at the University of...