With the Bark Off: Conversations on the American Presidency

Hank Aaron, who died on January 22 at age 86, was one of baseball’s greatest heroes. His legendary career spanned 23 seasons, including 21 in which he was named an All-Star. When he broke Babe Ruth’s hallowed career homerun record in 1974, it was one of baseball’s most glorious moments. But, in many ways, it was also a painful one for Aaron, who was confronted by virulent racism.  In 2015, we host...

Ben Barnes was a political protégé of Lyndon Johnson. Elected to the Texas legislature in 1960, he became the Speaker of the Texas House at age 26, making him the youngest House Speaker in a state legislature in 95 years. He went on to become Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1969, a post he held for 4 years.  As a politician, political strategist or lobbyist, he has come to know every president sin...

James A. Baker, III was one of the most consequential statesmen of the latter half of the 20th century. A power broker in Washington during the Ford, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush administrations, Secretary Baker held three different cabinet positions, twice served in the role of Chief of Staff, and ran five presidential campaigns. As Secretary of State for George H.W. Bush, he was widely credited...

During the 8 years of the Obama presidency, Valerie Jarrett was one of the most powerful people in Washington. A top advisor to President Obama, she oversaw the Offices of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and chaired the White House Council on Women and Girls. She now serves as a senior advisor to the Obama Foundation and a Senior Distinguished Fellow at the University of Chicago La...

Paola Ramos is a host and correspondent for VICE and VICE News, as well as a contributor to MSNBC and Telemundo News. Her new book,  Finding Latinx: In Search of the Voices Redefining Latino Identity , explores an expanding definition of means to be Latino in America, and ultimately, what it means to be an American. As Stacey Abrams has said of the book, it provides “a deeper understanding of who...

Dr. Don Carleton is founder and executive director of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin, an archive documenting key themes in U.S. and world history. The Briscoe Center’s new book , Flash of Light, Wall of Fire,  provides little seen photographic documentation of the horrific human toll of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end Wo...

Robert Dallek is one of our country’s leading presidential historians. His many books include groundbreaking works on Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon. Dallek discusses his latest book, “How Did We Get Here?: From Theodore Roosevelt to Donald Trump,” which charts how the triumphs and failures of our modern presidents paved the way for our current president, wh...

Since breaking the fateful story of Watergate in 1972, Bob Woodward has been at the top of his field, twice winning the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism and writing 18 best-selling books. Woodward’s latest book, “Rage,” his second on Donald Trump, features 18 exclusive interviews with President Trump himself. In this episode, he discusses the explosive new book and what it says about President Trump,...

Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for President, has been a major fixture in politics for nearly half a century, since his election to the Senate in 1972. In the fall of 2017, the former Vice President came to the LBJ Presidential Library, where he spoke about the values instilled in him by his parents and how they shaped him, why he got into politics in the first place, and the marked changes he’...

In this episode, we hear from Nona Jones, author, media personality, and Head of Global Faith-Based Partnerships at Facebook. Her recent initiative “Faith and Prejudice” - a church-based effort to help white parishioners confront and dismantle racism in themselves, their churches, and their communities - has reached over 6 million viewers since its launch this summer. Nona talks about her own fasc...

Jennifer Palmieri has spent her career in Democratic politics. In 2013, she became the White House Director of Communications for Barack Obama and went on to become the Director of Communications for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid. After Clinton’s loss, she wrote “Dear Madam President,” a #1  New York Times  bestseller. Her new book, “She Proclaims,” is a manifesto for women to move beyon...

In today’s episode, we take a look at the upcoming presidential election that will pit President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence against Democratic challengers Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Joining us to offer their analysis and perspectives are two prominent political analysts.  Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, a contributor to MSNBC, is the Assistant Dean for Civic Engagement and a Lecturer...

This month marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote in the United States. To mark the occasion, we bring you conversations with two iconic women, Nancy Pelosi and Condoleezza Rice.   First is an interview with one of our nation’s most powerful women, Nancy Pelosi, who made history in 2007 by becoming the first woman to become Speaker of the H...

Paul Begala is one of our nation’s most talented political strategists. He came to national prominence in 1992 when he helped then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton win the presidency, then served as counselor to President Clinton, coordinating policy, politics and communications. A CNN contributor, he is the author of six political books, including his latest “You’re Fired: The Perfect Guide to Beat...

This episode explores how to build a meaningful social movement with two leading forces in activism today. Brittany Packnett Cunningham is an educator, writer, NBC News contributor, and co-founder of Campaign Zero, a policy platform to end police violence. Cristina Tzinztún Ramírez, a recent candidate for the U.S. Senate, is an author, community organizer, and founder of JOLT, a civil rights nonpr...

Acclaimed author Larry Tye's latest book, "Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy," examines the pernicious legacy of the notorious senator from Wisconsin, whose anti-Communist campaign in the 1950s—built largely on falsehoods and fabrication—led to division and disunity that seems very familiar in America today. Tye's other books include "Satchel: The Life and Times of an Ame...

Melody Barnes served as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Barack Obama, and is the host of the recent podcast "LBJ and the Great Society." Currently, she's a professor at the University of Virginia's Miller Center and co-director of the university's Democracy Initiative. In this conversation, Barnes reflects on this moment in our nation's history as the promise of...

Robert Caro is one of our country's most celebrated authors. His four volumes chronicling the life and times of Lyndon Johnson and 1,300-page book on New York power broker Robert Moses have earned him nearly every major literary honor, including the National Book Award and two Pulitzer Prizes. In this interview with his friend and fellow author Stephen Harrigan, Caro talks about his latest book, "...

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has earned a place in history, not only as the first woman to take on the role, but as one of the most effective. Molly Ball's new book "Pelosi," a New York Times bestseller and recommended by The Washington Post as one of "20 Books to Read This Summer," tracks Speaker Pelosi's eventful life from being a stay-at-home mother of five to becom...

Veteran television journalist Chris Wallace, the host of Fox News Sunday, discusses his new book, "Countdown 1945," detailing the turbulent first 116 days of Harry Truman's presidency, from Truman unexpectedly becoming president in the wake of Franklin Roosevelt's death to the bombing of Hiroshima to end World War II. Wallace also shares what it's like to be on the receiving end of angry tweets by...

Bakari Sellers became the youngest African American elected official in the country in 2007, when he was sworn into the South Carolina legislature at age 22. Currently a contributor to CNN, he talks about his new book, "My Vanishing Country: A Memoir," which looks at the rural black America in which he grew up and how it has changed adversely over time, as he recounts his own life and his quest fo...

Dr. Peniel E. Joseph is a Professor of Public Affairs and the founding director for the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. His critically acclaimed new book, "The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.," argues for a new interpretation of these two historic civil rights...

As a reporter and news anchor, Dan Rather has covered the biggest stories of the last half-century, from the Civil Rights Movement and Watergate to 9/11 and COVID-19. His wise commentary on current events has made him a social media phenomenon with millions of followers. Rather gives us his perspective on the times we're living in compared to those he's covered in the past; Donald Trump and his to...

President Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court in January 2017. In this episode, Justice Gorsuch talks to us about his recent book, "A Republic, If You Can Keep It," in which he reflects on the dramatic changes in his life after his nomination; his experience on the high court since his appointment and the judicial principles of originalism and textualism that guide him; and why, desp...

A virus starts in Asia, quickly growing into a global pandemic that throws the U.S. and the world into a state of chaos. Sound familiar? It's actually the plot of "The End of October," the new novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and staff writer for The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright. We talk to Wright about the creative impetus for the novel, what he learned about pandemics in his meticulous rese...