Free Daily Podcast Summary
Booknotes+: Daily Summaries Delivered
by C-SPAN
Taking the concept from Brian Lamb's long running Booknotes TV program, the podcast offers listeners more books and authors. Booknotes+ features a mix of new interviews with authors and historians, along with some old favorites from the archives. The platform may be different, but the goal is the same – give listeners the opportunity to learn something new.
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- 2 days ago1h 2m
Walter Stahr, "William Howard Taft"
Historian Walter Stahr has written books on John Jay, William Henry Seward, Edwin Stanton, and Salmon Chase. Now comes his biography of America's 27th president, William Howard Taft, who subsequently also served as the 10th Chief Justice of the United States. Walter Stahr writes at the beginning of his book: "Taft was a modern conservative president, one who avoided foreign wars, worked closely with our allies, lowered tariff rates, and reduced the federal deficit." Stahr also writes that "Taft didn't agree with his predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt, that the president had some vague power to pursue the public good." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 1 weeks ago1h 7m
Shawn Gude, "American Socialist"
Eugene V. Debs ran for President of the United States as a socialist five times. The first in 1900, the last in 1920, when he received close to a million votes. Shawn GudeS, a native of Iowa, a former editor of Jacobin, and a current resident of New York City, is the author of a Debs biography titled "American Socialist." In his introduction, Gude writes: "The story of Eugene V. Debs' life is the story of one man's radicalization, and of the country he helped radicalize in turn." Debs dropped out of school at age 14. His base of operations and his hometown was Terre Haute, Indiana. Shawn Gude tells about his union activities, his presidential campaigns, and why he was sent to prison twice, once for six months and the second time for over two years, before his sentence was commuted by President Harding in the early 1920s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 2 weeks ago1h 11m
Simon Sebag Montefiore, "The Cauldron"
Simon Sebag Montefiore has written nine nonfiction books and three novels. His latest is called "The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East." The time period covered is from 1900 to the present. In Mr. Montefiore's acknowledgements, he writes: "Family is an important theme in this book, and my own has a slight link to the dynasties that ruled the Middle East. My forebearer Moses Montefiore first met Muhammad Ali the Great, ruler of Egypt, when he visited the Levant in 1827." Author Montefiore focuses on 19 different countries and many more kings, rulers, prime ministers, emperors, and sultans in his book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 3 weeks ago1h 41m
John Ryan, "America's Trial"
Only nine men have been convicted, through military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, out of roughly 780 total detainees held there for some time since 2002. However, only 15 prisoners are currently housed at Gitmo. One of those is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who allegedly said he was the mastermind of 9/11. Mohammed has spent the last 20 years incarcerated and is said to go on trial in June 2028. John Ryan, founder of Lawdragon, has spent the past decade detailing the day-to-day activities at Guantanamo. His book is "America's Trial: Torture and the 9/11 Case on Guantanamo Bay." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Oct 6, 20261h 10m
Sam Roberts, "Are They Dead Yet?"
The name of the book is "Are They Dead Yet?: The Art of the Obit." The author, Sam Roberts, is a 50-year veteran of New York journalism. He says in his book: "I've buried 1,600 or so people during my improbable decade writing obituaries for the New York Times." Reporters who do his kind of reporting are called obituarists. Sam Roberts, in his book's prologue, says he "learned more on the job about accuracy, context, and the distinction between cynicism and skepticism than I would have in any journalism school." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Sep 29, 20261h 4m
Craig Whitlock, Washington Post Investigative Reporter
On Saturday, August 8, on the front page of the Washington Post was this headline: "Some Vets Went Along with Scams of the G.I. Bill." Leading the team of Post reporters was Craig Whitlock. His co-author was Andrew Ba Tran. The dateline on the story was San Diego. The first paragraph of the story was: "At Blue Star Learning, a vocational school that defrauded taxpayers of $29 million in GI Bill funds, learning was not the point." Craig Whitlock, 28-year Washington Post veteran, was a gust on Booknotes+ in both 2021 and 2024, the first time for his book "The Afghanistan Papers" and the second about his book "Fat Leonard," about a Malaysian man now serving a 15-year prison sentence for defrauding the U.S. Navy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Sep 22, 20261h 8m
Andrew Burstein, "Being Thomas Jefferson"
Andrew Burstein recently retired as a professor of history at Louisiana State University. "Being Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History" is his 16th book about the early years of the United States. In the introduction, Prof. Burstein writes: "This book is about extraordinary drama that punctuated the life of a famous man who had an unusual need to control his environment." Andrew Burstein continues, noting that "as much as his creative imagination led to memorable achievements, the capaciousness of his intellect exacted a price. When enticed by nature's mysteries, his eyes were wide open to new possibilities. And when it came to the clash of egos in public venues, he was acutely sensitive to slights." Professor Burstein says Jefferson "was driven for public celebrity." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Sep 15, 20261h 12m
Jonathan Jordan, "Ike and Winston
Jonathan Jordan devotes 544 pages and 57 chapters of his book "Ike and Winston" to telling the story of the friendship between Dwight David Eisenhower and Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill. President Eisenhower lived to be 78 and died in 1969. Sir Winston died four years before that, in 1965, at age 90. Author Jonathan Jordan says: "Churchill could have had his pick of friendship, but he wanted Ike's. In the beginning, he courted Ike for what Ike could do for Britain. The Kansan held the trust of men like Franklin Roosevelt and George C. Marshall. This influence gave Ike the power to destroy or create, and Ike had the gambler's nerve to use that power. London needed a friend like that." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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About Booknotes+
Taking the concept from Brian Lamb's long running Booknotes TV program, the podcast offers listeners more books and authors. Booknotes+ features a mix of new interviews with authors and historians, along with some old favorites from the archives. The platform may be different, but the goal is the same – give listeners the opportunity to learn something new.
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