Conversations Host Harry Kreisler welcomes author Nathaniel Rich for a discussion of the film noir genre. Their conversation focuses on the key elements of the genre and explores why the City by the Bay came to be a preferred setting for the films that brought to the screen the terror and dread of the modern city.
Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes writer Mark Danner for a discussion of his articles in the New York Review of Book on the torture policies of the Bush Administration. The conversation addresses these topics: how interrogation turned to torture in response to the 911 attacks, the mind set of Cheney and Rumsfeld, the impact of the Church Committee reforms, the political dimensions of uncovering scandal in an empire that is also democracy, the implications of torture for American identity, and the politics and necessity of establishing accountability.
Conversations Host Harry Kreisler welcomes writer Mark Danner for a discussion of the Iraq War and foreign policy in the Bush administration. Informed by history, Danner's analysis includes comparison of Bush and Reagan, draws attention to change in U.S. policy on torture, and examines the options for future U.S. policymakers.
Welcome to a Conversation with History. I am Harry Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies. Our guest today is Mark Danner, a staff writer for the New Yorker specializing in foreign affairs. He has worked on the staff of the New York Review of Books, as senior editor of Harper's Magazine, as foreign affairs editor of The New York Times Magazine. He has co-written and co-produced two hour-long, award-winning documentaries for ABC News Peter Jennings Report. Mark is a frequent contributor to major magazines and is a frequent guest on news analysis television programs. He is...
Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Harper's Editor Emeritus Lewis Lapham for a discussion of his career and the history of Harper's Magazine. Lapham compares print to electronic media, analyzes the corruption of language by politics,and reflects on the incompatibility of democracy and empire. He concludes with a devastating critique of the Bush administration and its impeachable offenses.
Host Harry Kreisler welcomes Leonard Shlain, Chairman of Laparoscopic Surgery at the California Pacific Medical Center and Associate Professor of Surgery at UCSF for a discussion of his career as a surgeon and as an author. Dr. Shlain talks about his three previous books: Art and Physics; The Alphabet Versus the Goddess; and Sex,Time and Power and his forthcoming book on Leonardo da Vinci. He highlights the brain/mind theme that recurs throughout his works, analyzes the roots of creativity, and analyzes the differences between male and female perspectives. He concludes with his thoughts...
Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes New Yorker staff writer Lawrence Wright for a discussion of his new book, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Included in the conversation are profiles of Mohammed Qutb, Osama Bin Ladin, and Dr. Ayman al-Zawarhiri. key figures in the radical jihadist movement that became Al Qaeda. Wright also reflects on the career of FBI agent John O'Neill who led the FBI search for terrorists within the United States and was killed` in the destruction of the Twin Towers.
Conversations Host Harry Kreisler welcomes Victor Navasky, Publisher and former Editor of The Nation, for a discussion of the role of opinion journals in democracies. Navasky reflects on his life as a journalist, editor, and publisher.