Frdh Podcast With Michael Goldfarb

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 indoctrinate. IN America after World War 2 the Fairness doctrine was put in place to try and restrain unscrupulous political manipulation of the airwaves. It worked for a while then Limbaugh was allowed to use his voice to bring calamity to America. Give FRDH 57 minutes to explain.

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 online falsehoods that seem like facts? What happens when the usual processes by which learning take place are amped up and corrupted by a million lies a minute on Twitter? Take 23 minutes to find out.

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 Bosnia and Northern Ireland.

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 the world as well as his study of philosophy to find the word that most accurately sums up the riot at the Capitol.

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 then suddenly you find out you haven't a clue. But it's not all doom and gloom, promise. Give us 18 minutes to prove it.

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 big ideas and sadly walked away from them. From a speech to her constituency Conservative group: "Some fears have been expressed that if Britain joins the Common Market she will cease to be able to formulate her own foreign policy and will lose her separate identity. Looking at the European Community at present, it does not appear that its separate members have lost either their identity or their sovereignty. Most people when they talk of sovereignty mean the effective control over the destiny of the nation by Parliament. But today we have entered into many Treaties and military alliances which limit our freedom of

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 days of Eisenhower and Kennedy to a presidential choice between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

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 to explain how to do it

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 to see through the twitter induced paranoia engulfing American society to the historical precedents that should be providing the key to understanding the situation.

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.