Redistricting, Reform, and the Return of Rick Pearson

The Lost Founder: The Man Who Wrote "We the People"

Who was the Founding Father who coined "We the People"—and why have so few Americans ever heard of him? John Howell welcomes author Jesse Wegman to discuss The Lost Founder, the remarkable story of James Wilson, one of the architects of the Constitution, a signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and an early champion of popular democracy. They explore Wilson's influence on Thomas Jefferson, the Constitutional Convention, the Electoral College, slavery, and the dramatic rise and fall of one of the most brilliant—and forgotten—figures in American history. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Can AI Be Trusted? Building Accountability Before the Robots Take Over

Can artificial intelligence really be trusted? John Howell talks with James and Chase Malackowski of AI QA Global about AI governance, accountability, and the growing need for independent oversight. They discuss who is responsible when AI gets it wrong, the risks of biased data, the Chicago Principles for responsible AI, and why building trust may be the biggest challenge facing artificial intelligence. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Six-Foot-Six Orphan Who Fought Ten Battles for a Country That Wasn't Yet His with Admiral John Palmer

At four years old, a boy was dropped on the docks at City Point, Virginia, unable to speak a word of English except his own name. He'd been taken from his family on an island near Portugal, abused at sea by superstitious sailors looking for someone to blame for a storm, and abandoned with nothing but the clothes on his back. That boy grew to six foot six and 260 pounds, and became one of the most fearsome soldiers of the American Revolution. John Howell talks with retired Admiral John T. Palmer about his new book, George Washington's One Man Army: The Life, Legend, and Battles of Peter Francisco. Palmer traces how an indentured blacksmith's apprentice — inspired after eavesdropping on Patrick Henry's "give me liberty" speech — fought in ten major engagements, took six wounds, and by most accounts personally dispatched more than twenty enemy soldiers with a bayonet and a six-foot broadsword commissioned for him by Washington himself. They cover his single-handed defeat of nine of Banastre Tarleton's dragoons, the half-ton cannon he reportedly carried off the battlefield at Camden, being left for dead in a pile of corpses after Guilford Courthouse, and how he later ran into a burning Richmond theater and pulled out more than thirty people — then asked that his name be left out of the papers. Palmer also digs into why a soldier Washington personally credited with saving "perhaps the war" vanished from popular memory, what Francisco's story says about the man behind the myth, and how the book's structure moves between the generals' strategy and the up-close reality of one soldier's fight. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

How Archaeologists Outwitted the Nazis and Saved Ancient Greece with Stephan Talty

Hitler didn't just want to conquer Greece. He wanted to own it — convinced the ancient Greeks were proto-Germans whose civilization gave the Third Reich its rightful heritage. When the Wehrmacht occupied Athens in 1941, the Nazis arrived believing they were home. That belief bought just enough time for a small group of scholars and spies to pull off one of the war's most audacious cultural rescue operations. New York Times bestselling author Stephan Talty joins Big John Howell to discuss his new book The American School of Spies — the true story of how American archaeologists were recruited by Wild Bill Donovan, how a man named Rodney Young bled on the Albanian front before running Greece's wartime spy network, and how a single conscience-stricken German helped save Athens from deliberate destruction. Plus: the spy codenamed Cicero, the D-Day deception that hinged on a fake bride and a train out of Turkey, and why both Athens and Paris came within a few weeks of being rubble. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Dave Norman on Jerry Hey and the L.A. Studio Sound

John Howell sits down with trumpeter and educator Dave C. Norman for an inside look at the life and legacy of legendary L.A. studio player and arranger Jerry Hey. From Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall to Earth, Wind & Fire and Quincy Jones, Hey’s horn section defined a generation of pop and R&B. It’s a deep dive into the artistry, discipline, and unmistakable sound of the players who made brass shine like lasers. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.