Episodes
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Elliot Ackerman is a widely respected writer. His reach extends across fiction and non-fiction, from novels to essays to memoir and commentary. He is an exemplar of Theodore Roosevelt’s ideal of service combining thought and action.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, Ackerman discusses his bestselling new book, 2054: A Novel. This is a successor to 2034: A Novel of the Next World War. Each is coauthored with Admiral James Stavridis. A third volume, 2084, is also planned.
Ackerman shares his views of the value of history and literature in comprehending the unprecedented challenges of our moment of global change and unrest—ranging from great power competition to climate disruption to the rise of new technologies, including artificial intelligence and biotechnology. He also reflects on how longstanding notions of spheres of influence may be transformed in our interconnected world.
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In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, noted journalist Kourosh Ziabari shares his perspective on the intertwined destinies of Iran and America. Ziabari represents a rising generation in Iran and the US. Currently enrolled in the master’s program of the Columbia Journalism School, he has accrued experiences worthy of an extended career. Ziabari urges Americans to distinguish between our reactions to the authoritarian regime in Teheran and our affinities with the Iranian people.
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Benn Steil is an award-winning writer in the fields of finance, history, and biography. He is a senior fellow and director of international economics at the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, Steil discusses his important new book, “The World That Wasn’t: Henry Wallace and the Fate of the American Century.' He explains the ongoing significance of Henry Wallace to our understanding of a hinge point of history, with parallels to our current moment.
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Philip K Howard is a leading reformer of American law and government. He combines thought and action: A prolific, best-selling writer and frequent commentator who founded the non-partisan group, Common Good.
He is the author of an eagerly awaited new book, Everyday Freedom: Designing the Framework for a Flourishing Society.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, Howard discusses the urgent need and prospects for change, in time for vigorous and informed citizen engagement in the pivotal 2024 national elections. In additional to national issues, he offers informed perspectives on state and local developments, including the vast reach of the California state budget.
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Can America overcome the political polarization and dysfunction afflicting us in recent decades?
Or are our circumstances so dire and unprecedented that decline is inevitable and history holds few lessons?
If you’re a pessimist, veteran political commentator and public official Ted Van Dyk would like a word.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, Van Dyk applies his extraordinary experiences in politics, government, and academe, pointing toward the potential for positive change ahead.
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Richard Norton Smith is at the top tier of American presidential historians. He is the author of the highly acclaimed new biography: An Ordinary Man: The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford.
Smith is widely recognized for his regular appearances on the PBS News Hour, as well as a historical commentator on CBS and other networks. He’s a familiar and beloved guide to history on CSPAN.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, Smith discusses his new book, including its genesis and the many parallels and connections between President Ford’s era and our own.
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Sasha Stone is a pioneering blogger and founder of Awards Daily, as well as a widely-read, provocative Substack, “Free Thinking Through the Fourth Turning.”
She is on the vanguard of the realignment and re-sorting underway in our politics and culture.
Sasha Stone’s lived experience is representative of those Bridget Phetasy calls “the politically homeless.” This refers to the rising plurality of Americans—nearing a majority of voters—who reject the enforced duopoly of the Democrats and Republicans. It’s as if the legacy parties are in a war of attrition, prompting a flood of refugees who have no place to call their own.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, Sasha Stone discusses her journey from Hillary Clinton activist to politically independent. She concludes that some of the core values that inspired her earlier affiliations have prompted her to find unanticipated empathy with many Americans who are routinely marginalized and disrespected by the dominant political and cultural narrative of our polarized moment.
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Derek Leebaert—historian, strategist, organizational leadership and management consultant, and bestselling author of a series of critically acclaimed books—has written an outstanding and timely new work: Unlikely Heroes: Franklin Roosevelt, His Four Lieutenants, and the World They Made.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, Leebaert discusses the book, its genesis and its uncanny relevance in our historic moment.
Publisher’s Summary
Only four people served at the top echelon of President Franklin Roosevelt's Administration from the frightening early months of spring 1933 until he died in April 1945, on the cusp of wartime victory. These lieutenants composed the tough, constrictive, long-term core of government. They built the great institutions being raised against the Depression, implemented the New Deal, and they were pivotal to winning World War II.Yet, in their different ways, each was as wounded as the polio-stricken titan. Harry Hopkins, Harold Ickes, Frances Perkins, and Henry Wallace were also strange outsiders. Up to 1933, none would ever have been considered for high office. Still, each became a world figure, and it would have been exceedingly difficult for Roosevelt to transform the nation without them. By examining the lives of these four, a very different picture emerges of how Americans saved their democracy and rescued civilization overseas. Many of the dangers that they all overcame are troublingly like those America faces today.
About Derek Leebaert
Derek Leebaert won the biennial 2020 Truman Book Award for Grand Improvisation. His previous books include Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy from Korea to Afghanistan and To Dare and to Conquer: Special Operations and the Destiny of Nations, both Washington Post Best Books of the Year. He was a founding editor of the Harvard/MIT journal International Security and is a cofounder of the National Museum of the U.S. Army. He holds a D.Phil from Oxford and lives in Washington, D.C.
Otherwise he has long been a management consultant, advising enterprises in the IT, defense, and healthcare sectors. He coauthored the MIT Press trilogy on the rise of the information technology revolution, including MIT's The Future of the Electronic Marketplace.
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Amid the kaleidoscopic changes testing and recasting the post-1945 liberal world order, none is more significant—and consequential—than the ascent of India.
India and the United States have long maintained a unique relationship. Each nation is a post-colonial power. Each achieved independence from Great Britain after protracted struggle. Each is a demographically diverse nation governed by a representative democracy.
The Council on Foreign Relations has created a useful timeline for US-India Relations from 1947-2020.
Today, India is confronting a series of challenges:
—rising nationalist populism;
—financial and economic stresses amid ongoing growth;
—new international alignments, including with China, Russia, and other G-20 nations;
—rising nuclear competition with China and its impact on the global non-proliferation regime.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, renowned strategist Ashley Tellis discusses these and other major issues at this hinge moment in history.
Tellis’ new book, Grasping Greatness: Making India a Leading Power, is published by India Viking. The introduction—a brilliant, comprehensive synthesis—is available now, free-of-charge—in pdf.
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About Ashley Tellis
Ashley J. Tellis is the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, specializing in international security and U.S. foreign and defense policy with a special focus on Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
While on assignment to the U.S. Department of State as senior adviser to the undersecretary of state for political affairs, he was intimately involved in negotiating the civil nuclear agreement with India.
Previously he was commissioned into the U.S. Foreign Service and served as senior adviser to the ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. He also served on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia. Prior to his government service, Tellis was senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation and professor of policy analysis at the RAND Graduate School.
He is a counselor at the National Bureau of Asian Research, the research director of its Strategic Asia program, and co-editor of the program’s seventeen most recent annual volumes, including the latest Strategic Asia 2021–22: Navigating Tumultuous Times in the Indo-Pacific.
He is the author of Striking Asymmetries: Nuclear Transitions in Southern Asia (2022) and India’s Emerging Nuclear Posture (2001), the co-author of Interpreting China’s Grand Strategy: Past, Present, and Future (2000), and the co-editor of Getting India Back on Track (2014). Other significant publications include Revising U.S. Grand Strategy Toward China (2015, co-author), Balancing Without Containment: An American Strategy for Managing China (2014), Atoms for War? U.S.-Indian Civilian Nuclear Cooperation and India's Nuclear Arsenal (2006), India as a New Global Power: An Action Agenda for the United States (2005), Measuring National Power in the Post-Industrial Age (2000, co-author), and Stability in South Asia (1997). In addition to many more Carnegie and RAND reports, his academic publications have appeared in several edited volumes and peer-reviewed journals.
Tellis serves as an adviser to the Chief of Naval Operations. He is a member of several professional organizations related to defense and international studies including the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the United States Naval Institute, and the Navy League of the United States.
He earned his PhD in political science from the University of Chicago. He also holds an MA in political science from the University of Chicago and both BA and MA degrees in economics from the University of Bombay.
Image Credit | Author photo, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
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Brooks Newmark is co-founder of Angels for Ukraine. He is serving on the scene, organizing the safekeeping and relocation of thousands of women and children amid the devastation unleashed by the Russian invasion that began on February 24, 2022.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, Newmark discusses his experiences on the scene in Ukraine. He also shares the process by which he became determined to put himself in harm’s way for others in dire circumstances.
One can recognize Newmark as a spiritual descendant of Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg and others who have given their all to save those who face war and genocide.
Brooks Newmark is well-known and respected as a businessman, philanthropist, politician, and social reform campaigner. He was the Member of Parliament for Braintree (2005-15). He served in the Coalition Government as Minister for Civil Society, with responsibility for charities, the voluntary sector and youth (2014) having previously served on the Treasury Select Committee (2012-14 and 2006-7) and as a Government Whip and Lord Commissioner HM Treasury (2010-12). In Opposition he also served as a Whip (2007-10).
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Angels for Ukraine in the News
—”How ex-Tory MP inspired by Schindler saved 15,000 Ukrainians from the Russians, Christopher Hope and Louisa Wells, The Telegraph, January 5, 2023.
—”Saving Lives in Ukraine,” Gordon F. Sander, Harvard Magazine, September 13 , 2022.
—”How my family’s Holocaust history led me to rescue thousands of Ukrainians,” Brooks Newmark, The Jewish Chronicle, May 12, 2022.
—BBC Essex: “Former MP helps 21,000 Ukrainian refugees,” Brooks Newmark Interview with Ben Fryer.
—”Brooks Newmark: Our Man in Ukraine,” Olenka Hamilton, Catholic Herald, May 18, 2022.
—”Angels for Ukraine will support the country for as long as it takes,” Brooks Newmark, The House, October 22, 2022.
Resources
—Learn and Donate: Angels for Ukraine
—BrooksNewmark.com
—Twitter: @brooksnewmark
—Twitter: @ukrainesangels
—Facebook: Brooks Newmark
—LinkedIn: Brooks Newmark
Image Credits | Brooks Newmark, Facebook, Twitter.
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Amid the uncertainty and sense of lack of leadership in American politics and government, and other sectors, there’s a burst of interest in one of our most consequential presidents: Franklin Roosevelt.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, award-winning presidential historian and journalist Jonathan Darman discusses his highly readable and extensively researched new book, Becoming FDR: The Personal Crisis That Made a President.
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Critical Acclaim
“With superb insight into human nature, Jonathan Darman has written a compelling and illuminating account of how a battle with a virus shaped the life of the man to whom the fate of everything would fall. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s struggles with polio steeled him for the great struggles of the Depression and of World War II, and Darman tells that story in vivid and convincing detail.”
—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship “A brilliant, fresh, and vivid book that shows us how a well-meaning and ambitious gentleman turned into the world figure who led Americans to conquer the Great Depression and fight to victory in global war . . . Jonathan Darman brings us new insights into FDR (a difficult job at this late date) at the same time as he shows us how a leader is made.”
—Michael Beschloss, presidential historian“This fascinating story of how Franklin D. Roosevelt was forged by polio is a moving personal drama. More than that, it’s a valuable book for anyone who wants to know how adversity shapes character. By understanding how FDR became a deeper and more empathetic person, we can nurture those traits in ourselves and learn from the challenges we all face.”
—Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Steve Jobs and Leonardo Da Vinci“Franklin D. Roosevelt has been a strangely elusive figure to biographers, but he comes vividly to life in Jonathan Darman’s moving and insightful portrait. A gifted historian and writer, Darman has given us a parable of redemption through suffering, a sensitive portrait of a marriage, and a fascinating study of the acquisition of power. This is the gripping story of how a lightweight playboy became a great world leader.”
—Evan Thomas, author of First: Sandra Day O’Connor“This moving portrait of Franklin Roosevelt’s rise to power gives us new insights on his inner life. Jonathan Darman writes with grace, ease, and a keen eye for human detail as he tells the story of FDR in his crucible years. It’s about the making of the man before the presidency, before his greatness, and what he had to do and face before he could become who he really was.”
—Peggy Noonan, columnist for The Wall Street Journal“At a time when suffering and resilience have taken on new meaning for us all, Jonathan Darman offers us a compelling and compassionate portrait of a man who did extraordinary things because he came to understand both.”
—Drew Gilpin Faust, bestselling author of This Republic of Suffering
About the Author
Jonathan Darman is a journalist and historian who writes about American politics and the presidency. He is the author of Becoming FDR: The Personal Crisis that Made a President. His book Landslide: Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan at the Dawn of a New America told the story of a thousand transformative days in the 1960s through the eyes of two iconic American presidents.
As a former national political correspondent for Newsweek, Jonathan covered the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Mitt Romney and wrote extensively about other major figures in national politics and media. He covered the 2004 presidential campaign for the magazine’s special election project, which garnered the National Magazine Award for Single Topic Issue. Jonathan has also appeared frequently as a commentator on politics and presidential history on broadcast television, cable news and public radio.
Jonathan is a graduate of Harvard College where he studied American history and literature. He lives in Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley.
Image Credit | Author photo by Nina Subin, from jonathandarman.com.
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In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, renowned theoretical physicist Steven Koonin discusses his views on the state of the climate and alternative policy responses. He also shares thoughts about his ideals as an educator; his admiration for Richard Feynman; and examples of where he’s changed his mind on significant matters in recent years.
Koonin brings a unique set of relevant, hands-on experiences to the complex and contentious public discusssion relating to climate disruption. He is a professor in the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering at NYU's Tandon School of Engineering. He previously was provost of the California Institute of Technology. From 2004 to 2009, Koonin served as Chief Scientist at BP, the energy giant transitioning from its roots as British Petroleum to “Beyond Petroleum.” He was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the US Senate to the post of Under Secretary for Science, U.S. Department of Energy, holding office from 2009-11.
Steven Koonin is the author of the best-selling book, Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters.
Among the many plaudits for the book, Vaclav Smil, distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba, declared:
We have too many global warming books—but this one is needed. Steven Koonin has the credentials, expertise, and experience to ask the right questions and to give realistic answers.
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Additional Resources
—Steven Koonin Medium Page, including presentations, interviews, and responses to critics.
—Recent Debate [90 minutes; final 5 minutes recommended as concise summary of key matters in contention]:
—American Enterprise Institute podcast interview of Koonin on Climate Science and Extreme Weather.
The Serve to Lead podcast is now on Substack. It can be accessed in the usual formats, including:
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Image credit | US Dept of Energy, Public Domain via Wikipedia.
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In our unsettled moment, there’s a burst of interest in one of the United States’ most consequential presidents: Franklin Roosevelt.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead podcast, acclaimed presidential historian David Pietrusza discusses his highly readable, extensively researched new book, Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR’s 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal.
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Critical Acclaim
“A robust chronicle of Franklin Roosevelt’s quest to stay in the White House. . . a brisk, spirited narrative, abundantly populated and bursting with anecdotes . . . A prodigiously researched and exuberantly told political biography/history.”
—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review )
“Pietrusza . . . makes the most of his engrossing tale. . . . a lively story that is rife with strong personalities and blood stirring incidents. . . . appealing.”
– Library Journal
“a sweeping yet minutely detailed chronicle of FDR’s 1936 reelection campaign . . .an exhaustive and expert chronicle of a critical American election.”
—Publishers Weekly
“David Pietrusza’s Roosevelt Sweeps Nation combines penetrating research with good illustrative anecdotes to bring the 1936 presidential election between FDR and Alf Landon into sharp focus. A marvelous and important history. Highly recommended!”
—Douglas Brinkley, professor of history at Rice University, author of Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America.
“David Pietrusza has done it again—another fascinating, easy-to-read book on a key moment in history. Franklin Roosevelt won a massive victory in 1936, cementing his New Deal permanently. Pietrusza brings FDR’s era to life and shows us how it happened.”
—Larry J. Sabato, Director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics
“The 1936 election was not just another FDR victory, but an important turning point in the nation’s history. The story David Pietrusza tells is riveting and the cast of characters is fascinating. Franklin Roosevelt was the most skillful American politician of the 20th century and this election was a decisive affirmation of his power and appeal.”
—Ron Faucheux, political analyst
“In the style and with the depth of research of David McCullough, David Pietrusza makes history come alive in his latest book ‘Roosevelt Sweeps Nation.’ From religious characters like Father Divine and radio preacher Charles Coughlin, to political ones like Huey Long and Roosevelt himself, the book is a delightful and compelling read.”
—Cal Thomas, Syndicated Columnist
“Another great election year chronicle from [David Pietrusza] — such a colorful story & writing. Couldn’t be juicier.”
—Whit Stillman, Director and Academy Award Nominated Screenwriter
“David Pietrusza is my favorite historian, and Roosevelt Sweeps Nation is Pietrusza at his best. Nobody can tell a better story than Pietrusza, who always shows you there’s more to the story than you thought—that there is juicy stuff hidden in our history that nobody has bothered to suss out or that has long been forgotten. This is another page-turner you won’t want to put down. At a time when Americans can use a reprieve from today’s news, Roosevelt Sweeps Nation is just what the doctor ordered. And David Pietrusza is a national treasure.”
—Matt Lewis, Senior Columnist, The Daily Beast
“Roosevelt crafted an election strategy so strong that it has defined national campaigns of both parties ever since. Now historian David Pietrusza brings the stunning 1936 Roosevelt Sweep to life, with timely lessons for our current challenges.”—Amity Shlaes, Author, Great Society.
“all of [Pietrusza’s] books are brilliant, but this is just phenomenal.”
—John Rothmann, KGO Radio (San Francisco)
About the Author
Award-winning historian David Pietrusza has been called “a national treasure” and “the undisputed champion of chronicling American Presidential campaigns.” His books include studies of the 1920, 1932, 1936, 1948, and 1960 presidential elections and biographies of Theodore Roosevelt (Independent Publisher Book Awards Silver Medal, US History), gambler Arnold Rothstein (Edgar Award finalist) and Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis (Casey Award winner).
Pietrusza has appeared on NPR, C-SPAN, MSNBC, The Voice of America, The History Channel, AMC, and ESPN. He has spoken at the JFK, FDR, Truman, and Coolidge presidential libraries, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and various universities, museums, libraries, and festivals.
A noted expert on baseball history, Pietrusza has served as editor-in-chief of Total Sports Publishing, co-editor of Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball, national president of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), and co-author with Ted Williams of Williams’ pictorial autobiography.
A former member of the Amsterdam (NY) City Council, he holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from the University at Albany, is a Recipient of UAlbany’s Alumni Association’s Excellence in Arts & Letters Award, and a charter member of the Greater Amsterdam School District Hall of Fame.He served as a member of the New York State Commission for the Restoration of the Capitol.
The Serve to Lead podcast is now on Substack. It can be accessed in the usual formats, including:
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Image credits | Diversion Books; davidpietrusza.com.
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The India-US relationship is one of the most significant and fascinating among great nations. In this episode of the Serve to Lead Podcast, historian and journalist Meenakshi Ahamed discusses her new book, A Matter of Trust: India-US Relations From Truman to Trump.
Ahamed combines analytical rigor with a storyteller’s gift for narrative. The book has garnered critical acclaim, and is a finalist for the prestigious Arthur Ross Award of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Seventy years of India-US relations has shown that despite the two countries being democracies, not only are they far apart culturally but the intersection of their critical interests is relatively modest. Therefore, the only time when the relationship has developed any real momentum is when one of the leaders has been willing to make a leap of faith.
—Meenakshi Ahamed
India’s world role continues to evolve amid the kaleidoscopic changes underway with the rise of China and other challenges to the so-called liberal international order that has prevailed since the end of the Second World War. Ahamed illuminates current issues—such as India’s decision not to join the United States in support Ukraine’s struggle against Russian aggression in 2022—through her understanding of India’s history of non-alignment during the twentieth-century Cold War. She also has a keen understanding of the unique contributions of Indian-Americans in US business, which may continue to pull our nations ever closer in the decades ahead.
Critical Acclaim
'Meenakshi Ahamed has brought us a brilliant, important, sparkling and definitive study of a part of American history that is growing more crucial by the day. A Matter of Trust is essential reading at a moment when the United States and India are all the more central to each other, and when valiant democracies around the world are in danger.'—Michael Beschloss, New York Times bestselling author and NBC News Presidential Historian
'Meenakshi Ahamed has given us an authentic, thoughtful and accessible account of a relationship characterized by paradox and progress. She tells the tale of the highs and lows of that relationship in all its drama, with strong and idiosyncratic personalities on both sides. Today's transformed India-US relations could determine the future not only of one-fifth of humanity but of the Asian Century. This is a book with a serious message—one to read and savor.'—Shivshankar Menon, Former National Security Advisor, Ambassador to China and Foreign Secretary
'In this world of growing great power competition, the Indian-American relationship has become one of central, strategic importance to the two nations. In her history of the relationship, Meena Ahamed has given us a timely, lively and captivating account of the road India and the United States have travelled and a compelling insight into what lies ahead.'—Frank G. Wisner, Former United States Ambassador to India
'Meenakshi Ahamed's labor of love is a real tour de force covering the long tortuous history of the often-troubled relationship of the world's two largest democracies since India's independence. The book is at once scholarly, deeply researched and yet down to earth. It brings to life the prickly personalities on both sides, and their sensitivities, that often bedeviled the evolving bilateral relationship. As a new era of competitive geopolitics pits West versus East, what lies ahead for this unusual relationship? To prepare ourselves this book is a must-read.'—Dr Rakesh Mohan, Former Deputy Governor Reserve Bank of India
About the Author
Meenakshi Narula Ahamed was born in 1954 in Calcutta, India. After finishing school in India, she obtained an MA from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in 1978. She has had a varied career as a journalist and prior to that as a development consultant. She has worked at the World Bank in Washington D.C. as well as for the Ashoka Society. In 1989, she moved to London and became the foreign correspondent for NDTV. Among the leaders she interviewed were Nelson Mandela, John Major and Bill Clinton during his presidential campaign. She covered the race riots in London and reported on the rise of Indian entrepreneurs in the US in the mid nineties. After returning to the US in 1996, she worked as a freelance journalist. Her op-eds and articles have been published in Asian Age, Seminar, Foreign Policy, Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. She has served on the board of Doctors Without Borders, The Turquoise Mountain Foundation and Drugs for Neglected Diseases. She divides her time between the US and India.
The Serve to Lead podcast has recently moved to Substack (and continues to repopulate in updated settings). It can be accessed in the usual formats, including:
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Image credit: HarperCollins Publishers.
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Nationalism has become a word of opprobrium among many in polite society. It’s often associated with right-wing populists or authoritarians—with a provenance stirring unsettling memories of Hitler, Mussolini and other fascist dictators of the twenty-century, interwar period.
Even the more anodyne formulation, patriot has become fraught in today’s hyper-partisan moment.
John Halpin, co-editor of The Liberal Patriot, is working to expand our visions of these notions. He argues for the possibility of a center-left, liberal-leaning national identity. He offers the model of Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead Podcast, Halpin discusses his thinking and writing on patriotism, nationalism—and how Americans can overcome our polarized politics.
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About John Halpin
John Halpin is a renowned expert on campaigns and elections, political ideology, and public opinion analysis.
His popular Substack newsletter, The Liberal Patriot, declares its mission:
a new site, newsletter, and community for political analysis and debate on elections, public opinion, policy, and ideology by co-editors John Halpin, Ruy Teixeira, Peter Juul, and Brian Katulis.
Over a 20-year career in the fields of public opinion and election analysis, Halpin has written extensively on voter attitudes about domestic and foreign policy with research featured in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Boston Globe, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, The American Prospect, and The Atlantic. He is the co-author with John Podesta of The Power of Progress: How America’s Progressives Can (Once Again) Save Our Economy, Our Climate, and Our Country, a 2008 book about the history and future of the progressive movement.
Halpin received his undergraduate degree in government from Georgetown University and his M.A. in political science from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He lives in Baltimore with his wife and two children.
The Serve to Lead podcast has recently moved to Substack (and continues to repopulate in updated settings). It can be accessed in the usual formats, including:
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Image Credit: John Halpin
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Johnson posits that a blueprint for national solidarity can be found in the exceptional citizenship long practiced in Black America.
“Racism is an existential threat to America,” Theodore R. Johnson declares at the start of his profound and exhilarating book, When the Stars Begin to Fall. It is a refutation of the American Promise enshrined in our Constitution that that all men and women are inherently equal. And yet racism continues to corrode our society. If we cannot overcome it, Johnson argues, while the United States will remain a geopolitical entity, the promise that made America unique on Earth will have died.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead Podcast, Johnson discusses his timely, readable, and provocative book, which will be released in paperback in June 2022.
When the Stars Begin to Fall makes a compelling, ambitious case for a pathway to the national solidarity necessary to mitigate racism. Weaving memories of his own and his family's multi-generational experiences with racism, alongside strands of history, into his elegant narrative, Johnson posits that a blueprint for national solidarity can be found in the exceptional citizenship long practiced in Black America. Understanding that racism is a structural crime of the state, he argues that overcoming it requires us to recognize that a color-conscious society--not a color-blind one--is the true fulfillment of the American Promise.
Fueled by Johnson's ultimate faith in the American project, grounded in his family's longstanding optimism and his own military service, When the Stars Begin to Fall is an urgent call to undertake the process of overcoming what has long seemed intractable.
Representative Reviews
The Washington Post:
An earnestly conceived road map for how America can achieve racial justice following centuries of white supremacy . . . A virtue of the book is his use of personal narrative to illustrate analytical points . . . Johnson writes with lyrical clarity, delivering tales that are by turns heartwarming and heartbreaking.
Publishers Weekly:
A passionate and persuasive exhortation to build a ‘multiracial national solidarity to confront the race problem [in America] head-on’ . . . Heartfelt and vividly written, this is a salient call for America to finally live up to its promise.
Raleigh News & Observer:
You can also be a patriot and still embrace the fullness of American history. Johnson believes one of the keys to realizing our country’s founding vision—the radical idea that all men are created equal, and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights—is understanding how our governing institutions have been warped by a long history of racial division. His new book, When the Stars Begin to Fall, is a call for reforming those institutions, for tackling systemic racism as an urgent threat to the core promise of our country.
About the Author
Dr. Theodore R Johnson is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Fellows Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, where he undertakes research on race, politics, and American identity.
Prior to joining the Brennan Center, he was a National Fellow at New America, and a Commander in the United States Navy, serving for twenty years in a variety of positions, including as a White House Fellow in the first Obama administration and as speechwriter to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
His work on race relations has appeared in prominent national publications across the political spectrum, including the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and National Review, among others.
Please note that the Serve to Lead Podcast has recently moved to Substack (and continues to repopulate in updated settings). It can be accessed in the usual formats, including:
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Image Credits: theodorerjohnson.com
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A riveting narrative of Wall Street buccaneering, political intrigue, and two of American history’s most colossal characters, struggling for mastery in an era of social upheaval and rampant inequality.
At the turn of a new century, the United States is in transition. Its financial and economic systems are being disrupted, amid cultural turmoil and political division. The periodic emergence of oligarchic power in the American political economy is occurring yet again.
Such sentiments were front-and-center at the turn of the twentieth century, as they are today.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead Podcast, journalist and author Susan Berfield shares the history and outlines the lessons from her highly readable, well-received book, The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism. It will be released in paperback in May 2022.
Berfield brings history to life through her focus on two titanic personalities: President Theodore Roosevelt and financier J.P. Morgan. The interaction of their lives and work illuminates significant trends and challenges that remain familiar and have acquired renewed urgency.
Representative Reviews
The Washington Post:
Wonderfully detailed . . . [Berfield’s] story is about the past but also very much about the present, as our own Gilded Age raises old questions about inequality, plutocracy and what Roosevelt once called ‘that most dangerous of all classes, the wealthy criminal class’ . . . The book may make you both sad and mad, because it serves as a poignant, painful reminder of what a real leader does.
The New York Journal of Books:
A tale of greed, power, and accountability, an epic story of a clash of titans, one a political dynamo, the other unparalleled in business savvy. Out of their struggle, a new nation emerged, one that could flex its muscles and cause private enterprise to shudder, instead of the other way around as it had been before. . . Today, as the United States barrels its way into the 21st century, with business behemoths like Amazon and Apple treading in the footsteps of Morgan's Northern Securities, one can only wonder when and where the next trust buster will arise.
About the Author
Susan Berfield writes investigative and feature stories for Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg News. Most recently, she's examined the dangers of generic drugs and the flaws in our recall system. She's revealed a company's years-long effort to misinform residents and discredit activists seeking to remove nuclear waste from a Superfund site outside St. Louis. Several months later, the Environmental Protection Agency reversed an earlier decision and demanded the company do so. Using confidential documents, she exposed how Walmart spies on its workers to prevent them from organizing. And she helped uncover a con man who talked a small Missouri town out of millions and was later convicted of fraud.
She's won awards from the Newswomen's Club of New York, the New York Press Club, the American Society of Business Publication Editors, and the Education Writers' Association. She contributes to the Pay Check, named the diversity and inclusion podcast of 2019 by Adweek. A collaboration with WNYC about the secretive family behind the largest mall in the country was a Loeb finalist in 2017. Her story about honey smugglers was the basis for an episode of the documentary series Rotten, which premiered on Netflix in 2018. She’s appeared on National Public Radio and PBS NewsHour.
Before joining Businessweek, she was a senior writer at Asiaweek in Hong Kong, where her story, "Ten Days that Shook Indonesia," won the Society of Asian Publishers’ Reporting Award and the Hong Kong Human Rights Press Award.
She earned a master’s degree at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, where she was a Zuckerman Fellow. Her undergraduate degree is from Brown University; after graduating, she co-directed a documentary in India funded by Brown's Arnold Fellowship.
Please note that the Serve to Lead Podcast has recently moved to Substack (and continues to repopulate in updated settings). It can be accessed in the usual formats, including:
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Image Credits: susanberfield.com
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Philip K. Howard is a longtime leader of government and legal reform in the United States. Amid the current political turmoil, Howard has set his sights on the remorseless increase in the power of public employee unions. This is a thread linking public sector pension shortfalls; local, state, and federal government bureaucratic dysfunction; outdated public infrastructure that costs far more to improve than in comparable nations; and the struggles between parents and teachers’ unions on issues from student masking to curriculum development.
Howard’s guiding star is to hold government accountable to the citizens it is intended to serve.
In this episode of the Serve to Lead Podcast, Howard discusses his efforts to reform public sector collective bargaining—including an innovative project to challenge its constitutionality. He also explores the evolution of the legal profession, including the decline of the lawyer-statesman ideal.
Philip K. Howard’s latest book is Try Common Sense: Replacing the Failed Ideologies of Right and Left (W.W. Norton & Company, January 2019). His 2010 Ted Talk has been viewed over 650,000 times.
Howard is also the author of the best-seller The Death of Common Sense (Random House, 1995), The Collapse of the Common Good (Ballantine Books, 2002), Life Without Lawyers (W.W. Norton & Company, 2009), and The Rule of Nobody (W.W. Norton & Company, 2014). He writes periodically for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and other publications.
In 2002, Howard founded Common Good, a nonpartisan national coalition dedicated to restoring common sense to America. His 2015 report “Two Years, Not Ten Years” delineated the economic and environmental costs of delayed infrastructure approvals, and has been endorsed by leaders of both major political parties.
The son of a minister, Philip K. Howard got his start working summers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner and has been active in public affairs his entire adult life. He is a prominent civic leader in New York City and has advised national political leaders on legal and regulatory reform for three decades, including Vice President Al Gore and numerous governors. He is Senior Counsel at the law firm Covington & Burling, LLP. Howard is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School, and lives in Manhattan with his wife Alexandra. They have four children.
The Serve to Lead podcast has recently moved to Substack (and continues to repopulate in updated settings). It can be accessed in the usual formats, including:
Apple Podcasts | Amazon Audible | Amazon Music | Google Podcasts | iHeart | Spotify | Stitcher | Podchaser | TuneIn
Reference to Patrick J. Shiltz, “On Being a Healthy, Happy, and Ethical Member of an Unhealthy, Unhappy, and Unethical Profession,” Vanderbilt Law Review, Volume 52, Issue 4, 1999.
Image: Covington & Burling LLP
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William K. Reilly has achieved a consequential career in environmental leadership. He has served four presidents in high positions and sensitive assignments requiring notable judgment and disciplined discretion. In this episode of the Serve to Lead Podcast, Reilly discusses the past, present and promise of environmental leadership in the United States and globally. He […]
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Frank DiStefano is a Washington, D.C.-based writer who focuses on the history and future of United States politics. He is the author of The Next Realignment: Why America’s Parties Are Crumbling and What Happens Next. The book has received praise from leaders and experts across the political spectrum. On this episode of the Serve […]
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