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Let's go down range! Ross Berkoff joins me to talk Beyond the Outpost: An Army Cavalry Officer’s War Diary on the Frontlines of Afghanistan, 2003 – 2007. We also answer listener questions and I discuss my Iraq war experiences. 

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Ask not! Joel Nelson joins me to talk Kennedy’s Only Hero: How JFK’s Obsession with Winston Churchill Defined His Presidency.

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Here they are, the books I don’t want you to miss for October 2026!

The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Get smart about the Middle East from 1900 to today.
Knopf

This Cursed Beautiful Land: A Russian-American Story by Evan Gershkovich
An American journalist is imprisoned in Russia because, well… Putin.
Crown

Ordinary Wife: The True Story of America's Forgotten Serial Killerby Gregg Olsen & Morgan Olsen
Lyda Trueblood keeps killing her husbands.
Storm Publishing

...

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Let's get redeemed! Lawrence Wright joins me to talk Redemption: Faith, Justice, and Sisterhood on Death Row.

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It's elementary! Lindsey Fitzharris joins me to discuss Sleuth-Hound: The Case of the Real Sherlock Holmes.

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Let's scrub in! Barbara Lazio joins me to talk Off the Top of My Head: Stories from the Operating Room That Will Make You Laugh (or Cry).

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Here's Johnny! Mark Malkoff joins me to talk Love Johnny Carson: One Obsessive Fan's Journey to Find the Genius Behind the Legend.

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Let's go west! Nathaniel Philbrick joins me to talk The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World.

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Let's face the unknown! Robert Kolker joins me to talk The Vanishing Family: Love, Fate, and the Quest to End Dementia.

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The Ego Trip by Kimon de Greef (Doubleday Books)

There Will Come Soft Rains by Brianna Gervat 

The City Without Jews by Douglas Smith  (FSG books)

Injustice Town by Rick Tulsky  (Pegasus Books)

The Sailing of the Intrepid by Montel Williams and David Fisher (Hanover Square Press)

The River of Doubt by Candice Millard

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Let's land this thing! Catherine Grace Katz joins me to talk Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War.

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Let's defect! Ben Macintyre returns to talk Redwood: The Untold Story of the Cold War's Most Extraordinary Spy.

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Let's revolt! Mark Edward Lender joins me to talk War Without Mercy: Liberty or Death in the American Revolution.

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Let's remember dad! Tom Junod joins me to talk In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man: A Memoir.

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Let's start a fire! Matthew Wolfe joins me to talk Fires in the Night: The Earth Liberation Front, the FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-Sabotage.

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Tim Curry - Vagabond (Grand Central Publishing)

Stone Lands - Fiona Robertson (Pegasus)

Ortiz’s War - Nicholas Reynolds and Katie Sanders (Harper Horizon)

American Alt - Chris Lockhart (Bloomsbury)

Lightning Beneath the Sea - James Tabor (W.W. Norton)

The Last Duel - Eric Jager

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Let's take off! Becky Aikman joins me to talk Spitfires: The American Women Who Flew in the Face of Danger During World War II.

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Let's catch a super terrorist! Joby Warrick joins me to talk The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World's First Super-Terrorist.

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Let's survive! Loubna Mrie joins me to talk Defiance: A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival in Syria.

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He's back! James M. Scott joins me to talk Empire of Ashes: Truman, Hirohito, and the Descent into Total War.

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Another month, another list of books I don’t want you to miss just because they didn’t get to come on the pod!

How to Rule the World by Theo Baker – or as I like to call it, how to make college more difficult than it needed to be. Baker tells the story of going to Stanford University where he expects to become another tech billionaire but somehow ends up on a collision course with the president of the university. Oops! 

Stolen Revolution by Yeganeh Torbati and Bozorgmehr Sharafe...

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Let's not say it! Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor joins me to talk Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me.

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Let's go on the run! Zayd Ayers Dohrn joins me to talk Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground.

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Let's set him free! Pamela Colloff joins me to talk Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast.

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Let's get lit! Jonathan Vigliotti joins me to talk Torched: How a City Was Left to Burn, and the Olympic Rush to Rebuild L.A.

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Let's compromise! Lawrence Goldstone joins me to talk Imperfect Union: How Errors of Omission Threaten Constitutional Democracy.

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Let's celebrate 250! The legendary Rick Atkinson joins me to talk The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780.

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Here they are, the books I don’t want you to miss for June 2026!

First, we have The Summer of Death by Geoff Williams. Did you know that in 1936 there was a deadly heatwave that killed thousands of Americans? Of course, you didn’t and neither did I! Thankfully, we have Geoff Williams to not only tell this story, but to know when to crack a joke and when to take things seriously.

Next is the Wreck of the Mentor by Eric Jay Dolin. Dolin is one of my favo...

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Let's go down to the river! True Crime King Gregg Olsen joins me to talk By the River's Edge: A True Story of Identity and Serial Murder.

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Let's make some money! Megan Gorman joins me to talk All the Presidents' Money: How the Men Who Governed America Governed Their Money.

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Let's set sail! David Reynolds joins me to talk Two Ships: Jamestown 1619, Plymouth 1620, and the Struggle for the Soul of America.

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Let's crash! Liaquat Ahamed joins me to talk 1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World.

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Stalin's Apostles by Antonia Senior 

Hammer of the Gods by Don Hollway 

The Fallen by Louise Brangan 

American Men by Jordan Ritter Conn

Margaret Beaufort by Lauren Johnson 

One of Us by Asne Seierstad 

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Let's survive! Thomas Asbridge joins me to talk The Black Death: A Global History of Humanity's Most Devastating Pandemic.

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Let's strike oil! Douglas Brunt joins me to talk The Lost Empire of Emanuel Nobel: Romanovs, Revolutionaries, and the Forgotten Titan Who Fueled the World.

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Let's go for a run! Martin Dugard returns to talk The Long Run: Steve Prefontaine, Frank Shorter, Joan Benoit, Grete Waitz, and the Decade That Made the Marathon Cool.

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Let's Greek it up! Adrian Goldsworthy joins me to talk Athens and Sparta: The Rivalry That Shaped Ancient Greece.

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Let's revolt! Anand Gopal joins me to talk Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution.

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Let's go north! Peter Stark joins me to talk The Lost Cities of El Norte: Coronado's Quest, the Unconquered West, and the Birth of American Indian Resistance – A Narrative History of Exploration, Conquest, and Resistance.

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Can't interview them all! Don't miss these books:

These Divided Isles by Stephen Phillips –Phillips tells the story of the relationship between Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Britain from independence to now. (Pegasus Books)

The Oracle’s Daughter by Harrison Hill – it’s the story of the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps cult. It’s a wild story about a woman who truly goes off the deep end and the daughter who tries to break away. (Scribner Books)

This Dark Night by Deborah Lutz – it’s the life of the author...