For the Ages: A History Podcast

Historian and bestselling author Jon Meacham joins David M. Rubenstein for a conversation on America’s long struggle to define itself. Drawing on centuries of speeches, letters, and writings—from the nation’s founding to the present—Meacham reflects on enduring debates over democracy, inclusion, and national identity. Together, they consider how understanding the country’s conflicted past can help Americans navigate a polarized present.Recorded on April 11, 2026

Two hundred and fifty years after the country’s founding, political polarities, seismic wealth disparity, and challenges to free speech and artistic expression all seem to paint a picture of an America that is unsure of the identity by which it has long been defined. In this conversation with David M. Rubenstein, Darren Walker, drawing on his experience throughout his lifelong career in philanthropy and a decade of leading the Ford Foundation, reflects on America’s ongoing struggles with inequality, democracy, and the principles that bind society.Recorded on January 27, 2026

Over the course of her 70 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II met and worked with thirteen American presidents—more than any other American or foreign leader. Journalist Susan Page sits down with David M. Rubenstein to discuss how, over nearly three quarters of a century, Queen Elizabeth collaborated with presidents from Truman to Trump, exerting political influence and growing from a shy young princess to a queen who came to define the modern British monarchy.Recorded on July 7, 2026

The 2024 presidential election cycle upended norms and expectations across the American electorate, with over 40% of Hispanic voters casting their ballots for Donald Trump. Reflecting on this unprecedented political moment, historian Geraldo Cadava explores the history of Hispanic American voters from the 1960s to the present, tracing their growth as a key demographic that has been courted across the political spectrum. Recorded on May 12, 2025

The story of the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression that followed goes far beyond the events of “Black Tuesday.” New York Times bestselling author Andrew Ross Sorkin joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss the speculation, greed, and ignored warnings that led to that epic economic meltdown, while examining the ways in which the economic and political state of the US in the late 1920s resembles our nation today.Recorded on November 11, 2025

One hundred and fifty years before the events of January 7, 2021, the 1872 Louisiana gubernatorial election—arguably the most contentious in American history, with both parties claiming corruption and neither candidate conceding—led to racial violence across the state and the deaths of at least 150 Black men in the Colfax Massacre. CNN’s Dana Bash and author David Fisher join David M. Rubenstein to discuss the little-known story of this violent moment in America’s history.Recorded on May 1, 2025

The early decades of the twenty-first century may be the most revolutionary period in modern history, with tectonic shifts in globalization, technology, identity, and geopolitics. But monumental change can be found across history as humans have lived, and thrived, through more than one great realignment. What were history’s most transformative revolutions, and how can they help us to understand our own fraught world today? CNN host Fareed Zakaria investigates the eras and movements that have shaken norms while shaping the modern world, with a focus on three such periods that hold profound lessons for today.Recorded on April 26, 2025

Few people know Abraham Lincoln as intimately as Harold Holzer. The author, co-author, or editor of over 50 books on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War era, Holzer has explored everything from Lincoln’s election to his assassination, his views on immigration to his role as a father. In this conversation, Holzer joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss the life and times of America’s 16th president. Recorded on May 2, 2025

Spain’s involvement in early American history might feel limited, but Spanish people and their descendants have been involved in American military conflicts, both through direct fighting and the supply of weapons and funds, since the American Revolution, through the Civil War, both World Wars, and beyond. Join historian Marie Arana to learn how Spanish and Hispanic military involvement has been a constant in American history.Recorded on November 25, 2025

By winter 1777, the Continental Army was exhausted, having barely escaped annihilation by the world’s most formidable fighting force. Two years into the war, King George, determined as ever to bring the rebellious American colonies to heel, faced a desperate set of foes in Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, to say nothing of rising wartime expenses and the threat of additional international rivals. Celebrated historian Rick Atkinson discusses this story, the subject of the second volume of his landmark American Revolution trilogy, with David M. Rubenstein.Recorded on June 11, 2025