Radio Free Mike

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comRoy Cohn was a New York lawyer who became a mentor to Donald Trump in the 1970s and ’80s. Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark’s new biography of him, American Scoundrel, reminds everyone how persistent Cohn was in U.S. politics from the 1950s through the ’80s, when he died. We talk about Roy’s prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in the 1950s, his relationship to J. Edgar Hoover, his famous parties, his closeted homsexuality, and his tactics of blackmail — some of which he taught to Donald Trump.Susan Goldmark is Kai’s wife and co-author; she did a lot of the research for this book but couldn’t be with us for the episode. Kai is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of several other biographies, including American Prometheus, which Christopher Nolan leaned on for his film Oppenheimer.Upgrade to a paid subscription to Radio Free Mike. Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources:American Scoundrel, by Kai BirdAn excerpt from the New Yorker, featuring the Woody Guthrie song, “Old Man Trump”Kai Bird’s websiteradio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comCharles Hawley is a journalist, editor, and former colleague of mine at Spiegel Online in Berlin. He was born in Seattle, but in the meantime he’s run into trouble bringing his family back to the States. His teenage daughter is trans, she has two passports, and — well, I’ll let him explain the legal problem under President Trump. We also talk about the …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comTaran Khan is an Indian writer who lives in London. She’s the author of Shadow City: A Woman Walks Kabul, an appreciation of Kabul drawn from her years there from 2006 to 2013. The book peels back layers of Afghanistan’s history, from the Mughal empire, the British colonial period, the two phases of Taliban rule, and U.S. and NATO occupation after 9/11. We talk about Kabul’s fragile public library as well as the “Bush Bazaar,” and an American spy blimp that hung in the sky over the city for years.Upgrade to a paid subscription to Radio Free Mike. Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources:Shadow City, by Taran KhanTaran’s Instagram page“The Dam,” an essay by Taran at Grantaradio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comVanessa Fabiano is a writer and businesswoman who spent time in China, off and on, over nine years from 1994. Her debut collection of stories, Chinese on the Beach, is a remarkably vivid series of portraits of Chinese as well as expatriate life in Shanghai and Beijing during the boom decade of the ’90s, when the government loosened its economic controls and set a huge number of cultural changes in motion — toward high fashion, international glamor, and beach life in a coastal town.Upgrade to a paid subscription to Radio Free Mike. Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources:Chinese on the Beach, by Vanessa FabianoVanessa’s website on SubstackOther featured books on Radio Free Mikeradio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Isaac Fitzgerald follows the path of Johnny Appleseed, or actually John Chapman, the real nineteenth-century pioneer from Massachusetts who traced Indian footpaths and planted apple trees as far west as Illinois. As we discuss in this episode, I have my own reasons for being fascinated by Johnny Appleseed, but from AMERICAN RAMBLER you’ll learn a lot about the man, as opposed to the myth, and a lot about the myth, and a lot about Midwestern history, and a lot about Fitzgerald’s own family and past.Upgrade to a paid subscription to Radio Free Mike. Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources:American Rambler, by Isaac FitzgeraldDirtbag, a memoir by Isaac FitzgeraldHow to Be a Pirate, a children’s book by Isaac FitzgeraldIsaac’s websiteradio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comSaumya Roy is a journalist and author of Castaway Mountain, about a garbage mountain in Mumbai and the people who earn their livelihoods from it. For a new anthology of essays she has a piece about the state of homelessness in San Francisco. The anthology is called How We See It: The World Looks at America in the Age of Trump, and I encourage you to pick up a copy, because it features twelve international writers responding to massive changes in America.Saumya once ran a micro-loan NGO in Mumbai to help homeless people (and others) — and she’s been on our podcast before. Upgrade to a paid subscription to Radio Free Mike. Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources: How We See It: The World Looks at America in the Age of Trump, from editors of The DialCastaway Mountain, by Saumya RoyThe UK edition is called Mountain TalesEpisode 015 of Radio Free Mike with Saumya Royradio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comScott Hulet is the longtime, formative editor of The Surfer’s Journal, a magazine focused on the art and adventure of surfing rather than its klieg-lit industry. Flow Violento is a collection of his pieces from around Latin America, and the title derives from a phrase in Cuban slang that translates, roughly, to “amazing style.”We talk about surfing Ecuador, about “Shipwrecks” in northern Baja, about a remote island off the coast of Nayarit which has both surf and fish, and about the romance of Mexico in the mid-20th century, when The Night of the Iguana was written and filmed in Puerto Vallarta. Upgrade to a paid subscription to Radio Free Mike. Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources:Flow Violento, by Scott HuletSweetness and Blood, Mike’s folk history of surfing“Flow Violento,” a rap song by ArcángelOther books featured on Radio Free Mikeradio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.comDiane Foley is the mother of Jim Foley, the American journalist who was kidnapped in 2012 by members of ISIS in Syria, and beheaded on camera in 2014. Diane has written a memoir called American Mother, with the help of Irish novelist Colum McCann, about the hostage ordeal and its long echo. The book describes her meeting with one of Jim’s captors, Alexanda Kotey, after Kotey pled guilty to charges regarding Jim and several other western hostages. He’s serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison. Diane now runs the Foley Foundation in Washington, DC, which speaks up for hostages, and Colum is a co-founder of Narrative 4, a global storytelling nonprofit.This podcast comes in advance of a long-read essay about the trial in my own hostage case. We had some audio interference, so if we talk over each other it’s because we couldn’t hear each other as well during the live interview as you’ll be able to hear us now. Resources:American Mother, by Diane Foley and Colum McCannFoley Foundation websiteColum McCann’s websiteNarrative 4, Colum’s nonprofitTwist, by Colum McCann, his latest novelApeirogon, by Colum McCann, a novel about a friendship between an Israeli and a PalestinianLet the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann, a National Book Award-winning novel about the Twin TowersThe new Radio Free Mike virtual bookshop features almost every book mentioned on the podcast, and I earn a small commission if you order from it.ALSO:If you’re in Southern California, please come out to “Pub Fiction” this Sunday, July 12, at Knoll’s in Aliso Viejo. I’ll read from a work-in-progress. No reservations necessary. 7pm, 29971 Alicia Pkwy, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677radio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Annabelle Gurwitch is an actor and writer who was diagnosed in 2020 with Stage 4 lung cancer. The diagnosis came as a complete surprise, and her new book about the shock and its aftermath is called The End of My Life is Killing Me. It’s a collection of personal essays dealing with the clichés of cancer patient-hood, with juicing machines that did not help, Greek myths that did, and with her short career as a merch girl for a touring heavy-metal band.Upgrade to a paid subscription to Radio Free Mike. Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources:The End of My Life is Killing Me, by Annabelle GurwitchAnnabelle’s websiteAn extract from the book in the New York TimesFeatured books on Radio Free Mike (I earn a small commission!)radio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.com/subscribe

Meg Smaker is a filmmaker and journalist, director of Jihad Rehab (or The UnRedacted), which was the subject of an earlier Radio Free Mike episode. In 2003, Meg was held hostage with two other Americans in Colombia by an anti-FARC militia for about ten days. We talk about what it means to be held hostage; in fact this interview starts with Meg interviewing me.A little context: Jihad Rehab deals with former inmates of the American prison at Guantánamo who were sitting in a re-integration center in Yemen. Meg exlpains how her short kidnapping in Colombia led her, eventually, to the topic of her controversial film.Upgrade to a paid subscription to Radio Free Mike. Platforms: Apple, Spotify, YouTube, PocketcastsResources:Meg Smaker filmography on IMDBWebsite for the film now called “Unredacted”radio free mike is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelscottmoore.substack.com/subscribe