America's Constitutional Crisis: A Lesson From Medieval English History

The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution enshrines citizenship by birthright, but a combination of a SCOTUS decision endorsing Trump's executive order that has led to snatch-squads dragging mostly Hispanic immigrants to prison without due process calls the Amendment's survival into question. This conversation with Damon Silvers, law professor and veteran of many Capitol Hill crises, looks at all the ramifications of SCOTUS' 6-3 decision in Trump v CASA and casts a cool eye over the prospects for snatch-squad fascism becoming a way of life in the US. Like having a private tutorial for 34:38.

The US attack on Iran's nuclear sites June 21st brings to mind the last of Donald Rumsfeld’s infamous unknowns at the start of the Iraq War the "unknown unknowns" aka blowback. What is it possible to know about what will happen next, or is everything an unknown? In this hour-long FRDH podcast special, recorded the day after the US joined Israel in a war on Iran, Professor Roxane Farmanfarmaian of the University of Cambridge, and Ned Temko, a columnist for the Christian Science Monitor. who have been writing about Iran since the Iranian revolution in 1979 parse through what might happen next and what the blowback will be.

We are in an age of authoritarian democracy, and Turkey and its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan is its paradigm. Erdogan has been in power more than 2 decades and created the template men like Victor Orban and Bibi Netanyahu have been followingin using democracy's tools to become authoritarian leaders. And now there's Donald Trump. Veteran journalist Andrew Finkel who has been reporting from the country for decades explains the process. You can hear parallels to what is unfolding in the US. Give us 39:30 to explain.

Does Donald Trump have a rhyme or reason for starting the 21st century's first major trade war? The Financial Times' Martin Sandbu isn't sure but he has some ideas and also helpful hints about how to interpret Trump's "deals" that aren't anything of the sort. He gives FRDH podcast host a 44 minute long tutorial in the rhyme and reason behind Trump's actions and how the rest of the world is likely to react.

All over the world people are on the move, fleeing from war and environmental catastrophe caused by climate change. Many take insane risks to reach Britain in hope of safety and a chance at a better life. Author Horatio Clare has written about this migration in We Came By Sea: Stories of a Greater Britain. In the book, Clare goes to the human stories beyond the headlines on the migration "crisis" to write about the human beings trying to get in and the surprisingly large number of Britons who do their best for them when they finally struggle ashore. In this FRDH podcast he talks about why the world is on the move and how the press and government are failing to explain to people what is really happening. Give us 46:49 to explain.

America is in the midst of a constitutional crisis with a President who clearly wants to be king no matter what the Constitution says and ironically the constitution says nothing about what to do in this kind of crisis. Dr. Helen Castor, medieval historian, sees in America's current situation echoes of a constitutional crisis six hundred years ago in England when King Richard the Second put himself above the law and defied anyone to do anything about it. Give us 44:43 to explain it to you.

In this FRDH podcast first broadcast on BBC Radio 4, host Michael Goldfarb looks at the history of NATO since its founding in 1949 and asks Now What? Can NATO survive the second coming of the Trump regime. Using archive sound and interviews with former NATO ambassadors and national security and defense experts he tells the Alliance's story, goes on patrol with American soldiers on a NATO mission in the Balkans and looks at whether European nations will ever be able to breakaway from US dominance of the organization. A long listen.

China: now what? Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on China but even before that news the country was watching and waiting for the US to make mistakes in the international arena. What happens now that Trump has made so many in such a short time? What is the China of today compared to ten, twenty or even thirty years ago? In this FRDH podcast, Mary Kay Magistad, who lived in China and southeast for more than twenty years as a public radio journalist provides deeper perspective on the country and next few years of competition between it and the United States. Give us 50 minutes to talk it out.

The last week has seen the dramatic beginning of a new historical era based on a US and Russia alliance. Donald Trump has thrown in with Vladimir Putin and thrown Ukraine and 80 years of the Transatlantic Alliance under a bus. In this FRDH podcast Michael Goldfarb speaks with Charles Hecker, who has lived an worked in Moscow for the last thirty years. His new book Zero Sum looks at the lessons learned -- and not learned by Western businessmen since the collapse of the Soviet Union. They also talk about what ithis new era might mean for the future of global democracy with the US clearly taking giant steps towards embracing the autocratic ruler of Russia.

As the 250th anniversary of the start of the American revolution approaches and with America in crisis it's time to return to the Founders' Words. In the first of an occasional feature, FRDH podcast host reads through Tom Paine's pamphlet Common Sense for words of wisdom to help guide people through Trump and Musk's destructive takeover of the American government. You should listen because as Paine wrote 250 years ago, "The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind."