Frdh Podcast With Michael Goldfarb

Forget being locked in during the coronavirus pandemic and listen to some poetry. Travel down rivers and roads into realms of Gold and everywhere from your local sidewalk to the Great Wall of China. FRDH host Michael Goldfarb reads work by John Keats, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Walt Whitman

There are so many numbers being thrown around during the pandemic but only one is truly frighening: 26 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits. What does it mean when so many lose their jobs in just over a month? It's never happened before. In this FRDH podcast, nost MIchael Goldfarb looks at the frightening precedents of earlier eras of mass unemployment. Give him 11:18 to explain it all to you.

In any highly reported catastrophe like the coronavirus pandemic the numbers reported in the press need to be parsed with care. In this FRDH podcast, Michael Goldfarb casts a veteran journalist's sceptical eye over the pandemic numbers and offers helpful hints for parsing them.

We need more poems in day to day life, especially now when everyone has time to contemplate the deep distillations of experience that poets create. In this FRDH podcast, Michael Goldfarb reads poems by William Blake, John Clare and Philip Levine about lambs, springtime, mercy and love. Something we can all use in this time of self-isolation and disease.

Forget the Coronavirus panic and listen to these ghost stories. Five tales of when I went looking for ghosts among the forgotten of Europe. Each one is around 14 minutes long. You can listen in one go or dip in/dip out. My stories of looking for ghosts are guaranteed to take your mind off the chaos outside your door. Share with friends.

America is a divided society, what can the Bible story of Solomon's wisdom in deciding who the true mother of the child is teach us about healing this division. In this Bible Study for Atheists edition of FRDH podcast, Michael Goldfarb looks at the message of this well-known story and applies it to healing the rift between America's two sides. Give him 10 minutes of your time.

In the latest attacks by the newsmedia on the Democratic frontrunner, Bernie Sanders, is being compared to Britain's Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, a loser by any definition. But does this comparison hold up? In this FRDH podcast MIchael Goldfarb takes the Sanders-Corbyn comparison apart and explores why the press hates Bernie and has failed to explore how he got to the front of the pack.

How much tolerance should we give to people who put forward propaganda as journalism claiming the protections of the First Amendment? Look at America today, hopelessly divided, how much of that division is an example of the Paradox of Tolerance? Should a tolerant society turn its back on its intolerant members? In this FRDH podcast, Michael Goldfarb puzzles out the limits of a free press.

Qassem Suleimani's funeral saw call after call for Iran to take vengeance on the US. But really what can Iran do? In this FRDH podcast, Michael Goldfarb talks with journalist, author and Russia/Iran expert David Patrikarakos about the Islamic Republic's options.

The long history of Iran-Iraq-US conflict leading to the assassination of Qassem Suleimani in the main battleground of this undeclared war: Iraq. This FRDH podcast - right in the middle of the news - is a conversation with Iraqi journalist Mina al-Oraibi about Suleimani's murder and its likely impact on Iraqi society. It is Iraqis who will pay the price.

Does the crushing of Jeremy Corbyn in the UK election hold a lesson for the US in 2020's election? Must the Dems nominate someone from the center? In this FRDH podcast Michael Goldfarb asks, just what is the center? Is it a fixed point? Must the center always hold

John the Revelator is an African-American hymn and Don the Revelator is the current President of the United States. In the latest edition of Bible Study for Atheists, FRDH host Michael Goldfarb goes on a roundabout journey to explain why Donald Trump is the Revelator of contemporary America and that's fine with evangelical Christians.

In this BBC programme, originally broadcast in the Archive on 4 slot, FRDH host Michael Goldfarb uses archive sound and historical readings to trace the history of American presidential impeachment. Using interviews with participants in the last two presidential imepachments and historians he explores what it's like to sit in judgment on a freely elected president and just what are High Crimes and Misdemeanours. Those who don't know history are condemned to repeat it - listen to this important history and, please, share widely.

A conversation with historian Tom Holland about his book Dominion about Christianity and the Western mind. This challenging, wide-ranging discussion looks at the early church, Christianity's many reformations and how it became, in Holland's view, the greatest hegemonic thought system in the world, influencing people in ways they don't even know.

A tweet by Donald Trump announcing the withdrawal of American troops assisting the Kurds in northeastern Syria opened the door for a Turkish invasion of the area raising the spectre that ISIS would be reborn in the chaos. In this FRDH podcast Michael Goldfarb speaks with someone from Mosul in Iraq who lived the full horror of ISIS the first time around, the man known on twitter as @mosuleye.

The right-wing in Anglo America has reached apotheosis with Donald Trump and Boris Johnson in office. The pair represent the end point of Reagan and Thatcher style conservatism. Let's free up business to make a deal. Now America's Republicans and Britain's Conservatives are led by two hucksters trying to sell deals that are incomplete and half baked ... but from which they hope to profit. In this 10 minute long podcast Michael Goldfarb looks at the reality of trade dealing and nations being led by two men whose word is most definitely not their bond.

With Parliament out of session following a week of crisis this is a good time to assess Brexit's impact on British society with Robin Lustig, the most judicious journalist, I know.

In the first week of September 2019, Brexit killed Britain's Conservative Party stony dead. It was a self-inflicted event. In this FRDH podcast, Michael Goldfarb looks at the quarter century long history that led to the week's fast moving events. A spoken First Rough Draft of History as an idea, and an account of the self-immolation of the Tories, as its loudest Brexiters cheered on and Boris Johnson watched his government disintegrate.

Conventional wisdom in the UK says Brexit will cause Britain to break-up. Scotland and Northern Ireland both voted to remain in the EU. Both will now seek to leave the United Kingdom. But are the conventional wisdom mongers right about the break-up of Brexit Britain? In this FRDH podcast, Michael Goldfarb challenges the conventional wisdom about Northern Ireland, specifically.

The infighting and race baiting surrounding Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi and the Squad is symptomatic of a political system dominated by truths learned 50 years ago. In this FRDH podcast, Michael Goldfarb looks at what happens to people who cling to hard to the "truth", a lesson he learned from one the great American novels: Winesburg, Ohio.