Please enjoy this re-release of a past episode of For the Ages. New episodes will return Fall 2024. Henry Louis Gates Jr. has helped reshape the nation’s collective understanding of the legacy of slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the ongoing struggle for racial equality. The storied filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder discusses this important history and how his scholarly work has developed how we learn about and understand the American story. Recorded on January 22, 2021

Please enjoy this re-release of a past episode of For the Ages. New episodes will return Fall 2024. In 1924, Congress put in place strict quotas that impacted national immigration policy for decades. Interweaving her own family’s story, New York Times deputy national editor Jia Lynn Yang uncovers how presidents from Harry S. Truman through LBJ and a coalition of lawmakers and activists fought to transform the American immigration system. Recorded on September 11, 2020

Please enjoy this re-release of a past episode of For the Ages. New episodes will return Fall 2024. Walter Isaacson discusses his career as a preeminent historian and biographer, how he chooses the people he writes about, and why he is fascinated by them. This includes his books Steve Jobs, the authorized biography of the Apple Inc. co-founder written by Isaacson at the subject’s request, and Leonardo da Vinci. Recorded on December 18, 2018

Please enjoy this re-release of a past episode of For the Ages. New episodes will return Fall 2024. The fight for LGBTQ civil rights is long and hard-fought—and it still continues today. Award-winning author and renowned scholar Lillian Faderman discusses the history of the movement, from the 1950s up through the fight for marriage equality and beyond. Recorded September 25, 2020

New York Metropolitan Museum of Art President and CEO Dan Weiss explores the American experience of the Vietnam war through the lens of Michael O’Donnell. O’Donnell, a musician and poet who served as a soldier and helicopter pilot, never fired a shot in Vietnam but eventually went missing in action following an attempt to rescue fellow soldiers under heavy fire. His poetry and his story survived however, and offer a powerful, personal perspective on this dark chapter in American history. Recorded on October 15, 2022 

While COVID-19 caused tragedy and disruption in ways that few had ever seen before, scientists and infectious disease experts had warned of the likelihood of the ‘next big’ pandemic for decades. While political and economic interests often took precedence over the bolstering of resources to fight the spread of new diseases, the scientific community nonetheless rallied to fight the COVID-19 virus even as everyday life came to a standstill. David Quammen, referencing interviews with hundreds of scientists, speaks to David M. Rubenstein about how the virus emerged, how nations responded, and what the future may hold in store. Recorded on October 8, 2022

Overcoming formidable obstacles, including an assassination attempt, Abraham Lincoln’s presidency was fraught with danger before it even officially began. Ted Widmer provides a riveting account of Lincoln’s pivotal 13-day train ride to Washington for his inauguration, and how this fateful trip played a vital role in shaping him for his role as president of a rapidly fracturing nation. Recorded on February 5, 2021

The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson examines an unspoken hierarchy that transcends race, class, and other lines of division in modern society. By comparing the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, explore how the nation can orient itself around common humanity instead of artificial and destructive separations between those who have power and those who do not. Recorded on May 7, 2021