C-SPAN Bookshelf

Epizode

• 
  BN+: Craig Whitlock, Washington Post Investigative Reporter 29.09.2026 1h 4min

  On Saturday, August 8, on the front page of the Washington Post was this headline: "Some Vets Went Along with Scams of the G.I. Bill." Leading the team of Post reporters was Craig Whitlock. His co-author was Andrew Ba Tran. The dateline on the story was San Diego. The first paragraph of the story was: "At Blue Star Learning, a vocational school that defrauded taxpayers of $29 million in GI Bill funds, learning was not the point." Craig Whitlock, 28-year Washington Post veteran, was a gust on Booknotes+ in both 2021 and 2024, the first time for his book "The Afghanistan Papers" and the second about his book "Fat Leonard," about a Malaysian man now serving a 15-year prison sentence for defrauding the U.S. Navy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  Q&A: Zayd Ayers Dohrn, "Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young" 28.09.2026 1h 1min

  Zayd Ayers Dohrn, author of "Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young," spent the first three years of his life on the run from the law with his fugitive parents, Weather Underground founders Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover once called his mother the "most dangerous woman in America." Zayd Ayers Dohrn talks about his parents' upbringing and revolutionary politics, the violence committed by the Weather Underground during the 1970s, and his life after his parents turned themselves in to federal authorities in 1980. His book has been nominated for the National Book Award this year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  ABC: Scott Turow on Legal Thrillers, Writing & Artificial Intelligence 27.09.2026 1h

  Bestselling author and attorney Scott Turow joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss his career as a master of the legal thriller, his writing process, and the experiences that have inspired his novels. Turow also shares his concerns about artificial intelligence and its potential impact on writers, publishing, and the creative process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  BN+: Andrew Burstein, "Being Thomas Jefferson" 22.09.2026 1h 8min

  Andrew Burstein recently retired as a professor of history at Louisiana State University. "Being Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History" is his 16th book about the early years of the United States. In the introduction, Prof. Burstein writes: "This book is about extraordinary drama that punctuated the life of a famous man who had an unusual need to control his environment." Andrew Burstein continues, noting that "as much as his creative imagination led to memorable achievements, the capaciousness of his intellect exacted a price. When enticed by nature's mysteries, his eyes were wide open to new possibilities. And when it came to the clash of egos in public venues, he was acutely sensitive to slights." Professor Burstein says Jefferson "was driven for public celebrity." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  Q&A: Andrea Mitchell, NBC Chief Washington Correspondent 21.09.2026 1h 2min

  NBC News Chief Washington and Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell talks about some of the big stories and important people – including U.S. presidents and world leaders – she has covered during her nearly 50 years with the network. Mitchell also talks about her upbringing, her early years in radio and TV in Philadelphia, and her marriage to the late Alan Greenspan, who served as chair of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  ABC: David Maraniss on Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Vince Lombardi & Jim Thorpe 20.09.2026 1h

  Pulitzer Prize winner and longtime Washington Post reporter David Maraniss joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss his biographies of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Vince Lombardi, and Jim Thorpe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  AW: The American Way of Welfare  20.09.2026 1h 9min

  Chris Pope argued for policies that he believes would improve the current welfare system in the United States. The Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., hosted this event.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  BN+: Jonathan Jordan, "Ike and Winston 15.09.2026 1h 12min

  Jonathan Jordan devotes 544 pages and 57 chapters of his book "Ike and Winston" to telling the story of the friendship between Dwight David Eisenhower and Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill. President Eisenhower lived to be 78 and died in 1969. Sir Winston died four years before that, in 1965, at age 90. Author Jonathan Jordan says: "Churchill could have had his pick of friendship, but he wanted Ike's. In the beginning, he courted Ike for what Ike could do for Britain. The Kansan held the trust of men like Franklin Roosevelt and George C. Marshall. This influence gave Ike the power to destroy or create, and Ike had the gambler's nerve to use that power. London needed a friend like that." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  Q&A: Kenneth Feinberg, "What Is Life Worth?" 14.09.2026 1h 5min

  Eleven days after the attacks on September 11, 2001, Congress passed a law establishing the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund to compensate families who lost loved ones on 9/11. Attorney Kenneth Feinberg, author of "What Is Life Worth?," was chosen to head up the taxpayer-funded effort and was solely responsible for determining how much each family would get paid. In all, 5,500 people received a combined total of $7.1 billion, with the average payout being $2 million. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  ABC: Susan Page on Queen Elizabeth’s Relationships With 13 U.S. Presidents 13.09.2026 1h

  Best-selling author and USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss her book about Queen Elizabeth's relationships with 13 U.S. presidents and her biographies of Barbara Bush, Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Walters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  AW: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose with Martha Raddatz  13.09.2026 1h 10min

  Longtime ABC News war correspondent Martha Raddatz profiled American military service members and their families who have served in the 25 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. She was interviewed by San Francisco ABC7 News Anchor, Dan Ashley, at the Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California in May of 2026.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  BN+: Scott Greenberger, "The Forsaken Founder" 08.09.2026 1h 4min

  In the beginning of Scott Greenberger's new book, "The Forsaken Founder," Dawn Davis, publisher of the Simon & Schuster imprint 37 Ink, introduces us to this new history of a mostly unfamiliar name. Davis writes: "Hamilton, Franklin, Washington, Madison. These are names we know." However, she writes that "there was another man in the room at the founding, a prodigy whose contributions were just as essential, whose name has largely been forgotten: Gouverneur Morris. Morris, as the penman of the Constitution, wrote the words "We the people," which are his and his alone. The subtitle to Scott Greenberger's book is "Gouverneur Morris, the Unsung Patriot Who Wrote the Constitution, Stood Up to Slavery, and Survived the Reign of Terror." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  Q&A: 9/11 Oral Histories 07.09.2026 1h 5min

  To mark the 25th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001, we present first-hand accounts of that day from first responders, journalists, political figures, and others. You'll hear from New York City firefighter Tim Brown, World Trade Center owner Larry Silverstein, photographer Doug Mills, reporters Ann Compton and Andrea Mitchell, President Bush assistant Anita McBride, Rear Admiral David Thomas, Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD), and F-16 pilot Major Heather Penny. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  ABC: Kai Bird on Roy Cohn, American Scoundrel & American Prometheus 06.09.2026 1h

  Pulitzer Prize winner Kai Bird joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss his biography of Roy Cohn, American Scoundrel, and his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus, which inspired the film Oppenheimer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  AW: Amazon Labor Union Co-Founder, Chris Smalls  06.09.2026 1h 6min

  Chris Smalls told his story of becoming the co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union. He was interviewed by Journalist & Author Karen Attiah at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  BN+: Joby Warrick, "The Jackal" 01.09.2026 1h 4min

  Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal, has been in prison for 32 years in France. He was captured in Sudan on August 14, 1994. In his book titled "The Jackal," Washington Post correspondent Joby Warrick reports on his 2025 meeting with the jailed terrorist in Paris. Carlos told him: "I killed 83 people with my own hand." Reporter Warrick writes that: "Carlos mattered. He was the human face of a dangerous new form of international terrorism that emerged in the 1970s and the 1980s, which became the template for later groups such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State." The Jackal will be 77 years old on October 12th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  New York Times Photographer Doug Mills on Covering the White House 31.08.2026 1h 3min

  New York Times staff photographer Doug Mills has won 3 Pulitzer Prizes for his work covering the White House & Washington, Super Bowls, Olympics, and many other major events. He tells us that he's taken over one million photographs of President Trump alone. In our conversation, he talks about some of the events he's covered going back to the Reagan administration. He talks about being in the Oval Office and on Air Force One, photographing the Clinton/Gore campaign in 1992, accompanying President George W. Bush on September 11, 2001, and taking the photograph of the attempted assassination of President Trump in 2024, which won him his third Pulitzer Prize. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  AW: Joanna Stern's Year Using AI to Do (Almost) Everything 30.08.2026 1h 5min

  Technology reporter Joanna Stern describes the year she spent using artificial intelligence and robots in all aspects of her life. The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, provided this event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  BN+: Paul Taylor, "This Is Getting Old" 25.08.2026 1h 6min

  Paul Taylor tells his readers: "For the first 25 years, I was a newspaper reporter. For the next 25, a political reformer, a demographer, a pollster, an author, and a public speaker." He's now 77 and has written a memoir titled "This Is Getting Old: Two Boomers and Their Generation at Dusk." Besides Paul Taylor, the other boomer in his book refers to his wife of 57 years, Stefanie. He asked his friend and agent Peter Bernstein (BERN-steen) to find a traditional publisher. His only reward, according to Taylor, "was a collection of lovely rejection notes." Not to be stopped, he would move on to Plan B, self-publishing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
• 
  Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch Discusses Heroes of 1776 24.08.2026 50min

  From the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Neil Gorsuch discusses his children's book, "Heroes of 1776," about the signers of the Declaration of Independence and other, lesser known, revolutionaries who put their life, liberty, and property on the line to gain independence from the British. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices