Pundit Review Radio

I had the pleasure of welcoming author and documentary film maker Rick Beyer to the WRKO studios. Rick has written a series of books that political and history buffs will love, the Greatest Stories Never Told series includes books about Music, War, Science and Presidential history. History isn’t always made by great armies colliding or by great civilizations rising or falling. Sometimes it’s made when a chauffeur takes a wrong turn, a scientist forgets to clean up his lab, or a drunken soldier gets a bit rowdy. That’s the kind of history you’ll find in The Greatest Stories Never Told. This is history candy — the good stuff. Here are 100 tales to astonish, bewilder, and stupefy: more than two thousand years of history filled with courage, cowardice, hope, triumph, sex, intrigue, folly, humor, and ambition. It’s a historical delight and a visual feast with hundreds of photographs, drawings, and maps that bring each story to life. A new discovery waits on every page: stories that changed the course of history

Bruce McQuain from Blackfive joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and he is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match. This week Bruce told us about Army SSG William C. Moore, who was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, "As soon as SSG Moore established his position he realized that several Paratroopers from his platoon were still in jeopardy, occupying the ground floor of the building that had been struck. Again, disregarding his own safety a second time, he left a covered position with continuous accurate enemy small arms and RPG fire striking all around him, still refusing medical treatment, and knowingly exposed himself to the enemy as he rushed from his position to reenter the building in order to rally his Paratroopers and move them to a safe location. As soon as SSG Moore entered the room, the building was struck by a second vehicle borne impr

No matter what you think of him, Donald Rumsfeld has an incredible arc to his life, from fighter pilot to congressman, White House staffer in the Ford administration, CEO of a major pharmaceutical company and of course, as most people think of him, as a two time secretary of defense. Given that amazing background, I started by asking Sec. Rumsfeld about leadership and the qualities that voters should look for when evaluating candidates. I also asked him about what I still consider an Unknown, how Gen. Ricardo Sanchez could be appointed the man in charge of Iraq without the full review of the secretary of defense. As he laid out in detail in the book, he had his finger on so many aspects of Pentagon operations. The idea that he was out of the loop on such a critical decision seems impossible, but it happened. See what you think of his response. We also took some very good calls, especially one about China, which led to a fascinating answer from Rumsfeld. Enjoy! The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be

Andrew Breitbart was having a pretty good week when he joined me on WRKO Sunday night. Little did we know that Monday he would take things to an entirely new level, Breitbart must be enjoying some sweet, sweet vindication tonight. What a perfect week to have him on. The most surprising aspect of our conversation was when I asked him if he ever feared for his personal safety. He answered that he is moving too fast and having too much fun to think much about it, but he did get serious, for a moment, and say that he actually worries about violence from “our side”, citing jealously and people who feel like he, Brietbart, is doing enough to promote them, whoever they are. Very interesting comment. Anyway, here he is, the night before the most epic dueling press conference evah! The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here and you can find us on iTunes at Pundit Review Radio. What is Pundit Review Radio? On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the

Bruce McQuain from Blackfive joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and he is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match. This week Bruce told us about Medal of Honor recipient Staff Sgt. Leroy A. Petry, "An Army Ranger who lost his right hand and suffered shrapnel wounds after throwing an armed grenade away from his fellow Soldiers will be the second living Medal of Honor Recipient from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. On July 12th, President Barack Obama will award Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Arthur Petry, with the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry. Petry will receive the Medal of Honor for his courageous actions during combat operations against an armed enemy in Paktya, Afghanistan, May 26, 2008. Petry now serves as part of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning, Ga. “It’s very humbling to know that the gu

When Pundit Review Radio started in the summer of 2004, the idea was to bring the best of the blogs to the radio. That meant that one of my very first calls was to Don Luskin, the man behind the awesome blog The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid. Don exemplified what was so exciting about the early days of blogging, subject matter experts sharing their passion with the rest of us. Don is founder and Chief Investment Officer of Trend Macro and he is a CNBC contributor. At the time, Don was the founding member of perhaps the original crowdsourcing effort, The Krugman Truth Squad. The KTS was a collective effort by numerous financial bloggers like Don to fact check and correct the sloppy, partisan first “analysis” of Paul Krugman. In addition to being deliciously enjoyable to read, these columns had an enormous effect on the paper of record. All of this is laid out in Don’s fascinating new book I Am John Galt. "Inspired by Ayn Rand’s characters in Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, penetrating profiles

What a pleasure to meet Dan Winslow. You’ll search long and hard to find someone on Beacon Hill with a more impressive resume. At the local level, Dan has served as a Town Moderator and on the Planning Board in Norfolk for 15 years, he’s served as a judge at the Wrentham District Court and at the state level he served as Chief Legal Counsel to Governor Mitt Romney. Now Dan is in his first term as a state representative and he is shaking things up. He has much more enthusiasm and optimism than I do about the prospects of having a politically competitive state. CommonWealth Magazine recently asked the question, Who does he think he is? Dan Winslow, a veteran Massachusetts Republican turned freshman state rep, is shaking up the State House with a flurry of policy proposals and a scathing critique of the Beacon Hill status quo. Sounds like our kind of guy, and he was! A super impressive person, it was a pleasure to welcome Dan to the WRKO studio for the full hour. Can’t wait to do it again. The Pundit Review R

Bruce McQuain from Blackfive joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and he is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match. This week Bruce told us about Sgt. William Rollins, The Someone You Should Know radio collaboration began as an extension of Matt Burden’s series at Blackfive. Bruce does an incredible job with the series every week. The SYSK archive can be found here and the Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here. What is Pundit Review Radio? On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-9pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

Twenty-two years at the New York Times, currently senior financial writer, winner of a Polk Award, Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2008 financial crisis and author of a great new book The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the death of trust, it was an honor to welcome Diana Henriques to Pundit Review Radio. So much has been said and written about Bernie Madoff and his Ponzi scheme. Incredibly, there is much about the story that people do not know, and in many cases, what people do know is flat out wrong. Ms. Henriques was the first journalist to interview Madoff in prison, and he sent her dozens of follow-up emails and letters. Few people know his story better. Everything is in this book, from the childhood and the lessons learned, to his early business days to the Ponzi scheme itself. Of course, the story is filled with gut wrenching human drama, the damage Madoff inflicted upon everyone around him, starting with his family. After reading the book, I am convinced that Madoff’s wife and sons

Bruce McQuain from Blackfive joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and he is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match. This week Bruce told us about one of the Staff Sgt. Jeffrey M. Adamec and Staff Sgt. Jason D. Brown. From the New York Times 2003 account, "“We all made a mental promise,” Staff Sgt. Jeffrey M. Adamec recalled of that battle on Day 18 of the war. “Nobody had to yell out commands. Everybody just knew. We were not going to move back from that point. We were not going to give up that ground. We called that spot `the Alamo’ ” In what is becoming one of the most celebrated missions of the war, just 26 Green Berets, along with three Air Force bomb targeters and two others faced off against a reinforced Iraqi motorized rifle company numbering in the hundreds. After a four-and-a-half-hour firefight, not only did they seize their first objecti

This weekend, Barron’s called them the Bland Old Party, "To win the White House, the GOP needs a candidate with that old Ronald Reagan appeal. So far, that person hasn’t surfaced. THE ABSENCE OF AN INSPIRATIONAL GOP presidential aspirant is a big plus for Obama. Of course, it’s still early in the game. Voters haven’t yet gotten to know many of the prospects, other than round-the-clock political-media stars like Huckabee, Palin and Gingrich; nor are they overly interested yet in presidential politics. To them, Herman Cain, who’s never held political office, is primarily a pizza guy. Gary Johnson is the former governor of New Mexico? Most voters don’t know nor care." I’ve been saying for months that Obama has a 75% chance of being re-elected. Tonight in hour one, we took a tour of the GOP field and the week that was, everything from Mitt’s defense of Romneycare to Newt, to Hermain Cain and God throwing the country a bone by telling Mike Huckabee not to run. Of course, no discussion of the 2012 Republican pre

Last night, former Boston Globe Spotlight team member, award-winning reporter and current BU journalism professor Mitchell Zuckoff joined me in studio for the full 8pm hour to discuss his incredible book Lost in Shangri La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II. "On May 13, 1945, twenty-four officers and enlisted men and women stationed on what was then Dutch New Guinea boarded a transport plane named the Gremlin Special for a sightseeing trip over “Shangri-La,” a beautiful and mysterious valley surrounded by steep, jagged mountain peaks deep within the island’s uncharted jungle. But the pleasure tour became an unforgettable battle for survival when the plane crashed. Miraculously, three passengers survived – WAC Corporal Margaret Hastings, Lieutenant John McCollom, and Sergeant Kenneth Decker. Emotionally devastated, badly injured, and vulnerable to disease, parasites, and poisonous snakes in the wet jungle climate, the trio was caught betw

In the days after Osama was found and killed by Navy SEALS, I began thinking about how we could cover this great news on Pundit Review Radio. I immediately thought of a former guest who has amazingly relevant experience. It was a true honor to welcome back to the show Eric Maddox, the man who masterminded the capture of none other than Saddam Hussein. Eric is a true blue American hero. When he got to Iraq in 2003, he had never interrogated a prisoner. Four months later, it was his interrogations that broke the hunt for Saddam wide open. Eric wrote an awesome book about his experience in Iraq titled Mission: Black List #1: The Inside Story of the Search for Saddam Hussein—As Told by the Soldier Who Masterminded His Capture. Since Eric was on the show, he has become a civilian interrogator with the Department of Defense, having now completed some 2,500 interrogations during his incredible SEVEN tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Eric is now preparing for his eighth deployment. It was a true honor to welcome him b

Bruce McQuain from Blackfive joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and he is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match. This week Bruce told us about Korean war vets Army Private First Class Anthony Kaho’ohanohano and Private First Class Henry Svehla, who were just this month awarded the Medal of Honor. The Someone You Should Know radio collaboration began as an extension of Matt Burden’s series at Blackfive. Bruce does an incredible job with the series every week. The SYSK archive can be found here and the Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here. What is Pundit Review Radio? On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this

Self-publishing a book is a huge undertaking and I take my hat off to anyone who does it. I saw firsthand how much work it takes with Gregg and his book, which was quite successful. Tonight we welcomed David Graham (@antikommie on Twitter), a listener of the show who contacted me about his book project. He joined me tonight to talk about his experience writing and self-publishing a book, Stay Mad: Observations of a Proletarian. I was struck by his motivations and desire to do something tangible beyond attending Tea Party rallies. This was his way of getting involved. We talked about how writing the book is only half the battle. Then you have to market and sell it. Like anything else, the more dollars you can throw at it, the better chance for success. David has the book for sale in several bookstore in New Hampshire where he lives and has more radio interviews and some guest hosting on Blog Talk Radio coming up. People are fed up and getting involved in large numbers, and in new and different ways. I admire t

What a great way to start the show last night with a surprise call from Scott in the truck! Yes, U.S. Senator Scott Brown gave us a call as he was driving home last evening. Good to see that Washington DC hasn’t changed him, because over the past six years, when he was simply State Senator Scott Brown, he’d pick up the phone and check in with us from time to time. I’m not afraid to say that I am a Scott Brown Republican. I’m a conservative person but not a political conservative. I want to see people of good will work together from both parties to solve our fiscal crisis. Scott said he would do that if elected, and he has done so. On WRKO I sometimes hear from conservatives who are angry with Sen. Brown when he cuts a deal, or takes a certain vote that isn’t in 100% alignment with the right wing of the GOP. I say the same thing every time. Number one, Scott Brown never promised to be a down the line conservative. Sure, he received a lot of Tea Party support, but he never a Tea Party candidate. He is who he

It was great to welcome back to the show our friend James Pethokoukis, columnist and blogger at Reuters, as well as a CNBC contributor. He has provided some of the best coverage and analysis of the Paul Ryan budget plan anywhere. The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here. What is Pundit Review Radio? On Boston’s Talk Station WRKO since 2005, Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to the radio every Sunday evening from 6-8pm on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.

Bruce McQuain from Blackfive joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and he is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match. This week Bruce told us about two incredible Marines wounded in Afghanistan and eager to rejoin the fight, Sgt. Paul Boothroyd and Cpl. Matt Garst, Sgt. Paul Boothroyd PBoothroyd Manning the top of a compound south of Sangin, Afghanistan, Sgt. Paul Boothroyd III took a sniper round to the head. He landed face down onto the muddy roof with a thud. Fifteen minutes later, Boothroyd was bandaged, smiling, smoking a cigarette and giving the “thumbs up” as he waited for the medevac helicopter, to which he walked under his own power. Cpl. Matt Garst mgarst “My first thought was, ‘Oh s—, I just hit an IED,’” he said. “Then I thought, ‘Well I’m standing. That’s good.’” Garst’s squad stared at him in disbelief. The square-ja

In the nearly six years of doing Pundit Review Radio, I don’t think I’ve referred to a book more than David Fredosso’s The Case Against Barack Obama from the 2008 campaign. That book was a detailed examination of Obama’s career, such that it was, in Chicago community organizing and Illinois politics. Freddoso is back with a new book, this time looking at the first two years of the Obama administration. Gangster Government: Barack Obama and the New Washington Thugocracy "And in this new and stunning book, New York Times best-selling author David Freddoso (The Case Against Barack Obama) provides the much-needed exposé of an administration that has brought Chicago-style corruption and strong-arm politics to Washington, looking to reward its friends (the unions, federal workers, and other liberal interest groups) and punish its enemies (the private sector workers and taxpayers who foot the bill for Obama’s massive expansion of the federal government)." The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here

Last night we welcomed for the first time to Pundit Review Radio Governor’s Councillor Mary Ellen Manning. The Governor’s Council is one of those institutions that we hear about from time to time, usually when something awful happens, but what they actually do is not very well understood by the public. We started by asking Mary for a cliff notes version of the Council’s role and responsibilities in state government. We then touched on a number of issues that have been in the news lately, from the nomination of Appeals Court Judge Barbara Lenk to the state Supreme Court to the Parole Board and the semi-regular calls to abolish the Council itself. To me, it seems like the Council, right now at least, is one of the only places in state government with true diversity of opinions. No wonder Deval and his minions are talking once again with doing away with it. Mary Ellen Manning is a great public servant. A Democrat holding both parties accountable. We need more people like her in state government. The Pundit Rev