C-span Radio - The C-span Podcast

Our guest this week is James Jones, a former Member of Congress and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. Our conversation focuses on 50 years ago when Ambassador Jones was President Lyndon Johnson's appointment secretary. He shares with us his never before heard account of the night President Johnson announced he would not seek re-election.

Our guest this week is Christopher Glazek of Esquire Magazine, who's piece titled "The Secretive Family Making Billions from the Opioid Crisis," focuses on the Sackler Family. Forbes Magazine put the family's wealth at around 14 billion in 2015. Most of that comes from Purdue Pharma, which makes Oxycotin. Now our discussion about the Sackler family and ties to the opioid crisis facing America.

This week our guest is Peter Irons, a retired Professor of Political Science at UC San Diego and the author of the book "A People's History of the Supreme Court." On February 26th, we launch the second season of Landmark Cases, an in depth look at tweleve important Supreme Court decisions. Dr. Irons spoke with us about a few of those including McCulloch v. Maryland and Plessy v. Ferguson.

This week our guest is American Conservative Union Chair Matt Schlapp. C-PAC is the oldest conservative lobbying organization in the country. Later this month his organization will host the annual "C-PAC" conference outside Washington, D.C. Following President Trump's first year in office, we spoke to Mr. Schlapp about the history of C-PAC, the Republican agenda, and the upcoming midterm elections.

This week: This week we take at the state of America's infrastructure with former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. He's also the co-founder of Building America's Future, an organization committed to improving the US infrastructure system.

This week we speak with David Kris, former head of the Justice Department's National Security Division and an expert on FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). He discusses what FISA is, what is means, and why it is front page news.

This week: Our guest this is week is Cokie Roberts, a political commentator for ABC News and National Public Radio and the author of six New York Times bestsellers on women in America. American politics is at a crossroads. Cokie Roberts gives her insights into the current relationship between Capitol Hill and the White House and what could come next.

This week: The LBJ tapes- President Lyndon Baines Johnson and the audio recordings made during his presidency. We spoke with presidential historian and author Michael Beschloss. He's the author of two books examining the recordings, "Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964" and "Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964-1965."

This week we take a look at the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with Bruce Riedel. He is a senior fellow and director of the Brookings Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution. He's also the author of "Kings and Presidents: Saudi Arabia and the United States Since FDR."

This week we look at the history of guns in America with Author William Doyle. He's the written a number of books including, "American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms," which he co-wrote with the late Chris Kyle of "American Sniper" fame.

This week we look at the history of on U.S.-China relations from President Nixon's historic visit in 1972 through today. We get the perspective of Ambassador Gary Locke, who served as the United States' envoy to China from 2011 to 2014. President Trump visits the country this week as part of a five-nation Asian tour.

This week we're joined by Michael McCann for a discussion on the history of the federal government's involvement with college and professional sports. He is the director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire School of Law as well as a regular contributor to Sports Illustrated.

This week author and journalist Blaine Harden joins us to discuss his book 'King of Spies,' and how the Korean Peninsula continues to be impacted by a war fought more than 50 years. It created the De-Militarized Zone along the 38th Parallel and tensions for every U.S. President since Harry Truman.

This week we're joined by CNBC Senior Economics Reporter Steve Liesman for a crash-course on economics, focusing on how the federal government and stock market impact the national economy.

C-SPAN Radio was launched on October 9th, 1997. To mark the 20th anniversary, we spoke with C-SPAN Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Brian Lamb about the creation of the radio station, the evolution of C-SPAN, and the importance of our mission.

This week we examine the debate over regulating some of the biggest tech companies in the world including Facebook, Google and Amazon. Our guest is David McCabe, who covers the intersection of technology, policy, and politics for Axios.

This week we look into the background of Russian President Vladimir Putin with Sam Greene, the Director of the Russia Institute at King`s College London. We spoke with him about how Putin's time in the KGB shaped his political philosophy, his rise to power in Moscow, and how Putin views his role in the Russian Government.

This week we discuss precision medicine and genetic testing with Dr. Jill Hagenkord, Chief Medical Officer at Color Genomics, which provides genetic testing for hereditary cancer and high cholesterol risks as well as preventative health services, including genetic counseling. We spoke to her about recent breakthroughs in cancer research and precision medicine, the benefits of testing for cancer-causing gene mutations, and what it means for patients, families, and medical providers.

President Trump recently announced his plans for the War in Afghanistan, including the deployment of additional US troops to the country. This week we look at the political geography and the recent history of Afghanistan with Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan (2003-2005) and Iraq (2005-2007). He also served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (2007-2009). Ambassador Khalilzad discussed the roots and resilience of the Taliban, Afghanistan's drug trade, and the importance of re-building Afghan state institutions in order to secure long-term peace in the region.

As tensions with North Korea rise, this week we examine the history of that country's ruling Kim family. We spoke to Jean H Lee, author of "Kings of Communism: Inside Kim Jong Un's Bloody Scramble to Kill of His Family" in the September edition of Esquire Magazine. She also led the Associated Press's coverage of the Korean Peninsula as bureau chief from 2008 to 2013 and opened the AP’s Pyongyang bureau in January 2012. We spoke with Ms. Lee about the Kim family's rise to power, the idea of North Korea as an absolute monarchy, and the message Kim Jong Un sent with the assassination of his brother in February.