Ah, Buzzkillers, it’s one thing for the internet and email to provide us with topics to follow-up (especially those emails from your nutty uncle), but it’s another thing entirely when the Buzzkill Institute get inundated with phone calls, text messages, and panicked faxes after President Trump’s recent response to North Korea’s nuclear threats. You remember…

Professor Phil Nash joins us for part three of our examination of John F. Kennedy in the 100th anniversary of his birth. This episode looks at how the JFK legacy was constructed in the immediate aftermath of the assassination in 1963, how it was burnished by the first generation of Kennedy historians, and how it…

It’s 2017, Buzzkillers, 77 years after the Battle of Dunkirk and the subsequent evacuation of Allied troops from that area between the 26th of May and the 4th of June 1940. The evacuation has become a very famous and celebrated event in World War II history and especially in British history. “Dunkirk Spirit,” the British…

FDR became governor of New York and later President for four terms despite having contracted polio. Professor Matthew Pressman from Seton Hall University joins us to discuss how the press and the American public were told about his disability, and how they reacted. We also learn how the Roosevelt campaign and administration tried to control…

July 4th is upon us and two things will likely happen, at least for American Buzzkillers. The first is that we will use the July 4th national holiday as an opportunity to take a mid-summer vacation (or extend a weekend vacation). The second thing that will happen is that we will be treated to a…

Professor Jeremy Young joins us to discuss the Age of Charisma (1870-1940). It was an exciting period in US history: industrialization was in high gear; railroads and telegraph lines were spreading widely; mass media was born; and increased concentration on charisma, magnetism, and emotion in politics, religion, and social reform. Styles of public speaking changed…

Professor Nash joins us to discuss the misconceptions and the realities of JFK’s presidency, its successes, its failures, and its legacies. We look specifically at the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, and Civil Rights. And we address the question of whether JFK was a liberal, a conservative, or a mixture of both. And on top of…

Frank Lloyd Wright is probably the most famous architect in American history. But why is he so famous, and was it just about his architecture? In his own mind and in the popular mind, he is often considered a god and an artistic prophet. How did he become so famous and how did his fame…

D-Day, June 6, 1944, is one of the most well-known events of World War II. Why did it happen the way it did and why did it succeed? Was it the turning point in the war in Europe? How many other military operations were going on at the same time in Europe that might explain…

John F. Kennedy was one of the most fascinating Presidents in US history. And perhaps more fascinating are the ways in which he is remembered by succeeding generations. In this first part of a three-part series, Professor Nash joins us to discuss JFK’s background, youth, service in World War II, and his political career. The…