Amanda Holmes reads Vasko Popa’s poem “Give Me Back My Rags,” translated from the Serbian by Charles Simic. Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.
On the surface, all-male Dartmouth in the 1940s and 1950s seems like it would be deeply unappealing to Jews: rural New Hampshire campus, no Jewish girls within miles, a history of antisemitic fraternities. But Jewish alumni from that era seemed to love Dartmouth. Why?
Something about Dartmouth—maybe it was the bucolic campus, the mountains, all that fresh air—made for a more laid-back environment than at the other Ivies.
In Episode 3 of Gatecrashers, you’ll hear from Dartmouth alumni including journalist David Shribman, actor Stephen Macht, screenwriter Steven Geller, and Richard Press, Jewish scion of the preppy clothier J. Press, about how Jewish students embraced the great outdoors—and learned to love Dartmouth College.
Around 3,500 years ago, the people of Central America discovered something marvelous: the cacao bean could be used to create a fermented beverage that was unlike anything they had experienced.
For centuries, the cacao bean became so important in that part of the world that it was used as money.
Eventually, the bean was taken from the Americas to Europe, where it was radically transformed.
Learn more about the history of chocolate and how the sweet treat we know today developed from something completely different on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Iuliia Mendel, press secretary to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, offers a peek behind the curtain in her new memoir, The Fight of Our Lives: My Time with Zelenskyy, Ukraine's Battle for Democracy and What it Means for the World. In an interview with Mary Louise Kelly, Mendel talks about Vladimir Putin – and the resilience of Ukraine.
When the 13 American colonies decided to form a proper constitution, the single largest question which confronted them was how their legislature would be organized.
This question was really the crux of the entire constitutional convention, and if it couldn’t be resolved, it was likely there would be no constitution.
Once it was resolved, Congress evolved with its own set of rules and traditions. Many of the key elements of the United States Congress are, in fact, not required by the constitution at all.
Learn more about how the United States Congress came to be on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.