Audibly Speaking: Listening to History: Recent Episodes
Rick Reiman
Twitter Facebook Your host for Audibly Speaking, Rick Reiman, speaks with Gabra Zackman about her career in the ever-more-popular field of audio books and narration. Gabra had narrated over 500 books, including such titles as The Sound and the Fury, Nobody’s Girl, Catch the Devil, G-Man, and I’ll be Gone in the Dark, among many others. An accomplished actor, I ask her about how she got started in the craft, what she thinks about the parceling out of assignments to male and female readers, how she works best and what one ordinary listener (me) would like to know about the business. If you like audio books or just wonder what this field is, you may listen to them in a new way after listening to this conversation. I hope that you enjoy it.
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Twitter Facebook Tomorrow is America’s 250th Birthday as an independent nation. Your narrator for Audibly Speaking rings in the birthday in suitable vocal style with an audio narration of that fateful document. The Declaration of July 4, 1776 was not just a statement of independence but a declaration of ideals that has changed the world. Will we, the generation that is the heir of the founding fathers, allow its ringing words to continue shaping the world, or will the American people themselves today be the authors of its destruction? For God’s sake, and for their own sake, the American people must decide. This narration is delivered in the style of the great Orson Welles.
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Twitter Facebook On July 4, 2026, Americans will celebrate…what? Obviously they will celebrate what they intend to celebrate. That means American’s “Independence Day.” But what does that mean? According to the Cato Institute’s poll released today, 46% of Americans are clueless as to what it means. The reason is clear: their ignorance of history. This should not be surprising since Americans popularize “history” as something to be considered over and done with. But that popular stance, and shield for ignorance, won’t work when it comes to the vital work of learning from the past to create a viable future. For all of Americans’ pride in being American, one thing they cannot boast of is the knowledge of history without which they, and our future, are doomed. Americans must stop relying on hunches, and learn their history, if they want the founding fathers whom they are so proud of to be more than footnotes in the national dustbin of the future.
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Twitter Facebook Ai is perhaps the ruination of higher education, at least as it is currently being used by many students with a shameless push from the new barbarians at the gates, the techies who come up with this stuff and promise that it will solve all the individuals woes and help them “succeed” in school. Well, evidently “success’ does not include learning, because there is no more effective if deadly way to squelch learning than through machine learning, where only the machine “learns,” not the luckless human who puts it through its paces.
Stephen Fry, the great British writer, condemns AI’s cost to creativity in a Youtube Video that says it far better than can I:
Fry Reads a Letter About AI
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Twitter Facebook In this episode, Audibly Speaking denounces the clown car of politicians (in Florida, of course!) presuming to be the voice of history, only without any educational credentials. Shamelessness aside, they just can’t stay in their lane. In this episode I look at one of the mainstream textbooks in American History, The American Yawp, the work of 500 historians who have the credentials and the “receipts” of American history to portray the pageant of that history, warts and all. The main “problem,” as politicians seem to see it, is that American history contains both triumphs of fair treatment as well as outrageous violations of the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. If we are to learn from history and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, we must know what they were–not treat history as a celebratory buffet about which the student has to be misled with “red smoke and mirrors.” We need professional history and with The American Yawp we already have it. Pity the poor, misguided Florida students let down by their so-called political “leaders.”
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Twitter Facebook Presidential Leadership 101 holds that no President should enter a war without first cultivating the support of the American people. Efforts to do so without securing public support–the Mexican War, Vietnam–have been disasters. No president should just suddenly and unconstitutionally attack another country without Congressional consultation, approval or public education, like the Japanese did at Pearl Harbor. In the aftermath of such an act, it became more important than ever that Trump do what he should have done before the war–explain the reasons for the war, why it was necessary, and how it was consistent with our national security interests and our ideals. Trump utterly failed to explain why with even a scintilla of coherence why the war was necessary. He promised to commit war crimes, besmirching and weakening America’s moral reputation. He set the stage by his failure of leadership for another disastrous failure in American foreign policy.
This episode analyzes and identifies these mistakes and shows, with the “Arsenal of Democracy speech” by Franklin D. Roosevelt in December 1940, how presidential speechmaking and the cultivation of public opinion in support of a successful foreign policy ought to be done.
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Twitter Facebook No one, going back to the interpretation of William Gillette in the early years of the silent screen cinema, interpreted the Sherlock Holmes character with the authenticity that Jeremy Brett brought to the role in the ITV Granada series on British television (1984-1994). That series went back to the canonical short stories and lovingly adapted them to the screen, clearing away the distortions that past (and future) representations have rained down and continue to rain on the reputation of the detective. This new recording is my latest attempt to interpret the Sherlockian short stories in a twenty-first century podcast adaptation, with respect to the great interpreters of the past, going back to Doyle, the originator himself, and moving forward to Brett. With apologies to Jeremy Brett, here is my acting effort to portray the style of Jeremy Brett in a Holmesian short story that Brett was not to portray in the TV Series (that series failing to film ALL of the short stories). One of the best of the stories that it left out was “The Reigate Squires,” from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. And so, here is an attempted corrective to that omission, in the form of a pastiche of Jeremy Brett portraying the famous detective in the real Conan Doyle short story, “The Reigate Squires.”
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Twitter Facebook I have never recorded an abridged version of a Sherlock Holmes mystery short story, not wishing to truncate the words of the great Conan Doyle. However, it occurred to me that the time of three half-hour sitcoms may be too much for listeners to bear to listen to a Holmes short story. In order to guard against this pity, I have recorded this abridged version of a humorous yet exciting Holmes short story, abridging it to under two half hour sitcoms in length. I started out the recording thinking I could do so in twenty minutes. It can’t be done while still doing justice to the story, to the writing and to the detective or the author. And so here in 47 minutes flat, is the abridged version, hopefully with all its essential glory retained. –Your narrator, Rick Reiman.
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Twitter Facebook We lost Ruth Paine this year on August 31. Ruth was a great lady, one of the few heroes and persons of kindness in the run-up and the aftermath of the JFK assassination. As Thomas Mallon has noted, we know so much about the moods, mind and appearances of Lee Harvey Oswald in the critical six weeks before the assassination because Oswald sometimes stayed at Ruth’s house, used Ruth’s typerwriter, and visited Ruth’s home the night before the assassination to retrieve something from her garage that she did not know was there: the rifle that Oswald used to kill JFK. All this was possible because Ruth befriended Oswald’s wife, Marina, who certainly needed friends. HIstory might have turned out differently if Marina had returned the favor to Ruth and told her all that she knew, including the existence of the rifle in Ruth Paine’s garage. This is my tribute to Ruth, who richly deserves it.
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Twitter Facebook In my series of brand new readings of earlier recordings I had released in my more inexperienced narrative career, I introduce the latest of these: The Conan Doyle story. “The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton.” Here again, Holmes must battle against no ordinary villain, but against a blackmailer of the most sinister antecedents. Has there ever been a bad guy more oily and rotten than Charles Milverton? Maybe the Grinch, perhaps. But Milverton was a villain for all seasons, not just Christmas. I hope that you enjoy it. –Your audio narrator, Rick Reiman.
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Twitter Facebook For Christmas this year, I roll out an encore presentation of my narration of Arthur Conan Doyle’s greatest short story, “The Adventure of the Bruce Partington Plans.” The English government is paralyzed by fear as its most closely guarded secret is stolen or bought by an international spy. Its “most exalted person” (obviously Queen Victoria herself) is closely following the one man who can “save the state,” Sherlock Holmes. Noth even Sherlock’s older and smarter brother, Mycroft, the other man vital to the state, can unlock the secret and save the plans. Can Sherlock? Hold your breath as Queen Victoria does in this story, and listen and find out.
If you enjoy these recordings, send an email to rreiman33@gmail.com and let me know. They may be labors of love, but they take a lot of time and energy and I would like to know if people are listening and enjoying them. Thank you! –Your narrator, Rick Reiman
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Twitter Facebook I continue the narration of A. C. Bradley’s famous lectures on the Tragedies of William Shakespeare, one of the finest in all of the critiques of these legendary plays.
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Twitter Facebook In keeping with the other two encore recordings of major entries in the Sherlock Holmes canon of short stories, the “Abbey Grange” and the “Second Stain.” I narrate once again, in what I hope will be a new and improved cover of “The Adventure of Black Peter.” I hope you enjoy this entry in Sherlockean entertainment, on the eve of this holiday season. Sincerely yours, your narrator, Rick Reiman.
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Twitter Facebook And now for something completely different…
Here is an audio introduction to the English literary critic, A.C. Bradley, and his legendary lectures on the high tragedies of William Shakespeare: the plays of Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear. Bradley has been mute too long, buried in the mass of materials not properly advertised or displayed to the public in Project Gutenberg. If to live in the light is to to live in the light of Shakespeare, to hear the light of truth is to listen to A.C. Bradley. These obscure podcast episodes of mine will hardly rescue either the Bard or Bradley. But if you enjoy this episode please let me know with a brief note to rreiman33@gmail.com and I will record more of the great lectures on Shakespeare of A.C. Bradley. Signed, your narrator, Rick Reiman.
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Twitter Facebook Close on the heels of the brilliant “Adventure of the Abbey Grange” was one of Conan Doyle’s masterworks, his short story, “The Adventure of the Norwood Builder.” Any writer who wishes to toss into the ring a Sherlock Holmes pastiche of his own, will likely think twice before doing so upon reading this story, which bids fair to be close to the pinnacle of Doyle’s work. While I recorded it some years ago during the early days of my acquaintance with the art of podcasting, I have refined that art to a degree. Be however much that may be, this second version pushes the limits of that art, at least to farthest horizon of which I am today capable. I hope that it will be found by everyone to be enjoyable. –Rick Reiman, September 26, 2025.
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Twitter Facebook I have had the pleasure of recording nearly all of the Sherlock Holmes short stories for this podcast, but one stands out among all the others, both as a recording effort and as a story by the great Conan Doyle. That is THIS story, a BRAND NEW RE-READING of “The Adventure of the Abbey Grange.” I first recorded this in the summer of 2022, in the early stages of my recovery from my first bout with COVID-19. You can still listen to that version, if you go back through my episodes to that one recorded in mid-2022. My raspy voice is unmistakable, but I soldiered on and did what I always do when I record these short stories: act the parts with all the fervor and ability that I can possibly muster. And why not make the effort even as I gasped for breath? Conan Doyle was the master mystery structuralist, and a writer without peer in melding mystery with wit. Never has the Holmes character seemed so keen or brilliantly drawn by the author. The clues are parceled out just well enough that the reader feels he is on the path to a solution right alongside Holmes, although of course it is all a conceit that Doyle’s character Holmes (if he was just a character) shows is impossibly pretentious.
In this NEW READING AND RECORDING, I have tried to create as sonically and theatrically perfect a rendering of the story as possible, befitting its pride of place as first in the Sherlock Homes canon. It represents my learning as an audio narrator of the past six years. If you listen to no other of my recordings, LISTEN to this one. And, if you do, I dare you to stop listening then. Congratulations for chancing upon this rare opportunity to listen to the nearly-perfect recording of a nearly-perfect tale.
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Twitter Facebook Here is an audio narration by Dr. Richard Reiman of this famous FDR speech.
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Twitter Facebook “The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone,” by Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle, was one of two stories in the canon which was told not in the voice of Dr. John Watson but in third-person. Intended as the basis of a play, a one-act drama, it consists mainly of dialogue between two individuals at a time. Most of the time Holmes is one of the two persons, but not always. The device was necessary to make the surprise of the story possible. The story was published in the UK and in the US in 1921. It is one of Doyle’s later compositions, but it is a crackerjack story all the same. Narrated by Dr. Rick Reiman.
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Twitter Facebook Well, it has been quite an odyssey. Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic episodes have been narrated by readers like Stephen Fry, for a cost; and by readers like your host, for free, in the spirit of the 18th century Enlightenment. This series has been other-directed–directed to others–without charge or fee. The hope is to spread cheer and enjoyment of the mysteries of an extraordinary writer and his remarkable detective. Please let me know, at rreiman33@gmail.com, if you have enjoyed this series. And may I suggest that you listen to some of the best of these recordings, which I will identify soon, but which have long been available here at Audibly Speaking, my podcast.
–Your host, Rick Reiman, wishing you happy listening.
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Twitter Facebook In this year of 2025, we celebrate the centennial of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. I have recorded the first three chapters of the heartbreaking novel, and the latest chapter is out today! I have links to all three chapters below should you wish to listen to them in order. Perhaps you, too, admire the green light on the far horizon. Watch out, because it may be the chimera of the “American Dream,” an apparition best left in quotation marks as airy as the cocktails on Gatsby’s West Egg veranda.
Chapter One of The Great Gatsby
Chapter Two of The Great Gatsby
Chapter Three of The Great Gatsby (Below!)
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Twitter Facebook In 1922, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle capped his marvelous series of Sherlock Holmes story with an entry in the series to rival any of his best: “The Problem of Thor Bridge.” How fitting that Doyle’s last great Holmes story may be the final Holmes story narrated by yours truly, Rick Reiman, for I am moving on to other academic contributions that may better suit my talents and more greatly increase the sum of my contributions to academic learning in these, the two thousands and twenties.
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Twitter Facebook Some readers, who are avid fans of the atmosphere of the story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes tale, “The Adventure of Shoscomb Old Place,” may be disappointed with the hastily wrapped conclusion that Doyle sought fit to conclude the story. As a pastiche, a different ending concludes this audio narration of the tale. Will Sir Robert Norburton get his just deserts after all. Listen and learn to find out.
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Twitter Facebook A hoped-for interview ahead with Gabra Zackman of audio narration fame is the news in today’s show on the channel. We also look back on the perils of narrating Sherlock Holmes while “falling out” with Covid, as well as the advances in the art of audio narration thanks to the progress of time. Something different: Sherlock Holmes, sick with Covid, this time on AudiblySpeaking!
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Twitter Facebook What a whimsical tale Dr. Watson has to tell of Jabez Wilson and “The Red-Headed League!” Between the laughter and the mirth that Holmes teases out of the tale, there emerges a dastardly crime so cunning that only Holmes himself could solve it. John Clay, the “fourth smartest man in London,” according to Holmes, and probably a man working for Moriarty, the second smartest man, is plotting to bankrupt a vital English bank. But the narrator should not reveal the plot. He simply takes the part of the players, in this narration by your audio interpreter of all things Holmesian, Rick Reiman. He hopes, and knows that, thanks to the brilliant writing of Arthur Conan Doyle, that you will enjoy it.
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Twitter Facebook This is your narrator for this series, Dr. Rick Reiman. Americans know too little about the Early American Republic, the Republic of President Thomas Jefferson, leading to the War of 1812 and its aftermath, the Era of Good Feelings. In this overview of Chapter 7 from The American Yawp, I summarize its major themes. This will benefit my students, who must complete a Major Project in which they identify the major fractures in American life and politics from the 1780s through this major period in American history.
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Twitter Facebook Hello, everybody! Rick Reiman here, audio narrator for Audibly Speaking. On rare occasions, I re-record a short story in the Sherlock Holmes series written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Not that I think I did a bad job in my reading the first time around. But I am quite certain that I am doing better in my reinterpretation of these stories as I go along, both sonically and artistically. Therefore, I look back on those Sherlock Holmes stories that I think are Doyle’s very best and try to do them (and my audience) greater justice than I did the first time around. I think that these stories, albeit on a digital platform, help us live out our digital lives more productively and in ways less likely to lead to digital addiction. They are my contribution to the digital minimalism movement, for more information about which I heartily recommend the YouTube channel of Laura Malvoyante. In what Holmes would call “my own small way,” this is a contribution of mine to that movement.
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Twitter Facebook The story of American history, the “American Yawp,” begins with this chapter, Indigenous America, spanning 10,000 years of history. There is nothing quite like it in history, as you will hear when you listen to it.
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Twitter Facebook What a pleasure it was for me to interview Laura Malvoyante about her insights into society’s growing need for digital minimalism in the face of the addictiveness of tech. Technology is a voracious feeder on the limited and priceless commodity of time in our lives. At the same time, sometimes the antidote to this invasion is technology itself, in the form of devices that can force upon ourselves, in their build capacity and form factors, a more limited and rational relationship to the digital plenitude. Laura’s matchless intelligence on this topic, and her own personal journey through digital addiction and the nexus between disability and device, make this one of the most important and timely episodes presented on Audibly Speaking.
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Twitter Facebook Move over Charles Dickens! Stand aside, Scrooge! For a nineteenth century English Christmas tale without parallel, you cannot do better than Sherlock Holmes’s conveying of the Christmas message in his discover and commutation of a felony, all to save a soul in the season of forgiveness of this time of year. My narration of this tale is my Christmas present to all of my listeners. And now, happy listening ion the frosty air of crackling fires, ice crystals, and Sherlock Holmes himself.
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Twitter Facebook This opinion piece on Medicare Advantage concerns the “hard-sell” that private insurance companies make this time of year on behalf of “Medicare Advantage,” the private insurance alternative to Original Medicare. I record this podcast episode to warn seniors to do their homework, and ask the question, why are insurance companies so anxious to sell their Medicare Advantage plans and not the Supplement plans that offer the insurance companies so little of a profit margin? Hmm…maybe the question answers itself. TV commercials give only one side of the story, the private insurance companies’ side. They don’t lie, but they leave out much that seniors need to know before making what could be a very bad choice.
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Twitter Facebook In our post-truth world, ignorance about Medicare has reached avalanche proportions. The greatest and most secure health care system in the world is now suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in the form of babbling malcontents whose ignorance of Medicare is only matched by their outrage at it. Just go to Facebook or some other social media cesspool and you will see a lot of such heat, but precious little light. Medicare complainers, please heal yourselves and do a little, or preferably a lot, of research. Please!
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Twitter Facebook Today, Sunday, November 10, 2023, I reflect on the events of Veterans Day Weekend 1963, when JFK and Oswald lived out their last Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, November 10-12, 1963. We review what we know of those fateful days. Next, I talk about the events of Wednesday, November 13 through Friday, November 22, 1963, to be published here on Audibly Speaking before Friday, November 22, 2024.
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Twitter Facebook In this final episode about my opinions and experience with learning Medicare for retirement, I spread the word that many people are talking about: Medicare Advantage plans and Part D Prescription Drug plans are undergoing big changes, premium hikes and in some cases disappearing acts during this Annual Election Period between October 15 and December 7. If you are on Medicare Advantage OR a Part D prescription drug plan (you can’t be on both) you need to research Medicare.gov to see if you have a plan that will continue to have the same benefits and premiums as in 2024. In most cases, benefits are going down, premiums are going up and some plans are actually shutting down. Watch the Youtube videos by Mathew Claassen on Medicare for expert and accurate advice to follow. This episode is only my opinion and personal experience. It may not be yours.
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Twitter Facebook In this third part of my series on what I have learned, or thought I have learned, about Medicare I talk about some myths I have discovered about Medicare Advantage and Part B. While Medicare Advantage may be the right choice for some people, I cringe when I watch the commercials during this Annual Election Period and see the slick pitch that insurance companies make to see the cash cow (for them) of MA. Here are the realities that I see from behind just some of the myths about both Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part B.
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Twitter Facebook What in the world is Part D? My personal experience learning what I appreciated to find out about Medicare Part D coverage is the subject of this this brief podcast episode. Disclaimer: These are my opinions and what my impressions were. This is no substitute or necessarily as accurate as your doing your own research on Medicare. It is just an opinion piece on my reflections of my own experience.
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Twitter Facebook Medicare is confusing– what an understatement. Two years out from retirement I decided to try to understand it, suspecting that it might take me that long. I was not wrong! Now that I am retired and am now on Medicare, I tell this slightly autobiographical tale of what I think I have learned about Medicare in hope that it will either be interesting to or helpful for others, whichever the case may be.
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Twitter Facebook Listen to this audio version of my Youtube video explaining the “Single Bullet Theory” of the JFK assassination, and WHY IT IS TRUE. Many conspiracy theories about the JFK assassination discredit themselves by disputing this thrice-confirmed theory first revealed by the Warren Commission in 1964.
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Twitter Facebook On October 2, 2024, Jack Smith’s rebuttal to Donald Trump’ claims to immunity in all aspects of his resistance to surrender power in 2020 and 2021 was released by Judge Tanya Chutkin. This is an audio narration of the opening pages of that filing, now in the public domain. Read the entire filing at: (Click on the Link below this Block)
https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/73357920e3c8d739/8fc8bfd0-full.pdf
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Twitter Facebook In many ways, I regard this as my best recording of a chapter from “The American Yawp” yet. I have deleted nothing from the text edited by its editors, Joseph Locke and Ben Wright. I have added passages of my own where I think additions were needed to clarify what the original authors were trying to say. I have also added passages that connect the era of “The New Nation” with the trials and tensions America is experiencing today. For example I connect the majesty of America’s example in displaying the peaceful transition of power in the “revolution of 1800” which saw the Democratic-Republican Party receive power in 1800 from the Federalist Party without violence, and the more than 200 years of like examples to follow, with the disgrace of January 6, 2021, when President Donald Trump despoiled this legacy and broke that legacy so important not only to the United States but the whole world. These allusions between past and present are mine, and they are also true.
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Twitter Facebook Late in his authorial career, in the 1920s to be precise, Arthur Conan Doyle, who was then deeply immersed in beliefs of mysticism and seances, had occasion to pair his rational detective, Sherlock Holmes, with a case about vampires. Did Doyle change the hyper-rational Holmes to suit the author’s new beliefs? Listen and find out!
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Twitter Facebook In the course that covers the first half of American History, the chapter on the Sectional Crisis of the Union, also sometimes called “The Impending Crisis,” leading to the American Civil War, is the penultimate such chapter. Next to the magisterial, Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the crisis written by the great historian David Potter, that one audio narrated by Eric Martin, this chapter from the Open Educational Source textbook, “The American Yawp,” narrated by me, Dr. Rick Reiman, surveys the crisis well in capturing succinctly its fateful highlights. Listen, learn and enjoy. An historian myself I have added a few sentences of my own to improve, I firmly believe, on the chapter’s effort to make the Sectional Crisis more understandable.
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Twitter Facebook No ordeal in American history changed America so much or so enduringly as the American Civil War. Listen as well as read of the odyssey and what it was all about, or just listen with this audio offering.
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Twitter Facebook Hector St. John de Crevecouer, a French immigrant to American wrote this classic essay, “What, Then, is this New Man, the American?” in 1782, as American Independence from Britain loomed. Was he correct in his descriptions of Americans then? Do his descriptions accurately describe Americans today? How was he wrong then, if he was, and how do his descriptions fail to characterize Americans today, if indeed they do?
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Twitter Facebook Join me, Dr. Rick Reiman, for my reading of the chapter on British North America, Chapter 3 to be precise, from The American Yawp, the celebrated Open Source textbook on the history of the United States and the lands that would become the American Nation.
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Twitter Facebook Here is my audio narration of “Colliding Cultures,” a history of European and English colonization of early colonial America, a clash of cultures indeed. This is from the Open Source textbook, “The American Yawp,” free to anyone interested, as we all should be, in American history.
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Twitter Facebook In this epic short story, Arthur Conan Doyle exceeds himself. “The Naval Treaty” is the longest of all of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes short stories. It contains allusions to his other stories and many humorous asides as well as quite larger-than-life characters, some almost Dickensian in their strangeness. Holmes has to sift his clues and there are almost too many for him to select the relevant from the superfluous. “Almost,” but not too many–not for Sherlock Holmes.
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Twitter Facebook World War II was a change agent in history like no other. It can best be understood in pieces, barely grasped as a whole. In this audio narration of Chapter 24 of The American Yawp, a U.S. History Textbook available as a free, modifiable educational resource, I narrate the American history piece. The chapter sets it within the context of all other pieces. I am that rare narrator who is also an historian. I have taken the opportunity to make a few important corrections to the text, where I have perceived errors, and have added to it where I see important omissions. I, too, offer the text free to my listeners, in the spirit of educating my fellow citizens and improving their lives. If you enjoy this recording, please let me know by emailing me a sentence or two to this effect at rreiman33@gmail.com. I can track clicks and downloads but this is my only way of determining if anyone is actually listening. Happy listening to all.
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Twitter Facebook History Speaks again! My audio narration of “The Great Depression,” chapter twenty-three from the blockbuster Open Resource textbook, The American Yawp, is now out. As an historian myself, I have enhanced this recording and narrative by Joseph Locke and Ben Wright with a few additions of my own, in keeping with the democratic principles of Open Educational Resources (OER), which this document is. My contributions to this document, freely distributed as all OER are, are dedicated to the preservation of democracy in these United States, a dedication here that is mine and mine alone, not to be confused with the purposes of the authors of this textbook. My hope and my contributions to this recording, including my edits and narration, represent a plea that all listeners vote for the Democratic nominee for President this November, to save our splendid Democracy. America… to thee, I sing.
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Twitter Facebook History Speaks! My audio narration of “The Great Depression,” chapter twenty-three from the blockbuster Open Resource textbook, The American Yawp, is here. As an historian myself, I have enhanced this recording and narrative by Joseph Locke and Ben Wright with a few additions of my own, in keeping with the democratic principles of Open Educational Resources (OER), which this document is. My contributions to this document, freely distributed as all OER are, are dedicated to the preservation of democracy in these United States, a dedication here that is mine and mine alone, not to be confused with the purposes of the authors of this textbook. My hope and my contributions to this recording, including my edits and narration, represent a plea that all listeners vote for the Democratic nominee for President this November, to save our splendid Democracy. America… to thee, I sing.
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Twitter Facebook Motive. It is the thing that all juries want but do not need, in our system of justice, to determine guilt or innocence, The Warren Commission did not hazard a hypothesis on the question of Oswald’s motive, seen singularly. But they did list a series of potential motives, seeded by his early life, and seen by his comments and those of others, that might have played a part in the formation of motive. Here I summarize this penultimate chapter in The Warren Report, and argue that there is much to praise and much to critique about the Commission’s handling of this critical phase of the life of the assassin.
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Twitter Facebook This chapter may be seen as the Big Enchilada of the Report. Did the Warren Commission provide a credible investigation of the possibility of conspiracy in the crime? The staff wracked its collective brains to see where any possible conspiracy might have emerged given the facts in the case. It also tracked down leads offered by private citizens that seemed the least bit credible. This chapter of more than 130 pages, the longest in the Report, is the fruit of their work. One thing seems clear from this chapter and this podcast episode: Jack Ruby’s shooting of Oswald either was not premeditated or was reached just seconds before he rushed up to Oswald in the basement of the Dallas city jail and set countless conspiracy theories into motion.
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Twitter Facebook Continuing our summary of The Warren Report investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, we come to Chapter Five. The whole tenor of the investigation changed with the subject of this chapter. It concerned the events that led to the federalization of the investigation itself, the violation of Oswald’s civil liberties in the Dallas jail climaxing in the assassination of Oswald himself by Jack Ruby during the transfer of Oswald from one jail to another. The events of this chapter transformed the assassination from something seemingly weird to something seemingly unbelievable. In this summary, host Rick Reiman discusses the oddities of a criminal justice cast of characters in Dallas more concerned with reputation and appearance than the requirements of law and truth. Chapter Five reminds us that the assassination and Dallas’s part in it were shaped by the realities of time and place, a very different time and place than any we are familiar with today.
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Twitter Facebook Continuing our summary of The Warren Report investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, we come to Chapter Five. The whole tenor of the investigation changed with the subject of this chapter. It concerned the events that led to the federalization of the investigation itself, the violation of Oswald’s civil liberties in the Dallas jail climaxing in the assassination of Oswald himself by Jack Ruby during the transfer of Oswald from one jail to another. The events of this chapter transformed the assassination from something seemingly weird to something seemingly unbelievable. In this summary, host Rick Reiman discusses the oddities of a criminal justice cast of characters in Dallas more concerned with reputation and appearance than the requirements of law and truth. Chapter Five reminds us that the assassination and Dallas’s part in it were shaped by the realities of time and place, a very different time and place than any we are familiar with today.
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Twitter Facebook In Chapter Four we have an overview of the evidence against Oswald. Here I summarize the chapter.
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Twitter Facebook A recent podcast episode by the excellent historians of the JFK assassination, Gerald Posner and Fred Litwin, prompted this podcast episode of mine. Given the need to speculate about so much that is important about the behavior of Oswald on November 21 (pre-assassination) and November 33 (post-assassination), is it possible to employ speculation as a technique for getting at the truth of why Oswald assassinated JFK, and what his post-assassination purposes might have been? Can informed speculation ever rise to the level of good evidence? And if so, what are the standards that such evidence must meet to achieve this state? Questions, questions, questions. I hope that Messers. Posner and/or Litwin respond to these questions, which are expanded upon in this episode of Audibly Speaking.
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Twitter Facebook It’s core findings remain untouched. Its conclusions have stood the test of time. In this episode we see the tour de force that lies at the foundation of this seminal chapter in The Warren Report: Chapter Three. While subsequent research has expanded on the insights we gain from this chapter, which distilled the most important work of the Warren Commission, nothing has seriously contradicted its fundamental conclusion. What has deteriorated is not the Warren Report conclusions. No, those have stood the test of time. What has deteriorated is the American people’s ability to separate fact from fiction and to accept fact even when it is staring them in the face–as it is here. Will Americans continue to follow the carnival barkers of conspiracist thinking? Americans through “Their government,” as FDR would say, has, with the Warren Report, done them the favor of representing them well. Will the Americans people in the age of Trump accept the truth or follow the carnival barkers?
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Twitter Facebook Today I summarize the Warren Report’s Chapter Two, “The Assassination.” It is a chapter that promises much but really delivers less than meets the eye. Focusing on the details that form the background of the assassination, and continuing by trading in the shadowlands of lacunae about the event, chapter two is a mere overture to the real opera of the assassination, the fireworks that begin with Chapter Three, “The Shots from the Texas School Depository.” Stay tuned for that chapter in our next summary episode on Audibly Speaking.
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Twitter Facebook The Warren Commission’s Warren Report, at 888 pages, is a long slog. For those for whom it is too long, I begin here a series of summaries of each of the chapters in the Report. Each chapter exhibits the strengths and weaknesses of the Commission’s investigations. The Commission’s faults can be exaggerated and it accomplishments overlooked. This series opens with “Summary and Conclusions,” including one of the most controversial, if not the most controversial, sentence in the entire Warren Report.
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Twitter Facebook We have an intermission episode in this series on the JFK assassination, with a personal view of the memories of the host on the assassination and why he was not taken in by conspiracy theories, in contrast to so many of his boomer cohorts along the way.
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Twitter Facebook Today, Audibly Speaking reviews the magisterial book by famed prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. We revisit the things that make it unique and utterly unanswerable as a riposte to the crazy conspiracy theories that still pollute the writings about the 35th US President.
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Twitter Facebook In this sidebar episode tracing the movements of Lee Harvey Oswald and we step back from the forest to examine the trees of the story. In this politically portentous year of 2024, learn what the conspiracy nonsense can do to help us save American democracy. And begin to learn why the strengths of the Warren Commission and its Warren Report far out weigh the particular weaknesses examined in a previous episode on Audibly Speaking.
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Twitter Facebook Why did Lee Harvey Oswald go east from his boarding house in the aftermath of the JFK assassination, only to go west before his fatal encounter with Police Officer J.D. Tippit on November 22, 1963? The only possible answer was that his plans must have changed, along with his destination, at least temporarily. Ironically, however, his confrontation with Tippit, murderous though it was, may not have changed his destination at all, because he continued his journey west in its wake. An advertisement in the Dallas Morning News, never examined until now, may explain this mystery, as I explain in this episode.
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Twitter Facebook We have now arrived at the critical moments. What happened as the assassination occurred and what do we know of Oswald’s behavior during these most important of minutes? It turns out we know a great deal–so much in fact that we can even infer what was going on in Oswald’s mind on a minute by minute basis. In this episode, we also speculate about the most mysterious of all questions. Where was Oswald going when he left his boarding house after the assassination? Here we engage in informed speculation, with an emphasis on the word “informed.”
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Twitter Facebook How to help students understand the overwhelming evidence against Lee Harvey Oswald (and Oswald alone)? Given the power of the evidence, no help ought be needed! Perhaps a concise run-through will do the trick? Or a solemn and stately documentary? In a time when facts alone hold no sway, what is an historian to do? The answer is to marshal the evidence one more time, always one more time, until the bell, at long last, rings. Even though it has been clanging now for more than sixty years, let up look at a day in the life of Oswald, the last day before the assassination, as the camera of evidence before him and before us, followed his every step, and recorded everything we need to know to state the obvious: that Oswald did it, and that he was a man utterly without help along the way. This is a change of pace in our JFK series, a look directly at only one thing, the evidence against Oswald.
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Twitter Facebook What was Lee Harvey Oswald up to in New Orleans between his failed assassination attempt against Retired General Edwin Walker in April 1963 and his trip to Mexico City in late September in pursuit of a visa to Communist Cuba? What was the mix of motives that drove Oswald in these critical months prior to November 1963, when the president of the United States unexpectedly came into his sights. Listen to this podcast episode for some insights into these questions.
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Twitter Facebook In this final part of the three-part podcast series, we look at Oswald’s interior concerns in the days and hours before 12:30 pm CST on November 22, 1963. In so doing we elucidate the most elusive of questions, the question of motive.
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Twitter Facebook In this three-part series, we go into the mind of the assassin and try to understand Oswald’s motives. This helps us understand why conspiracy thinking about the assassination makes no sense. If you believe that Oswald lacked motive, ability or opportunity to shoot JFK, a conspiracy seems to be a necessary alternative. In fact none of these three things were lacking in 1963. There was no need for conspiracy. Oswald, however unbalanced, was actually quite smart. His plans for greatness, deluded as they were, come down to two. Colored by the Cold War and the politics of a performative president, they gave him motives and opportunities galore to assassinate JFK. The conspiracy shysters don’t tell you about these realities and the politicians and explainers in the 1960s also did not want to talk about the geopolitics of the era, factors that make the mysteries of the assassination disappear, manufactured as they were by storytellers who only wanted to tell part of the story.
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Twitter Facebook This is your host, historian Rick Reiman. Go to my YouTube Channel, “JFK Demystified,” to view the first episode of a series of short videos called “On Background: Seeking the Hidden JFK Assassination.” The series is on the evidence that is hiding in plain sight, namely the factors that block our view from the evidence that makes the assassination a simple thing to understand. We look at the confusion regarding standards of evidence and proof, the con-men- conspiracy theories that lead people astray, the historical context that sends us back to the real world, and the accumulated evidence confirmed again and again by a series of investigation, each one clearing up the few original questions that arose from a legitimate concern that some of the evidence was hidden. It was, but it is hidden no more, a simple fact that speaks volumes about how history really works. Join me on YouTube for this series, “On Background.” See you there.
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Twitter Facebook Continuing the series of JFK assassination episodes in this, the 60th year since the assassination, we look not at the thinking of the CIA, FBI, Warren Commission, Mob, Cuba, Russia or any of the other institutions that have been falsely imagined as being behind it, but inside the mind of the man who actually did it, and did it alone: Lee Harvey Oswald. It may not be the most popular theory, but facts don’t have to be popular. They only need to be true. This is an essay by myself, Rick Reiman, and narrated by myself, in response to the excellent insights of Burt Griffin, who wrote the new book, JFK, Oswald, Ruby: Politics, Prejudice and Truth. A staff member on the Warren Commission (1963-1964). Griffin challenges historians to take the assassination seriously as history, something that is simple to understand once contextualized in history. Frankly, historians have not recognized their responsibility in this regard. Historians, when are you going to do your jobs, and take this intersection of the Cold War and cvil rights, which is what the assassination was, seriously as history? Until they do, this will continue to be a blot, a stain and a disgrace for the historical profession, as it has been for sixty years.
Photo taken by Marina Oswald.Twitter Facebook
Twitter Facebook Today, your host on Audiblyspeaking, Dr. Rick Reiman narrates his assessment of this year’s surprising news in the JFK assassination folklore: the claim by former secret service agent Paul Landis that he found a backseat bullet that allegedly refutes the famous “single bullet theory.” The subtitle of today’s show might appropriately be, “Not so Fast.”
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Twitter Facebook Most of the thousands of books on the JFK assassination are re-cyclings and re-spinnings of the foundational myths of the first generation of conspiracy fabulation tales. To hear Rob Reiner’s repetition of the tired magic bullet trope that we have heard before–you know the one that has long since been debunked–it seems that the half-story hoaxes that I discussed in my first Warren Commission episode two weeks ago are not just historical relics of the past. They continue to be retailed to an unsuspecting public. Here is the rest of the story of the very-unmagical second shot in the assassination, as well as the first shot, told in the epistemological technicolor of the truth.
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Twitter Facebook One of the chief reasons why people still believe the nonsense of a conspiracy in the assassination of John F. Kennedy is because of the fiendishness of those, out of malice or effort at pecuniary gain, deliberately lie to their readers and tell only half of a story they know too well to be false. We examine two of the many half-story hoaxes, as I call them, which try to spread the lie of conspiracy by covering up the proofs of no-conspiracy which have grown to mountainous proportions in the 60 years since 1963.
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Twitter Facebook Tom Buchanan moves his sad life from East Egg to New York City, and all those in his orbit pay the price in chapter two of this archetypal novel of the Jazz Age. The contrast between the glitter and the gutter, and the sadness of the last chance is seen in Myrtal, another person used and discarded by Tom.
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Twitter Facebook F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby, was both a product of, and epitaph for, the Jazz Age of the Roaring ’20s. Journey to West and East Egg again, as your host Rick Reiman narrates one of the great American novels of the twentieth (or any other) century.
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Twitter Facebook Today is November 20, 2023, two days before the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. On the eve of this event, we look at the flagship government investigation of the crime, the Warren Commission and its work. Ironies abound in discussing the Commission. Its Report has been savaged by many, most of whom have failed even to read it. Critics, beginning with the conspiracy “buffs,” have largely cherrypicked the twenty-seven volumes of the documents and hearing transcripts for evidence in support of their claims, or for evidence that could be made to support their claims with sufficient imagination and blinders to ignore the other documents and testimony in the same volumes that counter their claims. So it is with the Commission’s alleged “mistakes.” In this two-part reflection on the work of the Warren Commission (1963-1964), we look at the Commission’s supposed errors or “mistakes,” and separate its actual failings from “unavoidable inabilities,” which, as we hear in this podcast, are not the same thing.
Part Two of this reflection series will focus on the strengths of the Warren Commission, strengths so powerful that they have survived three generations of scrutiny since that terrible day in Dallas.
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Twitter Facebook You may have seen and heard the classic story of “The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax” here on History Revisited and Audibly Speaking before, but this is a new version, now with annotations included from the observations in Leslie S. Klinger’s The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Volume II (New York: Norton’s, 2005). Listen to the story and the annotated digressions to journey through the dual labyrinths of the plot-line and the mind of Arthur Conan Doyle, in this, one of my all-time-favorites in the Sherlock Holmes canon!
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Twitter Facebook No one has caught the similarities between the Biden Oval Office Speech on Israel and Ukraine of 2023 and the FDR “Arsenal of Democracy” Speech of 1940, other than the use of the phrase “Arsenal of Democracy.” Yet the parallels are eery and uncanny. They are also portentous for revealing the resonance of the world situations of 1940 and that of today. Listen and learn how the Biden speech drew on two FDR speeches, one in 1940 and one in the wake of Pearl Harbor (no, not that one, not the “Day of Infamy” speech but one a few days later) and you will agree on the striking similarities. I hope you will also agree on the gravity of their meanings as discussed here.
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Twitter Facebook In the run up to Halloween, there no more terrifying, thrilling and horrifying story in the Sherlock Holmes canon than this, “The Cardboard Box.” Publishers were frightened to publish it and its author, John Watson, was persuaded to do so only on his deathbed. Listeners are strongly encouraged to listen only at noon, in the bright sunshine, when demons are at a distance and vampires asleep in their coffins. If you must listen to this of an evening, have someone with you to hold onto. Listen…if you dare.
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Twitter Facebook In advance of the publication of Paul Landis’s new book on his memory as a Secret Service agent in the JFK detail on November 22, 1963, Landis has made a claim that has roiled the class of people interested in the controversies involving the JFK assassination. In response to those parts of the claim that have been published (since the book itself will not come out until October) your host for this podcast, Rick Reiman, looks at the logical problems of the Landis claim, and why it should be considered little more than a myth and a mistaken memory.
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Twitter Facebook This is Dr. Rick Reiman, professor of History at South Georgia State College. Here I narrate sections from the National Archives public domain publication, “Putting the Bill of Rights to the Test.” I read sections on the application of the First and Fifth Amendments. Listeners are encouraged to download the complete publication on the National Archives web site. The complete publication contains questions and primary documents that will enhance your experience in listening to this podcast episode and learning more about the Constitution.
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Twitter Facebook Here is my review of the blockbuster movie by Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer.” It is a tour de force for so many reasons, but gaps in Oppenheimer’s biography still remains, as I try to show in this review.
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Twitter Facebook The Georgia Indictment against Donald J. Trump may be the first indictment against Trump to go to trial. It also may be the only trial of Trump to be televised, and televised live. Unabridged audio narrations of the indictment are numerous online, but to my knowledge, this unabridged recording by your host, Rick Reiman, which still clocks in at nearly 75 minutes, is the only one that limits the attention to the charges against Trump and the narrative of the acts of which he is accused in the indictment. For those with limited time, this may be the ideal narration to which to listen. Of course, all listeners are encouraged to read or listen (or both) to the complete indictment, widely available online through a simple Google search.
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As Hurricane Idalia continues to blast the Southeastern United States, at this hour a Category 1 Hurricane devastating hundreds of thousands of human beings in Georgia, it is worth an audio opinion piece to remind the mainstream media of the invisible victims that they have chosen to remain invisible in their reporting of the storm. … Continue reading Hurricane Idalia’s Invisible Victims: The Derelict- for-Duty Mainstream Media →
In 1940, American democracy was gravely threatened as never before, and only the American people stood against it as a reliable line of defense. Could we say the same today if American democracy were similarly threatened? Here is an analysis of the famous “Arsenal of Democracy” speech, annotated by your host, Rick Reiman
A Russian Count and his mysterious son make an appointment with a doctor to examine the Count for catalepsy. Catalepsy being the doctor’s speciality, it makes sense. But the resident patient who lives at the doctor’s office may have a lively, or is it deadly, interest in the Russian visitors, unbeknownst to the doctor. What … Continue reading New! Audio Narration of the Sherlock Holmes Short Story, “The Resident Patient,” by Arthur Conan Doyle →
Your audio narrator, Rick Reiman, takes you from London to the English Midlands, as we journey with Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson and “the stockbroker’s clerk,” in quest of the solution to a mystery and a hideous crime. Sherlock Holmes solves it only at the very end, and only with the aid of one of the … Continue reading NEW! An Audio Narration of Conan Doyle’s “The Stockbroker’s Clerk,” a Sherlock Holmes Short Story →
Movies may entertain us, but they also reflect our innermost thoughts and feelings in the time in which we make and watch them. Here I, a Professor of History, reflect on how the themes in the new movie, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” whether consciously or unconsciously meant by its makers, possess undercurrents … Continue reading Reflection on “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and the Raiders of Memory in our MAGA Moment →
I narrate the watershed indictment, the first federal prosecution of a former President of the United States in American history. Every American should read this document to understand and appreciate the gravity of the crimes alleged to have been committed by Donald F. Trump. This is necessary because Trump’s defenders have been distorting the charges. … Continue reading NEW!! “The United States versus Donald J. Trump,” Federal Indictment of the Department of Justice, on Audio →
Twitter Facebook The odyssey is almost complete: Virtually the entire canon on Sherlock Holmes stories by Conan Doyle have now been recorded, available free to the public, by the work and from the voice of audio narrator Rick Reiman. You can also catch the classic Hound of the Baskervilles, either here on AudiblySpeaking (available at the podcast by that name on Apple Podcasts) or at Librivox.org. This is an other-directed public service worthy of the spirit of the eighteenth century Enlightenment. Here is “The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax,” for your enjoyment.
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You listened to the sneak preview of this Arthur Conan Doyle classic a few days ago. Now here is the complete recording to enjoy.
Other than horse-racing, this is is the only Sherlock Holmes story featuring sports. In this case it is a missing football player, not a race horse, that confounds Holmes. Listen to this preview now. The complete audio narration will be released on June 1. Get the jump with this swift and breezy preview, now.
Twitter Facebook Inspector Lastrade of Scotland Yard informs Holmes that someone is robbing people’s houses of their busts of Napoleon and smashing them to bits in situ or a little distance away. What can be the meaning of this? Lastrade only really becomes interested when the affair is entangled in murder–the burglar knifed an Italian on his way out of a burgled house, and the dead man had a photo of the likely murdered in his pocket. Holmes continues to center his attention on the busts, not the dead man, a fact that Lastrade considers mad. As usual, Holmes is proven right in the denouement, a fact which can only be made clear by Holmes’s dazzlingly ingenious methods, as is revealed at the conclusion of the story.
The Adventure
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Twitter Facebook Peter Carey, an English Sea Captain, with the reputation of being tyrannical and hard-hearted, is given the name “Black Peter” before he is killed by an unknown visitor to his home. Sherlock Holmes must help the novice detective, Stanley Hopkins, unravel the mystery of Peter Carey’s strange ending. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sprinkles clues to enable the reader the understand that Hopkins is too quick to close a case that only Sherlock Holmes can solve.
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Twitter Facebook “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” was the last short story published in Conan Doyle’s first book-length collection of short stories, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892). It does not follow the usual pattern of opening with a brief Sherlock Holmes deduction that shows his brilliance, but focuses on Holmes’s tendency toward morose depression. Holmes complains to Watson that his clients are so dull that he is left to advice people on how to find lost lead pencils and ladies on how to secure such positions as governess. He shows Watson that he has really reached “Zero” with the case of Violet Hunter, who seeks advice on whether to become governess to Jephro Rucastle. The case turns out to be more diabolical and potentially deadly than even Holmes can imagine. Violet also turns out to be cut from the Sherlockian cloth as her own deductions and limitless curiosity plunges her into pathbreaking pages of discovery and drama. Watson even suspects that Holmes may fall in love with her. But the autistic detective remains a bachelor, and turns away from her in disinterest once she is no longer “at the center” of one of his cases. As for Holmes and Watson, they open the story criticizing each other like a tired married couple, and only grow united in purpose once Violet Hunter delivers them a mystery that brings the dynamic duo once together once more in pursuit of a game once again “afoot.”
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Twitter Facebook Here is my “take” on one of the most famous novels of all time, “A Tale of Two Cities,” by Charles Dickens. Why is it so great? What the dickens was Dickens up to when he wrote it? And what should be our takeaway today. Tune in here, and listen, learn and, most importantly, enjoy!
I have narrated the ENTIRE novel, for Librivox. Listen to the whole thing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrCYidisLaQ
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Twitter Facebook In this, our second episode of “Puzzle Pieces,” in which we examine a separate mystery in American history, we look at the weaknesses of the Warren Commission’s efforts in 1964. This first investigation of the JFK assassination suffered from mistakes of its own making and errors over which it had little if no control whatsoever. Weaknesses could sometimes later become strengths, as their obvious highlighting could be–and were–addressed in subsequent investigations. Here we have a photograph of the Commissioners themselves–who did very little of the leg work for the Commission. The unsung staff did most of the work, and may be credited with many of the Commission’s monumental, if unsung and forgotten, successes. Next time on “Puzzle Pieces,” we go over those successes–here on AudiblySpeaking.
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Twitter Facebook Your host, Rick Reiman, narrates “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb,” by Arthur Conan Doyle. This is rather one of the more graphic of the Sherlock Holmes tales, not for the faint of heart. But it contains several of Holmes’s most ingenious deductions along the way. My narrations of the Holmes stories must be nearing an end, since there are few of them that I have not yet read and released on Audibly Speaking thus far. I hope that you enjoy it.
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Twitter Facebook This is your host on “Audibly Speaking,” Rick Reiman. Today, March 31, 2023, is the 60th anniversary of the taking of the famous backyard photographs of Lee Harvey Oswald, holding the rifle he would later use to kill President Kennedy and the pistol he would use to murder Officer J.D. Tippit forty-five minutes after that awful act in American history. This is a classic case of how historians untangle facts from allegations, and how the facts in the JFK assassination are imagined away and replaced by the will-of-the-wisp of “What-Ifs.” Let this year, the 60th anniversary of that dark day be the year we start listening to most historians, rather then the inhabitants of “Dallas in Wonderland,” with their absurd conspiracy theories. Thanks for listening–and please share this with others if you like it!
Oswald in the back of his house on Neely Street in Oak Cliff, March 31, 1963. Picture taken by his wife, Marina Oswald.Twitter Facebook
Twitter Facebook Your host on this podcast, “Audibly Speaking,” Rick Reiman, narrates this classic by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. That master of all detectives in literature, Sherlock Holmes, has once again to deal with the imbecility of the Scotland Yard detective, Lastrade, and the amateur cluelessness of the otherwise-devoted John Watson. Holmes once again defends an accused suspect whose guilt everyone else assumes is obvious. Not so, as it turns out. The unraveling of this tangled web is accomplished by tea time, by the man who shows how “elementary” it all actually is.
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Twitter Facebook In this unabridged audio narration, I read my article for The Journal of Perpetrator Research (2019) Vol: 2 Issue: 2. There were only three actual “shots” in Dealey Plaza on that dark day, of course. They were the bullets fired by Lee Harvey Oswald from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building. But photographs are also metaphoric “shots,” and three were captured in the same seconds that the rifle blasts rang out, by the Dallas dressmaker Abraham Zapruder with his 35-millimeter Bell and Howell Zoomatic camera. Three frames from this 26-second film represented the key photographs in this case, and they were to reverberate throughout American culture for decades to come. They were at once reflections, projections and evidence, as this article reveals.
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Twitter Facebook This is my audio narration of my book review of Paul R. Gregory’s The Oswalds: An Untold Account of Marina and Lee, a newly published account of Gregory’s brush with Lee and Marina Oswald in 1962, a year before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Listeners can read the full review, of which this is an unabridged recording, at http://www.washingtondecoded.com.
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Twitter Facebook Here is my audio narration of Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.” This is Doyle’s Dickensian Christmas time story, one of many in which Holmes at first believes no crime has occurred, and later introduces a note of Christian charity in his resolution of the case. It involves a Christmas goose and a mystery unlocked in the frosty air of snowy London, circa the 1880s. Musical enhancements add to the holiday effect of this favorite in the Sherlock Holmes canon.
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Twitter Facebook Join Holmes and Watson, and a sound show of horses hooves, Watson typing, and a crackling fire on a stormy night in Baker Street, as Holmes and Watson embark on one of their creepiest mysteries of the Sherlock Holmes canon!
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Twitter Facebook In 2006, Prof. Aleida Assmann, the premier authority in the field of Cultural Memory, explained how memory works at different levels and in different formats. Here is a summary of her 2006 article, “Reframing Memory,” which dissects the different kinds of memory and how it is a special view to argue, as some academics have, that there is, and can be, no such thing as collective memory. This is my summary of her argument. Any errors in “translation” are mine alone. –Richard Reiman
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Twitter Facebook This new version of a recording only published last week features audio enhancements and sound effects that put you in the time and place of the story, more dramatically than ever.
One of the most popular, and certainly most socially-conscious, of the Sherlock Holmes stories is “The Man with the Twisted Lip,” by Arthur Conan Doyle. A man disappears, a beggar enters the picture, and Holmes and Watson are caught between the devil and the deep, brown opium den called “The Bar of Gold.” Of course Holmes solves the mystery, but first he has to determine what the mystery is in the first place. Come along with Holmes and Watson on this dangerous journey–if you dare.
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Twitter Facebook One of the most popular, and certainly most socially-conscious, of the Sherlock Holmes stories is “The Man with the Twisted Lip,” by Arthur Conan Doyle. A man disappears, a beggar enters the picture, and Holmes and Watson are caught between the devil and the deep, brown opium den called “The Bar of Gold.” Of course Holmes solves the mystery, but first he has to determine what the mystery is in the first place. Come along with Holmes and Watson on this dangerous journey–if you dare.
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Twitter Facebook Conan Doyle’s choice for second favorite short story in his collection of 56 Sherlock Holmes tale was “The Red-Headed League.” In this brief introduction and commentary on this story, I point out its distinction as one of the most light-hearted and merry entries into the Holmes canon, a perfect “gift” for the present holiday season. Elsewhere on this podcast site, you may listen to my reading of this delightful story, whether you are red-headed or not!
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Twitter Facebook The January 6th report by the Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack on the US Capitol was published December 22nd, 2022. The document consists of eight chapters of more than 800 pages, documenting President Donald Trump’s attempt to thwart the will of the people by overturning the election of 2020 with lies plots, frivolous legal claims, and even the orchestration of mob violence. Never before had a president stood in the way of the legal certification of an election in blatant disregard for the commands of the Constitution. When lies did not work and spurious legal fiction failed, Trump tried to shut down the transition to a dually elected new administration by brute force, waging war against an independent branch of the federal government.
To say that he disregarded his oath of office to make sure that the laws were faithfully executed is to state the obvious.
The January 6th report is a fast moving document and a devastating indictment. Still, it is a dense document and a PDF that will not be read by millions of Americans more than will have the time and technology to read it. Many Americans cannot read it for various reasons, including disability.
This audio recording is a narration of Chapter One only “The Big Lie,” For those who cannot read the free pdf at House.gov or who prefer to listen rather than read. This narration does not include a reading of the footnotes.Please refer to the published document for these.
Every word of Chapter One is included. This document is in the public domain. My name is Richard Reiman. Depending on the number of clicks or downloads, I may record more chapters. Remember, there are eight chapters in all, and this is only the first of them. I heartily recommend that all who can do so read all eight chapters. Download the free report from House.gov and read the full report.
Lastly, a disclaimer: Because this Report includes quotations by some who participated in the Big Lie, it includes offensive language at times.
And so click on the link below to listen to Chapter One of the Report By the House Select committee on the Attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
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Twitter Facebook About the Vacancy in the “Red-Headed League”In this, one of the funniest of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Holmes must unravel a preposterous tale of a charity for red-headed men, in order to foil a bank robbery of enormous proportions. Truly, this is one of the favorites in the Sherlock Holmes canon.
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In this, the final chapter, Holmes explains to Dr. Watson how he cracked the case of the Hound of the Baskervilles, and how all the proverbial loose ends may be tied up–once and forever.
In this, the penultimate chapter of the novel, Holmes and Watson together solve the crime and save Sir Henry Baskerville.
Holmes and Watson prepare a trap for the evil one who hails from Merripit House, in this pivotal chapter of the book, now nearing its fateful conclusion.
Sherlock Holmes makes his return in the novel, and not a moment too soon. After a frightful scare, the chapter moves closer to the story’s exciting denouement.
Sherlock Holmes makes his return in the novel, and not a moment too soon. After a frightful scare, the chapter moves closer to the story’s exciting denouement.
Watson pursues both leads, the identity of “L.L.” and that of the man on the Tor, and he unravels both mysteries in this important chapter.
Watson pursues both leads, the identity of “L.L.” and that of the man on the Tor, and he unravels both mysteries in this important chapter.
We are rapidly nearing the end of our mystery. But Watson continues to collect new questions along with new clues. One is the mysterious identity of “L.L.,” a woman who somehow lured Sir Charles to the moor gate where he died his horrible death. The other is the identity of the mysterious man on the … Continue reading New Reading of “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” by Arthur Conan Doyle, Chapter 10: “Extract from the Diary of Dr. Watson” →
We are rapidly nearing the end of our mystery. But Watson continues to collect new questions along with new clues. One is the mysterious identity of “L.L.,” a woman who somehow lured Sir Charles to the moor gate where he died his horrible death. The other is the identity of the mysterious man on the … Continue reading New Reading of “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” by Arthur Conan Doyle, Chapter 10: “Extract from the Diary of Dr. Watson” →
Capital and Labor This is a reading of Chapter 16, on Capital and Labor, of The American Yawp, a free Open Educational Resource U.S. History textbook. This reading is by Dr. Richard Reiman, Ph.D., History. Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Capital and Labor This is a reading of Chapter 16, on Capital and Labor, of The American Yawp, a free Open Educational Resource U.S. History textbook. This reading is by Dr. Richard Reiman, Ph.D., History. Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Reconstruction This is a reading of Chapter 15, on Reconstruction, of The American Yawp, a free Open Educational Resource U.S. History textbook. This reading is by Dr. Richard Reiman, Ph.D., History. Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Reconstruction This is a reading of Chapter 15, on Reconstruction, of The American Yawp, a free Open Educational Resource U.S. History textbook. This reading is by Dr. Richard Reiman, Ph.D., History. Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The gloom of the moor and the Great Grimpin Mire deepen as Watson explores the light upon the moor. Two terrible apparitions rise up before him. Listen–if you dare.
The gloom of the moor and the Great Grimpin Mire deepen as Watson explores the light upon the moor. Two terrible apparitions rise up before him. Listen–if you dare.
Cassandra was a Trojan priestess whose warnings to the Trojans of looming disaster were both true and ignored, Ever since a Cassandra is one who warns of a coming catastrophe that inevitably happens even as it is dismissed at the time. In this podcast episode for Constitution Day 2022, Dr. Richard Reiman tells the story … Continue reading “Cassandras of the Constitution: Politics and the Decisions of the Supreme Court” →
Cassandra was a Trojan priestess whose warnings to the Trojans of looming disaster were both true and ignored, Ever since a Cassandra is one who warns of a coming catastrophe that inevitably happens even as it is dismissed at the time. In this podcast episode for Constitution Day 2022, Dr. Richard Reiman tells the story … Continue reading “Cassandras of the Constitution: Politics and the Decisions of the Supreme Court” →
Read for you by Rick Reiman. Subscribe and automatically receive the next episode in the series, Chapter 7, coming soon.
Read for you by Rick Reiman. This is another classic from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Read for you by Rick Reiman. This is another classic from “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Arthur Conan Doyle intended this story to be his final official entry in the Holmes canon. He later added “The Adventure of the Second Stain” (also in this narrated collection) to serve that distinctive role. Holmes and Watson spar over the latter’s dramatic depiction of Holmes’s detective methods and Holmes uncharacteristically gets on Watson’s nerves....
Arthur Conan Doyle intended this story to be his final official entry in the Holmes canon. He later added “The Adventure of the Second Stain” (also in this narrated collection) to serve that distinctive role. Holmes and Watson spar over the latter’s dramatic depiction of Holmes’s detective methods and Holmes uncharacteristically gets on Watson’s nerves....
Read by Rick Reiman. In this story, one of Doyle’s favorites, Sherlock Holmes must avert a European war by solving a mystery absolutely befuddling to all but this greatest “consulting detective” of all time. At once full of high tension and broad comedy, the autistic Holmes must navigate through the tangling murky politics of sexual...
Every Doyle story contains slips and errors, whether of outrageous fortune or simply haste. In this four-minute introduction to the complete story, which I narrate next in this series on AudiblySpeaking, I bring the listener’s attention not only to some of these mistakes but also to some foregrounding of the backstory surrounding its writing and...
Read for you by Rick Reiman. This excellent addition to the Sherlock Holmes canon contains many of the aspects that delight his readers. It is set in a macabre and romantic setting, the moors of Cornwall; it has Holmes pitting himself against the common feeling that there must be something supernatural afoot. These traces of...
Some reflections on July 4, its historical significance and its changing meaning yesterday and today in American culture. The Declaration of Independence, painted by John Trumbull
One of Doyle’s favorite Holmes stories is this one, about an interpreter who gets caught up in a strange “country house” mystery, replete with plaster of paris victims and giggling villains. We also are introduced to Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft, and the hilarious Diogenes Club, the favorite of unsociable, “unclubbable,” men– such as Mycroft and Sherlock...
Here is my editorial on the Supreme Court’s decision today, June 24, 2022, overturning a Supreme Court decision of nearly fifty years’ standing, and, for the first time, restricting an individual right that it had once recognized itself. The Court’s reputation will likely fall in the days ahead, in no small part because of the...
In this early entry in the Sherlock Holmes canon, Doyle has Sherlock Holmes doing most of the talking. That’s unusual in the canon, because it is typically John Watson who tells the story, not Holmes. This was on Doyle’s short list of favorite stories, and it is easy to see why. It has elements of...
What was Watergate all about? What was Nixon guilty of and how was he brought to heel? What are the myths that still encrust the story of Watergate? In this episode, this historian fills in the background, exposes the “Woodstein” myths that conceal the truths about Watergate, and briefly makes some cursory comparisons and contrasts...
In this rather offbeat addition to the Sherlock Holmes Canon, Holmes somehow finds himself on a college campus battling the timeless forces of student cheating. Three students are each suspected of taking an advance and fraudulent peek at test questions for an exam qualifying them for an important scholarship. Only one can be guilty. When...
“Juneteenth,” a Podcast Episode for North Square The Emancipation Proclamation, from The Library of Congress
READ FOR YOU BY RICK REIMAN. In this story by Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes must represent a client being blackmailed by the notorious criminal, Charles Augustus Milverton. Once again, Holmes uses the practices of the criminal himself, something he seems all too eager to employ in more than one of the stories in the Sherlock...
Here I share some insights into what I have learned about the hidden Sherlock Holmes, from reading and narrating the Conan Doyle stories. To do this I use one of his most popular stories by way of illustration, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.” You can listen to my narration of this classic short story...
Once again, as in “A Study in Scarlett,” Arthur Conan Doyle reaches across the pond for material for a Sherlock Holmes story. In this case, it is a short story, about the long reach of the past and the legacy of the Ku Klux Klan in America. Three generations of Englishman face death from the...
Read by Rick Reiman, this was Doyle’s anticipated ending to the Sherlock Holmes story, the story that would “finish” Holmes off in the early 1890s, and leave Doyle free to write about other characters whom he was not so tired of. But it was not to be. Doyle’s readers, including Queen Victoria, insisted that Doyle...
Read for you by Rick Reiman Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock Holmes’s Older Brother, who “is” the British Government in the case of the Bruce-Partington Plans
“I think that we are both agreed, Inspector that the fragment of paper in the dead man’s hand, bearing, as it does, the very hour of his death written upon it, is of extreme importance.” -Sherlock Holmes
Richard A. Reiman, host of AudiblySpeaking and author of the article above, narrated this article, published in The Journal of Perpetrator Research, 2(2), 2019, 180-226, and available as a Create Commons document at https://jpr.winchesteruniversitypress.org/3/volume/2/issue/2/. Today’s recording is a reading of Part 1 of 3 of this article. Coming soon: Part 2.
In “The Gloria Scott,” Conan Doyle, through the agency of Sherlock Holmes, explains how Holmes stumbled upon his first case. It is an adventure of characters high and low, and action turbulent and violent, with reason once again serving as ballast to restore order and sanity to a chaotic world.” Rick Reiman –
In this episode, I both read and annotate Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Adventures of Silver Blaze.” Elsewhere on this site, I have a narration with no paused for annotations. In this new version on this page, I interrupt the narration from time to time to explain the significance of each passage that we encounter. Let...
Sherlock Holmes returns to life in this thrilling story by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle had killed off the greatest consulting detective in the world, but the reading public insisted he rethink his plans. So Holmes returns from the dead in this classic story from the pen of his creator, Doyle.
Narrating Sherlock Holmes How are the Sherlock Holmes stories ideal for the audio narration format–and how are they ideal for the narrator who wants to learn the art of audio narration?
This podcast is South Georgia State College’s contribution to the commemoration of Constitution Day in 2021. In deference to the pandemic there will be no face to face presentation, but this (socially) “distanced learning” opportunity will take its place. Here, Dr. Rick Reiman looks at the career and contributions to our Constitutional...
In this short story by Doyle, Holmes is near death from an exotic tropical disease? Or is he? It seems that he has met his match in the form of a new Moriarty. Or has he? You will have to listen to this tale of mystery and mendaciousness–if you dare.
Amanda Mehl, actor and co-founder of the Public Citizen Theater (PCT) in Portland, Oregon, is our special guest today on AudiblySpeaking. She has acted in several productions for the PCT since 2016, including “The Maids,” by Jean Genet (directed by Aaron Filyaw). In our conversation Amanda talks about the challenges of acting in the time...
On this special episode of the podcast, I speak with Rebecca DuMaine, an exciting jazz singer with the Dave Miller Trio, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. We talk about the musical genre in which she and the Trio specialize, and how it speaks to us in good times and in Covid time, as...
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Crooked Man” appeared in 1893 and subsequently in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. It was one of the 19 most popular stories in Doyle’s catalog of favorite Holmes tales. See my audio review of this book on AudiblySpeaking either before or following your listening to this story. And now, experience...
What is this thing…called “white privilege?” Where does it come from and what is it all about?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote “The Adventures of the Crooked Man” in 1892. It turned out to rank 15th on his list of 19 favorite short stories. My audio narration of the story will appear soon here on AudiblySpeaking. In this introduction, I analyze and critique the structure of the story and its qualities in...
In this classic Fireside Chat, FDR rallies the Nation two days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. One of his finest Fireside Chats, Roosevelt cleverly ties the mission to retaliate against Japan with the effort, not yet widely shared by Americans, to halt the march of fascism in Europe, represented by Hitler and Mussolini....
Rick Reiman reviews “King Richard,” Michael Dobbs’s just-published micro-history of a selected phase of the Watergate scandal, now approaching its Fiftieth anniversary.
In this “tongue in cheek” audio narration, Dr. Reiman portrays Sherlock Holmes as he would have sounded had he lived in 2021, and had he agreed to help my students understand their big assignment of this summer semester. Of course, our course site contains the complete instructions for the assignment. I hope that this will...
In this classic short story in the Sherlock Holmes series, Holmes, with the help of Dr. Watson, matches wits with a woman, Irene Adler. Spoiler alert: The woman wins. It is one of the few Sherlock Holmes stories in which Holmes fails. And he never forgets it!
“Silver Blaze,” written by Conan Doyle in 1888, was one of his most popular short stories. Listen here and enjoy!
Roosevelt’s first “fireside chat,” delivered just days after being sworn in as president, was one of his finest. The entire banking system had collapsed prior to the speech. His task was to reassure Americans that their deposits were safe. More important, he had to assure them that the government knew what it was doing in...
The shocking attacks against Asian Americans in 2021 are outgrowths of a long history of bigotry against these, our fellow citizens. Besides bringing shame to America’s claim of “liberty and justice for all,” these attacks flow from the ignorance of too many Americans in this history of bigotry, especially of the worst violation of civil...
In this first Unit of a new online course that seeks to demystify the evidence in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, we look at the first evidence, the evidence against Lee Harvey Oswald in the first eighty minutes following the assassination.
Carton reconnoiters the Defarge’s wine shop in this episode, and learns of Madame Defarge’s dark plans for the Evremonde family. Dr. Manette, out of the trauma of his son-in-law’s imminent execution (and its connection to his own testimony), returns to his shoemaking once again. Carton instructs Jarvis Lorry on what he should do the next...
This is where the plot finally comes together. Carton visits Darnay to change places in LaForce, with the aid of chloroform. Barsad takes Darnay to Lucy and all but Jerry and Miss Pross board the carriage and leave to flee Paris for England. Dickens is herein a master of suspense, which builds to a crescendo...
I have finally crossed the finish line! My audio narration for Librivox is finally complete, with all forty-five chapters now in the can. I can now say “it’s a wrap.” And what a terrific chapter to end on. Dickens is at his most reflective. A novel of horror somehow has wended its way to a...
Madame Defarge discovers that her prey, Lucy, Little Lucy and Dr. Manette, have fled her clutches and are on the country roads of France, fleeing for England, What she does not know is that her most important enemy, Charles Darnay, is with them, having exchanged places in Laforce prison with Sidney Carton. Standing between Madame...
Twitter Facebook In this chapter, Dr. Manette’s long-buried message, found in the Bastille by Ernest Defarge, is used to condemn Charles Darnay, son-in-law of the good doctor and husband of his fair daughter, to death at the Guillotine! In vain does Dr. Manette protest that he no longer condemned the entire Evremonde family to the...
Twitter Facebook In this chapter of A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Darnay is sentenced to death on the accusations of the Dafarges and, incredibly, Dr. Manette, in the form of an old condemnation by the prisoner in the Bastille long before he knew Charles. Sydney Carton persuades Jarvis Lorry to rap up affairs in...
Twitter Facebook “A Hand at Cards,” Book Three, Chapter Eight of A Tale of Two Cities. Here many of the characters in the novel are on stage in one chapter. Carton reappears and must “turn” the spy John Barsad to his purposes. Pross and Cruncher are “over the top,” as usual, but Carton is another...
Twitter Facebook In this chapter, Charles Darnay is saved. Or is he? The good Doctor Manette works his magic. But the Defarges will not give up on their quest to send every member of the Evremonde family to the guillotine. Twitter Facebook
Twitter Facebook Dickens’s most atypical novel grows still darker, even for him, in this terrifying chapter from A Tale of Two Cities. Lucy travels into the chaotic streets of revolutionary Paris to try to catch a glimpse of her beloved Charles in the Bastille. She runs into a wood-sawyer, enraptured by La Guillotine and bent on...
Twitter Facebook Book Three, chapter Four of Dickens’s classic novel. Doctor Manette is off to La Force to try to save the life of Charles Darnay. Will he succeed? Stay tuned, as they say, and “Listen to History” on audiblyspeaking.com. Twitter Facebook
Twitter Facebook Another entry in my evolving audio narration of Charles Dickens’s magisterial novel, A Tale of Two Cities. This chapter is called “The Grindstone.” It is a difficult chapter to read because it involves characters of different sexes exchanging dialogue quickly and in states of duress. Unlike other chapters where the characters are over the...
Twitter Facebook In this episode, the mansion of the Marquis St. Evremonde goes up in flames as the Revolutionary mob torches the ancestral home of Charles Darnay (secretly the new Marquis). The old Marquis’s functionary, Gabelle, is, in consequence, about to be arrested. This will draw Darnay from safety in England to mortal peril in...
Twitter Facebook Another preview of my upcoming Librivox recording of A Tale of Two Cities, due out in April 2020. This is chapter 30, “Drawn to the Loadstone Rock.” If you enjoy this, won’t you leave a comment telling me so? Twitter Facebook
Twitter Facebook Here is my audio narration of my podcast on the insurrection against the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and its historical significance. Twitter Facebook
Twitter Facebook Book Two, Chapter 21, “Echoing Footsteps,” of A Tale of Two Cities, by the inimitable Charles Dickens. Twitter Facebook
Twitter Facebook Book Two, Chapter 25 of Dickens’s classic novel. Book Two, Chapter 19 of Dickens’s classic. Twitter Facebook
Twitter Facebook The Representatives who Weren’t: The little matter of the Oath More than half of the Republicans in the so-called House of Representatives have just pledged to violate their oaths to uphold the Constitution. They have just declared that they would be the commanders, and not the representatives, of the people who just...
Twitter Facebook This chapter of “A Tale of Two Cities,” is called “The Gorgon’s Head,” and is one of the more difficult chapters in the novel to narrate, at least in my opinion. It has more than its share of the long, meandering and prolix sentences for which Dickens was famous. Even when read with...
Read for you by the host of Audiblyspeaking, Dr. Richard Reiman Your professor, Dr. Reiman, continues his narration of this classic novel, with “The Mail,” chapter two. In this chapter we meet some of the characters in the novel. I hope you enjoy this addition to the Breakaway Cafe in the course.
Is Absentee voting safe in Georgia? I can’t say but here I share my experience with it. I found it pleasant and largely hassle-free, and gained some insights into it that I thought I would share here.
The Breakaway Cafe is the name for a place to chill in this course. In this time of Covid sometimes we all need to take a break. Breakaway Cafe is such a place. Historians are people who tell (true) stories. But in Breakaway Cafe, I tell short stories that are often fiction, narrated by yours...
The Breakaway Cafe is the name for a place to chill in this course. In this time of Covid sometimes we all need to take a break. Breakaway Cafe is such a place. Historians are people who tell (true) stories. But in Breakaway Cafe, I tell short stories that are often fiction, narrated by yours...
The following podcast is a feature of “Constitution Day 2020” at South Georgia State College. As a result of the pandemic, the different elements of the event are presented in a manner consistent with safety and social distancing. The South Georgia College website (http://www.sgsc.edu) contains a webpage with more information on the displays for Constitution...
Twitter Facebook Make sure that you follow the rubric questions exactly in writing your Reflection post on Darcy Frey’s “The Last Shot.” This assignment will have you using GALILEO on your SGSC web site to help answer one of the rubric questions. See the grading rubric in the Advance Organizer for this Reflection assignment for...
Twitter Facebook Here I discuss student reactions in the past to Peggy McIntosh’s 1989 article on “White Privilege.” Some students have said that this article is out of date and does not really apply to today. Or is that reaction just a dodge to avoid recognizing the reality of white privilege? Such avoidance may actually...
Twitter Facebook In this, episode 2 of my reflections on the Covid Crisis in 2020, we look at how ignorance of common sense and a suicidal disdain for science is once again making this once great nation a byword for the the world. It is May 4, 2020, and here is how things stand on...
Twitter Facebook In this podcast we look at how primary sources, in this case an audio recording purporting to be from Dealey plaza during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, can raise questions tentatively resolved through inference. In this case, the inference proved correct, confirmed by additional research. Twitter Facebook
Twitter Facebook In this podcast I discuss my concerns that Southern Governors are leading the way to a disasterous, premature opening of swaths of their economies. Medical experts have warned against this and it appears to be based not on the facts critical to public health but to economic considerations alone. Am I an epidemiologist?...
Twitter Facebook Podcast episode reflecting on the the news of coronavirus in the United States, from a political perspective. Please seek other sites for medical or safety-related recommendations. Episode 1: A critique on information distribution by the Trump administration. Twitter Facebook
This podcast only concerns Part One of the Final Exam, which consists of the following question that you must answer in an essay. I include the rubric that I will use to grade the essay. Part Two of the Final exam is covered in the Study Guide for the Final Exam for our course in...
Click Here for an Enhanced Transcript of this Podcast In this, our shortest podcast of the course, I answer the question, what was special about this period of history and was it the beginning of the unravelling of NATO and the postwar world order? NATO and Trump
Click here for an Enhanced Transcript of this Podcast What are the strengths and weaknesses of the European Union, as well as the stresses and strains upon it. Learn about the EU in this podcast. In your Discussion post, identify and explain one great strength and one great weakness of the European Union since 1987.
Click Here for an Enhanced Transcript of this Podcast In this assignment you will listen to the podcast and/or read the transcript of the podcast to answer the question: What event caused the Cold War to thaw between 1985 and 1991 and what event caused the Cold War to heat up between 1991 and 2019?...
Click Here for an Enhanced Transcript of this Podcast We look at the Cold War from 1945 to 1962 in this podcast. Refer to your Unit 6, Discussion 2 assignment in GeorgiaVIEW for the question that you must answer for this assignment.
Click Here for an Enhanced Transcript of this Podcast Listen to some music by Arnold Schoenberg “Guernica,” by Pablo Picasso (1937) Falling Water: Home by Frank Lloyd Wright, Massachusetts Gustav Klimt, “The Kiss”
Click Here for an Enhanced Transcript of this Podcast Episode About Your Primary Source Assignment In this assignment you will analyze a propaganda poster, “Revolution Nationale,” produced by the government of Vichy France between 1940 and 1942. The student will analyze the image utilizing the graphic worksheet provided by the Library of Congress. A Copy of the...
Click Here for a Transcript of this Episode (Enhanced Transcript) What were the causes of the Holocaust? What was it? What was its nature? How does it represent a new crime in history? What does it say about so-called Western “civilization?” We explore all these questions in this important podcast episode in our course. Holocaust...
Transcript of the Above Episode (Enhanced) In this podcast we trace the major events of the Second World War. This podcast will help you answer the Discussion assignment question that you have for the Unit 5, Discussion 4 of this course.
Click Here for a Transcript of this Episode (Enhanced Transcript) Why did the first World War not end in 1919 and really only ended in 1945, by which time it was called the Second World War? This podcast helps you answer this question. The Versailles Treaty (June, 1919)
UNIT 5, DISCUSSION 2: FASCISM ASCENDANT AND DEMOCRACY UNDER SIEGE, 1919-1939 What were the six features of Fascism? In this podcast, we learn what ideas Fascism consisted of and how it arose during the years in-between the two World Wars and set the stage for the outbreak of the Second World War. Transcript...
PODCAST OVERVIEW OF UNIT 5 FROM THE FIRST WORLD WAR’S BEGINNING TO THE SECOND WORLD WAR’S END A Transcript of this Podcast can be Read by Clicking Here (Enhanced Transcript)
Since we will not have a class meeting on Thursday, October 24, complete the following four steps as an out of class assignment: Listen to the Podcast Recording above, which completes my lecture on the Federalist Era of the 1790s. Look over the PowerPoint presentation, “The Federalist Era,” under the Unit 4 Content as you...
In this podcast, I get more specific about the structure of your Good War Discussion post. How many examples of your topic do you discuss? What might be good topics for you to discuss? Which ones were positive and which were negative? You need to give one specific example each and explain how it was...
“The Duty of Great Nations,” by Udo Keppler (1899). John Bull of Great Britain is encouraging a skeptical Uncle Sam to jump on the imperialism bandwagon with England. Soon, Uncle Sam would practice imperialism himself. In this last podcast of Unit 4, we see the end result of all the others in Unit 4: the...
Karl Marx, the principle author of the “Communist Manifesto” (1848) The theory of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, presented in the Communist Manifesto (1848), was yet another theory of progress so popular in the nineteenth century, along with Darwinism, Positivism and nationalism. Marxism was popular with the proletarians created by the Industrial Revolution, because it...
Charles Darwin in 1870 Who was Charles Darwin, this Newton of the Nineteenth century? And what was his theory of the evolution of species by natural selection. How did it impact virtually every aspect of Western Civilization, from political ideologies to psychology and philosophy? In this special landmark podcast, Dr. Reiman explores his significance....
A very young Otto von Bismarck, the man who unified Germany Nationalism took a dark turn for the worse after 1848. Nations that came into existence after 1848–such as Germany and Italy–were unified by military monarchies adopting the strategies of statecraft and war. In this podcast, Dr. Reiman traces the ways in which these two...
Louis Blanc, leader of the Paris proletarians in the Revolution of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848 in Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Rome were the last liberal national revolutions in Europe because they all failed, and because they all raised the specter of a new kind of revolution, revolution by the communist proletariat. In this podcast,...
Eugene Delacroix, “Liberty Leading the People” (1830) In this podcast we look at the false hope that the French Revolution of 1830 put in the hearts of the liberal bourgeoisie (middle class). “Hearts” is the correct word, because Romanticism was a driving force of this liberal revolution, as the painting by Eugene Delacroix shows here. ...
“Bobbin Boys” in the Depths of the Industrial Revolution Here we trace the reasons why the Industrial Revolution in its first place and time, 1750-1848 Great Britain was so unregulated and cruel.
Adam Smith, Author of “The Wealth of Nations” (1776) Between 1750 and 1840, Great Britain was alone in experiencing the first Industrial Revolution. In this podcast I discuss what every nation first has to possess in order to experience an Industrial Revolution of its own, and what Great Britain did possess by 1750.
Many leaders of the nineteenth century, reflected Romantic ideas by their actions. Among the most notable was Abraham Lincoln, US president from 1861 to 1865. Here our podcast looks at the ways in which Lincoln reflected the values of Romanticism in his person, actions and ideas, and how he would never have been heard from...
In this podcast we continue talking about the French Revolution, specifically its ideas and the events within the Revolution that represent those ideas and helped to trigger them. Image: “Liberty Leading the People,” Eugene Delacroix (1830)Source: Wikimedia Commons
In this brief essay we review your textbook’s list of causes of the French Revolution. Picture: Opening of the Estates General in 1789,Source: Wikimedia Commons
Here we look at the French Revolution’s consequences, as a prelude to looking at its causes. Why reverse the logical order of this analysis? If you understand the consequences of the French Revolution, namely its importance, you should then be in a position to be interested in learning next about its causes.
In this vignette of the life of Louis XIV, you will listen to contact that will serve as the source material for your topics to write your 500-word “Personification” essay. How did Louis personify the Age of Absolutism. This podcast contains topics that are excellent for such an analysis. Choose one and show how. The...
We close this Unit with the philosophical movement of the 18th century that owed so much to the 17th century: the Enlightenment. Join Dr. Reiman on a tour of its most important ideas and philosophers and the impact that they had on the society–and the Revolutions–of the Eighteenth century.
The Age of Absolutism also gave birth to the first modern theories of government. What did they have in common? What made them “modern?” How did the theories of each of the three men (Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau) differ? Once you know the answers to these questions, which this podcast episode will help you with,...
Here we look at the role of the Scientific Revolution of the 17th century (the 1600s) in making that century the first modern century. This podcast will help you with that portion of your 500-word description of this period that is devoted the the example of the Scientific Revolution (75 to 125 words). At the...
In this first of three examples of what was so modern about the 17th century, we look at the emergence of the modern nation-state. This brief podcast will help you discuss one topic (in 50 words) that will become part of your 500-word essay on the Unit. Link to Transcript on The Rise of the...
Click here for a Transcript of this Episode Why did the American Revolution stop being a revolution and, in the words of historian Eugen Weber, the French Revolution by contrast became an avalanche of social change? Why was it that the American Revolution escaped the fate of all other revolutions, and did not become, like...
In this brief overview, we preview the other podcasts in this episode, which define the ideas of liberalism, nationalism and romanticism, and we preview their role as triggers of two very different kinds of revolution in the nineteenth century to come. Freistadt ( Upper Austria ). Mühlviertler Schlossmuseum: Painted targets ( 1848 ) commemorating the...
Unit 1 Overview: From the Age of Absolutism to the enlightenment, 1648-1776 July 30, 2019 rreiman Absolutism, Western Civ 00:05:51 0 Comments Unit 1 Overview: From the Age of Absolutism to the enlightenment, 1648-1776 July 30, 2019 rreiman Absolutism, Western Civ 00:05:51 0 Comments Unit 1 Overview: From the Age of Absolutism to the enlightenment,...
This is the first of a two-part episode in “Minute Biographies” analyzing the evidence that demonstrates that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the shots that killed President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Few realize that the evidence was collected almost immediately and has only grown stronger with the passage of time. In part two,...
Our minute biography series continues with this reflection on the life of Anne Frank, Holocaust victim and diarist non pareil. Many people regard her diary as the most famous “Holocaust book.” Yet the diary is not a book about the Holocaust nor was it written by one who was, at the time she wrote it,...
A projected new series of “Hijacking History,” “Pod Pops: History in a Blitz,” will present “minute biographies” of 5 to 10 minutes or so in length on famous individuals in American history. Here, while on the on the go or on your commute, you can catch up on the people you thought you knew from...
“Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson has a new film about World War I, “They Shall Not Grow Old.” Using new technologies and old-fashioned respect for the facts, Jackson has crafted a documentary that brings old newsreels vividly to live, converting what the film was able to capture into what the cameramen of 1918...
Whither the mess that is the presidency of Donald Trump?, Events are moving more rapidly in the investigation into Russian collusion with the Trump campaign to hijack to the 2016 US Presidential election. Discussion about impeachment is ramping up. Questions of indictment and impeachment of the president are now the questions of the hour. Will...
While many spin the Special Council’s latest memorandum in the Russian collusion case in order to hide and occlude its meaning, I try here to highlight its potential multiplier effect on the number of charges of obstruction of justice facing the president. The Mueller memo tells us so much more about the many, particular acts...
Historians today largely agree that slavery was central to the causation of the American Civil War. Prior to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, however, other factors had pride of place in the estimation of most (though not all) historians. After the nationalist historians of the late nineteenth century, who did see...
Here is my five-minute review on the remarkable, recent book by Philippe Sands on the intersection of four individual lives and the sweeping changes in international law brought about by World War II and the Holocaust, today in “Hijacking HIstory.” Please share this podcast on your favorite social media feed(s), with one or more of...
In the wake of the American Midterm elections in November 2018, “Hijacking History” looks at how the elections are likely to be viewed in the light of history. In order to understand how, we have to see it in the context of the rules of the Constitutional process in America. What to outsiders may have...
In this second of two episodes I conclude my recollections of my Fulbright semester in Halle an der Saale, Germany in 2007-2008. What did Germans want to know most about Americans, and what do Americans need to know about Germans? I discuss my talks before German audiences in Chemnitz, the former Karl Marx Stadt. Interest...
Watch for my 4-part podcast series on “The Politics of Disbelief: America’s Response to the Holocaust, 1929-1945,” coming in March 2019. They will be the best episodes I have created thus far. Above is a trailer for this upcoming series. What are the difficulties in understanding America’s role in the Holocaust? How do we analyze...
In this edition of “Hijacking History,” the first of two episodes on the same topic, I look at the first half of my experience as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Germany during the autumn-winter semester, 2007-2008. This podcast provides a Rashoman-like series of impressions that I drew from the experience. Some of the things that...
In this podcast I episode, I review Howard K. Willens’s new book in the context of decades of conspiracy theorizing and what we thought we knew about the first official investigation of the assassination of John Kennedy, the Warren Commission. While most people simultaneously somehow manage both to disbelieve the findings of the Commission’s Report...
Hi, this is Rick Reiman, host of the podcast “Hijacking History.” In this episode, I review the Podcast series, “The Ratline,” a program in the series “Intrigue” by BBC 4. I do not here discuss the plot lines of the story for the most part. Instead I explore the implications for the effort to prevent...
Your Unit 5 Essay Assignment is explained in detail in the Assignment section of your GeorgiaVIEW course site. In fact it is a most excellent–and necessary–description. But, to maximize your chances for an “A” on this assignment, introduce a little “metacognition” to your preparation for this assignment. Remember that metacognition is “thinking about thinking.” In...
Metacognitive Minutes is a part of my podcast, “History Revisited,” which you can subscribe to on this site, In today;s episode I explain how “thinking about thinking: (or “metacognition”) is an excellent way to approach your New Deal assignment in HIST 2112, and not only do well on it, but know when you submit it...
In this podcast episode, I walk students through the two assignments on the book by Rebecca Skloot. First I show how you use GALILEO to find a scholarly book review on the book, how to distinguish the review portion from the summary portion, and how to generate a correct citation using GALILEO’s code generator. You...
In this podcast episode, I discuss the themes of Bob Muldoon’s fine article about the cultural difficulties that confront “white collar” and “blue collar” men alike when they are forced to work together and evaluate their different skill sets. Strange as it might seem, conflict can turn into convergence of interests, raising questions about whether...
Host Dr. Rick Reiman, a professor of history, reprises his presentation for Constitution Day 2018, delivered on September 17, 2018. Dr. Reiman also interviews assistant professor of history Dr. Dana Caldemeyer, a specialist in nineteenth century US history about her thoughts about the 14th Amendment’s role in her own research.
On September 5, 2018, an anonymous “senior official in the Trump administration” published an Op-Ed in the New York Times, raising a seeming unprecedented cry of alarm. He (or she) claimed to be trying to keep an unhinged president from going off the rails by working against the president when he threatened peace and democracy....
In this first episode of the 2017 series, recorded in October 2017, we look at the shift from a future perspective on memory, and an amnesiac indifference to the late global conflict, in the first decades after World War II to the present “memory boom,” when cultures can’t seem to keep their eyes off the...
My comments on “Between Remembering and Forgetting,” a professional session on German history in which I recently participated.
In this podcast I summarize, to the best of my ability, the ideas of “Memory on the Move,” written by Stef Craps, Lucy Bond and Pieter Vermeulen. The hope is to present the ideas in a way that is more comprehensible to the general reader and improve a state of affairs in which scholars speak...
Prof. Aleida Assmann is one of the leading lights of international memory studies. Prof. Astrid Erll interviewed her in a video that can be viewed here: https://vimeo.com/153089856. In this podcast I try to summarize Prof. Assmann’s points in my own words, which may be helpful to those students familiar with a different vernacular or just...
Immigration in the late nineteenth century deserves attention on its own. It was a litmus test of how Americans viewed themselves, their society and the strength of that society or the direction that they wanted it to go in, curiously, the same as today.
In our last podcast, we looked at many specific problems besetting Americans in the Age of Excess. In this addendum to that podcast we look at the Age of Excess with a much broader view, seeing why it is such an exciting period and discussing the wonderful irony of it all that this is perhaps...
Hist 2112 students will find this five-minute podcast to be a useful guide to highlighting the most important slides in the PowerPoint on “The Age of Excess,” and providing an overview of the Gilded Age at the end of the nineteenth century. Please post your thoughts here or on Twitter at @MemoryThruMedia.
This podcast provides a brief overview of one way of simplifying and approaching the complex subject of Reconstruction, This is meant to supplement my history course, HIST 2112. Photo by Carol Highsmith, in the public domain through the Library of Congress
In this podcast I review Philippe Sands’s award-winning book in search of his family and the origins of crimes against humanity and genocide. An international lawyer, Sands writes of his discovery that the lawyers responsible for these two innovations in international law shared a common origin with his grandfather and grandmother in the region of...
In this episode I introduce this podcast series by reflecting on the Inaugural Conference on Memory Studies taking place in Amsterdam, December 3-5, 2016, the same weekend as the recording of this podcast. We look at how far Memory Studies has come and where it seems to be going, as well as directions and tangents...