Freedom from Fear · What Did They Read?

Episodes about this book

2 episodes

A Surprising Theory About the Future of War

Plain English with Derek Thompson, 30 June 2026. The book comes up at 2 min 21 sec in. Said by Derek Thompson.

Derek Thompson quotes David Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning book to set historical context, explaining why aerial warfare suited the United States in World War II: the country's distance from the major theaters of conflict and its vast industrial capacity made air power a natural fit, letting the military project force far from American shores while minimising American casualties.

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Old-igarchy: How the Elderly Conquered American Power

Plain English with Derek Thompson, 12 June 2026. The book comes up at 1 min 35 sec in.

Derek Thompson says he has been reading Freedom from Fear for the last few weeks and is about a third of the way through, calling it "freaking awesome." He draws on Kennedy's account of old age in Depression-era America — where the extreme senior poverty rate was nearly 66% — to frame the episode's discussion of how Social Security transformed elderly Americans' fortunes and set the stage for today's gerontocracy.

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All summaries are AI generated based on the original transcript.