Truth Politics & Power: The Wall
Truth Politics & Power is a weekly series where host Neal Conan engages with historians, journalists, scholars, poets and even comedians to explore the context and meaning of the Trump era.
President Trump described his “big, beautiful wall” along the Mexican frontier in existential terms when he was a candidate: “If you don’t have a border, you don’t have a country.” In this episode, explore how secure borders became part of the definition of a state and how well walls have worked throughout history. Plus, a conversation with Peter Robinson, the speechwriter who came up with President Ronald Reagan’s famous line in Berlin: “Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
Airs Saturday, August 12 at 10pm on AM820
Guests:
Peter Andreas is the John Hay Professor of International Studies at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, where he also holds a joint appointment in the Political Science Dept. He’s the author or co-author of numerous scholarly articles and 10 books. His most recent book is Chasing the Revolution: On the Run with My Radical Mother.
Peter Robinson was a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan. In 1987 he wrote one of President Reagan’s most memorable speeches in which the president, speaking at the Brandenburg Gate with the Berlin Wall behind him, called on Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Robinson is a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution where he writes about business and politics. He’s the author of three books, including How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life.
