Open Source with Christopher Lydon

Recent Episodes

Plot-Twist Politics

Posted January 28, 2016 • 00:49:53

In 2016, the presidential election became electric. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have separately disrupted the fixed matchup of another Clinton and...

Timothy Snyder’s Holocaust Warning for Today

Posted January 25, 2016 • 00:20:29

Timothy Snyder is a Yale historian who makes waves. Black Earth is his big new interpretation of “the Holocaust: as History and Warning.” He’s...

Black Mountain College: “The Grass-Roots of Democracy”

Posted January 21, 2016 • 00:50:03

In 1933, a group of freethinking American educators and academics took a look at their fresh, interwar world — and set about trying to remake...

Empire to Empire: Mary Beard’s Rome

Posted January 14, 2016 • 00:50:20

The English classicist and historian, Mary Beard, has become a T.V. star and a bestselling author. SPQR, her new capsule history of the Roman empire,...

Our Postmodern Myth: “Star Wars” is Back

Posted January 7, 2016 • 00:50:01

There's a big old *spoiler alert* hanging over this whole radio show. You've been warned! We’re beginning 2016 by confronting what is already its...