My Weekly Recommendations

Join me this week at the New Orleans Book Festival!

I’m speaking at the festival on March 28, and signing books afterward. The next day, March 29, I’ll be moderating a discussion with historian Max Boot about the life and legacy of Ronald Reagan.

I’d love to see you there! Here’s a link for the schedule of events – it’s truly a star-studded literary lineup. (It’s also free and open to the public!)

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Now let’s get you caught up on the week:

My Interview with Condoleezza Rice

I recently had a chance to sit down with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose perspective on the United States is unlike anyone else’s. She grew up in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, and went on to get a PhD in Political Science, became the White House National Security Advisor, Secretary of State, and she now serves as director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. (And if that weren’t enough, she speaks multiple languages and is a concert pianist.)

When Leaders Fail and the Truth is Erased, Who Pays the Price?

These four stories might not seem like they’re related, until they are.

Trump's DOGE War: The Secret Strategy That Could Change Everything

Many Republicans had pushed for cuts identified by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to be included in last week’s government funding fight, but they didn’t get them. Luckily for Trump, there’s an option waiting for him if he wants to make the DOGE cuts actually stick, in a way judges can’t overturn. And not even Elon Musk knew about it until recently.

Russia’s Endgame

Vladimir Putin's real goal has never changed: so what is his endgame?

Is It Time to Stop Working Across the Aisle?

Things have changed in America. Apparently, gone is the time when people from both political parties wanted common sense policies that moved us toward the common good.

What I’m reading…

Education: Project 2025 Comes True

Joyce Vance for Civil Discourse

Dismantling the Department of Education has been a longtime priority for Republicans. Trump simply adopted it, melding it with two of the key prongs of his current onslaught against the government: it is wasteful, and it perpetuates liberal ideology.

How do you save a language from extinction? With creative thinking—and some help from Wikipedia

By Angelo Zinna for National Geographic

In 1996, linguist Marja-Liisa Olthuis had a difficult decision to make. Should she speak to her newborn daughter in Finnish or Inari Sámi, the endangered language of her Indigenous community? With only a few hundred speakers left, Inari Sámi was rarely heard outside a handful of families. Finnish, spoken by millions, would have been the easier choice—especially since Olthuis had moved away from Lapland. But she knew that if her daughter didn’t learn Inari Sámi at home, she might never learn it at all.

How a Global Online Network of White Supremacists Groomed a Teen to Kill

by A.C. Thompson for ProPublica and FRONTLINE, James Bandler for ProPublica, and Lukáš Diko for Investigative Center of Jan Kuciak

At a time when other mainstream social media companies such as X and Meta are cutting back on policing their online content, experts say the violent neo-Nazis that populated Telegram’s chats and channels will likely find an online home elsewhere.

What I’m listening to…

Wes Moore: The System Doesn't Work for a Lot of People

The Bulwark Podcast

Trump is a vessel for frustration over the status quo, but he is not a vehicle for a solution—since he has no idea about how to make things better for anyone besides himself. He's made clear that his personal interests come before the country's, and he's willing to trade away the superpowers that made America the globe's Dream Team. The Democrats need to seize the moment to argue for a smarter, more humane way to do efficiency. Plus, the Maryland governor shares his disgust over DOGE's disrespect of veterans and discusses his commitment to elevating boys and men.

The Tell with Amy Griffin

Here’s Where It Gets Interesting

There’s a reason her book was just chosen for Oprah’s book club. I talked with my friend Amy Griffin—venture capitalist and new author—about her powerful memoir, “The Tell.” On the outside, Amy had a picture perfect life. But hiding behind that facade was a horrifying secret she had kept for decades. She explains what happened to her as a child, how it affected her life in ways she never realized, and why she wanted to finally share her truth.

What's more "American" than the right to protest?

It’s Been a Minute

Last weekend, former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by federal immigration authorities. The move was an escalation in the Trump administration's crackdown on dissent, and it has Brittany wondering: isn't this against the constitution? Brittany Luse is joined by Chenjerai Kumanyika, a journalism professor at NYU, and Rick Perlstein, a historian of conservatism. Together, they talk about America's love/hate relationship with the First Amendment, and what ICE's arrest of a lawful permanent resident could mean for America's culture of protest.

What I’m watching…

How to see the future coming — and prepare for it

TED Talk

As a futurist who helps people prepare for all different kinds of possibilities, Jane McGonigal thinks we overuse words like "unthinkable" and "unimaginable." She introduces three hypothetical scenarios, showing how you can foster the ability to think creatively, anticipate new risks and feel ready for whatever the future may hold.

A Ninety-Nine-Year-Old Lawyer’s Final Case

The New Yorker

Frank Lucianna spent most of his life as a criminal-defense lawyer from New Jersey; even as he pushed a hundred, he didn’t wish to retire.

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Thanks for being here.