Los Angeles Public Library Podcasts
Podcast Home  |   ALOUD  |   Children  |  


   
presented by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles


Title:   Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire
Participants:   Alex Abella
In conversation with Mike Shuster, NPR foreign correspondent
Program Date:    6/11/2008
Program length:    1 hr
Media Type:   MP3

Click here to download
(right-click and select "save ...")
Subscribe to this series through iTunes
Subscribe to the RSS feed for this series


Podcast summary

A page-turning chronicle of the rise of the secretive think tank--born in the wake of World War II--that has been the driving force behind American government for the last half-century.


Participant(s) Bio

A Notable Book author, EMMY nominated TV reporter and screenwriter, Alex Abella was born in Cuba and grew up in New York City. Abella worked as a reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle then switched to electronic media and joined KTVU-TV, Channel 2 News. There he became producer, writer and reporter and was nominated for an EMMY for Best Breaking News Story. Alex moved to Los Angeles in the late 1980s to pursue a writing career. While in Los Angeles he worked as assistant to a private investigator and as a Los Angeles Superior Court Interpreter. His experiences in the world of law and law enforcement inspired him to write a legal thriller, The Killing of the Saints, featuring a Cuban-American hero, Charlie Morell, who is a lawyer and private investigator. Alex's second novel, The Great American, recounts the true adventures of William Morgan, a U.S. Marine who fought in the mountains of Cuba with Fidel Castro. Abella's Shadow Enemies, is a non-fiction account of the plot by Adolf Hitler to unleash a wave of terror in the United States by sending Nazi agents to bomb stores, train stations and factories.

Mike Shuster is a diplomatic correspondent and roving foreign correspondent for NPR. He is based in NPR's Los Angeles bureau. When he is not traveling outside the U.S., he covers issues of nuclear non-proliferation and weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and the Pacific Rim. In the past two years, he has contributed many reports to NPR's extensive coverage of the Middle East, traveling four times to Israel since September 2000. He has also reported from Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq.


Related library holdings


ALOUD audio is presented by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles and made possible through support provided by The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Annenberg Foundation, City National Bank, KPMG, Donna and Martin J. Wolff, the law firm Arent Fox, and through the support of The Library Associates. Media support provided by KPPC 83.9 FM, KUSC 91.5 FM and KCET. ALOUD theme composed by Larry Karush.
The Library Foundation of Los Angeles secures private support to help provide the Los Angeles Public Library with everything from books and materials to reading enrichment programs, technology, cultural events, exhibitions and select capital improvements.
© Los Angeles Public Library Contact Us Site Map Decrease text size  text size  Increase text size