Eyewitness History

Mr. Scruggs is a United States Army veteran who served in the Vietnam War and later founded the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which built the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Scruggs was the President of the foundation until 2015 when he retired.Scruggs continues to monitor the societal, spiritual, and other impacts of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. He is Chairman of the Selective Service National Appeals Board and a Member of the District of Columbia Bar Association. He recently launched an updated website and is planning several events this year to mark this historic event anniversary. The next event will take place in November, the official 40th anniversary of the dedication of the memorial. "In Vietnam, I was wounded in combat at 19 years old. I could not have imagined ten years later at the age of 29, I would come up with the idea to build a memorial to my fellow Vietnam Veterans. It would include every name of every soldier who gave their life for my country, America." - Jan C. ScruggsTo find out more, go to Jan Scruggs’ website: https://www.founderofthewall.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Spike Edney has numerous links to Queen, to the extent that he was often described as the fifth member. Born on 11 December 1951, he has worked with Ben E King, Edwin Starr, The Boomtown Rats, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Duran Duran, Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Ian Hunter, Manic Street Preachers, Beautiful South, Gary Barlow, Peter Green, Joe Cocker, 10CC, and countless more.Spike's connections with Queen began in 1984, when he appeared on the European leg of 'The Works' tour, providing additional guitar and keyboards. From then onwards he appeared at almost every show until Queen stopped touring in 1986, appearing on the 'Live In Rio', 'Live In Budapest' and 'Live At Wembley' videos, as well as the 'Live At Wembley 1986' and 'Live Magic' albums. He also appeared on Queen's 1986 studio album, 'A Kind Of Magic'.Spike can be seen playing keyboards Queen's historic 1985 Live Aid performance at Wembley StadiumSpike performed with Queen at Freddie's tribute concert, held at Wembley Stadium in April 1992, and also appears on the video and DVD of the concert. Later in 1992, Spike joined Brian in The Brian May Band, to perform extensively throughout Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Australasia. The Brian May Band released a live album and video in 1994 of a concert at The Brixton Academy in 1993.In 1994, Spike formed the SAS Band (Spike's All-Star Band), with Cozy Powell, Neil Murray, Jamie Moses and Chris Thompson, although the band has evolved over time to include a wide range of musicians. The SAS Band released their debut album in 1997 and played many concerts, many for charity, with a large variety of guest vocalists, including Paul Young, Leo Sayer, Arthur Brown, Tony Hadley, Roy Wood, Fish, Kiki Dee, Bob Geldof, Marti Pellow, Roger Taylor and Brian May.In 1997, Spike appeared with Queen and Elton John in Paris, whilst in 1998, he returned to The Brian May Band for an extensive tour of Europe, Japan, and Australasia. After that, Spike worked with numerous other artists and arranged other concerts for the SAS Band, including a live album and video called 'The Show', in 2000.Spike has continued working with Queen on numerous projects, including the 'We Will Rock You' musical in London, and has performed with Queen at virtually every show since 1984.Find out more about Spike at https://www.sasband.com/index.phpSource: http://www.ultimatequeen.co.uk/index.htm?/miscellaneous/biography/spike-edney.htmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I am very happy to present a special roundtable discussion I had with fellow members of the Parthenon podcast network.We discuss what event from history we would delete or remove and it was pretty fascinating.We find out what would have happened if we didn’t have the shot fired at Fort Sumter, as well as what would happen if we prevented the Bronze Age collapse. We're also going to stop Saddam Hussein from taking power and prevent multiple wars, including the Iran-Iraq War and both Gulf Wars, we're going to prevent the huge amount of conspiracy theories that grew out of the Kennedy assassination in the United States in the latter half of the 20th century. So, we hope enjoy this discussion with James Early from Key Battles of American History. Scott Rank from History Unplugged, Steve Guerra from the History of the Papacy and Beyond The Big Screen, Richard Lim, from This American President, and yours truly, from Eyewitness History. And now I give you, the Parthenon podcast roundtable discussion.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Eric Alper is a Canadian music correspondent, blogger, radio host and former director of media relations, at eOne Music Canada based in Toronto, Ontario. Since 2016, Alper has run a music public relations company, That Eric Alper, and is the host of @ThatEricAlper show on SiriusXM.From 1998 till 2016, Alper was the director of media relations for eOne Music Canada working with Bob Geldof, Natalie MacMaster, Matt Dusk, Randy Bachman, Ringo Starr, Slash, The Wiggles, Snoop Dogg, The Smashing Pumpkins, Ray Charles, Sinead O'Connor, and Sesame Street.He started his own PR company in 2016. He has appeared as a music correspondent on numerous Canadian television and radio networks including on CTV, CBC Radio 2 and SiriusXM. Alper has been named to Billboard and The National Post's Best on Twitter. He is a prolific and highly organized prompt tweeter on Twitter with a 2021 Billboard article reporting that he posts more than 50 prompts a day, every day.Visit his website at https://www.thatericalper.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Croissant is a retired CIA officer, historian, and author. Prior to his retirement from the CIA in 2021 after a nearly 22-year career, Mike served as a political analyst in the Directorate of Analysis and as a targeting officer in the Directorate of Operations. He served multiple tours of duty in the Middle East and South Asia, and his work in counterterrorism focused on every major foreign terrorist enterprise of the past two decades, including al-Qa’ida, ISIS, the Taliban, and their affiliates. In recognition of his efforts, Mike was awarded the CIA’s Career Commendation Medal upon retirement. He is also a published author of books and articles on security issues in the former Soviet Union, and a nonfiction book about World War II is forthcoming.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

War Isn’t the Natural State of Human Affairs: It Shouldn’t Happen, and Most of the Time It Doesn't."War is assumed to be one of the chief features of human history. Plenty of ancient and modern writers back up this perspective (Plato said that only the dead have seen the end of war; John Steinbeck said all war is a symptom of man's failure as a thinking animal, suggesting it was hard-wired into our brutish nature). But what if the conventional wisdom is wrong? What if war isn’t the status quo? This is the argument made by today’s guest, who says prolonged violence between groups isn’t normal. Wars shouldn’t happen, and most of the time they don’t. Rank and Blattman discuss why Russia invaded Ukraine; why it took so long for the US to leave Afghanistan; why he thinks it’s unlikely the US will have a civil war; and what to do about the spiking gang violence in big American cities. But what he really focuses on is peace -- what of remedies that shift incentives away from violence and get parties back to dealmaking? He walks us through the places where compromises and tradeoffs have worked, highlighting successful negotiation techniques or exploring often the much-maligned peacekeeping armies actually succeed, even using cognitive behavior therapy on drug lords, with surprising results.Check out Scott's podcast at https://www.parthenonpodcast.com/history-unplugged-podcast/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Frank DeAngelis was a staff member at Columbine High School in the Jeffco School District in Littleton Colorado, since 1979, starting as a Social Studies teacher and filling the roles of Head Baseball Coach, Assistant Football Coach, Dean of Students, and Assistant Principal, before becoming the Principal in 1996. Frank is a Colorado native, completing his K-12 education in Denver-area schools, proceeding to graduate from Metropolitan State College and subsequently from the University of Colorado with a Masters's Degree in Secondary Education and Social Studies, his Principal’s License, and a Masters's Degree from the University of Phoenix. Frank has been involved in numerous professional activities and associations, and has received multiple awards for his teaching, leadership and coaching skills. He has also been called upon to speak about recovery after a school tragedy at a variety of conferences and has assisted as a consultant after a number of other violent school events. He was selected as Colorado High School Principal of the Year and was one of the three finalists for National Principal of the Year. He received the Jefferson Country Lifetime Achievement Award and the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Community Builders Award. He retired in June of 2014 after 35 years at Columbine High School. He is presently serving as a consultant for safety and emergency management for the Jeffco School District in Colorado and continues to deliver speeches in the United States, Canada, and Europe.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jordan Harbinger, once referred to as “The Larry King of podcasting,” is a Wall Street lawyer turned interview talk-show host, and a communications and social dynamics expert. He has hosted a Top 50 iTunes podcast for over 14 years and receives over eleven million downloads per month, making The Jordan Harbinger Show one of the most popular podcasts in the world. On The Jordan Harbinger Show, he deconstructs the playbooks of the most successful people on earth and shares their strategies, perspectives, and practical insights with the rest of us. He ran a tour company that took westerners to North Korea via China and has spent significant time in the country. Tours were supervised from beginning to end by North Korean minders and tour guides.Here, we discuss, in detail, his North Korea experience.To find out more about Jordan, please visit the following links: jordanharbinger.com Starter page for the podcast if anyone's interested in checking it out: jordanharbinger.com/startFree 6 Minute Networking course: jordanharbinger.com/courseSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this second interview, we discuss what it was like being liberated by the Red Army in 1945, as well as how the Holocaust has affected his faith, and what it was like being reunited with his family. It was quite a pleasure. Once again, more of an honor than anything else. And I hope you find it fascinating. I know I did.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the spring of 1944, a teenage Gene Klein and his family were taken from their village in Hungary and thrown into the infamous Nazi extermination camp known as Auschwitz.His father was taken straight to the gas chamber. Klein was forced into slave labor until liberated in the spring of 1945, and he spent two years as a refugee before his and other family members were allowed to immigrate to the United States.Now living in The Villages, Fla., Klein has been speaking out about the Holocaust for more than three decades. Writing for The World Post in July 2016 as a memorial to Elie Wiesel, Klein noted that he, unlike Wiesel, was silent for decades about the Holocaust.“Eventually, I decided that, like Wiesel, I needed to be public about being a survivor and that, in my own small way, I should contribute to the mission of educating the world about the Holocaust,” he wrote.“I will tell our story,” he continued, “and I will speak — especially in these times — about the tolerance and compassion necessary to prevent what happened to us from happening to others.”Klein has inspired audiences around the world with his powerful and touching presentation on the continuing relevance of the Holocaust and the necessity of fostering the capacity for empathy, instead of allowing hate to flourish.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.