Mark Atwood Lawrence is Professor of History and holds the Walter Prescott Webb Chair in History and Ideas at The University of Texas at Austin. Mark from the period of 2020 to 2024, served as Director of the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum. This discussion will look at Vietnam and summarize a bit of the conflict but also where the burden of blame started and who holds the most responsibility in terms of how we remember and retell the conflict.

Luke Nichter is the James H. Cavanaugh Endowed Chair in Presidential Studies at Chapman University, a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and, for 2026-27, a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre on US Politics at University College London. This conversation will look at Johnson and his presidency, what can be revealed by his administration and reflects more about the history and current state of our country.

Ron Jacobs is a author of various works dealing with the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, he also writes for counterpunch magazine about various areas of politics. This discussion will focus on former president Lyndon Johnson and some of the evolving perspective that Mr. Jacobs has from a counterculture perspective.

Kasper Michaels is a professional voice over actor and has a frequent guest on the podcast. This discussion follows up on his appearance on the show a few months ago where he went into details about his decision to move out of his country and to a whole new one after a few life changing events.

This episode will be focused into some areas about Lyndon Johnson that feature two guests Luke Nichter and Thomas Schwartz who have some expertise on the problems and successes of the former president. The record of LBJ is different than the view people have of the president and through some of this discussion we will look at Johnsons administration and the president himself to understand the real proper criticisms.

Kevin J. Wetmore is Professor of Theatre Arts and Director of the Graduate Program with areas of expertise in Japanese theatre, African theatre, Shakespeare, horror theatre, Asian cinema, horror cinema, Greek tragedy, stage combat and comedy. This episode will discuss the evolution of horror and what scares us and how it can be a good and bad thing in terms of being aware of dangers but also enjoying them on the big screen.

Luke Nichter is the James H. Cavanaugh Endowed Chair in Presidential Studies at Chapman University, a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and, for 2026-27, a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre on US Politics at University College London. His area of specialty is the Cold War, the modern presidency, and U.S. political and diplomatic history, with a focus on the "long 1960s" from John F. Kennedy through Watergate – using consequential moments from recent history to better understand contemporary politics. In this episode we will look at what information can be revealed through the Johnson tapes on not only the administration of LBJ but also how the Whitehouse and political sphere ran.

Thomas Schwartz is the Distinguished Professor of History, Professor of Political Science, and Professor of European Studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He teaches courses in the history of American foreign relations, as well as the history of America’s role in the Middle East and America and the Vietnam War. Tom is the author of "Lyndon Johnson and Europe: In the Shadow of Vietnam" and he joins the show once again to discuss some questions and wrongful criticisms on LBJ and how his presidency should be given a look through a more accurate lens.