For the Ages: A History Podcast
For the Ages: A History Podcast
Season 5 is available now!
Explore the rich and complex history of the United States and beyond. Host David M. Rubenstein engages the nation’s foremost historians and creative thinkers on a wide range of topics, including presidential biography, the nation’s founding, and the people who have shaped the American story.
Episode 8:
A Place Called Yellowstone: The Epic History of the World’s First National Park
Release: December 15, 2025
Featuring: Randall K. Wilson, David M. Rubenstein (moderator)
Covering 2.2 million acres, Yellowstone National Park is a geographic behemoth and, as the birthplace of America’s national park system, a cultural giant as well. But since its official establishment in 1872, the bucolic lands have been the source of frequent conflict: between Native Americans and Europeans, and tourism and environmental conservation. In this episode, prizewinning author Randall K. Wilson explores the complex history of the park, from its geological roots to its role in our understanding of the environment and our nation as a whole. Recorded on August 25, 2025
Episode 7:
Dinner with the President: Food, Politics, and a History of Breaking Bread at the White House
Release: December 1, 2025
Featuring: Alex Prud'homme, David M. Rubenstein (moderator)
Some of the most significant moments in American history have occurred over meals, as US presidents broke bread to strengthen alliances, diffuse tensions, and broker peace: Thomas Jefferson’s nation-building receptions; Richard Nixon’s practiced use of chopsticks to pry open China; Jimmy Carter’s cakes and pies that fueled a détente between Israel and Egypt at Camp David. Author Alex Prud’homme joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss the political power wielded by the White House kitchen. Recorded on June 30, 2024
Episode 6:
Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution
Release: November 17, 2025
Featuring: Amanda Vaill, David M. Rubenstein (moderator)
Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton’s gravestone identifies her merely as the daughter of Philip Schuyler and the widow of Alexander Hamilton, while her sister, Angelica, has only a marker next to the Livingston family vault, but neither memorial does justice to the complexity of the two women. Eliza was a vital aid to her husband’s political efforts, as well as a later reformer in her own right, and Angelica was a socialite who maintained friendships with the likes of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. In this conversation, historian Amanda Vaill offers a fuller portrait of these women and the Founding Era. Recorded on November 7, 2025
Episode 5: John Adams: His Life and Legacy
Release: November 3, 2025
Featuring: Gordon S. Wood, David M. Rubenstein (moderator)
In addition to being America’s first vice president and second president, Founding Father John Adams was a diplomat, the father of another president, and an avid diarist. In this conversation with David M. Rubenstein, Gordon S. Wood, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the Revolutionary era, tackles this multifaceted figure, from his role in the birth of our nation to the precedents he set for all those who followed him. Recorded on September 4, 2025
Episode 4: The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of US History
Release: October 20, 2025
Featuring: Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone), David M. Rubenstein (moderator)
For generations, the teaching of American history has often glossed over the important role Native communities have played in shaping the nation, but contemporary historians are reframing the conversation. In a discussion that spans five centuries, scholar Ned Blackhawk illuminates how the history of the Indigenous peoples of North America is an essential component to telling a more complete American story—and how, despite many obstacles, Native communities have persevered. Recorded on January 10, 2024
Episode 3:
Friends Until the End: Edmund Burke and Charles Fox in the Age of Revolution
Release: October 6, 2025
Featuring: James Grant, David M. Rubenstein (moderator)
If ever there was proof that opposites attract, it was the friendship between the personally and politically conservative Edmund Burke and the liberal-leaning libertine Charles Fox, who formed a united front in 18-century British politics for a quarter of a century. Biographer James Grant joins David M. Rubenstein to demonstrate how, despite their many differences, Fox and Burke remained friends and political allies through the American Revolution and the dramatic impeachment of East India Company governor-general Warren Hastings, but ultimately fell out, both personally and professionally, over the French Revolution. Recorded on August 21, 2025
Episode 2:
Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic
Release: September 22, 2025
Featuring: Lindsay M. Chervinsky, David M. Rubenstein (moderator)
Shaped by crises at home and abroad, John Adams’s presidency became a proving ground for the nation’s fragile new government. Historian Lindsay M. Chervinsky sits down with David Rubenstein to reveal how Adams managed partisan conflict, foreign dangers, and a skeptical public, ultimately forging precedents for executive authority and democratic stability that secured the republic’s future. Recorded on April 29, 2024
Episode 1:
The Lyndon B. Johnson Years
Release: September 8, 2025
Featuring: Robert Caro, David M. Rubenstein (moderator)
Irrevocably tied to the tragedy of the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson’s political legacy is also marked by his radical push to reimagine American life. Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Caro, author of The Power Broker and The Years of Lyndon Johnson, explores how Johnson pushed Congress to establish Medicare, Medicaid, and historic civil rights and reform legislation. Recorded on April 6, 2024
Explore our archive of earlier seasons.
