Call Me Ishmael
Call Me Ishmael
Podcast Description
Best-selling author Lee Smith brings you conversations with fierce Americans about the words that made—and continue to make—America great.
Call Me Ishmael is a show about the power of American words. Together with guests like Senator Ted Cruz, novelist and screenwriter Roger L. Simon, historian Lee Harris, and Former CIA super spy Peter Theroux, Lee Smith will revisit the words—in books, movies, and songs—that have shaped and determined our sense of ourselves and our nation, forging both our private ambitions and our collective sensibility.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast centers around the themes of language, American identity, and the arts, with specific episodes discussing the influence of iconic texts like the Declaration of Independence, impactful films, and historic speeches. Topics such as the evolution of American storytelling and the cultural implications of song lyrics are often highlighted.
Best-selling author Lee Smith brings you conversations with fierce Americans about the words that made—and continue to make—America great.
Call Me Ishmael is a show about the power of American words. Together with guests like Senator Ted Cruz, novelist and screenwriter Roger L. Simon, historian Lee Harris, and Former CIA super spy Peter Theroux, Lee Smith will revisit the words—in books, movies, and songs—that have shaped and determined our sense of ourselves and our nation, forging both our private ambitions and our collective sensibility.
During the Cold War, we had brilliant and popular spy thrillers like John Le Carré’s masterpieces to help explain our perilous and ever-changing world. Why didn’t the genre play a similar part during the war on terror? In this episode of Call Me Ishmael, Peter Theroux—former CIA agent, scion of one of America’s most celebrated literary families, and a leading translator of Arabic literature—addresses this question and discusses the evolution of the spy novel and the role it played in shaping American culture and politics.
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