{"id":6813,"date":"2013-01-07T20:09:35","date_gmt":"2013-01-08T00:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=6813"},"modified":"2015-05-23T22:12:31","modified_gmt":"2015-05-24T02:12:31","slug":"podcast-disarm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-disarm","title":{"rendered":"Podcast: Disarm"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories – season 3 episode 1
\nRon Rosenbaum –\u00a0Disarm<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/virtualmemories\/Season_3_Episode_1_-_Disarm.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

Our first guest of 2013 is Ron Rosenbaum<\/a>,\u00a0one of my favorite living writers!\u00a0This episode of The Virtual Memories Show<\/em> is The Bomb!<\/p>\n

I’ve been a fan of Ron’s writing (let’s call it “literary journalism”) since reading Long Island, Babylon<\/a>\u00a0(originally titled\u00a0The Devil in Long Island<\/em>) in The New York Times Magazine<\/em> nearly 20 years ago, so having him on the show is a big honor for me.<\/p>\n

Our conversation focuses on his most recent book,\u00a0How the End Begins: The Road to a Nuclear World War III<\/a>\"\", and what he learned in the course of researching the present danger of nuclear conflict. (It’s a pretty harrowing \u2014 and very important \u2014 topic, folks.) From there, we discuss Ron’s body of work, his literary influences, Nixon’s final lie, what he thinks of Harold Bloom, his opinions about contemporary literary journalism, and more.<\/p>\n

Enjoy the conversation!<\/a>\u00a0Then check out the archives<\/a> for more!<\/p>\n

http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/virtualmemories\/Season_3_Episode_1_-_Disarm.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Ron<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow The Virtual Memories Show<\/em> on iTunes<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, Tumblr<\/a>, and RSS<\/a>!<\/p>\n

About our Guest<\/strong><\/p>\n

Born in Manhattan, Ron Rosenbaum grew up on Long Island, got a degree in English literature from Yale, and dropped out of Yale Graduate School to write.\u00a0Ron’s other books include Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil<\/a>\"\", The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups<\/a>\"\", and The Secret Parts of Fortune: Three Decades of Intense Investigations and Edgy Enthusiasms<\/a>\"\", a collection of his essays and journalism from The New York Times Magazine<\/em>, Harper’s<\/em>, Esquire<\/em>, The New Yorker<\/em>, The New York Observer<\/em>, and other publications. I highly recommend all of them; in fact, I have extra copies of The Secret Parts of Fortune<\/em> at home and in my office, just in case I feel like reading one of what Errol Morris calls “metaphysical detective stories.”\u00a0You can find Ron’s current work at Slate<\/a>, where he’s a columnist, and Smithsonian Magazine<\/a>, where he’s a National Correspondent. He’s currently at work on two new books.<\/p>\n

Credits: This episode\u2019s music is <\/em>One of Our Submarines (extended mix)\u00a0by Thomas Dolby. The conversation was recorded at the Inn on 23rd<\/a> in New York City, on a pair of Blue Encore 100<\/a>\"\" mics, feeding into a Zoom H4n<\/a>\"\" recorder. <\/em>I recorded the other material on a Blue Yeti USB mic<\/a>\"\" into Audacity.\u00a0All editing and processing was done in Garage Band. Photo courtesy of the receptionist at the Inn on 23rd, whose name I didn’t catch.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories – season 3 episode 1 Ron Rosenbaum –\u00a0Disarm Our first guest of 2013 is Ron Rosenbaum,\u00a0one of my favorite living writers!\u00a0This episode of The Virtual Memories Show is The Bomb! I’ve been a fan of Ron’s writing (let’s call it “literary journalism”) since reading Long Island, Babylon\u00a0(originally titled\u00a0The Devil in Long Island) in … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Podcast: Disarm”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,1183],"tags":[1553,1315,1544,530,1554,1446,1551,1539,592,1015,1545,1552,1547,729,1550,1536,908,1542,1548,1558,1541,1556,1538,86,121,1546,1537,1555,1557,925,1543,1540,1549],"class_list":["post-6813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature","category-podcasts","tag-amy-fisher","tag-apple","tag-arab-spring","tag-billy-joel","tag-cia","tag-dostoevsky","tag-drone-strikes","tag-elisabeth-kubler-ross","tag-harold-bloom","tag-hitler","tag-holocaust","tag-ivy-league-nude-photo-scandal","tag-jacob-weisberg","tag-james-jesus-angleton","tag-joey-buttafuoco","tag-julia-turner","tag-kim-philby","tag-maj-hering","tag-new-york-observer","tag-nuclear-war","tag-peter-brook","tag-peter-kaplan","tag-richard-nixon","tag-ron-rosenbaum","tag-shakespeare","tag-skull-and-bones","tag-start","tag-steve-jobs","tag-steve-wozniak","tag-tolstoy","tag-village-voice","tag-watergate","tag-yale"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1LT","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17784,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-659-ron-rosenbaum","url_meta":{"origin":6813,"position":0},"title":"Episode 659 – Ron Rosenbaum","author":"Gil","date":"October 21, 2025","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 659: Ron Rosenbaum \"I'm always looking beyond the surface of the words to deeper meanings. Or sometimes shallower meanings.\" One of my fave writers, Ron Rosenbaum, returns to the show to celebrate his amazing new book, BOB DYLAN: Things Have Changed (A Kind Of Biography) (Melville House\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2025comp.jpg?fit=1101%2C800&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16244,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-550-ron-rosenbaum","url_meta":{"origin":6813,"position":1},"title":"Episode 550 – Ron Rosenbaum","author":"Gil","date":"August 15, 2023","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 550: Ron Rosenbaum \"We're in an age where machines \u2014 AI, big data \u2014 are taking over human emotions and endeavors.\" With the release of IN DEFENSE OF LOVE: An Argument (Doubleday), Ron Rosenbaum offers up a series of essays to save love from scientizers, extremists, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2023comp.jpg?fit=1122%2C800&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2023comp.jpg?fit=1122%2C800&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2023comp.jpg?fit=1122%2C800&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2023comp.jpg?fit=1122%2C800&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/rosenbaum2023comp.jpg?fit=1122%2C800&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8070,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-re-explaining-hitler","url_meta":{"origin":6813,"position":2},"title":"Podcast: Re-Explaining Hitler","author":"Gil","date":"July 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories: Ron Rosenbaum\u00a0- Re-Explaining Hitler \"The choices that an artist makes are not traceable back to a particular set of neurons firing. They're choices made by the complete consciousness of a person. Art, in a way, validates free will, and thereby validates the notion of evil.\" Ron Rosenbaum returns\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=0306823187","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7590,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-the-guest-list-2013","url_meta":{"origin":6813,"position":3},"title":"Podcast: The Guest List: 2013","author":"Gil","date":"December 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories \u2013 season 3 episode 32 - The Guest List: 2013 The year is over! I exceeded my podcast goal of getting a new episode out every other week! 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That makes The Guest List a Virtual Memories Show tradition! I reached out to 2014's podcast guests and asked them about the favorite book(s) they read in the past year. 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