How do faith, science, and secular ideology intersect—and collide?
Author and physicist Michael Ebifegha joins Speaking of Writers to discuss his book Satan’s Shadow in Abrahamic Religions, examining belief systems, evolution, and religious authority in the modern world.#speakingofwriterspodcast #faithandscience #authorpodcast

On this episode of The Speaking of Writers Podcast, we welcome award-winning historian Jack Kelly, author of Tom Paine's War. A powerful story of how words , not weapons, helped save the American Revolution.

JACK KELLY is an award-winning author and historian. His books include Band of Giants, which received the DAR History Medal, and God Save Benedict Arnold, a Finalist for the New England Book Awards. He has published five novels, and is a New York Foundation for the Arts fellow in Nonfiction Literature. Kelly has appeared on The History Channel, National Public Radio, and C-Span. He lives in New York's Hudson Valley.#speakingofwriterspodcast #jackkelly #americanhistory #tompaineswar #250years

Andrew Fechmeier is a master at hiding. He'd better be—he’s spent decades concealing a secret that could get him killed. So when he’s diagnosed with a terminal disease, he heads for the local funeral home carrying the blue suit he eventually wants to be buried in. But what no one knows is that Fechmeier secretly tucked something inside, turning the suit into a final, untraceable hiding spot.

It's a perfect plan. Until Fetch is brutally murdered by a mysterious killer who will stop at nothing to find the priceless object hidden in the suit.

Wasting no time, the cunning but unconventional Roddy LaPointe opens an investigation into Fetch’s murder, recruiting help from his friend, the brilliant “Zig” Zigarowski. But it doesn’t take long for Zig to discover the real reason Roddy cares so much about this case: Fetch’s death is tied to Roddy’s mother, who was murdered decades earlier.

As the relentless killer closes in, Roddy’s twin sister—the enigmatic and volatile Nola Brown—starts investigating for herself, uncovering a sinister plot that reveals their mother’s dark history, the true identity of her killer, and the shocking secret behind her death.

Don’t turn your back on The Viper.

Brad Meltzer is the Emmy-nominated, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lightning Rod and twelve other bestselling thrillers. He also writes nonfiction books like The JFK Conspiracy, and the Ordinary People Change the World kids book series.

Brad is also the host of Brad Meltzer’s Decoded on the History Channel and is responsible for helping find the missing 9/11 flag with his show, Brad Meltzer’s Lost History.

#bradmeltzer #theviper #speakingofwriterspodcast #bradmeltzerslosthistory #podcast #authorpodcast

Enriched by extraordinary first-hand accounts, this is a fascinating history of the dying days of the Third Reich as Stalin sought to consolidate his own empire.In January 1945, the Red Army launched a powerful offensive across the Vistula River to drive the Wehrmacht out of Poland, with the intention of securing a start line for an operation that would ultimately result in the capture of Berlin and the end of the war. But, as Prit Buttar expertly reveals, there were other issues at play. Stalin was determined to push the boundaries of the Soviet Union further west, restoring land lost by the tsars and securing vast industrial and mineral wealth. While negotiations took place between the Allied powers regarding the fate of Poland, the Red Army burst through the German lines, liberating Auschwitz even as the SS drove concentration camp inmates onto frozen roads in a series of death marches.The Wehrmacht staged a desperate fight back with their last major armoured offensive on the Eastern Front. Launched in February 1945 from the German-Polish border, it forced a halt to the Soviet forces on the banks of the Oder before the rush to Berlin. Written by an acknowledged expert on the Eastern Front and packed with first-hand accounts, this is the definitive account of the strategic goals, both military and political, of Stalin, his generals, and their armies as they raced into the Reich, and of the German forces who stood in the way.Prit Buttar studied medicine at Oxford and London before joining the British Army as a doctor. After leaving the army, he worked as a GP. He is extensively involved in medical politics, both at local and national level. An established expert on the Eastern Front in 20th-century military history, his previous books include the critically acclaimed two-volume series on the siege of Leningrad: To Besiege A City (Osprey 2023) and Hero City (Osprey 2024). He now lives in Kirkcudbright in Scotland.#speakingofwriterspodcast #authorpodcast #worldwar2 #germany #thirdreich

On the 75th anniversary of the legendary Battle of Chosin Reservoir, Steve Vogel tells the little-known story of the Army soldiers who gave all during the Korean War’s most consequential battles and then were denigrated for their sacrifice. A Task Force Called Faith: The Untold Story of the U.S. Army Soldiers Who Fought for Survival at Chosin Reservoir—and Honor Back Home delivers a fresh perspective on Chosin, where 150,000 Chinese soldiers trapped 20,000 U.S. Marines and soldiers in the frozen mountains of North Korea in November and December of 1950. For seven decades, the Marines who successfully broke out from Chosin have been justly hailed as heroes, but the Army soldiers who fought alongside them have been reviled as cowards. In A Task Force Called Faith, Steve Vogel sets the record straight. What he’s learned is the culmination of twenty-five years of digging into the story, first as a reporter for The Washington Post and now as a leading military historian. Steve Vogel is a historian and former military correspondent for the Washington Post. His coverage of the US war in Afghanistan was part of a package of Washington Post stories selected as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2002. He reported on the US war with Iraq in 2003 as an embedded journalist with an Army airborne brigade. Based in Germany from 1989 through 1994 and reporting for the Washington Post and Army Times, he covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first Gulf War, as well as military operations in Somalia, Rwanda, and the Balkans. Vogel covered the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the Pentagon and was the first journalist to get inside the building’s most damaged sections. He wrote the definitive history of the building, The Pentagon, and is the author of two other acclaimed histories, Betrayal in Berlin: The True Story of the Cold War’s Most Audacious Espionage Operation and Through the Perilous Fight: Six Weeks That Saved the Nation. He lives in Maryland.

A BIOGRAPHY OF A MOUNTAIN: The Making and Meaning of Mt. Rushmore, by Matthew Davis (St. Martin’s Press), is a powerful comprehensive history of Mt. Rushmore, written in light of recent political controversies, and a timely retrospective for the monument’s 100th anniversary in 2025. Davis has penned an impressive work of narrative nonfiction, combining history with reportage, bringing this complicated and nuanced story of the famous, and infamous, mountain to life.ABOUT THE AUTHORMatthew Davis is the author of When Things Get Dark: A Mongolian Winter’s Tale. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and Guernica, among other publications. He has been an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellow at New America, a Fellow at The Black Mountain Institute at UNLV, and a Fulbright Fellow to Syria and Jordan. He holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa and an MA in International Relations from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Davis lives in Washington DC with his wife, a diplomat, and their two young kids.#mtrushmore #authorpodcast #speakingofwriterspodcast

Rhineland: Hitler’s Last Defence, 1944–45 by Anthony Tucker-Jones is a dramatic retelling of the desperate battle of the Rhineland during World War II from the German perspective.The Rhineland was where Adolf Hitler sowed the seeds for the Second World War when he remilitarized it in breach of the Treaty of Versailles in 1936, and by late 1944 the Rhine provided the last major obstacle to the advancing Allied armies that were threatening the Fatherland itself.In this new history of this vital campaign, respected military historian Tucker-Jones describes the race against time as the Germans fought to stave off the inevitable. It was essential that the Germans held the west bank in order to protect the Rhine crossings at Cologne, Bonn, Koblenz and Remagen, but Hitler was intent on counter-attacking in the Ardennes in the winter of 1944 and this meant there was little left to bolster the defences of the Rhine.Rhineland relates the course of this desperate defence, describing the build-up of forces and operational plans before going on to tell the story of the campaign from the point of view of the forces involved, from the ordinary German soldier through to the high command.Anthony Tucker-Jones, a former intelligence officer, is a highly prolific writer and military historian with well over 50 books to his name. His work has also been published in an array of magazines and online. He regularly appears on television and radio commenting on current and historical military matters.#rhineland #worldwar2 #hitler #podcast #authorpodcast #anthonytuckerjones #speakingofwriterspodcast

On this episode, Steve Richards interviews book publicity veteran Brian Feinblum, founder of Book Marketing Buzz Blog. and one of the most respected voices in book marketing. They discuss today's publishing landscape, how authors can get published, and what promotional strategies still deliver results.

Brian Feinblum, the creator and author of BookMarketingBuzzBlog, was the chief marketing officer for the nation's largest book promotions firm, Media Connect, and has been involved in book publicity and marketing since 1989. He has served several book publishing companies as a publicist, book editor, and acquisitions editor. Brian, who earned a BA in English from Brooklyn College, became a published author in 1995 when he penned The Florida Homeowner, Condo and Co-Op Handbook. He resides in Westchester, New York with his wife, two children, and an 80-pound American Bulldog.#bookmarketing #bookmarketingbuzzblog #podcast #speakingofwriterspodcast