Mao Zedong

Nothing is quite as it seems. Kurt talks with Lee Israel about her new memoir Can You Ever Forgive Me? about her years forging letters by famous writers. Steven Heller shows us how the 20th century’s towering mad men — Hitler, Stalin, Mao — were masters not just of terror but of successful branding. And […]

A resurgence of interest in religion in China, after more than half a century of Communism and in the midst of China’s rapid economic transformation and global rise, comes as new generations search for spiritual meaning and an ethical foundation. Host Mary Kay Magistad talks with former China correspondent colleagues Ian Johnson, author of “The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao,” and Jennifer Lin, author of “Shanghai Faithful: Betrayal and Faith in a Chinese Christian Family,” about how her own Chinese family, including Watchman Nee, the Billy Graham of China in the first half of the 20th century.

Talk about epic love/hate relationships. From the birth of the United States, China has loomed large in the American imagination, and America in China’s, for better and for worse, often with surprising twists. Build a wall across the Mexican border? That was first proposed to stop Chinese immigrants in the 19th century. Mao Zedong’s secret vice? American ‘kissy’ movies, to quote former Washington Post China correspondent John Pomfret, author of “The Beautiful Country and the MIddle Kingdom,” an engaging new history of what America and China have meant to each other’s citizens, as well as their governments, 1776 to now. And because this is a big and important topic, this is a long(ish) podcast — so break it up if you like. Want to hear about why the Founding Fathers admired China? Listen to the first 20 minutes. How America did — and didn’t — promote its values in China in the 20th century? That’d be 20:00-53:00. Challenges for US-China relations now and going forward? 53:00 to the end. Enjoy!