Cross Word Books
by Michele McAloon
[email protected] Listen. Learn. Engage. Welcome to Cross Word Books, the podcast where we delve into compelling conversations with authors who illuminate history, politics, culture, faith, and art. Each episode uncovers intriguing insights and untold stories that shape our understanding of today’s world and the rich tapestry of ideas that define it. Whether you’re passionate about the cultural impact of art or curious about how history informs our political landscape, Crossword invites you to explore the diverse forces that influence human experience. Join our community of curious minds and subscribe now to embark on a journey of discovery, thoughtful reflection, and deeper connection with the world around us.
Episodes
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What Happens When Humans Stop Being Top Dog
Send us Fan Mail Find our more about the show at bookclues.com What does the 2021 UFO Pentagon Report signal? The UAP question stopped being a late-night joke the moment the Pentagon put it in writing: these objects show up across multiple sensors, they’re intruding into restricted military...
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North Korea’s Cult Of The Kims Starts In Church
Send us Fan Mail Find Michele here bookclues.com Pyongyang wasn’t always a synonym for missiles and mass parades. Long before the Kim dynasty, it was called the Jerusalem of the East, packed with churches, schools, hospitals, and missionary energy that helped make Korea one of the most Christian...
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How The Mississippi Built America And Keeps Rebuilding It
Send us Fan Mail Find me @ bookclues.com The Mississippi looks familiar on a map, but it gets weird fast when you stop treating it like a single line and start treating it like a living system. I’m joined by writer and nature critic Boyce Upholt boyceupholt, author of The Great River: The Making...
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Tanks Still Matter When Drones Rule The Sky
Send us Fan Mail Europe looks peaceful right up until you inventory what’s actually ready to fight. After spending months in Europe, Professor Andrew Michta joins us to lay out a sober strategic picture: a continent still disarmed, a defense industrial base that will take years to rebuild, and a...
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Four Cents An Acre?! Louisiana Purchase
Send us Fan Mail bookclues.com. Find me! Looking for a big timely summer read? Dad book extraordinaire! This is it. From LaSalle to Thomas Jefferson, the story of how our country was made in the grand sweep of time. A true American tale as bold as the people who lived the story. Native Americans,...
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The GOP Can it be Republican again?
Send us Fan Mail Connect at bookclues.com What is conservatism? How can conservative principals replace MAGA and populism in the Republican Party Connect with Our Republican Legacy ourrepublicanlegacy.com The Republican Party is headed for a reckoning, and the real battle is not going to be…
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The American Revolution: Courage
Send us Fan Mail bookclues.com. Find Michele American Revolution | Historical Fiction | Thomas Paine | George Washington | Revolutionary War What does courage look like when you don't feel brave? George Washington “vaccinated” soldiers by giving them smallpox on purpose, and it may have saved the...
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Wild Animals In The City
Send us Fan Mail find Cross Word Books at bookclues.com Our Wild Familiars: How Animals Are Adapting to Cities and Reshaping the Natural World, Dan Werb published by crown books of penguinrandomhouse.com Smart nature writing, urban planning ideas, and clear-eyed conversations about conservation…
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Healing in Grace
Send us Fan Mail bookclues.com. Connect. You Visited Me. Grace and Healing in the Modern Medical Center By Dr Robert Collins, MD Ignatius Press ignatius.com A cancer doctor who lives by evidence and protocols tells a story that begins with an interruption he can’t explain: a question, heard like…
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American Revolution was Global
Send us Fan Mail You can find out more about Cross Word bookclues.com. The Forgotten World War Exploring the Secret History of the American Revolution, from Spain to India and Back Again by Derek Baxter published by Source Books Follow the American Revolution far beyond the 13 colonies and trace...
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What Happens When The Supreme Court Stops Chasing Headlines
Send us Fan Mail Alito The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution by Mollie Heningway The Supreme Court doesn’t just decide cases; it teaches the country what power is allowed to do. Today on Cross Word Books, Michele McAloon talks with Molly Hemingway, senior editor...
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National Treasure And The Many Lives Of The Declaration Of Independence
Send us Fan Mail Contact Michele at bookclues.com The Declaration of Independence isn’t just a set of famous lines we quote every July. It’s a battered physical object that survived close calls, a national symbol that took decades to become sacred, and a cultural artifact that ended up on walls,...
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Lost Worlds: Maybe we can learn
Send us Fan Mail Find Michele at bookclues.com The world you take for granted is younger than you think and it was never guaranteed. We sit down with Patrick Wyman, creator of Tides of History and Past Lives and author of Lost Worlds; How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World to...
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Lewis And Clark Reconsidered
Send us Fan Mail Find out more at bookclues.com Two men got the highway signs—but the real Lewis and Clark Expedition story was a crowded canoe. We sit down with Craig Fehrman to discuss This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis and Clark and why the expedition only comes into focus when we...
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What Happens When A Nation Falls For A Strongman
Send us Fan Mail Find Michele McAloon @ bookclues.com Andrew Jackson is one of those American names people think they understand until they look closer. We sit down with historian David S. Brown, author of Andrew Jackson: The First Populist, to walk through the life that turned “Old Hickory” into…
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Who Gets To Belong In The Story Of The West?
Send us Fan Mail Find Michele at bookclues.com The Westerners MythMaking and Belonging on the American Frontier We talk with historian Megan Kate Nelson about how the American West gets turned into a story and how that story shapes who counts as a “real” Westerner. We follow seven lives that…
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The Seven Last Words
Send us Fan Mail Find out more about this podcast at https://www.bookclues.com/ Wisdom from the Cross How Jesus' Seven Last Words Teach Us How to Live (and Die) Well Holy Week can feel familiar until you slow down and listen to what Jesus actually says while he’s dying. Those final phrases from…
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How Russia’s Taiga Shaped Power Culture And War
Send us Fan Mail If you care about Russian history, Soviet culture, environmental history, or how geography shapes war, Russia looks different when you stop treating nature like background scenery. We sit down with writer and Cornell professor Sophie Pinkham to talk about The Oak and the Larch…
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Toxic Feminism
Send us Fan Mail https://www.bookclues.com Feminism is supposed to make women safer, freer, and happier. So why does it so often leave behind loneliness, rivalry, collapsed families, and a constant need to prove we’re “enough”? I sit down with Dr. Carrie Gress, PhD, scholar at the Institute for...
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What Really Happened To Amelia Earhart?
Send us Fan Mail Find Michele at https://www.bookclues.com A voice from the golden age of flight opens the door to one of history’s most enduring mysteries. We sit down with National Geographic writer Rachel Hartigan, author of Lost: Amelia Earhart’s Three Mysterious Deaths and One Extraordinary...
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Trotsky, Stalin, And The Ice Axe
Send us Fan Mail find out about Cross Word Books podcast https://bookclues.com./ A single ice axe swung in a quiet Mexico City study, but the shockwave started decades earlier, on the edges of a collapsing empire. We follow the combustible rivalry between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin—from exile...
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Unmasking Christopher Columbus: Facts, Myths, And The Making Of A Legend
Send us Fan Mail https://www.bookclues.com Tell a friend about CROSS WORD BOOK Podcast-the podcast for the serious reader Think misinformation started with the internet? We rewind five centuries to watch it form in real time. With historian Matthew Restall, we separate the historic Christopher...
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Presidents, Power, And The Story We Tell
Send us Fan Mail Find out more information at https://www.bookclues.com Presidents aren’t just dates and policies; they’re people formed by families, faith, loss, ambition, and a country that rarely stops arguing. We sat down with author and veteran editor Mary Carol Ghislin to unpack her new...
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What Happens When Information Outruns A King
Send us Fan Mail Contact michele at https://www.bookclues.com What if a city without modern newspapers learned to think like a public anyway? We sit down with historian Robert Darnton to chart how Paris, from 1748 to 1789, became an information society powered by parades, fireworks, songs, rumor,...
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Civil War Memory, Now
Send us Fan Mail Connect with Michele at https://www.bookclues.com Headlines keep tossing around the phrase “civil war,” but what are we really talking about when we invoke that history today? We sit down with historians John Kinder and Jennifer Murray, co-editors of They Are Dead and Yet They...
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Pangolins, Faith, And A Librarian’s Quest
Send us Fan Mail https://www.bookclues.com Care about wildlife conservation, China-Africa politics, religious freedom, and character-driven storytelling with real stakes, this conversation is for you. An interview with author David Pinault on his real world fiction book Earth Dragon Run A…
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So, About That “Solved In One Day” Plan
Send us Fan Mail Article by Adam Entous of the New York Times The Separation: Inside the Unraveling U.S.-Ukraine Partnership https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/12/30/world/europe/ukraine-war-us-russia.html We trace Ukraine’s war from early U.S.–Ukraine partnership to a fragile “separation,”...
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Gold, Frankincense, Myrrh, And A Whole Lot Of Geopolitics
Send us Fan Mail Forget the tinsel and crowns—let’s meet the Magi where history lives. We sit down with Fr. Dwight Longenecker, author of The Mystery of the Magi, to rethink the famous journey to Bethlehem through the lenses of archaeology, geopolitics, and Scripture. Instead of mystical monarchs...
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its a Charlie brown Christmas
Send us Fan Mail Merry Christmas everyone!!! This is a re-run but one of my most popular podcasts about the beloved Charlie Brown. Who doesn't love the Charlie brown Christmas Tree? I hope all of you are captured by the wonder of this season, surrounded by love and to remember what it is to love....
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History of German Christmas Markets
Send us Fan Mail If you love Christmas history, urban culture, or just the glow of a winter night, this conversation will change how you walk a market lane. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend who loves Christmas markets, and leave a quick review to tell us your favorite Christmas market...
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Wild Lives Among The Graves
Send us Fan Mail A million stories rest under the trees of Père Lachaise, and some of them still move. We sit down with curator and author-photographer Benoît Galliot to walk the avenues of Paris’s most visited cemetery and discover why it feels so alive. From neo-gothic chapels and art nouveau...
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One King, Two Kingdoms; A colorful Life
Send us Fan Mail In this fascinating podcast episode, historian Gareth Russell delves into the riveting life of King James I. Michele McAloon, the host, describes Russell's latest book, 'The Six Loves of James the First,' as a compelling historical narrative that rivals even the most intricate...
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Rivalry That Built The South
Send us Fan Mail War Eagel! Roll tide! College game day! The Iron Bowl A single game can define a state. We sit down with Yahoo Sports senior writer Jay Busbee to unpack how Alabama vs Auburn became the South’s fiercest mirror, reflecting pride, pain, progress, and power from 1893 to NIL. Jay’s…
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Inside The Edmund Fitzgerald: What Really Sank America’s Most Famous Freighter
Send us Fan Mail A freighter longer than a skyscraper is tall. Waves four seconds apart that can bend steel. A ballad recorded in a single take that changed how an entire industry thinks about risk. We sat down with John U. Bacon, author of The Gales of November, to trace the Edmund Fitzgerald…
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Angelica Schuyler, Truly Revolutionary
Send us Fan Mail Find out more about Cross Word Books at https://www.bookclues.com/ Professor Beer's website https://mollybeer.net A woman without a rank helped a country find its balance. We sit down with Professor Molly Beer to explore Angelica Schuyler—born Engeltia into Dutch New York…
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Vampire Epidemics Explained
Send us Fan Mail You can contact Michele at https://www.bookclues.com Have you ever read Dracula??? child's play compared to John Blair's Killing the Dead; Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World. A corpse that won’t stay put tells you as much about the living as it does about the…
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No Wi‑Fi Underwater, Still Plenty Of Drama
Send us Fan Mail Connect with Michele at https://www.bookclues.com What if the most important maps we’ll ever draw are hidden under miles of water and thousands of PSI? We sit down with physicist and exploration roboticist James Bellingham to trace a life spent pushing past pressure, busting...
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Murder in the Cathedral
Send us Fan Mail Michele McAloon is the host. You can find more interviews on her website https://www.bookclues.com. The name Thomas Becket echoes through history as one of medieval England's most compelling figures – a man whose dramatic transformation from royal chancellor to martyred…
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Russia's Secret Spies
Send us Fan Mail Connect with me on https://www.bookclues.com Have you ever wondered about the real-life inspiration behind shows like "The Americans"? Shaun Walker pulls back the curtain on one of history's most audacious espionage operations in this riveting conversation about his meticulously...
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Beyond the Body: What Defines Our Humanity?
Send us Fan Mail Contact the host of Cross Word, Michele McAloon https://www.bookclues.com What makes us human? It's a question at the heart of today's most heated cultural debates, from abortion to artificial intelligence to gender identity. In this profound conversation, Princeton's Professor...
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From Kremlin Access to Exile: Surviving Putin's Media Purge
Send us Fan Mail Contact Michele at her website https://www.bookclues.com Andrei Soldatov shares his firsthand account of Russia's transformation under Putin, explaining how the free press was systematically dismantled and the country became increasingly isolated from the West. His powerful...
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The Revolutionary War's Global Impact
Send us Fan Mail Professor John Ferling takes us on a captivating journey through the international dimensions of America's founding conflict in "Shots Heard Around the World: America, Britain, and Europe in the Revolutionary War." As we approach the 250th anniversary of American independence…
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Putin Unmasked
Send us Fan Mail Andrew Weiss, Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, reveals how Vladimir Putin rose from mediocre KGB officer to Russian leader through a series of accidents and opportunities rather than strategic brilliance or espionage expertise. • Putin...
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Bombs and Beasts: The Hidden Battle for Zoo Survival
Send us Fan Mail "World War Zoos: Humans and Other Animals in the Deadliest Conflict of the Modern Age." University of Chicago Press To find our more about Michele McAloon: Your host. https://www.bookclues.com What happens to zoo animals when war breaks out? It's a question few of us consider…
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The Secret Truth About Ukraine Nobody is Telling You
Send us Fan Mail Michele McAloon speaks with Olena Tregub, a Ukrainian civil society leader and anti-corruption advocate, about the realities of war in Ukraine and why American support remains crucial despite political uncertainty. • Olena describes the terrifying routine of air raid alerts and...
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Hollywood's Tribute to Those Who Served Never Gets Old
Send us Fan Mail This Memorial Day episode revisits a conversation with Alison Maker about her book "Making the Best Years of Our Lives," exploring the classic 1946 film that portrayed veterans returning home from World War II. • William Wyler, the film's director, was a Jewish immigrant who…
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Beyond Catastrophe: How Ancient Societies Thrived Through Change
Send us Fan Mail What if apocalypse doesn't mean the end of everything, but rather a revelation of new possibilities? Archaeologist Lizzie Wade turns our understanding of catastrophe upside down in this eye-opening conversation about how ancient societies transformed through crisis. Speaking from...
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The End is Near, or Is It?
Send us Fan Mail Dorian Linskey explores humanity's persistent fascination with apocalyptic scenarios through his book "Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World." This deep dive into our cultural obsession with the end times reveals how these narratives reflect our...
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From Comedian to President: The Evolution of Ukraine's President
Send us Fan Mail The extraordinary journey of Volodymyr Zelensky—from Ukraine's most beloved comedian to its wartime president—represents one of history's most dramatic political transformations. Simon Shuster, who has reported from Ukraine and Russia for over 15 years, joins us to discuss his...
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The Jesuit Legacy: From Ignatius to Francis
Send us Fan Mail Delve into the captivating world of the Jesuits with Dr. Marcus Friedrich, whose monumental work "The Jesuits: A History" illuminates five centuries of one of history's most influential and controversial religious orders. From their unexpected origins in the conversion of a…
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About this show
Listen. Learn. Engage.
Welcome to Cross Word Books, the podcast where we delve into compelling conversations with authors who illuminate history, politics, culture, faith, and art.
Each episode uncovers intriguing insights and untold stories that shape our understanding of today’s world and the rich tapestry of ideas that define it. Whether you’re passionate about the cultural impact of art or curious about how history informs our political landscape, Crossword invites you to explore the diverse forces that influence human experience.
Join our community of curious minds and subscribe now to embark on a journey of discovery, thoughtful reflection, and deeper connection with the world around us.
Hosted by
Michele McAloon