Holocaust survivor Marion Blumenthal Lazan is testament that out of hell can be born an angel. She is living history. One of the last survivors of Hitler’s scourge her story is the subject of her unforgettable memoir FOUR PERFECT PEBBLES: A HOLOCAUST STORY. Marion Blumenthal Lazan joins Halli at her table on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Wednesday, April 12, the podcast posted at Halli Casser-Jayne dot com, 3 p.m. ET.

Marion’s story begins in Germany in the early 1930s. Following Hitler’s rise to power, the Blumenthal family — father, mother, Marion, and her brother, Albert — were trapped in Nazi Germany. They managed eventually to make their way to Holland, but soon Holland was occupied by the Nazis. For the next six and a half years the Blumenthal’s were forced to live in refugee, transit, and death camps that included Westerbork in Holland and the notorious Bergen-Belsen in Germany, where Anne Frank died. From the events preceding Kristallnacht to imprisonment in concentration camps to liberation in April of 1945, to her surviving family’s ultimate relocation to the United States and her subsequent years, Marion’s story is one of horror and hardship, but it is also a story of courage, hope, the will to survive and a commitment that the world Never Forget.

The Holocaust, World War II, Nazi, Germany, history, concentration camps, Auschwitz — we must Never Forget. The story of Holocaust survivor Marion Blumenthal Lazan on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show. For more information visit Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.

In celebration of spring and Major League Baseball’s opening day, it’s take me out to the ballgame time on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show when joining Halli at her table on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show is New York Yankee’s historian and former publicity director Marty Appel, author of  the new biography CASEY STENGEL, BASEBALL’S GREATEST CHARACTER. And in our second half-hour we visit with the fascinating Eden Collinsworth who takes a look at a subject on everyone’s mind today: morality. In what some people are calling The Age of IM-morality, author Eden Collinsworth has written BEHAVING BADLY: THE NEW MORALITY IN POLITICS, SEX, AND BUSINESS.

Casey Stengel once said that “There comes a time in every man’s life, and I’ve had plenty of them,” and indeed he did. There was nobody like Casey before him, and certainly there has been no one like him since. For more than fifty years, Casey Stengel lived baseball. First as the only person in history to play for or manage all the New York teams, including the Dodgers, Giants, Yankees, and Mets, and then as a manager, where he made his biggest mark on the game of Major League Baseball revolutionizing the role in New York and beyond, all while winning an astounding ten pennants and seven World Series Championships – including five consecutive titles with the Yankees.

Another New York character is shaking things up in the world and we take a look at Donald Trump with author Eden Collinsworth who addresses the topic of morality in her new book BEHAVING BADLY: THE NEW MORALITY IN POLITICS, SEX, AND BUSINESS. To call these unsettling times is an understatement: our political leaders are less and less respectable; in the realm of business, cheating, lying, and stealing are hazily defined; and in daily life, rapidly changing technology offers permission to act in ways inconceivable without it. Some might say that we live in a time of a complete free-for-all. Eden Collinsworth argues that people still draw lines around what is acceptable and what is not. It’s a fascinating conversation, not all serious. Hear what the founder of Ashley Madison, a web site for married people looking to have illicit affairs has to say on the subject.

A look at two wholly American characters, Casey Stengel and Donald Trump, America’s national pastime, Donald Trump, sports, politics, the New York Yankees Wednesday, April 5, 3 pm ET on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show. For more information visit Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.

Trump, Russia, spies, crime, writer Ernest Hemingway? We bring them all together on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Wednesday, March 29 when joining Halli at her table is Nicholas Reynolds author of the controversial new book that says Ernest Hemingway was a Russian spy, WRITER, SAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY: ERNEST HEMINGWAY’S SECRET ADVENTURES 1935-1961 and the editor of the riveting BOOK OF CRIME: MORE THAN 166 YEARS COVERING THE BEAT, Kevin Flynn.

Ernest Hemingway is surely one of our greatest American writers, whose life has been mapped to the fullest. But despite the gazillion words written about Hemingway now comes new insight into one of the most famous lives in literature. In his new book WRITER, SAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY Nicholas Reynold’s reveals a secret that  during World War II, Hemingway became a spy for Soviet intelligence and tried to spy for the U.S., too. While he was the historian at the CIA Museum, Reynolds, a longtime CIA officer, former Marine colonel, and Oxford-trained historian, began to discover tantalizing clues that suggested Hemingway’s involvement in World War II-era intelligence work was much more complex and fraught with risks than has been previously understood. He brings the secret to life for the first time, Hemingway’s recruitment by Soviet spies in the NKVD (the forerunner to the KGB) followed by relationships with the US Department of State, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the American OSS (the precursor to the CIA) —to say nothing of his long-running conflict with the FBI.

For 166 years, THE NEW YORK TIMES has been a rich source of information about CRIME, its reporters racing alongside tabloids to track the shocking incidents that disrupt daily life.  Now in a fascinating compilation, edited by seasoned Times crime-beat veteran Kevin Flynn, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF CRIME, captures the full sweep of the newspaper’s coverage of the subject of crime from the assassinations of icons like Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and Malcolm X to the deadly trails left behind by serial killers like the Son of Sam and Jeffrey Dahmer. Who can forget the Manson murders, bank heists by Dillinger, art heists and white-collar crimes from Ponzi to Madoff? Flynn brings us them all, including crimes of passion, heists, kidnapping, murders, the mob and more. This is a book that appeals to the voyeur in us all.

Trump, Ernest Hemingway, Russia, CIA, FBI, KGB, the New York Times, crime, murder, The Halli Casser-Jayne Show posts new podcasts Wednesdays, 3 pm ET at Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.

More than political junkies are mystified by the election of Donald Trump. Who are the people who voted for Donald Trump and why?  The Halli Casser-Jayne Show tackles that question with journalist Brian Alexander author of GLASS HOUSE and also visits with the dynamic first and only American woman ever to fill the coveted position of Editor-in-Chief of Paris Vogue, fashionista Joan Juliet Buck.

In 1947, Forbes magazine declared Lancaster, Ohio the epitome of the all-American town. Today it is damaged, discouraged, and fighting for its future. In GLASS HOUSE, THE 1% ECONOMY AND THE SHATTERING OF THE ALL-AMERICAN TOWN, journalist Brian Alexander traveled back to the home of his youth, lived there, and put all that he had learned to show how seeds sown 35 years ago have sprouted to give us Trumpism, inequality, and an eroding national cohesion. Alexander takes us behind the scenes into the desperate lives of many of the town’s residents as they wrestle with heroin, politics, high-interest lenders, low wage jobs, technology, and the new demands of American life. When hope turned to desperation they turned to billionaire, Donald Trump for salvation, one of the master capitalists who were the very culprits who tore their world apart. What were they thinking? Do they already have regrets? Political junkies tune in for an eye-opening conversation.

Joan Juliet Buck, the only child of larger-than-life film producer Jules Buck, was born into a world of make-believe. Her childhood was a whirlwind of famous faces: John Huston, Peter O’Toole, Lauren Bacall, Federico Fellini, Angelica Huston, and many more; ever-changing home addresses: London, Paris, Cannes, Los Angeles; and the unspoken lesson that appearances mattered more than reality. When Joan became the first and only American woman ever to fill the coveted position of Editor-in-Chief of Paris Vogue, she quickly became a force in the cult of fashion and beauty. Joan’s world was the land of illusion. But illusions cannot be sustained indefinitely, and they always come at a cost. In her new book THE PRICE OF ILLUSION Joan offers up a dazzling compulsively readable memoir spanning six decades spent in the creative heart of London, New York, Los Angeles, Milan, Paris, and more. But what is the price of illusion? Tune in to find out.

Politics, fashion, fame, Vogue, Paris, illusion, memoir, Donald Trump, there’s something for everyone on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Wednesday, March 22. The podcast will be posted at 3 pm ET at Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.

Join The Halli Casser-Jayne Show when we go on an adventure into the world of artist Andrew Wyeth and into the Honduran rain forest when two New York Times bestselling authors Christina Baker Kline and Douglas Preston join Halli at her table.

Since the days of conquistador Hernan Cortes, rumors have circulated about an ancient White City of immense wealth hidden in the Honduran interior. Indigenous tribes spoke of ancestors who had fled there to escape the Spanish, warning that anyone who disturbs this sacred city will fall ill and die. In THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD: A TRUE STORY Douglas Preston brings us the almost unbelievable, danger-filled narrative about the incredible discovery of the lost city and the life-threatening events that followed when Preston, along with a team of scientists ventured into the jungle on a pioneering journey filled with personal danger, venomous snakes, lethal pathogens and more. What happened to Preston on his return to civilization is even more harrowing than his trip into the rain forest. Preston is also the co-author with Lincoln Child of the famed series of novels featuring FBI agent Pendergast.

Writer Christina Baker Kline is best known for her beloved 2013 novel ORPHAN TRAIN. With more than three million copies in print, it has been published in 40 countries, appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for more than two years — five weeks at #1 new novel. Now she comes to us with the haunting, evocative novel A PIECE OF THE WORLD in which she turns her attention, as she did in ORPHAN TRAIN, to another little-known part of America’s history: the story of Christina Olson, the complex woman and real-life muse Andrew Wyeth portrayed in his 1948 masterpiece Christina’s World.

Adventure, art, books, authors, archaeology, there’s something for everyone on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Wednesday, March 8. The new podcast will be posted 3 pm ET at Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.

“Life was like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get” is one of the most memorable lines in cultural history a play on an earlier line penned by the brilliant author Winston Groom in his iconic novel FORREST GUMP. Groom joins Halli on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show Wednesday, December 14, 3 pm ET to talk about his latest work EL PASO. Also joining Halli is bestselling author, veteran rock biographer Peter Ames Carlin out with his new controversial PAUL SIMON HOMEWARD BOUND: THE LIFE OF PAUL SIMON, the first major biography of American music icon.

Winston Groom is the author of twenty previous books, including CONVERSATIONS WITH THE ENEMY (Pulitzer Prize finalist), SHILOH 1862, and THE GENERALS. As embodied by Tom Hanks on-screen, Winston Groom’s FORREST GUMP is perhaps one of the most identifiable fictional characters of the last thirty years. EL PASO marks Groom’s triumphant return to form: a swirling, unstoppable saga set against the panorama of the Mexican Revolution and its march into the American Southwest, a you cannot put this one down sweeping novel. Drawing brilliantly from Groom’s award-winning nonfiction and inspired by a true story, EL PASO begins at the turn of the twentieth century with the Great War raging in Europe, the Mexican Civil War spilling over the border, and the titans of American industry—the Hearsts, Whitneys, and Morgans—holding fast to their lands in northern Mexico.

The first major biography of American music icon, PAUL SIMON, has arrived! Interviewing more than 100 people from Simon’s world, veteran rock biographer Peter Ames Carlin, the bestselling author of the Bruce Springsteen biography, BRUCE, brings us the new book: HOMEWARD BOUND: THE LIFE OF PAUL SIMON. With meticulous detail, Carlin fully reveals one whose life and career, in so many ways, exemplifies the American experience from 1950 through today.

History, music, fiction, biography, The Halli Casser-Jayne Show offers up a box of chocolates for your listening pleasure when authors Winston Groom and Peter Ames Carlin sit down with Halli, Wednesday, December 14, 3 pm ET. For more information visit Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.

For nearly 17 months on the campaign trail, Trump did what no American politician had attempted in a generation, with defiant flair. Instead of painting a bright vision for a unified future, he magnified the divisions of the present, inspiring new levels of anger and fear within his country.

As we commemorate National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor we return to history and World War II with two important stories when journalist Kathryn Smith, author of THE GATEKEEPER: MISSY LEHAND, FDR AND THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE PARTNERSHIP THAT DEFINED A PRESIDENCY and historian Marc Wortman, author of 1941, FIGHTING THE SHADOW WAR join Halli on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Wednesday, 3 pm ET at Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.

In THE GATEKEEPER, Journalist Kathryn Smith tells the story of Marguerite  Alice “Missy” LeHand the savvy personal secretary President Franklin Delano Roosevelt considered one of the most vital, and certainly one of the most loyal members of his inner circle. Missy fulfilled the crucial duties of Chief of Staff long before the position was formally created, working with FDR for more than twenty years, starting from his first failed Vice Presidential campaign in 1920, through his time as governor of New York, and for almost a decade in the White House. She was also FDR’s confidante (lover?), his support when he contracted polio, and his close friend. People in Washington, D.C., knew one indisputable truth: if you wanted to get to FDR, you had to go through Missy.

A divided America? A country reluctant to go to war? A country turning its back on genocide? The year 2016? No, the year 1941, the focus of historian Marc Wortman’s book 1941, FIGHTING THE SHADOW WAR. Conventional wisdom dictates that the US entered World War II in retaliation for the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941. Historian Marc Wortman sees it another way, revealing the ways in which America played an increasingly significant and clandestine role in the war in the months and years prior to officially joining the battle. Churchill, Lindbergh, the Roosevelt family, FDR advisor and emissary Harry Hopkins, journalists William Shirer and Philip Johnson, Wortman weaves the smart, suspenseful history that reads like an epic novel.

National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, history, politics, Pearl Harbor, isolationism, anti-Semitism, plagiarism, Republicans, Democrats…tune in to The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Wednesday, December 7, 3 pm ET at Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.

Every 66 seconds someone in the United States gets Alzheimer ’s Disease. Five million Americans are living with it. One of those Americans is country music legend, The Rhinestone Cowboy, Glen Campbell. This week on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Part One of a two-part special on this equal opportunity destroyer. Joining Halli at her table are Mr. Campbell’s oldest children Debby Campbell-Cloyd and Travis Campbell, as well as Campbell’s friend and former lover country music legend Miss Tanya Tucker.

Alzheimer’s disease affects not only its victims, but their families and all whom they love. An Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis tears some families apart and brings others together. Its effects are always heart-wrenching. Long the subject of tabloid fodder, Glen Campbell’s oldest children have been engaged in an epic fight with their stepmother Kimberly Woolen Campbell over the care of their father and their right to see him. In two extremely candid interviews they tell their story, share their agony, and reveal things that have never been spoken before regarding the dramatic family feuds that have ensued. Still, once you strip away the sensationalism that colors celebrity, the Campbell story is no different than what is happening to families all over the world. Anguish comes with the territory of an Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis.

In Part Two, airing Wednesday, October 29, 3 pm ET we’ll speak with Catherine Falk, the daughter of the late actor Peter Falk who initiated the Campbell-Falk Bill legislation to help protect the rights of children when an Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis is made, with Tennessee Senator Rusty Crowe the politician who helped get the bill passed into law, and with Patti Davis the daughter of President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan. President Ronald Reagan passed away after a long public battle with Alzheimer’s.

For more from our host Halli Casser-Jayne click here.

“I’d Really Like To See You Tonight,” “Nights are Forever Without You,” It’s Sad to Belong,” Love is the Answer,” were just a few of the hits of the Grammy nominated soft rock duo England Dan and John Ford Coley. Joining Halli at her table is singer, musician, actor, author John Ford Coley.

Texas born and raised, at 16 his music career was well on the way. The classically trained pianist would move to guitar and with his gift for harmony sing his way with his partner and classmate, England Dan to the top of the rock and roll charts. The band would break up but not before the Grammy-nominated duo had six Top 40 singles under their belts. With double platinum and gold records behind him, John has also produced other artists, most notably Eddie Money. He added acting to his repertoire and has penned a book on his years in the music industry entitled BACKSTAGE PASS.

Stories of Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Mickey Mantle and more, and the extraordinary career of John Ford Coley on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Wednesday, August 24, 3 pm ET. For more information visit Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.

From the earliest plans of the Founding Fathers to Michelle Obama’s organic kitchen garden, the story of how the White House grounds were conceived and how they have changed from administration to administration is explored in gardener, writer, historian Marta McDowell’s fascinating new book ALL THE PRESIDENTS’ GARDENS, HOW THE WHITE HOUSE GROUNDS HAVE GROWN WITH AMERICA. Marta McDowell visits The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, Wednesday, August 10, 3 pm ET in our first half-hour. And in our second half-hour it’s our smart, feisty, fabulous, Four Broads Talking™ panel  with Suzanna Andrews, Lisa Schiffren, Sheila Weller and our host Halli Casser-Jayne taking their look at the state of the race of Election 2016.

The author of EMILY DICKINSON’S GARDENS and BEATRIX POTTER’S GARDENING LIFE, Marta McDowell lives, gardens, and writes in Chatham, New Jersey. She lectures on gardening topics and teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, where she studied landscape design. She also consults for public gardens and private clients. In her new fascinating book, ALL THE PRESIDENTS’ GARDENS, McDowell reveals how the White House gardens have reflected America from the most momentous events in our nation’s history to our fleeting cultural obsessions and have influenced garden trends nationwide.

With less than three months to go until Election Day, with Donald Trump shaking up politics as usual and with Hillary Clinton quickly rising in the polls, oh what fun our Four Broads Talking panel of brilliant analysts will have when they sit down for their weekly chat on all things politics and culture in our second half hour. Look for sparks to fly with this tell it like it is panel of political pundits.

Gardens, politics, history, presidents, Election 2016, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and more on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show,

Wednesday, August 10, 3 pm ET. For more information visit Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.