Hi everyone. It's Katia Rogers Executive Producer of On the Media. We're busy watching the

DNC and working on the show for this weekend. So in lieu of a brand new OTM

midweek podcast we offer an episode of today explained.

The host, Noel King, spoke with O.T. M. regular guest, Rick Perlstein.

As a historian of US politics, Perlstein is often called upon to draw comparisons between today's events and those of the past.

This year in particular, the echoes with 1968 are unavoidable.

The DNC is once again in Chicago and there are protests outside.

This time it's about Gaza. Then it was about the Vietnam War.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. Tune in this weekend for the big show and we'll see you then It's today explained. I'm Noel King with historian and journalist Rick Perlstein

who has spent much of his adult life chronicling American Conservatives and

examining the role that the 60s played in bringing them to power.

Growing up in the 1980s Reagan land, you know, was kind of boring for me and the

melodrama of the 60s was absolutely galvanizing. I couldn't believe how every day

seemed to bring a new revolution and so certainly I was fascinated by this idea of

these kids sitting down in the streets and

getting beaten within the inch of their lives by the cops and the whole pageant.

All right, let's go back to the summer of 68. What was the backdrop to the convention in August of that year?

The backdrop nationally was that the Democratic Party was divided down the middle on the issue

of the Vietnam War.

The whole question is, I mean what happens if you do win in North Vietnam?

What happens if you do win in South Vietnam?

What then?

...