Terkel presents program reflecting on individuals' recollection of the day that FDR died and the former President's legacy among younger Americans.

Who were these ordinary people who killed and what made them do what they did are among the questions answered in Daniel Goldhagen's book, "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust". Jews were in league with the devil and their alleged evil came from their biology. It was believed, for the good of the country, to get rid of the German threat, the Jews had to be exterminated, according to Goldhagen.

While in a Dusseldorf prison, Gitta Sereny spent 70 hours interviewing Franz Stangl, the commandant of the Treblinka extermination camp. Her book, "Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience," questions how could an ordinary man with a wife and children become such an evil monster. Stangl rationalized his job by saying he never hurt anyone, that he never murdered anyone. Sereny said in the end, the only guilt Stangl harbored was that of still being alive.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations 

In the of first of many appearances on Studs' radio show, Oliver Sacks discusses his book "Awakenings" and recounts several patient profiles from his groundbreaking treatment application of L-DOPA to sufferers of Sleeping sickness and Parkinson's disease. They explore his work in the context of Studs' concept of Feeling Tone and Sacks tells of a remarkable scene with aphasic patients reacting to a speech of then President Ronald Reagan.

Yehiel De-Nur spent two years as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp.  He wrote several books about his experiences there, using his identity number Ka-Tsetnik 135633. His wife Nina served in the British army as a young woman and later helped in the translation and publication of De-Nur's works.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations 

Yehiel De-Nur spent two years as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp.  He wrote several books about his experiences there, using his identity number Ka-Tsetnik 135633. His wife Nina served in the British army as a young woman and later helped in the translation and publication of De-Nur's works.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations

The Big Three leaders - Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Harry Truman - are among the main topics of Charles L. Mee's book, "Meeting at Potsdam." It was the ending stages of World War II and as Mee explains, the meeting at Postdam was really a peace conference. The beginning of this recording includes an excerpt of a speech by Churchill.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations