“They all agreed that one of them was going to die,” A Conversation with Jeff Shesol on Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War

With the Bark Off: Conversations on the American Presidency

Jeff Shesol is a historian, former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, and the creator of the comic strip “Thatch.” He is the author of three books including “Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud That Defined a Decade” and “Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. The Supreme Court.” His latest book, “Mercury Rising” chronicles astronaut John Glenn and President John Kennedy during the nascent days of the U.S. space program, as NASA trailed haplessly behind the Soviet Union in space exploration, stoking fears that the Soviet Union was gaining a crucial technological upper hand in the Cold War.