This piece is perfect for Women's History Month. It is also appropriate fro any programming about the Cold War, Anti-Semitism, and/or academia.

Barry Vogel interviews author and historian Gerda Lerner. It's a phone interview and that interface is effective because it adds a sense of immediacy and intimacy to the piece, which is highly intellectual.

Lerner covers a lot of territory: remembrances of growing up in Anti-Semitic Austria; her life as a black-listed communist working to unionize the film industry.

Gerda Lerner has a great radio presence : she's at once philosophical and very accessible. And Vogel does a nice job of keeping the conversation moving and expanding without losing focus. cm