Midge Decter and Norman Podhoretz

Norman Podhoretz and Midge Decter, the couple Professor Wisse takes up in this episode, wielded incomparable intellectual firepower. In 1960, Podhoretz became the editor of Commentary at just 30 years old, and for decades would write, edit, and publish some of the most consequential essays ever to appear on the American public scene. Decter, who wed Podhoretz in 1956, had her own distinguished career in the world of ideas as an essayist, editor, and, in her work at the head of the Committee for the Free World, an activist. Together, they took up the cause of freedom, showing how and why America has prospered and how it can continue to.