Pietrusza is a fine writer, that is true. "1920: The Year of Six Presidents", "1960: JFK vs. LBJ vs. Nixon" and "1948" were incredible works which wove U.S., world, cultural and political history into an interesting array of anecdotes. I always find it interesting that Pietrusza does not have a PhD. in history but writes far better than most who do.
As for calling in to InDepth I did that once when Tom DiLorenzo was on discussing "Hamilton's Curse" and I did not like the process. My question was short but I was cut off after about twenty seconds of inquiring while some colorful figure got to talk for ten minutes about organic milk. Book TV (and all of C-Span for that matter) is a world unto its own.
I was at a relative's cottage this weekend where there are few cable channels and I ended up watching C-Span a lot. Quite the couple of channels. You watch C-Span3 (American History TV on the weekends) much?