On Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020, the citizens of the United States will cast ballots to elect their president, and it feels like the country couldn’t be more divided.
It turns out, it’s almost always been this way. And the 58 weeks we have remaining is just enough time to review all 58 presidential elections to discover if there ever was a “good ol’ days,” or if presidential politics have always been played dirty.
Imagine you’re a farmhand in rural Virginia, 1776. Or an Italian immigrant, just stepping foot onto American soil in 1919. Or a worker at Kodak, concerned about radioactive fallout contaminating your company’s film in 1945. American History Tellers tells the story of America through the eyes of the Americans who lived it. It’s a podcast that explores the great changes, trials and travails that shaped our nation—the Cold War, the Great Depression, Prohibition, the Civil Rights era—not just through names and dates, but empathy. Hosted by Lindsay Graham and richly sound designed by Airship, American History Tellers debuted at #1 on the Apple Podcast Charts and is regularly included in lists of best history podcasts.
In American Scandal, host Lindsay Graham again dives deep into American history, but this time to get on the inside of some of the most infamous—or forgotten—scandals this nation has seen: steroids in sports, oil on Alaskan beaches, arms deals in Iran, drug deals in Nicaragua, demented cult leaders in West Virginia and disgraced politicians across the country. Created by Graham for Wondery, American Scandal evocatively uses music and immersive sound design to capture your attention and pull you into the story. It debuted at #2 on the Apple Podcasts Charts and has remained in the Top 100 week after week.
On election night, two-term president Oliver Pierce watches in disbelief from the White House as Charles Dunwalke wins a controversial electoral college victory. With only 73 days before Dunwalke’s inauguration, President Pierce makes a secret decision to act, with historic and possibly catastrophic consequences.
Terms is a serial audio drama set in a time and place when checks and balances that should buttress our liberties are failing, and the very meaning and purpose of government is being called into question.
1865 the podcast starts at the moment President Lincoln is assassinated and follows Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, as he begins the hunt for Lincoln’s assassin—but that isn’t all that grips Stanton. Lincoln’s successor, Vice President Andrew Johnson, is likely to bend to southern interests and undo the very progress for which Lincoln died. Edwin Stanton must employ every bit of political wile he can muster to secure the future of the freed slaves, and the nation.