Podcasts by The Past, the Promise, the Presidency

The Past, the Promise, the Presidency

Welcome to "The Past, the Promise, the Presidency," a podcast about the exciting, unexpected, and critically-important history of the office of the President of the United States. You'll find four seasons of this podcast: Season 1 - Race and the American Legacy; Season 2 - Presidential Crises; Season 3 - The Bully Pulpit; and the current Season 4 - Conversations. Between Seasons 3 & 4, you will also find here a new pilot series called "Firsthand History." In each season of this series, we'll tell a different story from the complex and controversial era of the George W. Bush presidency. We'll tell these stories by featuring oral histories from our Collective Memory Project - firsthand stories told by the people who were there, including U.S. government officials, leaders from foreign countries, journalists, scholars, and more. Season 1--"Cross Currents: Navigating U.S.-Norway Relations After 9/11"--explores the tangled webs of transatlantic alliance in a time of war and uncertainty. "Firsthand History" is a production of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University.

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Season II, Episode VIII: The AIDS Epidemic from 2021-12-01T04:00

This week on The Past, The Promise, The Presidency, we are exploring a tragic national crisis that hits very close to home in 2021. The crisis of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

Having li...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Season II, Episode VII: The Berlin Wall&The Soviet Fall from 2021-11-18T04:00

This week's crisis could have ended with the world in a giant blaze of nuclear flame, but it didn't. In fact, it's an example of how a crisis can be handled so effectively, that m...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Season II, Episode VI: The Bonus Army&The 1932 March on Washington from 2021-11-11T04:00

Welcome to The Past, The Promise, The Presidency Season II, Episode VI: The Bonus Army & The 1932 March on Washington.

This Veteran’s Day, we are examining the time that World...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Season II, Episode V: Teddy Roosevelt&The Great Coal Strike of 1902 from 2021-11-04T04:00

Welcome to The Past, The Promise, The Presidency Season II, Episode V: Teddy Roosevelt & The Great Coal Strike of 1902. 

In 1902, miners under the leadership of John Mitchell ...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Season II, Episode IV: Ulysses S. Grant and the Ku Klux Klan Act from 2021-10-28T04:00

Welcome to The Past, The Promise, The Presidency Season II, Episode IV: Ulysses S. Grant and the Ku Klux Klan Act. In our previous episode on Bleeding Kansas and the Utah War, we discus...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Season II, Episode III: Bleeding Kansas and the Utah War from 2021-10-21T04:00

This week on The Past, The Promise, The Presidency: Presidential Crises we examine two presidential crises from the 1850s: Bleeding Kansas and the Utah War.

So far this season, we...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Season II, Episode II: James and Dolley Madison and the Burning of Washington from 2021-10-14T04:00

This week on The Past, The Promise, The Presidency: Presidential Crises we examine how James and Dolley Madison responded to The War of 1812, often referred to by both contemporaries an...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Season II, Episode I: George Washington and Executive Power from 2021-10-07T04:00

Our first topic this season is our first president, George Washington, father of the country, general, surveyor, statesman, slave owner, whiskey distiller, debtor, and a man whose dental history...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 29: LIVE Season Finale from 2021-04-22T04:00

After 28 episodes covering the presidents from Abraham Lincoln to Donald Trump, as well as two emergency response episodes, we’ve learned so, so much and we hope you have too. We decided to clos...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 28: Donald Trump from 2021-04-15T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Donald John Trump, the 45th president of the United States. So, so much to say. And yet, Trump’s presidency is also so fresh, what could we say in an introduction th...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 27: Barack Obama from 2021-04-08T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th president of the United States.  Also, the first in more than two centuries who didn’t identify as white. Obama’s tenure remains fresh...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 26: George W. Bush from 2021-04-01T04:00

Today’s episode is all about George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States.  Full disclosure for those who don’t know, the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum resides on SMU...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 25: William J. Clinton from 2021-03-25T04:00

Today’s episode is all about William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, the first baby boomer to hold the office, and indeed, the second youngest man ever elected presid...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 24: George H.W. Bush from 2021-03-18T04:00

Today’s episode is all about George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st President of the United States, and the man who came to the Oval Office arguably with the greatest pre-presidential resume of al...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 23: Ronald Reagan from 2021-03-11T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th President of the United States. It’s not too much a stretch to say we are living in the America Ronald Reagan envisioned, one in which...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 22: Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter from 2021-03-04T04:00

Today’s episode is all about the 1970s. Which means we’re talking about two presidents today: Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. As you’ll soon hear, the 70s are hard. They were a time of transition,...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 21: Richard Nixon from 2021-02-25T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Richard Milhouse Nixon, the 37th President of the United States.  But the real question is…which Nixon?? Among the most mercurial of our presidents, some might say M...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 20: Lyndon B. Johnson from 2021-02-18T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th President of the United States, and arguably its most consequential. Note we did not say best or greatest or anything overexuberant l...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 19: John F. Kennedy from 2021-02-11T04:00

Today’s episode is all about John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States—a vigorous president forever young in our memory because tragedy snatched him too early from our vie...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 18: Dwight D. Eisenhower from 2021-02-04T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, a two term president with arguably the greatest pre-presidential resume of them all. It’s not everyone...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 17: Harry S. Truman from 2021-01-28T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Harry S Truman, the 37th president of the United States, a man with the unenviable task of following Franklin Roosevelt, AND of overseeing the end of the largest war...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 16: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Part II from 2021-01-21T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Actually, we have two episodes for you on FDR.  He’s that important, and being the only person ever elected to the White House four times...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 15: Franklin D. Roosevelt Part I from 2021-01-14T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Actually, we have two episodes for you on FDR.  He’s that important, and being the only person ever elected to the White House four times...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 14: January 6, 2021 Insurrection from 2021-01-08T16:00

After the events of January 6, 2020, we invited a few friends and historians to offer their interpretations of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building. While our understanding of this hist...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 13: The 1920s from 2020-12-17T04:00

Today’s episode is all about the roaring twenties. It’s a decade often recalled with wistful longing, and more than touch of trepidation. Longing, because that is what Americans largely felt in ...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 12: Woodrow Wilson Part II from 2020-12-10T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States and arguably the most consequential.  Note, I did not say one of the greats.  They aren’t holding a spot on M...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 11: Woodrow Wilson Part I from 2020-12-10T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States and arguably the most consequential.  Note, I did not say one of the greats.  They aren’t holding a spot on M...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 10: William Howard Taft from 2020-12-03T04:00

Today’s episode is all about William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States. The only person on our nation’s history to serve both as Commander-In-Chief and as Chief Justice of the...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 9: Theodore Roosevelt from 2020-11-19T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt, TR, or Teddy, was one of the all-time great personalities in American history. Large...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 8: William McKinley from 2020-11-12T04:00

Today’s episode is all about William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, the president who brought the country into the twentieth century and whose death left the nation in the ha...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 7: Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison from 2020-11-05T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Presidents Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison, the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th presidents of the United States—one of the most unusual transitions in US history. Clevel...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 6: James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur from 2020-10-29T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Presidents James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, was only in office six and a half months before he died from m...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 5: Rutherford B. Hayes from 2020-10-22T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States, a man whose name is synonymous with the end of Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow in the south. Bu...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 4: Ulysses S. Grant from 2020-10-15T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, a man whose story is inextricably intertwined with the history of race in America.  He was, after all the,...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 2: Andrew Johnson from 2020-10-01T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States, a man whose presidency is synonymous with the missed opportunities of the post-Civil War era. Never elected,...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Episode 1: Abraham Lincoln from 2020-10-01T04:00

Today’s episode is all about Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, a man whose story is at the center of the defining moment in American history. President during the Civil W...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Introduction Episode from 2020-09-22T12:00

Welcome to The Past, The Promise, The Presidency, Season One: Race and the American Legacy! This season explores one of the most pressing issues in all of American history—the country’s troubled...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Introduction Episode from 2020-09-22T12:00

Welcome to The Past, The Promise, The Presidency, Season One: Race and the American Legacy! This season explores one of the most pressing issues in all of American history—the country’s troubled...

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The Past, the Promise, the Presidency
Introduction Episode from 2020-09-22T12:00

Welcome to The Past, The Promise, The Presidency, Season One: Race and the American Legacy! This season explores one of the most pressing issues in all of American history—the country’s troubled...

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