Presidential
62 episodes - English - Latest episode: 7 months ago - ★★★★ - 3.6K ratingsThe Washington Post's Presidential podcast explores how each former American president reached office, made decisions, handled crises and redefined the role of commander-in-chief. It was released leading up to up to Election Day 2016, starting with George Washington in week one and ending on week 44 with the president-elect. New special episodes in the countdown to the 2020 presidential election highlight other stories from U.S. presidential history that can help illuminate our current moment. Hosted by Lillian Cunningham, the series features Pulitzer Prize-winning biographers like David McCullough and Washington Post journalists like Bob Woodward. [When you're done, listen to Lillian's other historical podcasts: Constitutional and Moonrise]
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Episodes
The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop: ‘Somebody knows’
November 22, 2023 13:30Every 19th of October, Grenadians mark a somber anniversary: the 1983 execution of the country’s former prime minister and revolutionary leader, Maurice Bishop, and others who died alongside him. The people of this Caribbean nation still have no closure 40 years later. The remains of Bishop and his supporters were never returned to their family members and are missing to this day. In the first episode of “The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop,” The Washington Post’s Martine Powers takes us on ...
Introducing “The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop”
October 13, 2023 17:30 - 3.25 MBGrenada’s Black revolutionary leader, Maurice Bishop, was executed in a coup in 1983, along with seven others. The whereabouts of their remains are unknown. Now, The Washington Post’s Martine Powers uncovers new answers about how the U.S. fits into this 40-year-old Caribbean mystery. “The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop” is an investigative podcast that delves into the revolutionary history of Grenada, why the missing remains still matter and the role the U.S. government played in shaping the...
Listen to the first episode of “Field Trip”: Yosemite National Park
June 28, 2023 10:30To hear the rest of the series, follow “Field Trip” wherever you listen. California’s Sierra Nevada is home to a very special kind of tree, found nowhere else on Earth: the giant sequoia. For thousands of years, these towering trees withstood the trials of the world around them, including wildfire. Low-intensity fires frequently swept through groves of sequoias, leaving their cinnamon-red bark scarred but strengthened, and opening their cones to allow new seeds to take root. But in the er...
Introducing “Field Trip”
June 14, 2023 11:00 - 2.94 MBJourney through the messy past and uncertain future of America’s national parks. The Washington Post’s Lillian Cunningham ventures off the marked trail to better understand the most urgent stories playing out in five iconic landscapes today. “Field Trip” is a new podcast series that will transport you to five national parks: Yosemite, Everglades, Glacier, White Sands and Gates of the Arctic. Follow the show wherever you listen.
A sneak peek from Lillian
June 06, 2023 14:44 - 869 KBExclusively for listeners of “Presidential,” Lillian Cunningham shares news about her new podcast. You don’t want to miss this.
BONUS | Happy Presidents’ Day! Or … not?
February 21, 2022 14:33 - 24 MBStudents, teachers and historians reflect on what has changed — and should change — about the way we teach presidential history today. This special episode features presidential experts Barbara Perry and Julian Zelizer, “How the Word Is Passed” author Clint Smith, and the AP government and politics class of teacher Michael Martirone.
Joe Biden: Triumph, tragedy and the fate of the center
November 08, 2020 04:55Four years later, the “Presidential” podcast adds a new biography to its cadre of American presidents. This special episode explores Joe Biden's decades-long, hard-fought personal and political path to the White House, with the New Yorker’s Evan Osnos.
BONUS | What books about Trump say about America
October 23, 2020 10:00Books published in the Trump era reveal the battles over, and changes in, the American presidency today. In this special episode of “Presidential,” Post nonfiction book critic Carlos Lozada shares what he’s learned from reading more than 150 of them.
Pandemic, propaganda and the presidency
September 24, 2020 10:00The 1918 influenza pandemic killed more than 675,000 Americans, but President Woodrow Wilson never made a single public statement about it. Why? Here’s what happens when efforts to promote patriotism and suppress free speech collide with a deadly virus.
BONUS | Pandemic, propaganda and the presidency
September 24, 2020 10:00The 1918 influenza pandemic killed more than 675,000 Americans, but President Woodrow Wilson never made a single public statement about it. Why? Here’s what happens when efforts to promote patriotism and suppress free speech collide with a deadly virus.
BONUS | When a VP pick changes history
August 07, 2020 21:52 - 35.7 MBGeraldine Ferraro broke a major barrier in American politics in 1984, when she became the first woman nominated for the vice presidency by a major party. It was a historic decision by Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Walter Mondale. And it did more than pave the way to the White House for more diverse candidates — it also fundamentally changed the way all future presidential campaign teams would approach vice-presidential announcements and conventions. Hosted by W...
When a VP pick changes history
August 07, 2020 21:52 - 35.7 MBGeraldine Ferraro broke a major barrier in American politics in 1984, when she became the first woman nominated for the vice presidency by a major party. It was a historic decision by Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Walter Mondale. And it did more than pave the way to the White House for more diverse candidates — it also fundamentally changed the way all future presidential campaign teams would approach vice-presidential announcements and conventions. Hosted by W...
BONUS | Binding up the nation's wounds
June 19, 2020 17:12 - 26.6 MBThe famous black contralto singer Marian Anderson performed at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, after being denied the ability to perform down the street at Constitution Hall. And when she did, she transformed the monument into something more than a stone temple to Abraham Lincoln. She ushered in its new life as an active place for generations of Americans to continue the work to“bind up the nation’s wounds.” Hosted by Washington Post journalist Lillian Cunningham, the podcast episode features...
Binding up the nation's wounds
June 19, 2020 17:12 - 26.6 MBThe famous black contralto singer Marian Anderson performed at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, after being denied the ability to perform down the street at Constitution Hall. And when she did, she transformed the monument into something more than a stone temple to Abraham Lincoln. She ushered in its new life as an active place for generations of Americans to continue the work to“bind up the nation’s wounds.” Hosted by Washington Post journalist Lillian Cunningham, the podcast episode features...
LIVE EVENT | 'Unprecedented Presidents' live from WBUR CitySpace
March 06, 2020 15:33 - 39.9 MBFour years after making Presidential, host Lillian Cunningham led a panel examining what's really unprecedented--or not--about Donald Trump's presidency. Historians Alexis Coe, Drew Gilpin Faust and Julian Zelizer joined for this live event in Boston.
BONUS: 'Unprecedented Presidents' live from WBUR CitySpace
March 06, 2020 15:33 - 39.9 MBFour years after making Presidential, host Lillian Cunningham led a panel examining what's really unprecedented--or not--about Donald Trump's presidency. Historians Alexis Coe, Drew Gilpin Faust and Julian Zelizer joined for this live event in Boston.
Introducing Moonrise
July 19, 2019 14:00Host Lillian Cunningham's next podcast explores the real story of why we went to the moon -- a darker, but truer story than the one you've heard before. Listen to this trailer, and subscribe on your favorite podcast app or at washingtonpost.com/moonrise.
Donald Trump: Division and union
November 09, 2016 09:58 - 51.5 MBIn this final episode of the podcast, Library of Congress historians Michelle Krowl and Julie Miller return--along with Washington Post journalist Dan Balz--to reflect on the changing nature of the American presidency.
Barack Obama: The pursuit of identity
October 30, 2016 22:30 - 51.5 MBPolitical strategist David Axelrod and biographer David Maraniss discuss Barack Obama's search for identity -- and how that quest has paralleled America's own complex reckoning with race.
George W. Bush: Changing course
October 23, 2016 22:46 - 42.5 MBPeter Baker, author of "Days of Fire" and a journalist with the New York Times, joins historian Mark Updegrove to examine how George W. Bush's presidency marked the beginning of a new era in American history.
Bill Clinton: The good and the bad
October 16, 2016 14:00 - 44.3 MBDavid Maraniss, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Bill Clinton, explores how Clinton's core character traits had both a bright and a dark side. And Post reporter Jim Tankersley examines a similar duality in his policy legacy.
George H. W. Bush: Restraint
October 09, 2016 14:23 - 47.6 MBHistorians Jon Meacham and Jeffrey Engel discuss President Bush's unique form of presidential leadership--a vintage combination of public service, conservatism and emotional restraint--and examine why his legacy has grown more positive over time.
Ronald Reagan: Myths and truths
October 02, 2016 21:13 - 40 MBLou Cannon, biographer and senior White House correspondent for The Washington Post during President Reagan's administration, helps us separate the fact from fiction about who Ronald Reagan really was.
Jimmy Carter: Keeping the faith
September 25, 2016 16:15 - 52.7 MBLongtime Carter political adviser Pat Caddell, theologian and biographer Randall Balmer, and Washington Post reporter Robert Costa examine how Jimmy Carter's faith has shaped his leadership in and out of the White House.
Gerald Ford: It's personal
September 18, 2016 21:29 - 51 MBThe president's son Steven Ford joins White House photographer David Hume Kennerly and Berkeley professor Daniel Sargent to talk about how Gerald Ford's experience working across the aisle in Congress affected his leadership style as president.
Richard Nixon: Looking inward
September 11, 2016 21:55 - 38.5 MBBob Woodward, one of the Washington Post investigative reporters who helped uncover the Watergate scandal, examines what was at the heart of Richard Nixon's presidential downfall. The Washington Post's current executive editor, Marty Baron, joins as well.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Power
September 04, 2016 17:55 - 36.4 MBThe LBJ Presidential Library's director, Mark Updegrove, helps us examine how Johnson worked his will--at times darkly--to get some of the most transformative legislation of the 20th century through Congress.
John F. Kennedy: We are all mortal
August 28, 2016 23:14 - 43.8 MBRobert Dallek, Michael Beschloss and Fredrik Logevall--three major Kennedy historians and biographers--join us on this week's episode to talk about JFK and death. But not his assassination...
Dwight D. Eisenhower: Covert action
August 21, 2016 14:00 - 47.1 MBStephen Kinzer, author of "The Brothers," and historian Will Hitchcock explore President Eisenhower's predilection for covert action--both in foreign affairs and in his own leadership style.
Harry S. Truman: Trying to make the right call
August 15, 2016 03:56 - 33.7 MBBiographer David McCullough looks at some of the most difficult decisions President Truman made during his time in the White House, and Washington Post polling manager Scott Clement examines the biggest polling failure in presidential history.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: Through Eleanor's eyes
August 07, 2016 18:27 - 48.6 MBAllida Black, editor of the Eleanor Roosevelt papers, along with FDR Library Director Paul Sparrow and White House speechwriter Sarada Peri, examine Franklin Roosevelt's leadership through the lens of the first lady's own contributions to his presidency.
Herbert Hoover: Dealing with disaster
July 31, 2016 19:47 - 36.1 MBHerbert Hoover entered the White House with an array of high-profile experiences leading disaster relief. So why was his handling of the Great Depression considered a failure? Biographer Charles Rappleye guest stars.
Calvin Coolidge: A tale of two Coolidges
July 25, 2016 03:55 - 42.1 MBFormer politician Michael Dukakis, biographer Amity Shlaes and political scientist Robert Gilbert join Washington Post economics reporter Steven Pearlstein to offer a version of Calvin Coolidge's legacy that doesn't follow the standard story.
Warren G. Harding: Love and scandal
July 18, 2016 03:59 - 39 MBSteamy love letters. Jazz. Scandal. Psychics. Newspapers. The Hope Diamond. Historian Nicole Hemmer helps guide us through the wild life and presidency of Warren G. Harding.
Woodrow Wilson: A complicated legacy
July 11, 2016 03:58 - 41.5 MBRacism, diplomacy, women's suffrage...historian John Milton Cooper and Woodrow Wilson House executive director Robert Enholm lead us through Wilson's complicated personal and presidential legacy.
William Howard Taft: This chief, not that chief
July 03, 2016 13:58 - 34.7 MBDoris Kearns Goodwin, author of 'The Bully Pulpit,' along with historian Michelle Krowl and Supreme Court reporter Robert Barnes discuss why President Taft made a better chief justice than commander-in-chief.
Theodore Roosevelt: Exuberance
June 26, 2016 13:57 - 38.7 MBBiographer David McCullough and historian Michelle Krowl take us inside the wild, unstoppable dynamism of Teddy Roosevelt, whose energy and activism redefined the role of American president.
William McKinley: The modern campaign
June 20, 2016 00:03 - 36.2 MBRepublican political strategist Karl Rove dissects what was so transformative about William McKinley's 1896 presidential campaign. And Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig discusses how his assassination modernized the Secret Service.
Benjamin Harrison: The president as conservationist
June 12, 2016 13:59 - 36.6 MBBenjamin Harrison was the first U.S. president to use his position to try to save a species, the fur seal. He also set aside more than 13 million acres of forest reserves. This episode looks at the roots of conservation as a presidential responsibility.
Grover Cleveland: Tell the truth
June 05, 2016 16:39 - 36.6 MBKnown for his forthrightness, Cleveland came clean when news broke that he had fathered an illegitimate child; yet he later covered up a cancer surgery at sea. Guests Matthew Algeo, Michelle Krowl and Roman Mars explore candor and the presidency.
Chester A. Arthur: Redemption
May 29, 2016 13:58 - 37.7 MBHow does one of the greatest beneficiaries of the spoils system end up being the president who passes civil service reform? Post reporter David Fahrenthold and Stateline editor Scott Greenberger tell the amazing story of Arthur's personal transformation.
James A. Garfield: Shot down
May 23, 2016 00:45 - 38.7 MBOnly 100 days into office, President Garfield was shot down in a train station by a disturbed office seeker. 'Destiny of the Republic' author Candice Millard, along with Michelle Krowl of the Library of Congress, examine the life cut short.
Rutherford B. Hayes: The most contested election
May 15, 2016 20:27 - 39.8 MBHow does a vicious, close and disputed election spill over into a presidency? We examine the razor-thin election results for Rutherford B. Hayes, and the equally fine line he then had to tread as president during the end of Reconstruction.
Ulysses S. Grant: Lover, fighter, writer
May 08, 2016 13:59 - 39.8 MBUlysses S. Grant's memoirs are considered the best ever written by a president. In this episode, Washington Post nonfiction book critic Carlos Lozada and biographer David Maraniss discuss what they found funny, touching and illuminating about the work.
Andrew Johnson: Stitching up a torn country
May 02, 2016 00:15 - 33.6 MBWhat kind of president can repair America's deepest divisions? Michelle Krowl of the Library of Congress walks us through Andrew Johnson's time in office right after the Civil War and sheds light on why he struggled to bring the country together.
Abraham Lincoln: His hand and his pen
April 24, 2016 20:43 - 50.8 MBDoris Kearns Goodwin, author of 'Team of Rivals,' and Michelle Krowl of the Library of Congress guide us through Lincoln's love for language--and how his gift for writing and oratory became one of his greatest presidential leadership tools.
James Buchanan: The bachelor and the bloodshed
April 18, 2016 00:05 - 36 MBAmerica is on the eve of civil war, and James Buchanan is alone in the White House as our first and only bachelor president. Historians Jean Baker and Jim Loewen, and The Washington Post's Jim Tankersley, explore the lack of personal and political union.
Franklin Pierce: Rolling off the tracks
April 10, 2016 13:55 - 28.8 MBPulitzer Prize-winning biographer James McPherson and historian Edna Greene Medford discuss Franklin Pierce's role in the country's progression toward civil war, as well as the personal tragedy that unfolded right before he took office.
Millard Fillmore: Teaching the obscure presidents
April 03, 2016 16:47 - 36 MBShould we teach the presidency of Millard Fillmore? What do we lose if we don't? Historians Jean Baker and James McPherson, along with Washington Post education reporter T. Rees Shapiro, tackle these questions in our 13th episode.
Zachary Taylor: War heroes and conspiracy theory
March 27, 2016 13:55 - 26.9 MBWashington Post columnist Dana Milbank joins historians Catherine Clinton and Joseph Uscinski to talk about military hero Zachary Taylor and the assassination theories that swirled around his death in the White House.