[Abridged] Presidential Histories

Please enjoy this preview of my new podcast, Democricide. Athenian Democracy was established, but who cared? Compared to the mighty Persian empire, the Greek city states were a bunch of backwaters. And that's how history may have remembered them, if not for one suicidally ambitious Greek, and one desperately crafty Athenian who saved his city from destruction. Sources: The Peloponnesian War, by Donald KaganLords of the Sea, by John R. Hale Support the show

14 Juni 21min

Please enjoy this preview of my new podcast, Democricide. Athens wasn't always a democracy, but when a tyrant overplayed his hand and a revolutionary proposed something better, it launched a new form of government that changed the Greek world. Sources: The Peloponnesian War, by Donald KaganLords of the Sea, by John R. Hale Support the show

14 Juni 25min

"This American carnage stops right here and stops right now." - Donald Trump, inauguration speech, Jan. 20, 2017. The American presidency had long fascinated Donald Trump. Ever since attending the 1988 GOP National Convention, Trump had wanted a piece of it - he'd even called Bush that year to ask to be on the ticket. But the idea that a twice divorced, six-times bankrupted Democratic donor could become the Republican president of the United States - that was laughable. Until it happened. Fol...

9 Juni 52min

Martin Van Buren is known as the "little magician." If he was a magician, he cast a powerful spell. The two party system he championed and helped establish has ruled the United States for two centuries and Democratic party he co-founded is the oldest American political party alive today. Historian and Journalist James Bradley, author of the new book Martin Van Buren: America's First Politician discusses how Martin Van Buren took over New York politics, and then American politics, to transform...

8 Apr 55min

What's it like to be on the inside of a dark horse presidential campaign? Chelsea Waliser knows. Waliser was an Obama campaign regional field director during the lead up to first-in-the-nation 2008 Iowa Caucus. For nearly a year, she hired, trained, and organized volunteers for a candidate who was viewed by many as a long shot. What drove her to Obama? What's it like to spend a year of your life in Iowa? And how did Obama's campaign beat the odds? Tune in to find out. Support the show

4 Mars 41min

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." - Barack Obama, on the campaign trail, Feb. 5, 2008 Nothing was ever going to come easy to Barack Obama, and many thought he was crazy for trying, but belief himself was something Obama had in spades, and it lifted him to the presidency of the United States. Follow along as Barack Obama rises from a humble start as a community organizer in Chicago...

17 Feb 50min

Sahba Azami was born an Afghan refugee. Today, she's an Afghan refugee once more. But, for nearly 20 years, she was not a refugee. She was simply an Afghan. And the future was bright. Brought back to the country of her parents' birth after the United States toppled the Taliban, Sahba joined a vanguard of young women who were going to make the most of the precious opportunity that had been denied every generation of Afghan women before them -- She pursued an education. Sahba graduated college....

27 Jan 38min

Donald Trump does not talk like a politician. But where some hear truth telling, and others hear something unhinged, professor Jennifer Mercieca hears a consistent rhetorical strategy designed to bind audiences to Trump and sever them from everyone else. A strategy good enough to win the presidency not just once, but twice. Communication professor Jennifer Mercieca, author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump, discusses the six techniques Trump uses to cast a sp...

20 Jan 50min