Episode notes
Journey 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.
Podcast
Presidential
The Washington Post · History · English
The 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 4
More from Presidential All episodes →
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26 Sep 2024 · 36 min
BONUS | Women, politics and the presidency
Host Lillian Cunningham speaks with Sharon McMahon, author of “The Small and the Mighty,” about women’s ongoing fight for more political power—examining the arc of progress since 1920, when women across the nation first voted for president.
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25 Jul 2024 · 1 min
Introducing, "The Sports Moment"
Ava Wallace, sports reporter at The Washington Post, is in France to report on the Summer Games — and eat a lot of croissants. Join her through the entire run of the games, for several episodes a week as she captures the highs, the lows and the Paris of it all, along with other Post colleagues.
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22 Nov 2023 · 51 min
The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop: ‘Somebody knows’
Forty years ago, the body of a prime minister went missing. The Post’s Martine Powers asks: Who’s responsible?
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13 Oct 2023 · 4 min
Introducing “The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop”
Grenada’s revolutionary leader was executed in a coup in 1983, 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.
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28 Jun 2023 · 56 min
Listen to the first episode of “Field Trip”: Yosemite National Park
Lillian Cunningham begins her journey in the place that helped inspire the national parks. As wildfires threaten Yosemite’s giant sequoias, she asks how to ensure the survival of these ancient trees. Follow "Field Trip" to hear the whole series.
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6 Jun 2023 · 1 min
A sneak peek from Lillian
Exclusively for listeners of “Presidential,” Lillian Cunningham shares news about her new podcast. You don’t want to miss this.
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21 Feb 2022 · 26 min
BONUS | Happy Presidents’ Day! Or … not?
Students, 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.
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8 Nov 2020 · 53 min
Joe Biden: Triumph, tragedy and the fate of the center
Four 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.
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23 Oct 2020 · 31 min
BONUS | What books about Trump say about America
Books 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.
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24 Sep 2020 · 40 min
BONUS | Pandemic, propaganda and the presidency
The 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.
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