My History Can Beat Up Your Politics
Since 2006, this podcast has been using history to elevate today's political debates. "The perfect antidote to bloviating talking heads, My History is thoughtful, nuanced, and highly engaging." -Columbia Journalism Review
Episodes
March 18, 2025 • 46 mins
Samuel Tilden won the popular vote but lost the Presidency to Rutherford B. Hayes in the disputed electoral college. That is is his footnote in history. He's also known for taking down Boss Tweed. Though his actual role is disputed by people at the time. What's less known about him is the source of the family money. His family sold patent medicines. Frankly it was cannabis, and at a strength of about 10 times todays routine variety...
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March 16, 2025 • 42 mins
A bit from TR on making peace, why we should drop the Mary Todd and other stories. Ad Free for Airwave History subscribers.
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March 6, 2025 • 48 mins
Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren's policy of Indian population removal, which lead to the Trail of Tears and thousands of deaths, was not uncontested or passively allowed at the time. Nearly half of Congress opposed it, as did petition writers all over the nation. So did one of the President's former friends and of course, most of the elected representatives of the Cherokee people. These debates happened not in modern times but ...
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March 5, 2025 • 2 mins
What does it mean to be a Stalwart? In history, it's just a name for political machine pros seeking jobs and being corrupt. But it was more. While telling how Chester Arthur became the nation's most famous fired civil servant, we explain politics in the 19th century. The real battles then were inside the party. On our Patreon now, [www.patreon.com/mhcbuyp] as part of a 4 part series, we discuss.
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March 5, 2025 • 28 mins
It was clunky, and a little Office Space-like. And it cut federal jobs. But then-Vice President Al Gore's "REGO" program was different in many ways from "DOGE" -The 1993 program was bipartisan, considered [cuts were identified, then made, in that order. And it was slow, and generated little protest. It did generate tension in the Clinton White House, which we get into.
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February 25, 2025 • 3 mins
A bit about what we've got cooking at Patreon, including the first of three parts of our series on the 21st President.
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February 25, 2025 • 36 mins
Bruce is on a tear being told that given the norm-breaking going on there is no place for history. Nothing can be farther from the truth. He outlines why, instead of history not being useful, it's actually quick history (comparing say Trump to Obama) that is still interesting, but maybe won't lock down the kind of results you want. But in the long swath of American political history, current events compare and contrast well to al...
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February 17, 2025 • 105 mins
From the man who answered T.R.'s phone and maybe saved his life, to the secret "Sphinx" around Woodrow Wilson, to Coolidge's surprise enforcer. We look at all sorts of Presidential assistants and aides, both official ones and non-official ones.
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February 16, 2025 • 76 mins
This episode is all about voting in the federal capital we now call the District of Columbia. We talk about a movement to get voting rights that succeeded for a group of (then) D.C. residents 180 years ago, And about the petitions, committees, tea parties, bus trips and statements by Presidents over the years, and the reactions of Congress to them. Why Lincoln and Jefferson Davis found common ground on one issue about D.C. and neit...
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February 14, 2025 • 4 mins
Now on the Patreon: Franklin Roosevelt Takes on Jimmy Walker In the sweltering summer of 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt found himself ensnared in a political web spun by the most notorious machine in New York politics—Tammany Hall. As governor of New York, Roosevelt was well aware of the rampant corruption within the city’s government, but his position as the Democratic nominee for president made any decisive action perilous. Rem...
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February 9, 2025 • 2 mins
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February 6, 2025 • 92 mins
The idea of saving manufacturing jobs is front-and-center in American politics today. Examining the history of plant closings and job losses In the 70's and 80's provides an interesting contrast. "We ought to make stuff here, or we should try to keep this plant open." were radical stances, confined to political fringes, and usually left.
In once case, a group of workers, residents and church leaders in a town try for what is calle...
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February 2, 2025 • 78 mins
In our series on American commerce, a look at three instances of when U.S. commerce was stopped, for a variety of reasons. The embargo of 1807 is an important part of the Presidency of Thomas Jefferson, not often examined in detailed compared to other events. It brought serious economic problems, but was held up by Jefferson as an experiment by a peaceful power. We also examine his Treasury Secretary Gallatin, who had to implement...
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January 29, 2025 • 24 mins
In the 1970's a President, seeking to reduce inflation, tried a new tactic. Simply not spending the money that congress appropriated. OK, it wasn't entirely new, but it had been used in defense spending after the war where demand was needed or in very small amounts. This was billions of collars.
As we discuss impoundment could be considered unfair - because a President could technically pass nice sounding bills and then later, ...
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January 29, 2025 • 43 mins
When it comes to citizenship decided by birth, the story of Wong Kim Ark, a young man born in the US of Chinese descent who was denied entry to his country, should be on a few minds. We tell that story in this episode, along with the Sand Lot protests that led to his change in status, and the 1804 about a ship that helped reinforce their thinking. This and thoughts about early Trump Presidency.
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January 20, 2025 • 88 mins
An unknown man in a forgotten office develops a number that makes and breaks Presidents. A poet turns his song away from beautiful pastures and towards a metal object. Two 19th century men tire themselves out making machines. They can't know their work will one day put us on the Moon And a man tries to invent an un-commerce, but may have built the 21st century economy instead. In the fifth episode of our series on American commerc...
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January 11, 2025 • 6 mins
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January 10, 2025 • 72 mins
Air commerce is covered in this episode. Not only vehicles that imitate naval travel in the skies, which seemed to be the future of travel. But also, putting waves into the air and changing the air's temperature. Plus, building large buildings that touch the sky.
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January 6, 2025 • 71 mins
The history of American retail, from Mrs. Lincoln's shopping trips and the innovator who accommodated her, to the price salvationists and tea servers, and finally the Socialist concept that gets the shopping mall going, and the possible death of the shopping mall. Plus the movies, and more.
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January 3, 2025 • 105 mins
A mysterious crash. A strange contraption. A fateful race, an outbreak of violent activity and a crafty watch-seller. A look at the railroad history of America and the changes the railroad brought.
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