The Great American Authors

The Great American Authors

Randal Wallace Presents : The Great American Authors Special Season Welcome to our special 16 episode season looking at the Great American Authors of American Literature. We take you through biographies of each of our selected authors, and pick up some writing tips from each one of them as well. Over the next 16 episodes we will look back at F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edgar Allan Poe, Dr. Suess, John Steinbeck, Thomas Wolfe, Mark Twain, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Harper Lee, J. D. Salinger, Margaret Mitchell, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, William Faulkner, Ian Fleming, J. K Rowling, Pat Conroy, Gene Hackman, Kurt Vonnegut, Walter Mosley, Lee Child, Stephen King, John Grisham, Joyce Carol Oats, Sinclair Lewis, Tennessee Williams, Ernest Hemingway, Jimmy Carter, Marilyn Quayle, Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, James Patterson, and the announcement about our hosts own three books: a history companion book to this podcast, and two novels by Randal Wallace. This should be a fun special Holliday season. Bob Dole will return in January 2026. This special Season in dedicated to our host's Mother Gloria Grant Wallace Bulmer who taught American and British Literature, Journalism, and South Carolina History at Myrtle Beach High School for many years. She would have loved this series. We invite you to come along with us on a wild ride through the high points and low moments of modern American History, in an effort to show the citizens of today that we are an amazing and resilient nation. Our Podcasts are separated by individual Documentary style titles. -- Season 1 : Bridging the Political Gap episodes 1 -11 --- Season 2 : Lessons in Leadership : --- The GIANTS of the Senate and Joe Biden episodes 14 - 16 ---- World War 2 Episodes 17 - 20 --- General MacArthur You're Fired Episodes 21 - 23 ---- A Celebration of the life of George Shultz episodes 26 - 28 ---- November 1963 : The end of the Age of Innocence episode 29 --- Season 3 ----The Johnson Treatment episodes 32 - 39 ---- Upheaval 1968 episodes 40 - 50 ---- Season 4: Richard Nixon 1968 -1971 The Man Who Saved the Union episodes 51 -67 ----- Season 5 Richard Nixon 1972 The Foundation of Peace episodes 71 - 96 -----1973 Ten Days in January 97 - 100 -- Season 6 Richard Nixon 1973 : Enemies at the Gate 101 - 125 ---- Season 7 Richard Nixon 1974 Through the Fire 126 - 147 ---- Season 8 Richard Nixon 1974 - 1994 The Fall and the Re-Rise of Richard Nixon. 148 - 174 plus bonus materials --- Season 9 Gerald Ford Beyond Watergate 175 -190 -- Season 10 John Jenrette. & Jimmy Carter too 191 - 224 -- Season 11 George H.W. Bush : The Leadership Lessons 225 - 250 --- Season 12: Mayor Hirsch 253 - 259, George H.W. Bush : The Sweep of History 260 - 285, Season 13 George H.W. Bush The Gulf War, The Coup, Clarence Thomas & the Cold War's End 286 - 318, Season 14 George H. W. Bush 1992 The Changing of the Guard 319 - 363 Season 15 Bob Dole 1993 - 1995 The Last Man Standing 364 - 402, Special Season 16 The Great American Authors 403 - (FAIR USE NOTICE : This presentation contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The use of this footage is for educational and historical commentary. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material.)

Episodes

November 22, 2025 79 mins

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On Sunday, November 15, 2025, I woke up to the news that legendary Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling Host Bob Caudle had died , peacefully, in his sleep at the age of 95. I can’t explain it but this one was like losing a lifelong friend because in a way it was. 

Bob Caudle’s voice is as familiar to me as any on Earth, he has been a fixture in our home for my entire lifetime, each Saturday for my entire childhood stra...

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Join us starting November 25, 2025 for a Christmas Holidays Special 16th Season as we venture into new territory. Over the end of November and through out December we will spend 16 episodes looking at the Great American Authors, From F. Scott Fitzgerald to Stephen King and all points in between. We hope you will join us as we take a little break from American Political History and take a deep dive into American Litera...

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In this episode we look back at three people it is almost hard to imagine not being around. 

Hulk Hogan, if you are kid in my age range, middle 50s, was as big a star as ever roamed the Earth. He was the catalyst for Professional Wrestling's leap into mainstream society taking it from a cable television novelty, to starring in, what is still today, the largest indoor sporting event in all of history with an attend...

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In this episode , we look back at three men who worked tirelessly for their religious beliefs and trying to make this world a better place in their own way, Pope Francis, Pope Leo 14th, and Political Activist Charlie Kirk, plus a rock star from the 1950s and 60s, Connie Francis. 

Pope Francis became the first Jesuit Priest to rise to the Papacy. The first from Latin America, and the first in centuries not to be born in...

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For decades the one thing that never seemed to change in Washington D.C. was constant presence of David Gergen. He was an aid to Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He was a political analyst for PBS and CNN. David Gergen seemed as permanent a fixture as the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. 

He wrote to extraordinary books Eyewitness to Power, and Hearts Tinged by Fire, w...

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Last week, former Vice President Dick Cheney passed away, he was 84 years old. There has been no more powerful a figure in the history of politics in the modern era. He transformed the Vice Presidency into a power center all its own. 

In this episode, we will look back at his life, his love of the outdoors, his life after the White House and his life long battle with coronary heart disease. Dick Cheney is also a heart ...

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In this brief update we want to fill you in on our special non-political season to carry our show through the holidays, and some tribute episodes we have planned to look back at some of those we lost this year but have not had a chance to look back at as the season progressed. 

We look forward to 2026 for the return of Bob Dole in our final two seasons looking back at his life and career. 

Thanks for tuning in and pleas...

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In our season finale we zoom in on the fight over a Balanced budget Amendment on the 1995 Congressional agenda. 

You will hear Senators go round and round , from Pete Domenici, to Bob Dole, to Paul Simon, to even South Carolina’s own Senator Ernest Hollings. 

All this debate rages as Bob Dole inches closer and closer to filing for President of the United States. We will take you right there, after an emotional moment be...

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In this episode we start to move you through the big moments of 1995 as we get closer to the kick off of the 1996 Presidential Election. Bob Dole has not totally made his mind up yet and its clear to his wife and staf he needs to make the definitive move. 

We will relive these moments as Bob Dole makes up his mind to run for a third time for President and we watch several of the more important accomplishments of the Re...

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In this episode we set the stage for 1995 as Newt Gingrich becomes the biggest star in politics as he becomes the first Republican Speaker in 40 years. We will look back at his rise and watch him consolidate his position. 

Plus this also marks the move by Bob Dole to seriously look at his own run for the Presidency. 

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.ran...

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As we open this episode , we will see Bob Dole truly become the last man standing from an era of political figures who had dominated the scene for over two decades. There would be two Senate leadership races as George Mitchell retired as the Democratic Leader and Alan Simpson faced a challenge in his position as Bob Dole's number two man in Republican leadership. Both races would be decided by one vote. 

We will h...

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All eyes were trained on one man as the lame duck session began. It was the soon to be new Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich. In this episode we introduce you to him and watch those first moves from the new star of politics in 1994. 

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
Please Leave us a review at wherever you get...

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The power switch was swift as all eyes fell on the Republican leadership in the hours after the Republicans swept to to power in both houses of Congress. There was a push for moving the Contract with America's agenda to the forefront, talk of downsizing the staffs in Washington, and both leaders were busy ironing out what exactly their agendas were going to be. 

Then came an even bigger piece of news. That Senator...

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When the sun rose on November 9, 1994, Washington D.C. had had a seismic shift in the politics it had known for nearly a half century. Even the House Speaker Tom Foley, of Washington State, had lost his seat in Congress. There is hardly words that can describe how brutal the night before had been for the Democratic Party and its President Bill Clinton. 

The Contract for America had nationalized the election and every c...

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It is election day 1994 at last, and this is the coverage of that historic night. For the first time in 40 years the Republicans will take control of Congress. It is a clean sweep too, the Republicans would win in every category and level of government. They would win the control of the House, the Senate, the Governors Mansions, and the State Legislatures, it was a total and complete victory. 

Bill Clinton was clearly ...

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As we close in on election day in 1994, both President Bill Clinton and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, hit the campaign trail as the de-facto heads of each party to try and pull their candidates through all across the country. 

We will look at them both as they have rallies across the country from Seattle, to Denver, to two national radio addresses. The stakes are sky high as both of them fight hard for their two tea...

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In 1994, our host Randal Wallace, was active in the leadership of the Lander University College Republicans. That year the long term Congressman from the Third Congressional District of South Carolina , Butler Derrick, decided to retire from Congress. That made the race for  Congress a wide open one to fill the seat.

It was then that he got involved in the Congressional campaign of a one term State House member named L...

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In this episode, we will give you a taste of the dramatic races from all across the nation. Two Bush brothers were on the ballot, we had a barn burner for Governor in South Carolina, and the House and Senate had close races too. It was a dramatic campaign in an historic year at the polls. 

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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In this episode we kick of the 1994 Midterm elections. As we look at Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole and Senate Republican Campaign Committee Chairman Phil Gramm, begin their march to the majority in the United States Senate. 

We will listen in as Bob Dole deftly answers questions about the year's most controversial Senate race in Virginia between Chuck Robb, the son in law of former President Lyndon B. Johnson, a...

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In this episode, we look back with a great deal of respect to a very formidable adversary for most Republicans like me, in Senator George Mitchell of Maine. He was the Senate Majority Leader for most of the Bush Administration and the first two years of the Clinton Administration. He was most likely the single biggest factor in making George H. W. Bush eat his no new taxes pledge during the budget negotiations of 1990...

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