Episodes

  • Introducing Landslide

    Introducing Landslide
    Feb 12 2024
    When President Richard Nixon resigns in disgrace, three unlikely candidates emerge to fill the vacuum: Gerald Ford, savvy veteran of partisan wars. Ronald Reagan, fringe reactionary. Jimmy Carter, cutthroat political animal. These presidents aren't who you thought they were, and their battles against each other redefined the American political landscape. The result: the hot-button issues, the culture war, and the path to the partisan divide we live with today. For those wondering what happened to American politics and what forces have driven our current division, Landslide is essential listening, and a compelling, stunning true story.

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    2 mins
  • Trust

    Trust
    Feb 22 2024
    Gerald Ford had planned to retire. But in the days and weeks after Watergate, the new president looks to rebuild Americans' collapsing trust in their government. His attempts to cool partisan tempers prove poisonously divisive. A conservative mutiny brews within his own political party, and a former actor leads a challenge against him — Ronald Reagan.

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    40 mins
  • Lightweight

    Lightweight
    Feb 29 2024
    The idea that Ronald Reagan can win is laughable. "Suicidal," writes the New York Times. Too extreme, too gaffe-prone, too unserious a candidate, the faded former actor has no chance to unseat the sitting president in the primaries — and if he does it will signal the end of the Republican Party. But Reagan seizes a message that entwines optimism and culture war, the power of which was not fully appreciated at the time.

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    42 mins
  • The New Right

    The New Right
    Mar 7 2024
    The 1976 Republican primary looks finished. After a string of losses to Ford, Reagan's aides prepare to concede. But a network of right-wing groups has quietly organized, drumming up anger over integration, women's rights, gun laws, and textbooks. It is known as the New Right, and it will help spring an improbable comeback that will change the battle lines of American politics.

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    41 mins
  • Shootout

    Shootout
    Mar 14 2024
    With the primaries over, the nomination hangs in the hands of a few remaining "unbound" delegates. Ford and Reagan scramble to win them over, as the battle to lead the Republican Party — and to decide its direction — comes down to a national convention known as the Shoot-Out in Kansas City. There, a series of gambits, promises, and betrayals culminates with a nominee, a conservative platform, and the modern GOP.

    Hosted by Ben Bradford. A production of NuanceTales, in partnership with WFAE, distributed by the NPR Network.

    NuanceTales: https://www.nuancetales.com/

    WFAE: https://www.wfae.org/landslide

    NPR: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510376/landslide

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    40 mins
  • Ordinary Man

    Ordinary Man
    Mar 21 2024
    An unexpected contender ambushes the Democratic field. The one-term Georgia governor Jimmy Carter has planned a campaign of military precision for the Democratic nomination. With a wide grin, cold blood, and a dose of luck, he rises from unknown to the 1976 nomination. But he leaves questions in his wake, even as he establishes a new paradigm for Democratic presidential candidates: the small-government outsider.

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    42 mins
  • Outsider

    Outsider
    Mar 28 2024
    Bruised after the primaries, the unpopular Ford looks headed for a blowout defeat in the 1976 general election. But his campaign adopts a clever strategy, and Carter struggles in the spotlight as the frontrunner. Gaffes, attack ads, Playboy magazine, and a new institution — a series of presidential debates — build to a razor-close election. It marks a turning point for the types of candidates America will elect.
    Hosted by Ben Bradford. A production of NuanceTales, in partnership with WFAE, distributed by the NPR Network.

    NuanceTales: https://www.nuancetales.com/

    WFAE: https://www.wfae.org/landslide

    NPR: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510376/landslide

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    37 mins
  • Landslide

    Landslide
    Apr 4 2024
    Four years later. Jimmy Carter is now an embattled president, unpopular and facing a tough primary challenge. Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan storms to the Republican nomination, while wooing a powerful new bloc of voters into his conservative coalition — the Christian Right. Still, amid worries that Reagan is too extreme and too old, the 1980 general election remains tight until the very end. How did it lead to an ideological sea change in American politics?

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    51 mins