Major funding for backstories provided by an anonymous donor, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.

For Virginia Humanities, this is Backstory.

Welcome to Backstory, the show that explains the history behind today's headlines. I'm Mad Ears.

If you're new to the podcast, each week, along with my colleagues Joanne Freeman, Nathan Connelly, and Brian Ballot, we explore a different aspect of American history.

Since Backstory started 12 years ago, there had been quite a few incredible podcasts to come out, centered around history.

We wanted to introduce you to some of the great work folks are doing in the world of history and podcasting.

You might have heard some recent episodes featuring shows like American hysteria or what's Ray saying.

Or if you haven't, I definitely encourage you to check them out.

Today, we're excited to showcase the podcast, Ilby J, and the Great Society hosted by Melody Barnes, who was Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Barack Obama, and is now the co-head of the Democracy Initiative at the University of Virginia.

I'm pleased to have Melody here with me to help set this episode up. Melody, welcome to Backstory.

Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be with you.

Now, Ilby J is a president. I'm sorry to say we don't hear a lot about these days. So what brought you to the project?

What do you think a series about Ilby J would really bring to our conversation right now?

I think that Ilby J was a fascinating president. He, he died. I was born in 1964.

So the year some of the big first civil rights legislation and Great Society legislation started to be passed.

And I remember the day he died. I was still a kid. But his work and the legislation that he guided through the White House and worked with the Civil Rights Movement and others to pass has had such a significant impact on the world.

It's not only my life, but also on the way that we think about our country, the relationship between citizens and government, programs that we live with today, and people don't even think about, but shape our daily lives.

And I think that because of the war, because of the Vietnam War in particular and the demise of the Great Society, Ilby J left office under a dark, dark cloud.

And people have critiqued the Great Society. But at this moment when we're debating healthcare, when we are thinking about the impact of voting and the Voting Rights Act and so many other issues that we have to talk about Ilby J.

And we have to talk about that period to understand how they came to be and why it's so important to us today.

I can remember it. So I'm seven years older than you. And I can remember Ilby J just being vilified by young people.

Look back on him. Look at all these great things that he did. But as you said, we have that memory of Ilby J saying he will not run again. And just how far he fell.

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