A Biography of George Washington with Alexis Coe

Here's Where It Gets Interesting

Sharon McMahon

Government, History, Storytelling, Education

4.9 • 15.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We have a tendency to regard many of our U.S. Presidents as heroes, illuminating the ways in which they shaped our nation for the good, that we often gloss over their missteps. Historians piece together facts and details to fill in the gaps of the bigger picture, but how often are our interpretations colored by our own lived experiences and perceptions? Sharon speaks with presidential historian Alexis Coe, who talks about her goal as a historian to tell the whole story. Listen in to learn some fun–and maybe not so fun–facts about our first president, George Washington. Credits: Host and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon Supervising Producer: Melanie Buck Parks Audio Producer: Craig Thompson Go to https://ground.news/interesting for an objective, data-driven way to read the news. Save 50% on the Ground News unlimited access Vantage plan with my link. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, friends. Welcome, delighted to have you with me today. My guest is presidential historian Alexis Coe.
0:11.3	And one of the questions I am most curious about is how are we supposed to judge people from history like George Washington. Are we supposed to judge people like George
0:24.3	Washington, who obviously was a tremendously consequential American, but who also has a very
0:29.7	problematic history with enslavement? There's more to that story and more about George Washington
0:34.4	to learn. So let's dive in.
0:38.4	I'm Sharon McMahon.
0:41.0	And here's where it gets interesting.
0:45.2	I am really excited to be chatting today with Alexis Co. This is actually a meeting that I have been meaning to have for a very long time ever since your book was first released.
0:54.0	You never forget your first.
0:56.5	Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. We were talking for we got started today
1:00.3	about presidential biographies. They're interesting. Presidents are inherently interesting people,
1:05.9	but they tend to be written by a certain type of author, right? Like they tend to be written by
1:13.0	men, they tend to be written by white men, they tend to be written by men of a certain age
1:18.8	and education level. And not that there's anything wrong with that perspective, but I really
1:23.5	enjoyed hearing a fresh and different take on a presidential biography. Why did you pick
1:30.9	George Washington? Thank you. Well, I think you hit on a really important point, and since so
1:36.4	many history lovers listen to your podcast, they do want to make a really important point,
1:40.8	which is that much was made about me being the first woman to write
1:45.6	a biography on Washington in four decades. And then the first woman historian, and I don't even know
1:52.5	how long. It's at least 100 years. There is no presidential historian of color, the dedicated
1:59.2	presidential historian. And so the thing about presidents and
2:05.0	studying them is I can't do it all, but I can get an idea of the conversation that's going
	...

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