A Personal History of the 1960s with Doris Kearns Goodwin

Here's Where It Gets Interesting

Sharon McMahon

Government, History, Storytelling, Education

4.9 • 15.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Imagine being a Pulitzer Prize winning presidential historian, knowing you had extraordinarily rare primary source material and Presidential memorabilia tucked away in the cellar of your own home… and not opening it for decades? Doris Kearns Goodwin joins us today to share her journey of exploring more than 300 boxes, alongside her husband of 42 years, Richard (Dick) Goodwin, that served as a time capsule of his service in the 1960s. In the relay race of democracy, you never know who will pick up the baton, and continue your work. Together, they have one last great adventure, a chance to reassess key historical figures, and a fresh perspective of the role young people play in the arc of history. Credits: Host and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon Supervising Producer: Melanie Buck Parks Audio Producer: Craig Thompson 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. Gosh, I love this episode so much. It is with one of America's
0:09.8	best-loved and most respected historians, Doris Kearns Goodwin. And this is more than just American
0:17.0	history, although we definitely get into that. This is also about her own personal history
0:21.1	and her husband's own personal history. You may not realize it, but Doris Kearns Goodwin's husband
0:26.8	was very, very close to Lyndon Baines Johnson, and her husband influenced U.S. history.
0:34.3	So let's find out how, and let's dive in. I'm Sharon McBan. And here's
0:40.4	where it gets interesting. I've been such a fan for so many years. This is pretty exciting.
0:48.6	Why this book and why now, Doris? Well, it really started when my husband turned 80 years old, and he came down the stairs,
0:58.0	singing to the songs from, oh, what a beautiful morning.
1:01.7	And he somehow was able to decide that it was now or never to open these 300 boxes that had
1:07.5	schlepped around with us for 50 years, which contained really a time capsule of his service in the 1960s.
1:13.6	He'd worked for John Kennedy, worked with Jackie Kennedy, with LBJ, with McCarthy in New Hampshire, and was with Bobby Kennedy when he died.
1:20.6	So it really was an extraordinary thing that he was in defining moments and every place along the way.
1:25.6	And all those years, though, he saved the boxes,
1:28.0	but didn't want to open them because the 60s had ended so sadly, you know, with the assassinations
1:33.0	of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the riots in the cities, the anti-war violence, the war in
1:38.2	Vietnam. But then finally he realized when he was 80, if he didn't start doing it, it was not going to
1:43.2	happen. If he had any wisdom to dispense. So we made a deal that every weekend we would go over the boxes and start from
1:49.2	the beginning, not knowing how the ending of the decade came, but starting with John Kennedy
1:54.3	and all the promise of the 60s and relive them together. So that's how this all began. It was the last
2:00.6	great adventure of our lives.
2:02.4	Doris, how did you let those boxes go on open for so many years it had to be killing you as a
	...

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