Barbie for President!
HISTORY This Week
The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
4.5 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 28 July 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
July 29th, 1992. The Baltimore Sun runs a feature about a surprise candidate in the upcoming presidential race: Barbie. The 11.5-inch icon of girlhood and glamor is running for office – and flying off the shelves. But how did a plaything become important enough to make national news?
To answer that question, we take you on a journey through doll history, from French porcelain beauties to cherubs that stood for women’s suffrage. And of course, the doll who taught us how fun life in plastic could be. How did these dolls revolutionize play and even politics? And what do they have to tell us about ourselves?
Special thanks to our guests: Florence Theriault, doll expert and founder of Theriault’s antique auction firm; Pat Wahler, author of The Rose of Washington Square: A Novel of Rose O'Neill, Creator of the Kewpie Doll; and Robin Gerber, author of Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her.
** This episode originally aired July 24, 2023.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | History This Week is now in its sixth season, which is kind of crazy, but we're continuing to grow and to bring you stories from the past that you've never heard before. |
| 0:09.5 | There are more ways than ever to follow our show. So yes, you can listen on your podcast app, but now you can also subscribe to History This Week Plus on Apple Podcasts for an ad-free experience on all new episodes. |
| 0:22.5 | Also, if you're more of a Spotify person, Spotify now lets you comment directly on individual episodes. |
| 0:28.6 | So let us know what you think. |
| 0:30.2 | You can also get email reminders each time an episode comes out. |
| 0:33.7 | Sign up for that at history this weekpodcast.com. |
| 0:36.9 | And be sure to follow us on our new |
| 0:38.5 | Instagram page too. There's some fun stuff going on over there. As always, share History |
| 0:43.4 | This Week with your friends. Give us a five-star review if you want. And if you want to reach out, |
| 0:48.4 | shoot us an email at History This Week at history.com. Five years in, we have a ton of episodes |
| 0:53.9 | that you can always go back and listen to, |
| 0:56.2 | and we're also really excited about everything that's coming up. We hope you are too. For now, |
| 1:01.7 | enjoy the latest episode. The History Channel, original podcast. History This Week, July 29th, 1992. |
| 1:14.2 | I'm Sally Helm. |
| 1:16.2 | The presidential campaign is in full swing. |
| 1:20.8 | Democrats have nominated Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton in a raucous convention at New York's Madison Square Garden. |
| 1:27.0 | And Republicans are heading |
| 1:28.7 | to the Houston Astrodome to renominate President George H.W. Bush. But now, between those two |
| 1:37.2 | conventions, a surprise candidate has entered the race, someone with national name recognition, someone with a kind of unconventional |
| 1:48.1 | resume, experience in business, medicine, and even space exploration, a candidate who drives a sports |
| 1:56.9 | car and lives in a cool pink house. That candidate is Barbie. Or as the toy company Mattel calls her, |
| 2:08.4 | President Barbie. The Baltimore Sun runs a picture of the candidate waving from the White |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.