First Ladies | Eleanor Roosevelt | 3

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2024

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1905, Eleanor Roosevelt married her distant cousin Franklin, beginning a remarkable and complicated union. During her husband’s years as President, from 1933 to 1945, Eleanor became the longest-serving First Lady and she transformed the role, becoming the first presidential spouse to hold regular press conferences and host a weekly radio show.

Known for her outspokenness, Eleanor championed her husband’s New Deal policies but also publicly disagreed with him. After FDR’s death, she served on the United Nations General Assembly and helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, cementing her legacy as a powerful advocate for human rights and social justice.

Order your copy of the new American History Tellers book, The Hidden History of the White House, for behind-the-scenes stories of some of the most dramatic events in American history—set right inside the house where it happened.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wunderry Plus subscribers can binge new seasons of American history tellers early and
0:05.1	ad free right now. Join Wundery Plus in the Wundery app or on Apple Podcasts. Imagine it's a cold November afternoon in New York City, 1921. You're at home on
0:29.5	65th Street and you've just put a kettle on to boil.
0:33.0	Two months ago, your husband, a rising New York politician, was stricken by a sudden and debilitating
0:38.4	case of polio.
0:40.1	His health has stabilized, but he's facing a long and arduous recovery.
0:44.0	Doctors fear he may never walk again, which has thrown his promising political future into
0:49.6	jeopardy.
0:50.6	You walk over to the kitchen table and pour a cup of tea for your husband's political advisor and family friend Louis Howe.
0:58.0	He's been helping around the clock since the polio diagnosis, and you're both physically and emotionally exhausted as you
1:04.4	struggle to grasp the situation. You glance down at today's New York Times in
1:09.2	front of how. At least the papers haven't found out yet. See? They're still reporting he has pneumonia.
1:15.0	We won't be able to hide the truth from them much longer.
1:18.0	I saw a few reporters out front when I came in,
1:21.0	and they asked for an update on this condition.
1:23.0	Well, they'll have to wait, I'm afraid.
1:26.0	We can't let the world know that the former assistant secretary of the Navy
1:30.0	and one-time vice presidential candidate is confined to a wheelchair.
1:35.3	The past few years have been a whirlwind from your husband's failed run for vice president in
1:39.7	1920 to his shocking illness.
1:42.4	So you're very grateful Louis has been there for you.
1:45.0	You're confident he'll know how to handle the press.
	...

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