In Pursuit: Rediscovering America Through Its Presidents, with Dr. Colleen J. Shogan

This American President

Society & Culture, Education, History

4.5 • 787 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What if today’s leading voices took a fresh look at the lives of America’s presidents and first ladies—searching for lessons that still speak to the challenges we face now? That’s the idea behind In Pursuit, a new initiative to discover history’s greatest lessons by revisiting America’s first 250 years and distilling insights that can inspire and inform our future.

Bringing together former presidents and first ladies alongside historians, scholars, and cultural leaders, In Pursuit offers clear, accessible reflections on leadership, character, and civic responsibility—grounded in history, but aimed squarely at the present moment.

In this episode, Dr. Colleen J. Shogan shares how this ambitious project came to life—and why revisiting the American story may be essential to shaping its next chapter.

In Pursuit

https://www.inpursuit.org

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Host: Richard Lim
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0:21.7	Growing your faith every day.
0:23.1	Search for King James Bible Study, KJV, and download the app today.
1:10.1	Thank you. It's America's 250th birthday this year, a huge milestone, and it's a great time to look back at the entire American experiment and marvel at the amazing accomplishments by our greatest leaders.
1:12.9	My guest today is leading a new initiative that does exactly that. It's a great program. It's very exciting. It's called In Pursuit. Her name is
1:19.2	Colleen Shogan. She is a former U.S. archivist. And the initiative in pursuit is a curated
1:26.6	collection of essays about U.S. presidents and first ladies. And the initiative in pursuit is a curated collection of essays about U.S. presidents and
1:30.0	first ladies. And the pieces will reflect on each figure to distill a key lesson that's relevant
1:36.7	for our country today. Contributors, these are the biggest possible people you could have
1:43.5	involved in this. Three former U.S.
1:45.4	presidents, three former first ladies, the current chief justice, seven Pulitzer Prize winners.
1:51.4	It's very impressive and it's incredible. The first essay was written by the 43rd president,
1:58.5	George W. Bush, about the first president, George Washington.
2:02.3	The contributing authors, it really reads like a who's who, you know, President Bush,
2:07.3	former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, Chief Justice
2:12.3	John Roberts, Brad Bear, who's been on our show, Amity Shlaes, Maria Shriver, the list goes on. So,
2:19.6	Colleen, thanks for being on our show. Well, it's great to be here. So tell me about your
2:24.4	background and your interest in presidents and just, you know, how you came to be a part of this.
2:30.2	Well, I mean, I will say that I have a research background in the presidency.
	...

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