One Year: 1990 | 3. Bush vs. Broccoli

Slow Burn

Slate Podcasts

News, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Politics

4.6 • 25.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In March 1990, a story broke that shocked the nation: George H.W. Bush had banned broccoli from Air Force One. The frenzy that came next would change the fate of a vegetable—and maybe even alter the course of a presidency. This episode was written by Olivia Briley and Josh Levin, One Year’s editorial director. One Year’s senior producer is Evan Chung. This episode was produced by Olivia Briley and Kelly Jones. It was edited by Joel Meyer and Evan Chung. Derek John is Slate’s executive producer of narrative podcasts. Merritt Jacob is senior technical director. Join Slate Plus to get a special behind-the-scenes conversation at the end of our season about how we put together our 1990 stories. Slate Plus members also get to listen to all Slate podcasts without any ads. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ken Walsh was one of the longest serving White House correspondence ever.
0:05.0	Starting in the 1980s, he covered seven different administrations for U.S. News and World Report.
0:11.0	Now when he talks about his career, there's one thing everybody wants to know.
0:16.4	Which president was his favorite?
0:18.3	There's lots of different ways I answer that question.
0:21.2	The most interesting president to cover.
0:23.2	Bill Clinton, fascinating presidency to cover, and Ronald Reagan was the most historically
0:28.4	important, but in personal terms it was really Bush.
0:42.0	America today is a proud, free nation, decent and civil, a place we cannot help but love. George H.W. Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan in January 1989.
0:47.0	Ken interviewed the new Republican president one week after he moved into the White House. Just me and him and one advisor in the House. President one
0:54.4	advisor in the White House.
0:55.9	Just me and him and one advisor in the Oval Office and I said, are you concerned
0:58.8	that you're following this president who was so good on television and frankly you don't have the
1:04.9	reputation of being very good on television he said you know I've been six foot
1:09.0	three since I was 18 years old and people have always thought I was a little guy. And so this is where the
1:15.7	humility and even an insecurity came out with him, which made him very real, that he realized
1:21.6	he could never be the communicator that Reagan, his predecessor, was.
1:25.0	The former vice president wanted to be a low-key chief executive.
1:30.0	When his speechwriters handed him drafts full of sweeping language, he'd scribble in the margins.
1:35.2	That's not me.
1:37.2	The hand remains extended.
1:39.2	The sleeves are rolled up, and now we must produce.
	...

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