Presidential: Women and the White House
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 12 October 2024
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, host Lillian Cunningham created the “Presidential” podcast, with one episode dedicated to each of the (at the time) 44 U.S. presidents. Now, in the thick of the 2024 election, Lillian is back. This is the first of two special “Presidential” podcast episodes that will be released in advance of the election on Nov. 5. The episodes examine how the two major party candidates, former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, could make history if they win.
This one focuses on the history Harris would make, and the history that has led to this moment. Sharon McMahon, a beloved voice on American civics and the creator behind Instagram’s @SharonSaysSo, helps guide listeners through women’s initial efforts to gain the right to vote and explains why, from her perspective, the pace of further progress has been slower than expected over the past century. She also explores the changes that are likely (and unlikely) to happen if Harris does become the first woman to win the White House.
Want to brush up on more presidential history? Listen to the full “Presidential” podcast. Host and creator Lillian Cunningham takes listeners on an epic historical journey through the personality and legacy of each American president. The podcast features interviews with the country’s greatest experts on the presidency, including Pulitzer Prize-winning biographers Doris Kearns Goodwin, David McCullough, Jon Meacham and Bob Woodward.
Archival audio in this episode is courtesy of the Library of Congress, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and News Radio KDKA. Special thanks to the Shirley Chisholm Cultural Institute.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi there I'm Lillian Cunningham, host of the presidential podcast. |
| 0:05.0 | Back in 2016, in the lead up to that presidential election, I had an idea. |
| 0:11.0 | To publish one podcast episode per week each dedicated to the life and the |
| 0:16.4 | story of a former US president. That became the presidential |
| 0:25.0 | and now ahead of the 2024 election we're releasing two new episodes of presidential. |
| 0:28.0 | Each one looks at how the respective candidates could make history if they win. |
| 0:34.6 | I'm excited to share the first one of those episodes here with listeners of Post reports. |
| 0:40.5 | It's a conversation with Sharon McMahon, a beloved voice in American Civics, and it's about |
| 0:46.0 | the history Vice President Kamala Harris might make if she wins in November, and the history that has led to this moment. |
| 0:55.0 | Also, if you want to hear more episodes of presidential after you listen to this, |
| 1:00.0 | including an episode about each of the presidents so far, you can check out the whole |
| 1:06.1 | presidential podcast feed. All right, here's the episode. |
| 1:10.3 | While we're waiting for the returns to come in over the telephone direct from the |
| 1:15.1 | post and son I'll give you the list of offices in today's presidential election |
| 1:20.0 | it's November 2nd, 1920, Election Day. |
| 1:25.0 | Some 30 million Americans are electing a President of the United States. |
| 1:29.0 | And the choice is between Republican Warren Harding and Democrat James Cox. |
| 1:34.4 | I guess you all know these names pretty well by this time, but there's no harm repeating them. |
| 1:39.2 | But something was different. Less than three months earlier, the 19th Amendment was ratified. |
| 1:48.0 | Giving women nationwide the right to vote. |
| 1:52.3 | And for many women, this was the very first time they had ever |
| 1:56.0 | stepped foot in a polling place. This is Sharon McMahon, author of The Small |
... |
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