Every four years the citizens of the United States sit down for one or more nights to watch something which is called the presidential debates.

The debates have become a centerpiece of U.S presidential elections, but it wasn't always that way.

Learn more about the history of the presidential debates, or the lack thereof, on this episode of

Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by audible.

My recommendation for this episode is sponsored by audible.com. My recommendation for this episode is the Lincoln Douglas debates.

This is a recreation of the original Lincoln Douglas debates.

Richard Rifus plays Stephen Douglas and David Strathorne is Abraham Lincoln.

This is the first time these historic debates have been brought to life in audio.

You can get a free one month trial to Audible and two free audio books by going to

Audible Trial.com slash everything everywhere or by

clicking on the link in the show notes.

The history of presidential debates is shockingly thin.

For all of the 18th century, the entire 19th century, and for most of the 20th century,

there were no presidential debates.

Zero, zip, nada.

This makes a lot more sense if you realize the nature of campaigning before electronic media.

Early on, presidential candidates literally did nothing.

It was looked upon as being undignified for a candidate to speak on their own behalf.

Campaigns consisted of party loyalists who would go and drum up support in local communities around the country.

Candidates would mostly stay at home and meet with dignitaries who came to visit and pay respects.

The first presidential candidate who even bothered to give speeches was William Henry Harrison in 1840

who gave 20 speeches while traveling on horseback. One of the first widely publicized

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