We hope you enjoy this episode of The Bunker. We recorded it last week before the American election,

when no one knew what the outcome would be. As it happens, it's clearer than we imagined. Even so,

we hope you enjoy listening.

Hello and welcome to The Bunker. I'm Alex von Tunselman. In January, there'll be a new president

moving into the White House. As we record, we're not sure yet whether that'll be Kamala Harris or

Donald Trump. As you're listening, the picture may be clearer or it may not be. Away from the politics,

though, I can't help but wonder, what's it like to move

into this iconic building? What might the new first family discover? What protocols will they need to go

through? And where's the best spot to watch Netflix? Here to discuss this with me is Matthew Costello,

chief education officer at the White House Historical Association and director of the David

M. Rubinstein National Center for White House History. Matthew, thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you for having me, Alex. It's a pleasure to be here. So to start with, the current White House

isn't completely original, is it? Somebody might have set fire to it in 1814. Yes, somebody, some buddies may have set fire to it.

The original iteration of the White House was constructed between 1792 and 1800. And really, it was

Thomas Jefferson, who was the first president to live in the White House, you know, for two terms.

John Adams lived there briefly, but then he lost his bid for re-election.

And so Jefferson makes quite an impact on changing the uses of the space, the uses of the

grounds. And then his successor, Madison, lives there only for a few years before there is,

we'll just call it perhaps a misunderstanding between the United States and Great Britain during the War of 1812 and in retaliation for the burning of York and Canada, in invading British force, marches on Washington, they defeat the Americans in Blainsburg, and they set the White House and several other government buildings ablaze.

Yes, sorry about that retrospectively. However, the White House did rise from the ashes and was

kind of reconstructed. Can you tell me a bit about the building of it? I mean, one controversial aspect,

of course, is that it was partially built, wasn't it, by enslaved people?

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