Dead Presidents Podcast Homepage (with links to subscribe on your favorite podcast app!)
The U.S. has never been forced to call upon presidential line of succession beyond the vice president, but it has been close many times. This episode delves into some of the craziest near-miss scenarios and considers some the wildest What Ifs in American history.
William Howard Taft is perhaps best known as the fattest president who allegedly got stuck in a bathtub, but this episode will show that he was much, much more than that. Taft followed in his eminent father's footsteps to become a Yale graduate, lawyer, and judge. His highest ambition was to join the U.S. Supreme Court, and President McKinley promised to appoint him--if he first agreed to serve as civil governor of the Philippines. After his friend Theodore Roosevelt became president upon McKinley's assassination, Taft would turn down multiple offers to join the Supreme Court so he could finish his work in the Philippines. As Secretary of War, his masterful administrative skills and lovable personality made him Roosevelt's closest advisor and chosen successor for the presidency in 1908. Though Taft still yearned for the Supreme Court, he found himself as our nation's 27th President. He quietly built an impressive record of tariff reform, fiscal responsibility, conservation, antitrust enforcement, and international economic expansion via "Dollar Diplomacy." But his judicial temperament lacked finely-tuned political instincts, and he lost the confidence of the growing progressive wing of the Republican party--which turned to the increasingly radical Roosevelt to challenge Taft in the 1912 election, splitting the party and handing the presidency to the Democrats. Taft went on to serve as a law professor at Yale until 1921, when President Harding floored him with an offer to become Chief Justice of the United States. Finally ensconced in his dream job, Taft would transform the federal judiciary like no Chief Justice since John Marshall.
Dead Presidents Podcast Homepage (with links to subscribe on your favorite podcast app!)
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| Viola Miner funeral – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – March 5, 1909 |
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| Edmund J. Neuman funeral – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – July 2, 1910 |
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| Louise Dierkop funeral – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – August 12, 1910 |
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| William Horne dead – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – November 27, 1909 |
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| William Horne’s XXL coffin – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – November 30, 1909 |
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| Frank Graf dies using toe knife – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – April 1, 1910 |
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| Head crushed by train cars – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – March 25, 1909 |
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| Charles Zettel unclaimed – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – March 26, 1909 |
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| Charles Zettel buried as pauper – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – March 27, 1909 |
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| “The Old Reliable” First National Bank of Comanche – The American (Comanche, OK) – March 4, 1909 |
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| $500 Reward for John B. Campbell – The North Star (Britton, OK) – March 18, 1909 |
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| Campbell’s drunken note – El Reno Daily American (El Reno, OK) – March 17, 1909 |
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| Campbell says he’s sorry – Chickasha Daily Express (Chickasha, OK) – March 20, 1909 |
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| Eat and get thin with Marmola Prescription Tablets – La Crosse Tribune (La Crosse, WI) – March 5, 1909 |
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| Marmola fixes shiny skin – Leavenworth Times (Leavenworth, KS) – April 18, 1909 |
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| $5 reward for purse containing $90 – Cawker City Ledger (Cawker City, KS) – March 4, 1909 |
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| $500 if J.B. Brisbois can’t cure your alcoholism – Seattle Star (Seattle, WA) – March 9, 1909 |
Presidential War enters Season 3 with the addition of exciting new categories! When it comes to the nation's premier presidential educational card game, no one ever needs to ask: "is our children learning?" They certainly is. On this episode, we leave no child behind.
Dead Presidents Podcast Homepage (with links to subscribe on your favorite podcast app!)
Dead Presidents Podcast Homepage (with links to subscribe on your favorite podcast app!)
In one of American history’s most epic life stories, Theodore Roosevelt began as a sickly child debilitated by asthma and went on to become a Harvard graduate, author, historian, NY state legislator, cattle rancher, big game hunter, conservationist, Civil Service Commissioner, NYC Police Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Spanish-American War hero, NY Governor, and Vice President. When McKinley’s assassination unexpectedly made him the youngest president in American history, his unbounded energy, unmatched press relations, and finely-tuned political instincts helped turn Theodore Roosevelt into one of our most successful, popular, and powerful chief executives. He became known as the Trustbuster for taking on the nation’s biggest corporations while crusading to secure a Square Deal for average Americans and make conservation of natural resources a national priority. On the world stage, he flexed the U.S.’s newfound imperial muscles by securing the rights to build the Panama Canal, aggressively enforcing an expanded Monroe Doctrine, and winning the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War. Declining a third term, he went on to have perhaps the most eventful post-presidency, which featured: hunting African big game for the Smithsonian, running for president yet again as a third-party candidate, surviving an assassination attempt, nearly dying on an expedition that put an uncharted Brazilian river on the map, and trying to volunteer to fight in two more wars. The Dead Presidents Podcast is thrilled to begin Season 3 with this chronicle of one of our most interesting presidents.
Dead Presidents Podcast Homepage (with links to subscribe on your favorite podcast app!)
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| Bayer Heroin – American Journal of Pharmacy – December 1901 |
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| From Poverty to Competence in Oklahoma – Randolph Enterprise (Randolph, KS) – September 19, 1901 |
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| Homes for Boys Wanted – De Soto Press (De Soto, MO) – September 21, 1901 |
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| Insist on Coca-Cola! – San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA) – June 10, 1908 |
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| Coca-Cola has cocaine – Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA) – February 25, 1902 |
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| Coca-Cola now cocaine-free – Macon Telegraph (Macon, GA) – August 1, 1907 |
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| Burdick holds stockholders meeting – Buffalo Review (Buffalo, NY – February 11, 1902 |
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| Burdick dance party – Buffalo News (Buffalo, NY) – December 27, 1901 |
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| Edwin Burdick brutally murdered – Buffalo Times (Buffalo, NY) – February 27, 1903 |