Plodding Through The Presidents
Join history blogger Howard Dorre and his wife Jessica Dorre for a deep irreverent dive into lesser-known stories of the early American presidents. They dig into the myths, mysteries, scandals, and drama of the founders and their families, with a dash of marital banter.
- Update frequency
- every 11 days
- Average duration
- 47 minutes
- Episodes
- 89
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
Season 4 Trailer
Season 4 premieres Tuesday, October 25th!
Enter to win our 3-book giveaway of fascinating historical books from our first three guests this season: https://kingsumo.com/g/k3clkv/3-book-giveaway-plod…
00:01:17 |
Tue 18 Oct 2022
Benjamin Rush To Judgment
In our third season finale, we look at confounding founder Benjamin Rush—his outstanding humanitarian accomplishments, his controversial bleeding and purging treatments during the Yellow Fever epidem…
01:10:36 |
Tue 16 Nov 2021
Mary Hellen's Petticoat Magic
We explore the tragic stories of John Quincy Adams’s sons—George Washington Adams, John Adams II, and Charles Francis Adams—through the structure of their cousin Mary Hellen playing a real life game …
01:03:49 |
Tue 09 Nov 2021
Ghosts of the White House & New England with Jeff Belanger
We dig into the dubious story of Winston Churchill's naked encounter with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. Then we welcome author, paranormal investigator, and New England Legends host Jeff Belanger for…
01:10:27 |
Tue 26 Oct 2021
The Haunted Hermitage & The Stone Library Heist
First, the Hermitage’s director of interpretation Bryan Gilley shares a historical haunting from Andrew Jackson’s home and a hair-raising experience of his own. Then, Adams National Historical Park c…
01:04:22 |
Tue 19 Oct 2021
Conspiracy Theories & The Corrupt Bargain with Mark Cheathem
We look at the role of the Illuminati in the Election of 1800 between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson before welcoming Dr. Mark Cheathem to the show. He teaches a course on conspiracy theories in Ame…
01:07:28 |
Tue 12 Oct 2021
The Amistad, The Creole, and Madison Washington
We explore the incredible story of the Amistad captives and the sensation sparked by their rebellion, along with the opportunities their situation offered to the abolitionist cause and the rabble-rou…
00:58:43 |
Tue 05 Oct 2021
Cara Finnegan & Photographic Presidents
Author Dr. Cara Finnegan (Photographic Presidents: Making History From Daguerreotype to Digital) joins Howard for a conversation about the early days of photography and some of the most intriguing pr…
00:56:04 |
Tue 28 Sep 2021
The Mythology of Mary Ball Washington
George Washington's mother Mary Ball Washington has been unfairly portrayed as a greedy shrew for decades. This week, we dig into the truth of the most popular allegations levied against her by biogr…
01:00:41 |
Tue 21 Sep 2021
Lindsay Chervinsky & Washington's Cabinet of Personalities
Our very first guest, Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky, joins Howard for a conversation about her book The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution and about the personalities and…
01:04:14 |
Tue 14 Sep 2021
Potty-Mouthed Parrots
We continue the theme of naughty animals and dive into the stories of two parrots named Polly – Dolley Madison’s violently jealous macaw and Andrew Jackson’s purportedly potty-mouthed parrot.
We di…
01:05:25 |
Tue 07 Sep 2021
Thomas Jefferson's Killer Ram
This episode is all about Thomas Jefferson's lust for wool and how it caused him to ignore the violence of a particular four-horned Shetland ram until it was too late. Come for the killer ram, stay f…
01:02:44 |
Tue 31 Aug 2021
Season 3 Trailer
Season 3 premieres Tuesday, August 31!
Enter our book giveaway to win books by our first two guests, The Cabinet by Lindsay Chervinsky and Photographic Presidents by Cara Finnegan at https://kingsum…
00:01:45 |
Thu 19 Aug 2021
The Sauciest Presidential Love Letters
In this Valentine's Day/Presidents Day bonus episode, we discuss a few sweet and weird love letters from early presidents like John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson before diving into the raunchy trov…
00:50:03 |
Thu 11 Feb 2021
The Peacemaker and the Cradle Robber
In our Season 2 finale, we take on the single deadliest disaster to befall a presidential cabinet – the explosion aboard the USS Princeton in 1844. We look at four of the key players aboard and how t…
01:06:51 |
Tue 08 Dec 2020
Gouverneur Morris and the Vampire of Bizarre
We delve into the big penman energy of founding father Gouverneur Morris, the peg-legged sex-positive anti-slavery aristocrat who penned multiple constitutions and sailed through life with care-free …
01:19:57 |
Tue 01 Dec 2020
Finding Madison's Funny Bone
We go on a hunt for the often-mentioned but little-documented wicked sense of humor of James Madison. That hunt includes his abusive college poetry, his weird experimentation with animals and humans,…
00:48:08 |
Tue 24 Nov 2020
Died On The Fourth Of July
We explore the unbelievable "coincidence" of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both dying on the Fourth of July on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the uncomforta…
00:52:51 |
Tue 17 Nov 2020
Elizabeth Jefferson's Earthquake Drowning
We explore the mysterious deaths of Thomas Jefferson’s sister Elizabeth and her enslaved body servant Little Sall, who both drowned just days after the first recorded earthquake in Virginia’s history…
00:44:35 |
Tue 10 Nov 2020
Alexander Hamilton & John Adams: A Superabundance of Hate
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton barely touched on the relationship between Alexander Hamilton and John Adams, and we dive into the many reasons these men HATED each other. It all started with t…
01:06:23 |
Tue 03 Nov 2020
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