What If Abe Lincoln Had Had A Podcast?
The 2024 Election was called the Podcast Election. And rightfully so. But how would have some past presidents fared as podcasters?
Another Presidents’ Day Weekend in America got me thinking.
What if podcasts had been around during the days of Abraham Lincoln? How would have Honest Abe fared as a podcaster? And what about other presidents?
I enjoy visiting Abe and his Memorial in Washington, D.C. It’s a great place to reflect.
Lincoln was known for this intense and thoughtful speeches about democracy and unity. Like a great podcast, his speeches made you think. Lincoln also served during a time of extreme tension due to the Civil War. So every episode would have had built-in drama.
His Gettysburg Address also remains one of the most famous speeches in history. One potential problem with this gem? Monetization. His Gettysburg Address was only 272 words and lasted only two minutes. Too short for that all-important and more valuable mid-roll ad!
I visited Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where this statue stands in the middle of town.
According to his presidential library in Illinois, Lincoln remains the only president to hold a patent. (He created a device that lifted boats up on the water.) So he not only was a gifted storyteller. He was an innovator too. Something tells me - this guy definitely would have had a chart-topping podcast.
Potential names? Four Score, The Honest Abe Show, The Sixteenth
As for other presidents as potential podcasters...
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: An effective communicator who rallied America during the Great Depression and World War Two, FDR was really the first president to embrace radio. Naturally, his podcast would have been called Fireside Chats.
John F. Kennedy: He was America’s first president to take advantage of television. Handsome and charismatic, he would have had the first video podcast called All the Way with JFK.
Ronald Reagan: An actor who got his start in radio, Reagan was a gifted orator. His rhetoric was seasoned with humor and his storytelling played to Main Street USA. He would have hosted a daily podcast called Morning In America.
James A. Garfield: Shot and killed by a disappointed office seeker in 1881, Garfield has largely been forgotten by history after serving only six months. His podcast, a limited-run series, would have been called A Stands For Abram.
MY RECOMMENDATIONS Love history podcasts about presidents? Try these: PRX’s Nixon At War, The History Channel’s 24 Hours After: The JFK Assassination, and Slate’s Slow Burn (Season One about Nixon and Season Two about Bill Clinton.)
John Wordock served as Executive Editor and SVP for Podcasting at Westwood One from 2019 to 2024, helping build Cumulus Podcast Network into a top ten network and top channel on Apple Podcasts. He also used to be Executive Producer for podcasts at The Wall Street Journal until 2019. He now runs his own podcast consulting company, John Wordock Media LLC.