Leaving politics behind him, Sam Houston turned his back on a potential presidential campaign, cut connections with his Native American allies, and made his way to the wild frontier in the sparsely settled Mexican province of Texas. There, his background as a one-time war hero and Governor of Tennessee, led to his selection as "General in Chief" of a rag-tag army of American settlers willing to risk everything to overthrow Mexican rule. Despite a bloody disaster at the Alamo and mass slaughter a...
May 14, 2025•1 hr
Sam Houston, the dashing young Governor of Tennessee, looked like a solid bet for the presidential election of 1840 as the protégé of President Andrew Jackson, but some mysterious mishap on his wedding night with his teenaged bride blew up his promising marriage and career. He ran away from politics and rejoined the Cherokee band that had long ago adopted him as a former son. On the way, he burned his gubernatorial clothing in a ritual bonfire, but he began drinking heavily and self-destructivel...
Apr 07, 2025•39 min
Texas might still be part of Mexico today if a rising Tennessee politician hadn't proven profoundly unlucky in love. Had Governor Sam Houston's infamous wedding night proceeded as planned, he would have become a credible candidate for president -- escaping dark years of depression and drunkenness, and avoiding the status of alcoholic exile that took him South of the border. As an adoptive member of the Cherokee tribe, he became the most unlikely and indispensable founder of the independent if sh...
Jan 23, 2025•30 min
The British captured the American capitol in Washington and burned its public buildings in the War of 1812, but when they invaded the Mississippi Valley and attempted to seize New Orleans, they faced an improvised, multi-lingual army that combined volunteers from frontier settlements, nearly 1,000 well-armed and prosperous pirates, "freemen of color", former slaves from Haiti, and a convent full of earnestly prayerful nuns. The resulting battle led to a bloody British disaster with the American ...
Nov 25, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Politician and militia general Andrew Jackson barely survives a bloody brawl in a Nashville hotel that threatens his life and the amputation of his arm. A month later, and still far from fully recovered, he's called to the front to battle rebellious Creek Indians and their British allies in the climactic battle of the War of 1812, that prevents the dismemberment of the young Republic with an attempt to seize the city of New Orleans and the entire Mississippi Valley. Learn more about your ad choi...
Nov 18, 2024•33 min
Today, we’re excited to introduce Country Over Self: Defining Moments in American History. This new mini-series, hosted by Matt Blumberg, dives into moments when Presidents put Country Over Self and Country Over Party. In each 30-45 minute episode, Matt speaks with renowned presidential historians, exploring pivotal instances in U.S. history. Highlights include conversations with Joseph Ellis on John Adams, H.W. Brands on FDR, Alexis Coe on George Washington, and a compelling two-part episode on...
Nov 04, 2024•25 min
In the first century of American independence, far-sighted patriots (including George Washington and John Adams) anticipated the way the development of the new nation would change the destiny of the dispersed and downtrodden Jewish people. But even these prophetic voices couldn’t foresee the other side of the bargain – the unexpected tidal wave of Jewish immigration (mostly from the troubled Russian Empire) that indelibly altered the rise of the Republic. This not only brought poetic meaning to ...
Oct 07, 2024•58 min
The early British settlers in North American took their Bible seriously—including the verses in Genesis (12: 1-3) that promised a special blessing to those who blessed the children of Abraham. Amazingly, leading scholars and preachers emphasized this promise even before a significant number of Jews had found their way to the New World. Ironically, the original center of antisemitic sentiment was in New York (then New Amsterdam), which later developed the largest, most productive Jewish community...
Sep 23, 2024•59 min
How did Theodore Roosevelt go from the worst day of his life—with the simultaneous death of his adored wife and beloved mother—to celebration as a national hero on his path to the presidency at the unprecedented age of 41? This astonishing progress displayed reckless, almost suicidal courage on the battlefield and a strange, almost supernatural sense of his own invincibility. Eyewitnesses and close friends who watched his mounted charge up San Juan Hill, leading his colorful, unconventional regi...
Sep 16, 2024•1 hr 4 min
May 8th, 1886: American pharmacist John S. Pemberton sells the first glass of Coca-Cola at a pharmacy in downtown Atlanta, a drink he originally bills as a cure-all tonic. History Daily podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/history-daily/id1591095413 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sep 09, 2024•22 min•Ep. 12
Donald Trump wasn't the only president to attempt a return trip to the White House four years after he'd left the presidency. Theodore Roosevelt attempted his own comeback in 1912 and, like Trump, he was hit by a would-be assassin's bullet in the midst of his campaign. For TR, the shooting was nearly fatal - with only his glasses case and the folded pages his planned speech stop stopping the bullet from reaching his heart. Bleeding profusely, he insisted on delivering his address in any event --...
Sep 02, 2024•25 min•Ep. 11
Napoleon Bonaparte was noted for conquering new territory for France, not giving away a huge portion of North America at the cost of mere pennies an Acre. A strange, haunting series of events made the Louisiana Purchase possible, and with it the acquisition of land that later became 15 new states. Those events included the brutal attempts to suppress the only successful slave rebellion in all human history, the unseasonal and unprecedented freezing over of an important Dutch Harbor, plus the ski...
Aug 26, 2024•49 min•Ep. 10
Six months after Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese Navy rules the Pacific, before a combination of good fortune and brilliant intelligence work come together in a fateful, five minute interlude that alters the tide of war and ends the grandiose dreams of Japanese empire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 20, 2024•55 min•Ep. 9
A Congregation of fervent religious dissidents risk everything to create an idealistic outpost at the edge of wilderness. Missing their initial destination by some 250 miles, they manage to connect with the one inhabitant in all of North America best-suited to help them escape starvation and death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 05, 2024•47 min•Ep. 8
The fiftieth anniversary "Jubilee" celebration of American Independence (July 4th, 1826) brings a startling development that convinces a new nation of its providential protection. On that festive day, the two patriotic heroes most responsible for declaring independence—Thomas Jefferson and John Adams—both lived to share in the festivities, but passed into eternity before the end of that same Glorious Fourth. Daniel Webster, the greatest orator of the era, and contemporary historians calculate th...
Jul 29, 2024•51 min•Ep. 7
One of the questions that people are asking about the attempted assassination of President Trump last Saturday is whether it shows that there is special divine protection for Donald Trump. To answer the question about what this all means, there’s no better place to turn than the Bible. In the book of Exodus, chapter 33, there is a haunting passage that gives us a hint of an answer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 25, 2024•10 min•Ep. 6
A visionary engineer known as "Crazy Judah" dreams the impossible: a transcontinental railroad that connects a vast country recently divided by civil war. In the process, he receives passionate support from Abraham Lincoln and, many observers believed, from the supernatural forces that had previously favored and protected the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 22, 2024•50 min•Ep. 5
Two near-death experiences for the Secretary of State in April of 1865 -- a carriage accident and a savage attack by a knife-wielding would be assassin -- ended up working together to spare the life of William Henry Seward, enabling the fateful land grab that contemporary Russians blame for their defeat in the Cold War. The American Miracle is part of the Airwave podcast network. Contact [email protected] to inquire about sponsoring this podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...
Jul 15, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 4
On The American Miracle, bestselling author and radio host Michael Medved recounts some of the most significant events in America’s rise to prosperity and power, from the writing of the Constitution to the Civil War. He reveals a record of improbabilities and amazements that demonstrate what the Founders always believed: that events unfolded according to a master plan, with destiny playing an unmistakable role in lifting the nation to greatness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone....
Jul 12, 2024•4 min
On a crisp January morning in the forested foothills of the Sierra Nevada, in part of the remote Mexican province of California, a frontier carpenter spotted a few shiny pebbles in a drainage ditch. Little did he know that in the same week he validated his discovery as unusually pure gold, the suddenly valuable territory passed from Mexican possession to that of the United States. The result: the most rapid mass migration in American history and a transformation that led the young nation to a fa...
Jul 08, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 3
Within the span of fourteen fateful months in the early 1930s, two bloody American encounters nearly killed both the remarkable individuals most essential for Allied victory in World War II. As a pedestrian, Winston Churchill barely survived a life-threatening encounter with a speeding car on New York's Fifth Avenue while Franklin Roosevelt, as president-elect, came within inches of an assassin's bullet, nearly ending the FDR administration before it even began. Both survivors always acknowledge...
Jul 01, 2024•47 min•Ep. 2
At the height of the Civil War, a weary Union soldier picks up the three cigars in an open field. They turn out to be the most consequential cigars in the history of the world. and they give President Abraham Lincoln the sign that he has been waiting for to free 3,000,000 enslaved people. The American Miracle is part of the Airwave podcast network. Contact [email protected] to inquire about sponsoring this podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 01, 2024•53 min•Ep. 1
On The American Miracle, bestselling author and radio host Michael Medved recounts some of the most significant events in America’s rise to prosperity and power, from the writing of the Constitution to the Civil War. He reveals a record of improbabilities and amazements that demonstrate what the Founders always believed: that events unfolded according to a master plan, with destiny playing an unmistakable role in lifting the nation to greatness. The American Miracle debuts July 1, 2024. Please s...
Jun 17, 2024•1 min
