Landslide

By: NPR
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  • Summary

  • In the mid-1970s, the Republican Party looked on the verge of self-destruction. Until 1976. A political earthquake: A cutthroat, razor-close, deeply personal battle for the Republican nomination, and the party's identity. It resurrected the GOP, remade it as a conservative party, and pulled the country sharply to the right. Landslide is the story of the closest presidential primary race in American history, what followed, and how it reshaped the political parties — opening the partisan rifts that divide us today. Hosted by award-winning public radio journalist Ben Bradford.
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Political Science World
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Episodes
  • Introducing Landslide

    Introducing Landslide
    Feb 12 2024
    When President Richard Nixon resigns in disgrace, three unlikely candidates emerge to fill the vacuum: Gerald Ford, savvy veteran of partisan wars. Ronald Reagan, fringe reactionary. Jimmy Carter, cutthroat political animal. These presidents aren't who you thought they were, and their battles against each other redefined the American political landscape. The result: the hot-button issues, the culture war, and the path to the partisan divide we live with today. For those wondering what happened to American politics and what forces have driven our current division, Landslide is essential listening, and a compelling, stunning true story.

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    2 mins
  • Trust

    Trust
    Feb 22 2024
    Gerald Ford had planned to retire. But in the days and weeks after Watergate, the new president looks to rebuild Americans' collapsing trust in their government. His attempts to cool partisan tempers prove poisonously divisive. A conservative mutiny brews within his own political party, and a former actor leads a challenge against him — Ronald Reagan.

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    40 mins
  • Lightweight

    Lightweight
    Feb 29 2024
    The idea that Ronald Reagan can win is laughable. "Suicidal," writes the New York Times. Too extreme, too gaffe-prone, too unserious a candidate, the faded former actor has no chance to unseat the sitting president in the primaries — and if he does it will signal the end of the Republican Party. But Reagan seizes a message that entwines optimism and culture war, the power of which was not fully appreciated at the time.

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    42 mins

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Profile Image for Kevin C Lynch

Great research and narrative!

this team did an amazing job at combining a long story and primary source material into an easy to digest narrative. anyone who wants to understand more about the last 40 years of politics should listen to this.
I just hope this team makes another few seasons, I'll listen to them all!

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Profile Image for Anonymous User

Gripping, Educational, Entertaining

Ben Bradford does it again. His captivating storytelling keeps you on the edge of your seat. I am learning so much about the history of the United States, our leaders and the evolution of our political parties. Each episode packs a punch and tells a unique story filled with characters you love to love and characters you can’t help but despise. Who knew U.S. history could read like a novel? I can’t wait for the next episode to air. Give it to me already!

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Profile Image for CXR8393

VERY Interesting; HIGHLY Recommend!

As someone with both a degree/background and lifelong interest in politics and political science, I thought I knew the point at which the United States began to fundamentally shift politically. However, after listening to this series, “my eyes have been opened”…thanks in no small part to Ben Bradford & team and their exhaustive research & analysis.

Before listening to this series, it had always been my opinion (based on what I’d learned & read in the past) that the timeframe during which most Americans began to switch party affiliation was much earlier during the middle part of the 20th Century around the time of FDR’s New Deal. So to learn that it actually occurred roughly 40 years later (in the post-Watergate/Ford/Carter/Reagan era) was both surprising and enlightening. Yet at the same time, it made total sense .

Moreover, listening to Ben Bradford and the various people he interviewed discuss the past and how events occurring from the 1970s to early 1980s have shaped today’s social and political landscape is highly interesting. I would even say it’s critically important information to have for anyone who wants to understand the shift to a more conservative Republican Party, the rise of the evangelical right, and why someone such as Donald Trump appeals to such a wide swath of voters.

I highly recommend listening to this series if you are the least bit interested in anything I mentioned above.

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Profile Image for Chris DeMuth Jr

Snotty tone… Intellectually dishonest substance..

Reminiscent of artists in the Middle Ages that made tapestries depicting creatures that they had only heard of third or fourth hand. Mystifying that someone would make a podcast about something that they demonstrably know so little about. Reagan conservatism was for more limited government which perhaps slowed the rate of increasing the size and scope of government. This isn’t “anti-government”. The podcast makes it sound as if Reaganism was at its core a new packaging of segregation and bigotry. This is pure sophistry. The writer takes the most vile examples in a coalition representing tens of millions of people just to embarrass Pres. Reagan. Even if I hated someone half as much as this podcaster appears to hate Reagan, I would have made some effort to understand his appeal. He won two landslides. Odd to make a podcast without the least curiosity about why. If Reagan truly were “anti-government” he would have at least shuttered NPR and avoided garbage like this.

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