Obscure Presidential History with Jeremy...

Team Simon here! While A Bit of Optimism is on a short break, we’re revisiting a few episodes you helped make some of our favorites. We’ll be back with brand-new conversations next week, on March 24th, 2026. In the meantime, we’re bringing back an episode that explores a word mos ... Show More

Hello from Team Simon! We’re taking a short hiatus, but A Bit of Optimism will return with brand-new episodes March 24th. In the meantime, we’re revisiting some of our favorite episodes. Episodes that many of you who listened, shared them, and told us what resonated. This week, w ... Show More

Team Simon here! As we take a short hiatus, A Bit of Optimism will return with brand-new episodes on March 24, 2026. Until then, we’re revisiting some of the conversations you loved and we still think about long after the microphones turned off. This week, we’re rewinding to Simo ... Show More

<p>How did a president lose his entire cabinet so soon after taking office? What was his role in the Westward expansion of the United States? And where did the name Millard come from?</p><br><p>From teaching himself to read to becoming President of the United States, today we are ... Show More

FINALLY! IT'S KENNEDY! It’s 1960 and JFK has been elected president, having beaten Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the 20th century. He becomes the youngest and first Catholic president in US history, and would come to face many critics and juicy rumours ove ... Show More

<p>Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, so how did it work out when he became the leader of this nation that he was so instrumental in founding?</p><br><p>For the third episode in American History Hit's special series about the Presidents, ... Show More

<p>He was the victorious Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. As presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention, he oversaw the birth of the government of the United States. But George Washington is remembered by most as the first ... Show More

The year was 1841. No president had ever before died in office. And then one did. Who would take over as chief executive? The Constitution was surprisingly vague on this question — until Vice President John Tyler took a firm stance. His actions changed the direction of American h ... Show More

This episode is all about one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, the first President of the U.S., George Washington. You will hear about his childhood, how he got into politics, and his significant accomplishments. 

In commemoration of Presidents Day, President Bill Clinton traces the evolution of the presidency from America’s founding through modern history and explores how the best presidents used the office to build an America that more closely resembled our highest ideals and aspirations ... Show More