It’s January 9th. In 1964, in his State of the Union speech, president Johnson declared “war on poverty.” It was part of his ambitious Great Society agenda to remake American lives from birth to death.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss the language that Johnson used in his speech, and how branding an effort as a “war” can help or hurt a cause.

This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.

If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Our website is thisdaypod.com Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Julie Shapiro, Executive Producer at Radiotopia