It Was Said

Theodore Roosevelt, speaking at the Sorbonne in Paris, outlines the vital role and responsibility of the ordinary citizen in a republic.  

John F. Kennedy delivers a historic speech at Rice University on his daring and uncertain mission to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. 

Confronted with the impending threat of Nazi invasion, Winston Churchill outlines the stakes of the war and rallies the British people to fight on against seemingly insurmountable odds. 

Welcome to Season Two of It Was Said, a documentary podcast series that looks back on 10 of the most powerful, impactful and timeless speeches in American history. Written and narrated by Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author-historian, Jon Meacham, created, directed and produced by C13Originals Studios, in association with HISTORY Channel.

Ep 10: On a bright and snowy morning a young president summons a nation and a generation to the work of history with his enduring inaugural address.

Ep 9: A twenty three year old John Lewis, speaking at the March On Washington, calls a nation to moral account. He didn’t want to be patient, he said. He wanted freedom now.  

Ep 8: In the tradition of Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Rodham Clinton travels to Beijing to argue that women’s rights are human rights, setting new global priorities. 

Ep 7: A daughter of the segregated south, Barbara Jordan, keynotes the Democratic National Convention of 1976. It was America’s bicentennial, and Jordan was a voice born in one nation speaking to the hopes of a better nation to come.

Ep 6: A demagogic politician, exaggerated claims, an insatiable thirst for attention and controversy, and a national climate of fear and anxiety. How Edward R. Murrow took on Senator Joseph McCarthy.  

Special thanks to The Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Marquette University Libraries

Ep 5: Ronald Reagan brings his long American odyssey to a close in his presidential farewell address, an evocation of America as a shining city on a hill. A nation that builds not walls but bridges.