Alexis and Elliott attempt to get closer to the man behind the marble facade: our first president, George Washington. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph J. Ellis explains what made Washington a myth, even in his own time. Reid Mitenbuler, author of Bourbon Empire, sheds light on Washington’s surprising role as a major American whiskey distiller. Rohulamin Quander reflects on his ancestors enslaved at Mount Vernon, and Alexis and Elliott visit the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to see the site of Benedict Arnold’s infamous betrayal.

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This week, Alexis and Elliott get to know the sensitive soul behind our portly 27th president, William Howard Taft. They talk to historian H.W. Brands about Taft’s public break from his mentor, Theodore Roosevelt, and journalist Alexandra Robbins takes us back to Taft’s days as a member of Skull and Bones, Yale’s oldest secret society. Elsewhere, Alexis clears up some misinformation, and drops a bombshell on Chicago second grader Isaac Margolis.

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