The Preamble

A happenstance introduction to Charles Manson. Assassination attempts against President Ford– a man who was never elected to the vice presidency or presidency. And the kidnapping of college student and newspaper heiress, 19-year-old Patty Hearst, that rocked the nation. Following Nixon’s resignation and the end of the Vietnam war, the country was in freefall. When, and how, did the U.S. begin to mend its wounds from political scandal and years of a grueling war? And what role did an unconventional campaign and powerful grassroots efforts have, regarding a certain peanut farmer who would later become president?

Writer, Host, and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon

Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder

Writers and Researchers: Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and Kari Anton

Production Coordinator: Andrea Champoux

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Draft dodging. When did the draft lottery begin for the war in Vietnam, and who among America’s youth was hit the hardest? It was an unwinnable war, and thousands of high school graduates and college students refused to comply. What sparked these explosive protests nationwide? What role was marijuana and heroin playing back in Vietnam? And how did two decades of the costly, divisive conflict finally come to an end?

Writer, Host, and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon

Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder

Writers and Researchers: Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and Kari Anton

Production Coordinator: Andrea Champoux

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was the worst attack on the US Capitol in modern American history. What was it like to be on Capitol Hill and be in the White House through that tumultuous time? Sharon is joined by Cassidy Hutchinson, former special assistant to President Donald Trump and his chief of staff, Mark Meadow, who was an integral witness in the January 6th hearings. Cassidy shares her personal experience in her book, Enough, and gives an insider perspective. When democracy is in jeopardy, and character is put to the test, our highest allegiance is to each other, to the country, and choosing principles over party. 

Special thanks to our guest, Cassidy Hutchinson, for joining us today. 

Host/ Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon

Guest: Cassidy Hutchinson

Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder 

Production Coordinator: Andrea Champoux  

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A cover up that cost Nixon's presidency, a pardon that cost Gerald R. Ford his election, and a friendship dating back to the 1940s. It was the first time a President had been impeached, and the only time in U.S. history that a President resigned from office. The betrayal of the public’s trust reverberated well beyond Nixon’s presidency in a time of economic turmoil, but what happened following Nixon’s departure from office? How did the new Ford administration attempt to gain control over the rising unemployment and double-digit inflation? Join us as we learn about how this confluence of events created economic instability, unhappiness, and impacted the mood of the country in 1974.

Writer, Host, and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon

Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder

Writers and Researchers: Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and Kari Anton

Production Coordinator: Andrea Champoux 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The right to privacy, a 22-year-old who went by the pseudonym “Jane Roe,” and one of the most famous court cases in United States history. Join us as we learn what happened leading up to Roe v. Wade, the fate of Norma McCorvey following the Supreme Court’s ruling, and how this piece of history echoes in the present day. That is not the only ghost of 1973 history that is still relevant, though. If you’re curious about how an oil embargo in the 70s impacts today’s gas prices and oil reserves, and you’d like to better understand a piece of Israel's history and how it ties into present-day events, you’re in the right place.

Writer, Host, and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon

Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder

Writers and Researchers: Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and Kari Anton

Production Coordinator: Andrea Champoux

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it mean to be on the right side of history? That was a question today’s guest, Adam Kinzinger, asked himself when he chose to serve on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol. Kinzinger joins Sharon to discuss his experience serving on the committee to defend democracy, and the personal sacrifice tied to prioritizing principals over party. If members of Congress are willing to send men and women to war to sacrifice their lives for our country, why are so few willing to sacrifice their political careers to do what is right? 

Special thanks to our guest, Adam Kinzinger, for joining us today.

Host/Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon

Guest: Adam Kinzinger

Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder

Production Coordinator: Andrea Champoux

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Deep Throat, Operation Gemstone, two valiant reporters, and a secret 30 years in the making. Watergate was not a single scandal, but rather an avalanche of events and co-conspirators, all engaged in corruption to keep President Nixon in office. The stakes were so high that Nixon’s Special Security Advisor, G. Gordon Liddy, lived under fear of being assassinated, and the wife of Nixon’s Campaign Director & Attorney General was drugged and held captive in a hotel room to keep her silent. What was the “smoking gun” that led to the toppling of this enterprise? Was it the tapes Nixon secretly recorded, and the 18-minute gap, that ultimately pushed Nixon to be the first and only President to resign?

Writer, Host, and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon

Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder

Writers and Researchers: Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and Kari Anton

Production Coordinator: Andrea Champoux

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“The week that changed the world.” Was it a chance encounter at the World Tennis Championship in 1971, “Panda diplomacy” between the U.S. and Communist China, or a break-in at the Democratic National Headquarters by a team of 5 burglars, that drastically altered the trajectory of world history? It was around this time that the Women’s Equity Action League also filed one of the farthest reaching Class Action lawsuits, leading to President Nixon signing the Education Act into law. Join us as we talk about the origins of the Watergate scandal, the landslide victory that kept Nixon in office, and the establishment of Title IX. 

Writer, Host, and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon

Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder

Writers and Researchers: Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and Kari Anton

Production Coordinator: Andrea Champoux

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Secret Police, CIA operatives, The Pentagon Papers, and The Most Dangerous Man in America. There was a time in the not-so-distant past, when the nightly news changed the game in how Americans felt about the war in Vietnam, the first “television war.” What was more of a shock to some though, was the realization that the American public had been lied to for decades by the U.S. government, spanning four presidential administrations. How did this influence the Watergate scandal? And how did the lavish “gathering of the Century” in Iran, attended by Vice President Agnew, tie into future allegations of broad political corruption?

Writer, Host, and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon

Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder

Writers and Researchers: Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and Kari Anton

Production Coordinator: Andrea Champoux

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to our new series, Mayhem: The 1970s You Never Knew. Over the next few weeks we’ll take a journey through the Decade of Defiance, with all its scandals and secrets. 

As the decade devolved into war at home and abroad, Apollo 13 flew high above earth with the hope of landing safely on the surface of the moon. But then: disaster struck, and time was on no one’s side. Meanwhile, thousands of miles below the Apollo 13 spacecraft, a nationwide uprising among college students ended in disaster at Kent State and Jackson State Universities. With special guest Apollo 13 astronaut, Fred Haise.

Writer, Host, and Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon

Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder

Writers and Researchers: Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, and Kari Anton

Production Coordinator: Andrea Champoux 

Thank you to the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project. Kent State University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives.

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