It’s March 5th. This day in 1977, President Jimmy Carter and CBS’s Walter Cronkite took phone calls, unfiltered, from Americans all over the country who had dialed into 1-900-242-9611.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss what happened during the Dial-A-President experiment, the logistics of how it all came together, and how it serves as a perfect snapshot of the era.

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

Throughout this election year, we’re going to be doing a few special series tied to the notable stretches in an election cycle, from primaries to conventions and October surprises and more. This is “Hangers-On Week” our look at the point in the primary calendar where candidates are, for one reason or another, still hanging around.

For our final episode of Hangers On Week, Jody, Niki, and Kellie look at Al Smith, who ran for president in 1924 and 1928, at a time when the Democratic party was building a new religious, racial, and demographic coalition. He may not have won, but he set the stage for FDR.

Who else deserves to be on our list of hangers-ons? What other categories would you slot candidates into? Let us know!

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Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Throughout this election year, we’re going to be doing a few special series tied to the notable stretches in an election cycle, from primaries to conventions and October surprises and more. This is “Hangers-On Week” our look at the point in the primary calendar where candidates are, for one reason or another, still hanging around.

For the third episode of Hangers On Week, Jody, Niki, and Kellie look at Jesse Jackson, who ran in 1984 and 1988, evolving from civil rights activism to electoral politics, and trying to push his message towards larger economic justice issues.

Who else deserves to be on our list of hangers-ons? What other categories would you slot candidates into? Let us know!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Throughout this election year, we’re going to be doing a few special series tied to the notable stretches in an election cycle, from primaries to conventions and October surprises and more. This is “Hangers-On Week” our look at the point in the primary calendar where candidates are, for one reason or another, still hanging around.

For the second episode of Hangers On Week, Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report to talk about a few failed candidates who layed the groundwork for Trump’s eventual win.

Who else deserves to be on our list of hangers-ons? What other categories would you slot candidates into? Let us know!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Throughout this election year, we’re going to be doing a few special series tied to the notable stretches in an election cycle, from primaries to conventions and October surprises and more. This is “Hangers-On Week” our look at the point in the primary calendar where candidates are, for one reason or another, still hanging around.

For the first episode of Hangers-On Week, Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report to lay out the basic categories of the candidates who stick around a little too long: from those who want to shape policy, to those who become punchlines, and those with a different agenda in mind.

Who else deserves to be on our list of hangers-ons? What other categories would you slot candidates into? Let us know!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 22nd. This day (February 21st, in fact) in 1965, Malcolm X is assassinated as he’s giving a speech at a Harlem ballroom.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why X felt as if his killing was almost an inevitability, why the details of that day remain murky — and how two of the accused were exonerated decades later.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 20th. This day in 2006, the news — and the jokes — are swirling about the incident that took place earlier in the month, when Vice President Dick Cheney shot his hunting partner Harry Whittington on a Texas ranch.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why it took so long for the news of the incident to come out, why Whittington apologized to Cheney at a press conference — and why it took so long for this podcast to talk about this moment.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 18th. This day in 1804, the Northern state of New Jersey passed a law that included a call for a “gradual emancipation of slaves.”

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the laws around abolition and the reality on the ground often differed considerably — but how in cases like this, you also had the law codifying the slow transition away from slavery.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 15th. This day in 1933, in Miami, Giuseppe Zangara pulled out a pistol and, while yelling “too many people are starving!” fired at President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why Zangara was trying to kill FDR, the others who were hurt in the incident — and the true “what if” in American history had Zangara succeeded.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 13th. This day — actually, February 11th — in 1990, South African leader Nelson Mandela emerges from prison after 27 years.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how attempts to keep Mandela out of the limelight backfired during his imprisonment, and how he once again picked up the freedom cause.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia