EVERY THURSDAY American History

Land of the free and home of the brave. See the stories of bold visionaries who set a course for the new world and helped to build the American Experiment.

THURSDAY ON STORY

December 14, 2023

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8:00A

4:00P

12:00A

The Clinton Affair

Handing the Sword to the Enemy

Democrats retake the White House after twelve years of Republican control, but the scandals that plagued Bill Clinton during the campaign follow him to Washington.

9:00A

5:00P

1:00A

The Clinton Affair

The Blue Pass

Republicans take control of the House for the first time in 40 years, led by a new breed of politician, Newt Gingrich. Gingrich's uncompromising partisanship defines the "Republican Revolution" and steers the country towards a government shutdown.

10:00A

6:00P

2:00A

The Clinton Affair

Mixed Messages

Monica Lewinsky confides the details of her relationship with President Clinton to coworker, Linda Tripp, who surreptitiously records their private conversations and shares them with a conservative provocateur, Lucianne Goldberg.

11:00A

7:00P

3:00A

The Clinton Affair

Room 1012

With President Clinton's deposition in the Paula Jones case less than a week away, Linda Tripp contacts Starr's team to tell them the President and Monica plan to lie under oath.

12:00P

8:00P

4:00A

The Clinton Affair

State of the Union

The president is taken by surprise during his deposition in the Paula Jones case as her lawyers reveal their detailed knowledge of his relationship with Lewinsky.

1:00P

9:00P

5:00A

6:00A

The Clinton Affair

The Will of the People

President Clinton's past statements come home to roost as Independent Counsel Ken Starr sends the Republican-led House his referral outlining the grounds for impeachment.

2:30P

10:30P

6:30A

I Love the 1880s

Presidents Gone Wild

Turns out there s more to being President than just signing laws, naming judges, and kissing babies. Our comedians leave no corner of the Oval Office unexplored during this thorough examination of executive power. Learn the strange way Nixon wooed his future wife. Find out which one of our founding fathers liked swimming in the nude. And you ll never guess who put the "vice" in Vice President, getting so drunk at his inauguration he had to be pulled off the stage! Guaranteed to be funnier (and more informative) than all 156 episodes of The West Wing combined.

3:00P

11:00P

7:00A

America's Secret Slang

Hail to the Chief

In this episode, we look at the ways that American English has been transformed by American presidents, by the language of sex and romance, by good and bad manners. We'll also explore how easy it is to insult people of different groups without even realizing it. Did you know who invented the phrase Founding Fathers, and what the Founding Fathers originally called themselves? Or how American presidents popularized terms like "three martini lunch," "lunatic fringe" and "keep the ball rolling?" When it comes to insults, did you know that the cheer "hip hip hurray" was originally anti-Semitic, "hooligan" was anti-Irish, and the phrase "in cahoots" was anti-French? When it comes to sex, how did a diet of meat give us the word "mating," why do young men "sow their wild oats," and why is the word "hysterical" an insult to women? And when it comes to manners, we'll explore the strange roots of words like "posh," "snob," "stuck up" and even "hello" and "goodbye.