4/16/2019
Episode 23: Hocus POTUS
Hail to the Chief! It's an episode of Facts Machine all about U.S. presidents. Listen to find out why it's not safe to run for president in 2020, how to win friends and influence people to crowdfund your mausoleum, and which president was arrested for speeding in a horse-drawn carriage.
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Radio Public
This episode was written and hosted by Emily Costa, Rob Frawley, and Noah Guiberson. The episode was produced and our theme was composed by Anthony Antonelli. Our logo was designed by Mike Zolla.
Thumbnail photo: Ulysses S. Grant, naturally. (Wikimedia Commons)
Bonus resources/content:
The Solar Eclipse of 1806, also known as Tecumseh’s Eclipse, lent credence to Tenskwatawa’s identity as a prophet as well as a new term to our astronomical lexicon. The first use of “corona” to describe the “crown” of solar light surrounding the darkened moon during an eclipse is attributed to Spanish astronomer José Joaquín de Ferrer, who coined the term while observing the 1806 eclipse from Kinderhook, New York.
Ferrer’s subsequent illustrations of eclipse coronas featured a lime, for some unknown reason. (Wikimedia Commons)
Possibly of interest to Joan Quigley, the Reagans’ astronomer, five of the Curse of Tippecanoe’s victims were also Aquariuses! (Aquarii?) The most represented sun signs among the U.S. presidents are Aquarius and Scorpio, with five presidents born under each. Scorpio is also the most frequent sun sign among world leaders overall.
Don’t worry, none of the Facts Machinists are Aquarii or running for president in 2020. We checked. (Samantha Lee/Business Insider)
Correction: We must issue a correction for the pronunciation of Leon Czolgosz’s surname, which we’ve since learned is closer to “chih-goss”. Goethe also (almost) rhymes with “yurt, eh?”, despite what this video would have you believe.
Shout-out to this story at NPR for nice summary of the bald-hairy Russian political roster and the most apt depiction of it we’ve come across:
They’re nesting dolls! From left to right: Mikhail Gorbachev, Leonid Brezhnev, Nikita Khrushchev and Joseph Stalin. (NPR/KoS via Wikimedia Commons)
The Washington Post re-visited Ulysses S. Grant’s arrest in a 2018 piece considering the (highly relevant) possibility of indicting a sitting president. The article’s header features an excerpt from The Washington Evening Star’s 1908 coverage of the story:
(WaPo/Washington Evening Star archives)
Ulysses S. Grant (a video tour of whose tomb can be seen here) has a multi-faceted legacy. One of its lesser-known chapters was the particularly frigid fête that was his second inaugural ball, pictured below:
Not depicted: falling canary-sicles and 19th-century Frappuccinos. (Library of Congress)