A coded packet from Paris, a demand for a bribe, and a president who has to decide whether to show the whole country.
The XYZ Affair, a war at sea nobody declared, a thirteen-year-old midshipman lost in battle, Americans jailed for a joke, the peace that cost Adams everything, and the first night in an unfinished White House.

Next: John Adams, Part 5: Thomas Jefferson Survives.

Chapters:
00:00 Cold open
01:41 Following Washington
04:10 The XYZ Affair
06:53 A War Nobody Declared
09:40 The Sedition Act: Jailed for a Joke
11:52 The Decision That Cost Him Everything
16:01 A Blessing on the White House
18:48 Wrap-up

Mr. President: The Untold Story. The presidents you think you know, told like a thriller. A new part every day, one president at a time.

Intro music: John Philip Sousa, The Stars and Stripes Forever, performed by "The President's Own" United States Marine Band (public domain).

Image credits: all images via Wikimedia Commons (public domain or CC0). Artists and sources include: John Singleton Copley; Gilbert Stuart; Benjamin Blyth; John Trumbull; Mather Brown; Samuel F. B. Morse; Charles Willson Peale; Thomas Sully; Joseph Siffred Duplessis; Paul Revere; Alonzo Chappel; Library of Congress; and unknown artists.

More from the Mr. President team: books, free tools, and writing services.
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0vR5CaOjBj3Bykefvqh0sQ | https://www.youtube.com/@MrPresidentUntoldStory
Books: https://payhip.com/DavidKaneBooks
Free calculators: https://calcsunny.com
Free audio tools: https://audioknife.calcsunny.com
Writing (memoir, business, self-help): https://www.fiverr.com/brightdesk_co

Lightning strikes the mast, a British ship closes in, and a member of Congress grabs a musket.
A mule ride across Spain, a fever that nearly kills him in Holland, America's first embassy, face to face with King George, a souvenir from Shakespeare's chair, and a job he called the most insignificant office ever invented.

Next: John Adams, Part 4: Not One Cent.

Chapters:
00:00 Cold open
01:26 The Chase and the Storm
02:59 The Martha
04:21 Paris, and the Problem Named Franklin
06:13 A Leaking Ship and a Mule Ride Across Spain
07:57 The Dutch Gamble
10:39 Two Best Friends: Adams and Jefferson
15:19 His Rotundity
19:49 Wrap-up

Mr. President: The Untold Story. The presidents you think you know, told like a thriller. A new part every day, one president at a time.

Intro music: John Philip Sousa, The Stars and Stripes Forever, performed by "The President's Own" United States Marine Band (public domain).

More from the Mr. President team: books, free tools, and writing services.
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0vR5CaOjBj3Bykefvqh0sQ | https://www.youtube.com/@MrPresidentUntoldStory
Books: https://payhip.com/DavidKaneBooks
Free calculators: https://calcsunny.com
Free audio tools: https://audioknife.calcsunny.com
Writing (memoir, business, self-help): https://www.fiverr.com/brightdesk_co

A mother and her seven-year-old son watch Charlestown burn from a hilltop. Her husband is three hundred miles away, starting a country.
The man who picked Washington, Abigail's 'Remember the Ladies' letter, why Jefferson got the pen, the real birthday of America, one bed shared with Ben Franklin, and a coffee riot in Boston.

Next: John Adams, Part 3: The Most Insignificant Office.

Chapters:
00:00 Cold open
01:31 Penn's Hill
03:49 Remember the Ladies
06:11 I Cannot But Laugh
08:53 July 2nd, Not the 4th
12:09 A Coffee Riot and a Lost Daughter
14:27 The Kingmaker
16:41 Wrap-up

Mr. President: The Untold Story. The presidents you think you know, told like a thriller. A new part every day, one president at a time.

Intro music: John Philip Sousa, The Stars and Stripes Forever, performed by "The President's Own" United States Marine Band (public domain).

More from the Mr. President team: books, free tools, and writing services.
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0vR5CaOjBj3Bykefvqh0sQ | https://www.youtube.com/@MrPresidentUntoldStory
Books: https://payhip.com/DavidKaneBooks
Free calculators: https://calcsunny.com
Free audio tools: https://audioknife.calcsunny.com
Writing (memoir, business, self-help): https://www.fiverr.com/brightdesk_co

Five dead in the snow on King Street, and the most hated men in Boston need a lawyer. A thirty-four-year-old John Adams says yes.
A farm boy who hated Latin, the girl he called Miss Adorable, a dying man's last words in court, and the trial that could have ended his career.

Next: John Adams, Part 2: Remember the Ladies.

Chapters:
00:00 Cold open
01:41 The Farm Boy Who Hated Latin
04:21 Miss Adorable: John and Abigail
07:57 The Boston Massacre Trial
12:36 Facts Are Stubborn Things
15:34 The Road to Philadelphia
17:54 Wrap-up

Mr. President: The Untold Story. The presidents you think you know, told like a thriller. A new part every day, one president at a time.

Intro music: John Philip Sousa, The Stars and Stripes Forever, performed by "The President's Own" United States Marine Band (public domain).

Image credits: all images via Wikimedia Commons (public domain or CC0). Artists and sources include: John Singleton Copley; Gilbert Stuart; Benjamin Blyth; John Trumbull; Mather Brown; Samuel F. B. Morse; Charles Willson Peale; Thomas Sully; Joseph Siffred Duplessis; Paul Revere; Alonzo Chappel; Library of Congress; and unknown artists.

More from the Mr. President team: books, free tools, and writing services.
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0vR5CaOjBj3Bykefvqh0sQ | https://www.youtube.com/@MrPresidentUntoldStory
Books: https://payhip.com/DavidKaneBooks
Free calculators: https://calcsunny.com
Free audio tools: https://audioknife.calcsunny.com
Writing (memoir, business, self-help): https://www.fiverr.com/brightdesk_co

Before the secret ballot, Americans voted by saying their choice out loud in a crowded courthouse, often with free rum waiting outside. With the 2026 midterm elections coming up and Election Day on November 3, this is the true history of voting in America: how the right to vote was won, fought for and counted.

From George Washington's 1758 election to the secret ballot, women's suffrage and the 1913 suffrage parade, Selma and the Voting Rights Act, the Battle of Athens and the 36-day Florida recount of 2000, you'll see how elections work and how close some of them came. Nine stories, every one of them true. History only, nonpartisan.

New episodes every day on Spotify & YouTube.

Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY / CC BY-SA): Arniesc1, Maggie McCain, Mobilus In Mobili, ArielGlenn, Kenneth C. Zirkel, Tboyd5150, Reading Tom, Pauljoffe, Ktkvtsh, Jimmy Emerson, Ron Cogswell, Rochelle Hartman, Noah Wulf, Brian Stansberry, Minh Nguyen, Daniel Tobias (Dtobias), David from Washington DC, Douglas W. Jones, Jim.henderson, oscepa, Alex Johnson, Mrs. Gemstone. Other images public domain or free-licensed stock.

#Midterms #Midterms2026 #ElectionDay #Vote #Voting #VotingHistory #Election2026 #AmericanHistory #History #Democracy #VotingRights #HistoryPodcast

More from the Mr. President team: books, free tools, and writing services.
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0vR5CaOjBj3Bykefvqh0sQ | https://www.youtube.com/@MrPresidentUntoldStory
Books: https://payhip.com/DavidKaneBooks
Free calculators: https://calcsunny.com
Free audio tools: https://audioknife.calcsunny.com
Writing (memoir, business, self-help): https://www.fiverr.com/brightdesk_co

One coach, four horses and no bodyguard on a 1,900-mile road trip, yellow fever empties the capital, and his two brightest advisers turn on each other.
Plus the man behind the legend: his temper, his dancing, and the painful truth about his teeth.

Next: George Washington, Part 5: 'Tis Well.

Chapters:
00:00 Cold open
00:48 The Bow Window & the Oval Rooms
03:07 At the Speed of a Horse
04:35 Road Trip: One Coach, Four Horses
07:33 He Picked the Spot for the White House
09:59 Yellow Fever
11:21 Hamilton vs. Jefferson & a Whiskey Rebellion
13:41 Two Terms, Then Home
15:30 The Real Man Behind the Legend
18:27 The Teeth
21:43 Wrap-up

Mr. President: The Untold Story. The presidents you think you know, told like a thriller. A new part every day, one president at a time.

Calm, story-driven American history, great for learning or falling asleep to.

More from the Mr. President team: books, free tools, and writing services.
Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0vR5CaOjBj3Bykefvqh0sQ | https://www.youtube.com/@MrPresidentUntoldStory
Books: https://payhip.com/DavidKaneBooks
Free calculators: https://calcsunny.com
Free audio tools: https://audioknife.calcsunny.com
Writing (memoir, business, self-help): https://www.fiverr.com/brightdesk_co