![[Abridged] Presidential Histories - 45.A) The rhetoric of Donald Trump, an interview with Jennifer Mercieca](https://storage.buzzsprout.com/tl0hd57uzysfc7brkh26z9taoqob?.avif)
45.A) The rhetoric of Donald Trump, an interview with Jennifer Mercieca
[Abridged] Presidential Histories
01/20/25
•50m
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Donald Trump does not talk like a politician. But where some hear truth telling, and others hear something unhinged, professor Jennifer Mercieca hears a consistent rhetorical strategy designed to bind audiences to Trump and sever them from everyone else.
A strategy good enough to win the presidency not just once, but twice.
Communication professor Jennifer Mercieca, author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump, discusses the six techniques Trump uses to cast a spell on his audiences.
Previous Episode
43.) George W Bush 2001-2009
January 6, 2025
•59m
"I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." - George W Bush, World Trade Center Site, September 14, 2001
George W. Bush did not get the presidency he thought he would. He expected to be the tax, entitlement, and education reform guy. Not the war on terror guy.
But the deadliest attack in World History will do that to you.
Follow along as Bush rides a privileged upbringing to the Texas Governorship, wins the White House after the most controversial election of the past 150 years, then struggles with how to keep Americans safe in the years after 9/11 and how to stave off economic armageddon when the 2008 financial crisis sends the global economy into a free fall.
Bibliography
1. Bush - Jean Edward Smith
2. Obama: The Call of History - Peter Baker
3. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush – Jon Meacham
Next Episode
43.A) An Afghan Story, an interview with Sahba Azami
January 27, 2025
•38m
Sahba Azami was born an Afghan refugee.
Today, she's an Afghan refugee once more.
But, for nearly 20 years, she was not a refugee. She was simply an Afghan. And the future was bright.
Brought back to the country of her parents' birth after the United States toppled the Taliban, Sahba joined a vanguard of young women who were going to make the most of the precious opportunity that had been denied every generation of Afghan women before them -- She pursued an education.
Sahba graduated college. She graduated law school. She joined the Afghan president's administration. She was building a new country.
But then the Taliban returned.
It's an odd thing to realize: Sahba's life has almost certainly been more dramatically changed and changed again by the decisions of American presidents than my own, but it's a realization I can't shake. The decision of American presidents made it possible for Sahba to return to Afghanistan and pursue an education. The decisions of American presidents contributed to Afghanistan's collapse, separating her from her family, and making her a refugee in a faraway land.
But still, she dreams.
Today, she shares her story.
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