HistorySociety & Culture

It Was Said

Audacy Podcasts | The HISTORY Channel

It Was Said, the 2021 Webby Award winner for Best Podcast Series, takes a look back on some of the most powerful and timeless speeches in history. Written and narrated by Pulitzer Prize winning and best-selling historian Jon Meacham, this documentary podcast takes you through generation-defining speeches. Meacham, along with top historians, authors and journalists, offers expert insight and analysis into the origins, the orator, and the context of the times each speech was given, and reflect on why it’s important to never forget them.

It Was Said is an Audacy original in association with The HISTORY® Channel.

Play

Open in

20 episodes
Avg 28 min
English

Episodes 20

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

Oct 18, 2023 · 3 min
Introducing About A Boy: The Story of Vladimir Putin
In the West, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is always seen as one of two things: KGB spy or judo master. But to anyone who’s ever lived in the Soviet Union, Putin is something else entirely: a street kid. Join journalist Julia Ioffe as she explores how Putin’s childhood taught him lessons that shape his thinking and actions to this day.
S2 · E10
Nov 23, 2022 · 27 min
Eleanor Roosevelt, and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Eleanor Roosevelt champions the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a foundational document proclaiming that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
S2 · E9
Nov 16, 2022 · 28 min
FDR’s Pearl Harbor Address
Franklin D. Roosevelt asks Congress for a declaration of war against Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor – a date, he says, which will live in infamy.
S2 · E8
Nov 9, 2022 · 32 min
Frederick Douglass, What To The Slave Is The Fourth of July?
Frederick Douglass delivers a searing speech on the Fourth of July, summoning the nation to remedy the contradiction between slavery and the founding principles of the United States.
S2 · E7
Nov 2, 2022 · 26 min
Margaret Chase Smith’s Declaration of Conscience
Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith breaks with partisan orthodoxy to take a stand against the demagoguery of Joseph McCarthy.
S2 · E6
Oct 26, 2022 · 32 min
Ronald Reagan's D-Day Commemoration
Ronald Reagan commemorates the 40th anniversary of D-day. Linking past and present, he harks back to the landing in Normandy to revive a sense of American greatness and strength.
S2 · E5
Oct 19, 2022 · 26 min
Nelson Mandela, I Am Prepared To Die
Nelson Mandela stands trial for challenging the apartheid regime in South Africa. Speaking from the defendant’s dock at Pretoria, he defiantly declares that he is prepared to die to achieve a democratic and free society.
S2 · E4
Oct 12, 2022 · 25 min
Margaret Thatcher, The Lady’s Not For Turning
Margaret Thatcher resolves not to change course despite mounting criticism of her economic policy in Britain. The lady's not for turning, she said.
S2 · E3
Oct 5, 2022 · 28 min
Theodore Roosevelt, Man In The Arena
Theodore Roosevelt, speaking at the Sorbonne in Paris, outlines the vital role and responsibility of the ordinary citizen in a republic.
S2 · E2
Sep 28, 2022 · 26 min
John F. Kennedy, We Choose To Go To The Moon
John F. Kennedy delivers a historic speech at Rice University on his daring and uncertain mission to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
S2 · E1
Sep 28, 2022 · 25 min
Winston Churchill, The Finest Hour
Confronted with the impending threat of Nazi invasion, Winston Churchill outlines the stakes of the war and rallies the British people to fight on against seemingly insurmountable odds.
Sep 22, 2022 · 2 min
Welcome to It Was Said, Season 2, with Jon Meacham
Welcome to Season Two of It Was Said, a documentary podcast series that looks back on 10 of the most powerful, impactful and timeless speeches in American history. Written and narrated by Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author-historian, Jon Meacham, created, directed and produced by C13Originals Studios, in association with HISTORY Channel.
S1 · E10
Oct 28, 2020 · 31 min
John F. Kennedy, A Summons To Service
Ep 10: On a bright and snowy morning a young president summons a nation and a generation to the work of history with his enduring inaugural address.
S1 · E9
Oct 21, 2020 · 36 min
John Lewis, We Want Our Freedom Now
Ep 9: A twenty three year old John Lewis, speaking at the March On Washington, calls a nation to moral account. He didn’t want to be patient, he said. He wanted freedom now.
S1 · E8
Oct 14, 2020 · 24 min
Hillary Clinton, Women’s Rights Are Human Rights
Ep 8: In the tradition of Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Rodham Clinton travels to Beijing to argue that women’s rights are human rights, setting new global priorities.
S1 · E7
Oct 7, 2020 · 28 min
Barbara Jordan, Your Keynote Speaker
Ep 7: A daughter of the segregated south, Barbara Jordan, keynotes the Democratic National Convention of 1976. It was America’s bicentennial, and Jordan was a voice born in one nation speaking to the hopes of a better nation to come.
S1 · E6
Sep 30, 2020 · 42 min
Edward R. Murrow Fights for Free Press
Ep 6: A demagogic politician, exaggerated claims, an insatiable thirst for attention and controversy, and a national climate of fear and anxiety. How Edward R. Murrow took on Senator Joseph McCarthy. Special thanks to The Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Marquette University Libraries
S1 · E5
Sep 23, 2020 · 42 min
Ronald Reagan’s Farewell Address
Ep 5: Ronald Reagan brings his long American odyssey to a close in his presidential farewell address, an evocation of America as a shining city on a hill. A nation that builds not walls but bridges.
S1 · E4
Sep 16, 2020 · 34 min
Meghan McCain, and Her Father’s America
Ep 4: Meghan McCain delivers a provocative eulogy for her father, the war hero and senator, John McCain, at Washington National Cathedral. It was a speech at once elegiac and resonant in the age of Trump.
S1 · E3
Sep 9, 2020 · 39 min
President Obama's Charleston Sermon
Ep 3: Barack Obama goes to Charleston, South Carolina in the wake of a white supremacist’s massacre of innocents at Emanuel AME Church. In word and in song the 44th President contemplates tragedy and grace.

Showing 1–20 of 20 episodes