In the mid-1970s, the Republican Party looked on the verge of self-destruction. Until 1976. A political earthquake: A cutthroat, razor-close, deeply personal battle for the Republican nomination, and the party's identity. It resurrected the GOP, remade it as a conservative party, and pulled the country sharply to the right. Landslide is the story of the closest presidential primary race in American history, what followed, and how it reshaped the political parties — opening the partisan rifts that divide us today. Hosted by award-winning public radio journalist Ben Bradford.
Historically, societies fall. Civilizations collapse. But is that what’s happening now in the United States? With the help of historians, a former CIA-funded researcher on political instability, and one grumbling dad, Ben Bradford looks at the warning signs that can precede collapse — from polarization and political division to outside shocks and cascading crises. How much of that is visible in America right now? What would collapse actually look like in modern life? And if the alarms are blinking, is there still time to turn back?
Listen to more of the new series from the creator of Landslide! (https://pod.link/launch?showId=1893359212)
10 Feb 2026TRANSCRIPT
Introducing the American Storytelling collection
NPR introduces the American Storytelling collection, which gathers diverse narratives from local stations to explore the evolving American identity through personal experiences and historical events.
27 Feb 2025TRANSCRIPT
Engines of Outrage Pt. 4
How does the internet work to polarize us on an individual level?
As tech and media companies, battle for online engagement, they feed their users — they feed us — content that will grab attention, elicit emotion, and confirm existing beliefs. In a way, it traps everyone in their own bespoke bubble, often without our realizing it.
After previous episodes analyzed the right-wing media ecosystem, Landslide: Engines of Outrage now turns to look outside of it, offering tools for all of us to diagnose our own information diets and fight back against the incentives of an internet built to polarize.
Created and hosted by Ben Bradford.
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20 Feb 2025TRANSCRIPT
Engines of Outrage Pt. 3
Librarians in Ukraine. Rural newspapers. A tweak to social media algorithms. The infrastructure of a political campaign. All of these offer lessons about how to beat back misinformation and conspiracy theories. But are they enough to pierce the right-wing media bubble?
This episode looks at solutions — from the anodyne to the unsavory — to defuse the engines of outrage and ultimately bring Americans back to a shared reality.
Created and hosted by Ben Bradford.
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13 Feb 2025TRANSCRIPT
Engines of Outrage Pt. 2
In the early 2000s, key tech companies made a series of choices that shaped the future of the internet. They "gave away"" their products "for free." From an initial tweak to Facebook's NewsFeed to conspiracy theories about permanent markers in the 2020 election, that decision — and the relentless hunt for engagement that followed — paved the way for outrage-fueled content, viral conspiracy theories, and polarizing misinformation. And it all supercharged a right-wing media bubble inflated by the same forces.
Part Two of "Landslide: Engines of Outrage" explores how the internet, profit motives, human psychology, and political benefit are fusing together to widen our political divide.
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6 Feb 2025TRANSCRIPT
Engines of Outrage Pt. 1
Just a few decades ago most people used — and trusted — the same news sources. Now, Americans are siloed in separate ecosystems, consuming conflicting depictions of reality. Misinformation runs rampant. Conspiracy theories flourish. And extremism grows. What can bring us back to a shared, fact-based understanding?
A new miniseries from Landslide explores America's information divide — starting with a coordinated campaign in the early 1970s to undermine the press, and the alternate media ecosystem that followed.
Created and hosted by Ben Bradford.
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3 Jul 2024TRANSCRIPT
The Exoneration of Richard Nixon
f the new Supreme Court decision, Trump v. U.S., had applied back in 1974, could President Richard Nixon have been prosecuted for Watergate? Or would the decision shield Nixon from criminal charges? In this special bonus episode of Landslide, host Ben Bradford explores the scope of the new ruling by looking back at the case against Nixon, the charges he looked likely to face without a pardon, and whether his most brazen actions could today be admitted into a court. Has history proven Nixon correct when he said, "When the president does it, that means it is not illegal?" University of Chicago law professor and legal historian Alison LaCroix joins.
Show notes:
The interview references this 1974 article from The New York Times, describing the evidence against Nixon that led to articles of impeachment: https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/09/archives/the-case-against-richard-nixon-a-catalogue-of-charges-and-his.html
A draft indictment crafted by the Department of Justice in early 1974 shows criminal charges Nixon may have faced if not for the pardon issued by his successor, President Gerald Ford: https://www.archives.gov/files/research/investigations/watergate/roadmap/docid-70105876.pdf
- Short Feed Episode Description: The new Supreme Court decision may have offered Nixon immunity for Watergate and his administration's most brazen actions.
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2 May 2024TRANSCRIPT
When Money Became Speech
After Watergate, both parties cracked down on political spending with a new, strict campaign finance law. But instead of money in politics shrinking, it exploded. In this bonus episode, historian Marc C. Johnson joins Landslide host Ben Bradford to talk about what happened, the legal saga that threw open the doors to spending by outside groups, and how it radically changed not just presidential campaigns, but every race for federal office.
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25 Apr 2024TRANSCRIPT
New Right TV
Before Fox News, the grassroots conservative activists known as "the New Right" spent decades attempting — and failing — to launch their own television news channel. In this bonus episode, Purdue historian Kathryn Cramer Brownell chronicles the New Right's TV efforts, why they failed, and how it all ultimately culminated in a stunning success — the creation of today's media ecosystem. Other tidbits include Richard Nixon's news obsession, a conservative wine show, and a "fight for survival" at CBS.A production of NuanceTales, in partnership with WFAE, distributed by the NPR Network.NuanceTales: https://www.nuancetales.com/WFAE: https://www.wfae.org/landslideNPR: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510376/landslide
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18 Apr 2024TRANSCRIPT
Making Abortion Partisan
Even in the years after Roe vs. Wade, the issue of abortion did not divide the political parties — or most Americans. But as Reagan, the New Right, and the Christian Right took control in the Republican Party, they saw its potential to galvanize voters. In this bonus episode, legal historian Mary Ziegler joins Landslide host Ben Bradford to trace how abortion transformed from a muted sectarian issue with blurry, sometimes bizarre battle lines into today's explosive, polarizing wedge issue.
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4 Apr 2024TRANSCRIPT
Landslide
Four years later. Jimmy Carter is now an embattled president, unpopular and facing a tough primary challenge. Meanwhile, Ronald Reagan storms to the Republican nomination, while wooing a powerful new bloc of voters into his conservative coalition — the Christian Right. Still, amid worries that Reagan is too extreme and too old, the 1980 general election remains tight until the very end. How did it lead to an ideological sea change in American politics?
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28 Mar 2024TRANSCRIPT
Outsider
Bruised after the primaries, the unpopular Ford looks headed for a blowout defeat in the 1976 general election. But his campaign adopts a clever strategy, and Carter struggles in the spotlight as the frontrunner. Gaffes, attack ads, Playboy magazine, and a new institution — a series of presidential debates — build to a razor-close election. It marks a turning point for the types of candidates America will elect.
Hosted by Ben Bradford. A production of NuanceTales, in partnership with WFAE, distributed by the NPR Network.
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21 Mar 2024TRANSCRIPT
Ordinary Man
An unexpected contender ambushes the Democratic field. The one-term Georgia governor Jimmy Carter has planned a campaign of military precision for the Democratic nomination. With a wide grin, cold blood, and a dose of luck, he rises from unknown to the 1976 nomination. But he leaves questions in his wake, even as he establishes a new paradigm for Democratic presidential candidates: the small-government outsider.
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14 Mar 2024TRANSCRIPT
Shootout
With the primaries over, the nomination hangs in the hands of a few remaining "unbound" delegates. Ford and Reagan scramble to win them over, as the battle to lead the Republican Party — and to decide its direction — comes down to a national convention known as the Shoot-Out in Kansas City. There, a series of gambits, promises, and betrayals culminates with a nominee, a conservative platform, and the modern GOP.
Hosted by Ben Bradford. A production of NuanceTales, in partnership with WFAE, distributed by the NPR Network.
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7 Mar 2024TRANSCRIPT
The New Right
The 1976 Republican primary looks finished. After a string of losses to Ford, Reagan's aides prepare to concede. But a network of right-wing groups has quietly organized, drumming up anger over integration, women's rights, gun laws, and textbooks. It is known as the New Right, and it will help spring an improbable comeback that will change the battle lines of American politics.
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29 Feb 2024TRANSCRIPT
Lightweight
The idea that Ronald Reagan can win is laughable. "Suicidal," writes the New York Times. Too extreme, too gaffe-prone, too unserious a candidate, the faded former actor has no chance to unseat the sitting president in the primaries — and if he does it will signal the end of the Republican Party. But Reagan seizes a message that entwines optimism and culture war, the power of which was not fully appreciated at the time.
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22 Feb 2024TRANSCRIPT
Trust
Gerald Ford had planned to retire. But in the days and weeks after Watergate, the new president looks to rebuild Americans' collapsing trust in their government. His attempts to cool partisan tempers prove poisonously divisive. A conservative mutiny brews within his own political party, and a former actor leads a challenge against him — Ronald Reagan.
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12 Feb 2024TRANSCRIPT
Introducing Landslide
When President Richard Nixon resigns in disgrace, three unlikely candidates emerge to fill the vacuum: Gerald Ford, savvy veteran of partisan wars. Ronald Reagan, fringe reactionary. Jimmy Carter, cutthroat political animal. These presidents aren't who you thought they were, and their battles against each other redefined the American political landscape. The result: the hot-button issues, the culture war, and the path to the partisan divide we live with today. For those wondering what happened to American politics and what forces have driven our current division, Landslide is essential listening, and a compelling, stunning true story.
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Inside a recent episode
Introducing the American Storytelling collection
Published 10 Feb 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] We have created a collection of shows sourced from local newsrooms across the country, each one making the case against a single American story. Instead, we hear America as a cacophony of narratives, ideas and points of view. It's a sound that swells with many voices. We'll hear them in a show called Inheriting about Asian -American and Pacific Islander families shaped by war and immigration. I'm afraid that when I die, my soul cannot find a Vietnam. We'll hear them in a show called Road to Rickwood about how Birmingham, Alabama's civil rights story played out in America's oldest ballpark. And, in a show called Extremely American, about far -right groups trying to remake America in their absolutist image. […]
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