Bestselling author and radio host Michael Medved recounts some of the most significant events in America’s rise to prosperity and power, from the writing of the Constitution to the Civil War. He reveals a record of improbabilities and amazements that demonstrate what the Founders always believed: that events unfolded according to a master plan, with destiny playing an unmistakable role in lifting the nation to greatness.
Leaving politics behind him, Sam Houston turned his back on a potential presidential campaign, cut connections with his Native American allies, and made his way to the wild frontier in the sparsely settled Mexican province of Texas. There, his background as a one-time war hero and Governor of Tennessee, led to his selection as "General in Chief" of a rag-tag army of American settlers willing to risk everything to overthrow Mexican rule. Despite a bloody disaster at the Alamo and mass slaughter at Goliad, the Yankee rebels hung together just long enough to confront the Mexican dictator, Santa Ana, who styled himself "The Savior of the Motherland" and "The Napoleon of the West." At San Jacinto, this vainglorious ego-maniac not only managed to lose the battle but found himself captured by Houston who, despite serious wounds in the course of leading his long-suffering troops, won a decisive, seemingly impossible victory. Within a generation, that triumph ended up increasing the land area of the United States by more than a third.
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7 Apr 2025
"IT WAS DONE BY THE GREAT SPIRIT" (Part 2)
Sam Houston, the dashing young Governor of Tennessee, looked like a solid bet for the presidential election of 1840 as the protégé of President Andrew Jackson, but some mysterious mishap on his wedding night with his teenaged bride blew up his promising marriage and career. He ran away from politics and rejoined the Cherokee band that had long ago adopted him as a former son. On the way, he burned his gubernatorial clothing in a ritual bonfire, but he began drinking heavily and self-destructively, and in fact took the Indian name meaning "Big Drunk." A brief trip to Washington to try to re-establish his political contact led to a brutal confrontation with a member of Congress who accused Sam of corruption, but wouldn't accept a duel to the death to settle the matter. Instead, Houston beat the corpulent Congressman with a Hickory walking stick he had carved at Andrew Jackson's home, the Hermitage. The resulting trial, in an open session of the House, became a national sensation but afterwards Sam decided to follow Davey Crocket's example and run away to Texas --- where he became a militia commander who won one of the most significant and unlikely military victories in all American history.
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23 Jan 2025
"BIG DRUNK" DISCOVERS LONE STAR LUCK (Part 1)
Texas might still be part of Mexico today if a rising Tennessee politician hadn't proven profoundly unlucky in love. Had Governor Sam Houston's infamous wedding night proceeded as planned, he would have become a credible candidate for president -- escaping dark years of depression and drunkenness, and avoiding the status of alcoholic exile that took him South of the border. As an adoptive member of the Cherokee tribe, he became the most unlikely and indispensable founder of the independent if short-lived Republic of Texas.
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Apple Podcasts (US)
4.3 / 5
41 ratings
Spotify
4.6 / 5
11 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 11 / 100
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Quality
2
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
50
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