187 - Debating Your Way Into Greatness Part 2
How far can the power of persuasion take us? And does money win over substance every time?
In this episode we pick up where we left off with the life of William Jennings Bryan, the Great Orator, by diving into his early career as a lawyer and his surprising approach to making money. Most notably how he argued his way into a job as a saloon debt collector, despite being a staunch Baptist who abstained from drinking. How did Bryan convince a room full of skeptics, including drunks, to pay their tabs to a man who didn’t believe in alcohol? What else can we learn from his ability to win over the most unlikely of allies?
Then, we turn our attention to Bryan’s rise as a populist politician. We’ll set the stage for his most famous speech, The Cross of Gold, which won him his place in Congress as Nebraska’s first Democratic representative. Then we’ll talk about his presidential campaigns, and how Bryan’s opponents weaponized their vast wealth against him. Then, despite losing three presidential campaigns, Bryan’s career takes a turn for the ‘legendary’ and leads him to glory and riches on the public speaking circuit, then to a position on Woodrow Wilson’s presidential cabinet, and finally to a small town where a school teacher is about to challenge the government over the right to teach evolution in school.
Join us as we explore the trials, triumphs, and enduring legacy of William Jennings Bryan, and compare his era of gentleman politics to the sorry state of Youtube debaters and mainstream outrage media that has flourished in the internet age.
Links:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1895643?seq=6
https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/the-cross-of-gold-speech/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDQsCUqO6jk&ab_channel=TheSpurlockMuseumofWorldCultures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud1ANAF9pW8&ab_channel=Wisecrack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLfr7sU5W2E&ab_channel=60Minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfsjXIewIHs&ab_channel=HistoryThatDoesn%27tSuck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGN0l1QdoiM&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZhVPEZETCU&ab_channel=RobertGreene