American Presidents: Totalus Rankium

Herbert Hoover lives an action packed life full of contradictions. Join us as we try and figure out who this man is. A robber Barron? A great humanitarian? A populist? A progressive? A massive racist? And also, will he be ready for the upcoming great crash?

We found it hard to figure out Coolidge last episode, but maybe this episode will clear things up. Find out what he got up to as president! Oh, and there is a vibrating horse and a rampaging bear in it. 

Coolidge may be a man with hidden depths, but if he is, they are ocean-trench deep. Join us as we try and figure out if Coolidge has a dry wit and worked hard to get the top job, or he is a robot with a lot of luck.

Harding was never more popular than the day after he died, and then it all started to go wrong for him. So why has Harding's reputation taken such a battering in the last 100 years. Find out as we continue the Amazing Adventures of Warren and Jerry!

At last we come to harding. Harding may not have stood tall in US history, but he does make a bit of a splash. In this episode we got stuck into what makes Harding an interesting, if not nice man.

Wilson is in the Whitehouse. He has a simple plan: make the USA a better place to live in and stay out of the World War. Oh, and he'd quite like to do some racist stuff also. See which ones he manages! 

He is known as the president during WWI, but was there more to Wilson? What about his early life? Did he do anything other than study? Not really, but some interesting stuff happened around him, so join us and find out!

It's not easy to follow a president like Teddy Roosevelt. It's even harder when that Teddy Roosevelt decides that perhaps you are no longer up to the job. Taft was going to find this hard even with his friend's help, now it's unlikely he will survive. 

William Taft is an often overlooked president. Possibly because he seemed to sail through life with people shoving doors open for his sail boat (metaphors getting a bit mixed there). But this does not mean he is not interesting! This episode we cover his early life and what was going on in the Philippines at the turn of the century.

Last time TR seemed to do just about everything there is to do - now he is off to war! Find out how he achieved fame in Cuba and goes on to become the president against his own parties wishes. NOTE - in our excitement, we added his score wrong - take 1 point off what we say at the end. EDIT: Episode edited and updated. In the orginal Lieutenant Ord's ethnicity was incorrectly identified as black....

Where do we start with Theodore Roosevelt? We decided on his birth, but it's a struggle fitting everything in after that. Join us as we look at arguably the most action packed life of any president!

William McKinley is not winning any points for being an interesting person (literally - spoilers) but he did live in interesting times. Join us as we manage to skirt round diving in depth on tariffs and instead discuss The American-Spanish war, the lesser known American-Philippine war and William’s fun day out at the fair.

We are back up  and running after a pesky pandemic knocked us down for a bit! Recording from our individual homes, we cover the early life of William McKinley. Is there more to this man than he loved a tariff? Join us as we revisit Haye's diaries and Rob introduces Jamie to the joys of Bruce Springsteen! 

Did you know that the United States of America was ruled by an emperor for 21 years during the 19th century? Well, it was. This is a one off special episode on the amazing Emperor Norton I while we try to get to grips with recording while on lockdown.

Just a little update to let you all know how we are and what our plans are.

We are half way! And what better way to celebrate than to chat through our rankings so far with the wonderful Jerry Landry from the Presidencies Podcast. Not only that, but we answer your questions (read in a variety of different accents by Jamie!) What more could you want?

Benjamin has navigated through a life full of war, politics and cucumbers, but now he faces his biggest challenge: to live up to his grandfather's memory and lead the United States as president. However, it would appear the solution to everything is... tariffs! Listen while Rob attempts to convince Jamie that talking about tariffs is important!

Benjamin Harrison is the grandson of a former president, but that does not mean he has it all easy. He has to contend with forbidden cucumbers, William Wallace and grave robbers before he can even start to think about becoming president himself.

Big Steve is now in the white house, and he has his mind on one thing: his dead friend’s daughter. Once married however, he settles down to some good old fashioned tariff debate. Don’t worry though, we talk about plenty of other things: ballbat, the new colossus, rail strikes and open yacht surgery!

Grover Cleveland, or Big Steve to his friends, wanted to be a lawyer. So when he uncle gave him the opportunity he went for it. From then on he goes from one job to the next until he finds himself president! Shame about all the skeletons in the cupboard…

Chester Arthur finds himself the first unwilling president of the United States. The bad news: He has done nothing but embrace a corrupt form of government his whole adult life - and now finds himself pushed to the top by a man who killed another president to allow this system to continue. The good news: He has a mighty moustache. Let's see how we rank him!

Arthur is not the most well known of presidents, but that does not mean he did not achieve much in his early life. Who else managed this level of corruption? Who else could claim to benefit from the patronage system so well? Who else was so much of a Conkling man? He may be a coaster, but damn it, he could coast like the best of them. 

Garfield is now president and is ready to deal with all the issues facing modern America. We spend this episode looking into how he deals with the corruption that is rife within the political - Hang on! What’s that!?    Looks like we have something else to focus on this episode…

Our first Viking president! it's James Garfield. He is not very well known, but perhaps he is a hidden gem. Find out how his adventures on the seven seas went, his time during the war and discover just exactly why that money was 'resting' in his account.

We are very lucky this week to be talking to the writers of the amazing  1865 podcast , an audio drama set in the aftermath of the assassination of Lincoln. Steven Walters and Erik Archilla have spent years getting into the heads of the characters of that time, including Lincoln and Johnson, so we decided to ask them their thoughts on the two presidents we have ranked best and worst so far respect...