The Other Lindsay Graham: History, Hollywood & the Voice of America’s Past | Engel Angle

It's January 23rd, 2026, and I just got all my Christmas shopping done for this year.
Mac, Engle, full word, start, telegram, Engle, angle podcast here in the sunset lounge.
Thanks for joining me.
Before I introduce my great guest, I'm going to share with you a funny anecdote that this
just happened to me.
A week or two ago, when I was wearing this shirt, you know, you can only see part of it.
You can't see the back of it.
I'll show it here in a second.
So this shirt, I was a victim of my algorithm.
I clicked on this link.
I'm a University of Kansas under Gradle on, I got my graduate degree from TCU.
It's very important that I tell everybody that don't bother asking what I got the graduate
degree in.
I got my undergrad at Kansas.
And so occasionally, like any alum, I've got some Kansas stuff here and there.
And occasionally I will, I like, oh, I like kind of a unique vintage e-throwback stuff
because it reminds me of my childhood and I'm kind of a sucker for that stuff.
So I come across this shirt that is a replica of the 1958 University of Kansas men's basketball
near my top.
That's what this is.
So the back of it, it says Kansas, but at the front of it, if you just see the front
of it, it's an off-white with red at the end of the sleeves with a blue, red, and blue
stripe V down the middle.
So if you just see from the front of it and the lighting's maybe not very good, you think
it's, you think it's basically a top that evil, can evil war, the infamous, pardon me,
not infamous.
The infamous stunt devil stunt man motorcycle rider from the 70s and I think 80s too.
So I'm wearing this because it's kind of warm and I'm at kind of a sports bar in Austin,
Texas with a bunch of parents after our daughter's, I guess, soccer game.
And the place is pretty crowded.
And this guy from the opposite side of the bar comes up to me and he says, hey, man, would
you give me a favor?
I've got a, I've got a beer tab writing on this that your evil, can evil son.
I'm like, what, he doesn't introduce himself, nothing as he's, I've got a beer bell tab
writing on this that your evil, can evil son.
And the group, and I'm like, oh, because it's the sure.
And he said, yeah, yeah, I've got everybody believe in that your evil, can evil son.
I said, I said, this isn't an evil, can evil shirt.
It's a Kansas, J. Hawk thing.
And I show it to him.
He's like, it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
He said, just, I need you to sign this autograph that that your evil, can evil son.
So I stand with my phone.
I said, yeah, sure, whatever you need.
So I Google evil, can evil in his autograph.
And I grabbed like something, I don't even know what it was.
And I kind of do a bad job of doing the, the autograph, I give it to him, goes across
the bar.
And then five minutes later, now everybody over there is clearly drunk.
And everybody, and one of the guys, five minutes later, comes up to me, got probably
five, eight years younger than me, he says, hey, man, I just got to tell you, I didn't
think it was you, but you know, I don't, and he's kind of stumbling through it.
And he says, I didn't, you know, I didn't want to believe it was you, but I got to tell
you, man, I loved watching your dad.
I have such great memories of watching your dad doing the motorcycle jumps and all that.
I just, when I saw you over there, just brought back all these memories, and now I'm feeling
kind of bad.
And I said, do you really think I'm, I said, do you think I'm evil, can evil son?
He said, yeah, aren't you?
And I said, well, let's look again, he's kind of drunk, and there's only like nine o'clock.
I don't even know if it was nine o'clock yet.
So I pull up on my phone, evil, can evil son, Robbie, in a picture of him.
I looked nothing like Robbie, or evil, can evil for that matter.
And more to the point, and I thought this was right, I said, evil, can evil son has been
dead for some time.
So this guy's now crestfallen that I had not Robbie, can evil, evil, can evil son.
However, we did in about two minutes realize that we had a friend in common, someone that
I used to work with at the Fort Worth Star Telegram and a guy he graduated with in the University
of Texas.
The moral of the story is with you wear little, I guess, gimmicky shirts like this sometimes
that are a bit of a bit, and they're kind of fun.
Somebody's going to bother you with it.
So even though I am sorry to say that I am not evil, can evil or Robbie, can evil, I am
however happy to participate in a prank to pull off someone getting free beer for an
evening because I love history.
And my guess today is an example of that.
Mr. Lindsey Graham, not that Lindsey Graham.
The other Lindsey Graham is a famous podcaster out of Dallas.
And if you are a podcast person and you're a history person, which I am, you might be
familiar with three of the most popular history podcasts going.
And they are all hosted by Mr. Lindsey Graham.
They are American history tellers, American scandal, history daily, and he does business
movers as well.
This has been something that Mr. Graham fell into a number of years ago by chance.
And as the whole podcast genre was slowly exploding, he caught, he caught on to that.
And he turned what was kind of a side hustle into a very nice, successful career.
He's a really talented guy, really nice guy.
And a handful of years ago, I was quarantined.
So I couldn't go anywhere.
And I thought, I'll reach out to him and see, see if I can interview him and he couldn't
have been any nicer.
I reached out to him.
I interviewed him.
And then I wasn't able to write the column for the Fort Worth Star Telegram for some
time.
I don't know why I just, I just didn't.
And then it kind of took off.
It helped get, maybe I don't know, maybe it got him a little bit more attention, maybe
not.
But the point is, this guy has been really successful in the podcast genre.
And to me, I liken him to some of the great historians, you know, in terms of like David
McCullough, Steven Ambrose, people like that, others too, but those are two that jump
off the top of my head.
Anyways, Lindsey has done just a terrific job.
And if you are a fan of a history podcast, and even if you want to figure out a little
about how to do it yourself, Lindsey, Lindsey story is how you do it.
And some of its luck, but a lot of its talent and ability and a lot of it is hard work.
But since then, he's gone to develop all these very successful podcasts.
And now he's going to go on the road on March 6th.
He will go on the road for his first of what will be many live shows of days that made
America.
He's going to be a live show.
In this case, March 6th at the Grenada Theater in Dallas, Texas.
You can find, you can find more information about this at history daily dot live, history
daily dot live.
We'll go to his website, Lindsey Graham dot com.
That's L-I-N-D-S-A-Y-G-R-A-H-A-M dot com.
That's days that made America.
It's March 6th Grenada Theater.
Theater shows include dates for dates not set, but locations, Washington DC, Philadelphia
and New York City.
It's going to be a complete show with live music and performances.
And if you're a history geek, I imagine it's going to be a lot of fun.
Anyways, without further ado, please welcome Lindsey Graham.
Lindsey, is that a picture of President Washington behind you?
That is George, the one and only.
So when we spoke how many years has it been since we spoke five or four, I can't recall.
It's been a while, for sure.
And there's parts to this interview and conversation that I didn't get to pursue.
And that is, I don't think I asked you whether or not history, are you actually a history
buff?
Are you a guy who reads books about submarines?
Oddly enough, I read several books about submarines and submarines in particular.
But the answer to your question is a surprising sort of.
So I went to college and immediately declared myself a history major, because I thought
I would be a history teacher, probably because all of my best teachers were history teachers.
And I guess I didn't have that much of a broad spectrum view of what was available to
me as a profession.
But yeah, I loved history.
I followed history.
I ended up getting my degree in business instead and kind of went down that track instead
of any pursuit of history.
My interest in history was rekindled through a podcast opportunity.
I mean, the Hernan Lopez, the CEO and founder of Wondry, he was the one who asked me kind
of a point of plan, he said, hey, I've got this podcast idea, you're a history buff.
And I joke that that's a question you just say yes to when a job opportunity is there.
So yeah, it's been there.
But I was never like the dad who was asking for history books for Father's Day, right?
So when take me back to when you were at SMU, you were in the marketing department, is
that right?
Yes.
I was in marketing for development.
So fundraising fundraising.
And then you were doing, I think, marketing for an insurance company.
Is that right?
That's true as well.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, but you were also doing some, weren't you doing some voiceover work for commercials
or radio and whatnot?
Is that, do I have that right?
No.
I have never done voiceover work at all until all of a sudden I was doing a whole bunch
of it on podcasts.
Okay.
So this is the part that I can't quite figure out because it has someone who consumes podcasts
a lot.
I know how important it is that you better be attracted to that voice.
And you have a terrific voice.
How did you develop it or were you just naturally born with it?
I don't know.
I mean, like it sounds horribly pretentious to say I was naturally born for it.
But I can't point to too much ounce.
You know what I think it is.
So I got into podcasts through audio, through music.
I play instruments.
I compose music.
I did a lot of post-production work for commercials and stuff like that.
But always on the side.
It's been a grossing hobby for decades.
So maybe I just know what I think sounds good.
And after all of these years of listening to things critically, other people playing
music, myself playing music, and maybe I just have a critical ear for what sounds good.
I think the timbre of my voice, that's certainly something I've just been born with, is pleasant.
But I've never been taught anything, breath control or anything else.
I probably desperately need some formal training.
But yeah, it's all been kind of just guessing and listening.
Did you ever go back when you were starting out at this and force yourself to listen to
yourself as a means of improvement?
Or has this been something, Lindsay, that you were just kind of good at?
I have only in my later years really discovered something that I should have known a lot
earlier.
And that is practice works.
And I hope some of your audience is laughing at this same realization.
But yeah, working on things makes things better.
That said, I really didn't focus at all on the narration side of things too much.
Because I think in the moment, I was paying a lot of attention to it.
And I just kind of dove in feet first.
It was an incredible out-of-left field opportunity to do this.
And I didn't know what I was doing or how long it would, you know, I'd be doing it.
I think I was just too caught up to actually think about it too much in the beginning.
Since then, I've had years and years and years and years of narrating and listening to my
voice and thinking carefully about it.
I think I've picked it up a little bit.
When you were starting out and you were kind of kicking this around, did you have a point
where you thought, okay, this is a nice side hustle.
I can make a few extra however many dollars that will supplement my income to help us
stop me out with my spouse or my child.
Or did you have the thought where, no, this can be a career.
Yeah.
So that insurance company that I was working at, they fired me and that turned out to
be a blessing because I went off on my own and tried to find my entrepreneurial spirit
and started a small audio company.
That actually did not work out too well.
We tried to do audio books and that is a tough business.
It's low margin and high volume and just kind of drag you down.
So I ended up tailed between my legs going back to SMU and that's when this strange call
from Wondery came in because I had done some audio podcast work for them in this adventure
on my own.
But I didn't think anything was really going to happen and history tellers was something
they pitched to me and asked if I would narrate and do all the sound design for.
It took off, did really well in its very first weeks after its debut and well, frankly,
I was making more money with this one podcast than I was at SMU working full time.
Real kidding.
Yeah.
So already it wasn't a side hustle.
It was a career.
But he was a, a perilous one, you know, how long is this going to last?
Who the hell listens to podcasts?
You know, this is 2018, it's, you know, podcasts are podcasts are barely mainstream.
And I had already just put my wife through the ringer, having done this entrepreneurial
audio, audiobooks thing, I wasn't about to say, guess what, I'm going to do it again.
So so four about six months, it was a kind of a grueling work, nine to five, but then
also nights and weekends crank out this podcast by myself.
And until I said, you know what, I cannot, we'll never be able to convince my wife that
I should quit my job and pay attention to American history tellers full time.
But if I had two podcasts, then then I have like a portfolio of podcasts and I could rely
on one, if the other one, you know, went away.
Miraculously, that logic seemed to appeal, or at least I was able to, to convince my wife
that it had some logic whatsoever.
And so I pitched and sold the concept for American scandal to Wondering.
And then when, when I had two podcasts and double the money, I did quit the, the 95 job
and became this weird full time podcaster.
Did anybody in Louisiana in your support system say to you, and specifically your spouse say,
I love you, but I'm not sure this is a great, great avenue, a great space to pursue as
a career for the reasons that you mentioned, nobody really knew the viability of it and
what it was.
Did anybody say, I'm not sure it's a great idea.
You know, I'm lucky that no one did.
But would somebody have talked to you out of it?
I'm sure someone easily could have talked me out of it.
I mean, I was, it really was not a, you know, it's not something your, your high school
counselor tells you you can sign up for.
But at the same time, I think my family and my wife in particular knew that I was not
happy in, you know, I had spent 10 years at SMU, I had this, you know, little adventure
at the insurance company, I went back to SMU.
This is, this is, you know, not a proud career trajectory.
So I think actually, you know, once, once this, you know, and I'm a spreadsheet guy, I'm
going to, you know, I'm going to model everything out, you know, to the nth degree and try and
predict the future forecast, whatever I can.
Once we looked at things, it was certainly dangerous, but at least, you know, I had contracts
that had, you know, a year or, you know, 18 months on them.
So we were, we had some security.
You know, when you, when you did do this, and I very, I remember the first time I fell
into your podcast, and I would go for long walks, and I would just, I really look forward
to listening to them.
And there was, I'll never forget the first time I listened to it, is when I heard you
narrating it, doing multiple actors or voices in just your own voice, and you and I
talked about this before, and that one kind of took me a second to get my head around,
but I quickly embraced it.
And I thought it was, I was like, oh, this is a good idea.
It really works because of your voice.
Was that your idea to be the single voice to multiple people in those podcasts, or did
somebody else say, hey, Lindsay, why don't you give this a shot?
No, it was, it was not my idea.
I thought like you, when I first heard it, it was weird.
Weird did not bad, not bad.
Well, I've come around to it.
No, that was, that was, again, her non's idea.
When he was first imagining the show, he had had some success with another history show
called Tides of History, and had some success with it.
A series of shows titled Behind Star Wars, or Behind the Poltergeist, it was Hollywood
stories.
And it was those that had a similar formula in which there's a single narrator that
kind of reenacts these kind of moments.
So he was taking that formula and applying it to the genre of history and expecting
me to do all, you know, to be able to pull it off.
I have no voice experience, no acting experience.
It was absolutely terrifying.
And I think actually because I was so frightened of, of the expectations that, that it works,
because I don't try to act, you know, I don't put on voices, I don't try to impersonate
Richard Nixon, or whoever, it might be.
In fact, I, it's more akin to an audiobook, or even better, a bedtime story, you know,
like it's just your parent reading you a book, you know, telling you that he says this,
she says this, and the voice isn't so different.
There are little things, little small modulations, pitch and pace and being aware of which character
has more power in the interaction that you can try and differentiate, you know, who's
talking.
And so honestly, I think I stumbled upon a very subtle way of getting myself through
those scenes, which doesn't require a lot of effort on my part, or a lot of skill on
my part, and not a lot of effort on, on the audience's part.
Once, and at some point you started to include other actors in the storytelling, and I,
I don't know which ones, I had to align if I said I remember this, I remember this one,
but you do include other actors.
Why did you decide to do that?
Not that it was bad, I just, if it, you had something that worked, and then you decided,
let's do this.
What was the decision making to include other voices in the storytelling?
I think if you went back and kind of noted which stories we were telling, you wouldn't
realize that the ones in which actors are used are, are very specific populations of people.
These are stories that belong to certain groups, and it was Wondries decision to include those
actors of those hairistages to tell their stories.
So if it's a particular, a very particular African American slave story, then we'll
hire African American actors to tell those to narrate, or rather to, to be those voices.
The American Filipino War was another one, Native Americans, so it's really an effort
to be inclusive of those voices.
It doesn't happen all the time, and it doesn't happen every instance in which a minority
of any sort is appears in the stories.
I have played four-year-olds and old women and plenty of men of all sorts of races and
creeds.
It's just when there's a particular story and a preponderance of, you know, I guess, point
of view.
So when I listen to these, I thought, well, obviously there's a lot of detail that goes
into this in terms of not just the production, but the writing.
When these started out, Lindsey, did you write any of the scripts or modify any of them,
or was the writing handled by writers?
Yeah, the writing is handled by writers.
Thank God.
You know, I have, well, you know, I have, I have three weekly podcasts plus a daily podcast.
Just the amount of writing would be impossible for anyone to do.
But early on, we were feeling it out for sure, and so there was a lot of writing and rewriting
and drafts, and I still improvise like crazy when I'm reading a script.
Do you really?
Oh, yeah.
Especially in the scenes.
Okay.
Well, you know, no, I am the first person on the planet to ever hear these words in the
air.
Right.
So it's my job as, as I guess, the first listener to make sure that they actually make
sense in the air.
I mean, what's on the page does not always translate to something out of the mouth.
So lots of alterations will happen.
It's rare now that big structural changes are made, but sometimes, you know, like just
the other day, I was doing a history tellers episode, and I kind of decided that the back
two paragraphs of act two really need to be the start of act three.
And so we'll, we'll move it around.
Are any of these stories or, or shows that you've done?
Have they been topics that you said, I want to do that one.
I want to do Spiro Agnews fall from grace as a potential presidential candidate or I want
to do something about the Civil War or have they all come from other people and even listeners
because I, I remember one time, I think on Twitter or something, I read, I sent you an email
I said, do this one.
And I had not interviewed you yet.
But have any of them come from you and said, that's a subject that interests me.
Let's do that one.
Well, sure.
Yeah.
A lot of them.
I'm trying to remember which ones.
I know for sure, the first series of, of both podcasts, American scandal and American
history tellers were my suggestions.
Actually, that's not quite true.
So the Cold War for American history tellers was the debut topic.
And I don't know if you remember, but it was early years of the first Trump administration
and he was rattling sabers with both Russia and North Korea.
Yeah.
It was this kind of perilous nuclear moment.
And I thought, you know, maybe we need to remind America that, that nukes are bad.
And, and, and that we had this, this Cold War tension, you know, for decades.
So that, that was the, you know, the topic of, of history tellers first topic.
I wanted to debut American scandal with Iran Contra.
That was a good one.
And we did it, but it turned out to be the third season of, of, of that show.
Gosh, I've done so many.
It's hard for me to keep track of.
But yeah, I, I, I make suggestions all the time.
So do listeners.
It's a, it's a pretty difficult vetting process.
You know, we have to go back and, and see what the literature, the research is, you know,
what research is available for the topic.
Does it, does it meet the narrative needs of these shows?
Because as you know, we, we really follow characters and try to find the people in the history.
It's not just a dry recitation of facts.
And so sometimes some very interesting historical moments don't have, don't have the necessary documentation.
Or are so complex or have so many different players that they're not able to be followed in a,
in a kind of a narrative character driven manner.
So if you produce a, let's just say, for the sake of discussion, you produce a four part American scandal.
And I listened to these and these are 45 minutes give or take in length, maybe 55 minutes.
And what I listen to is a wealth of research.
And I'm like, God, that's, that's got to take forever.
The amount of reading, maybe watching little news clips, maybe watching documentaries.
Lindsay, how long does it take to produce one American scandal?
It varies, but we start about 12 weeks before a script needs to be in my hands.
So there's a very detailed outlining stage in which the entire four episode arc or whatever it is is outlined.
Kind of beat by beat, you know, act by act.
We try to identify the characters, the themes.
We try to make sure that there is a narrative arc to it.
There are at least right now, there's at least three editors of a sort, you know, an executive editor, a supervisor, a senior editor.
And then the writer who produces the outline will get it approved and then working on episodes and then those go through.
Many drafts, you know, I've seen at the end, I'll get a final draft and it's like version nine.
So, you know, it goes through the ringer.
And then on top of all that, there's the fact checking around and even the legal clearance round because we don't want to defame anyone.
It's an involved process.
Hello, it's Mike Riner of your dark companion here.
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So when I wrote my column with you, I put you in the same category and I think you humbly didn't agree with me.
I'm not going to again, but go ahead.
Okay, so if you don't think you're in the same genre as an Ambrose or a David McCullough or other noted American historians, then what genre are you in?
Ken Burns?
Well, that would be a haughty comparison as well, but it's probably more similar.
I mean, Ken Burns deserves all the accolades he earns, but he is also more of a producer than, you know, a historian.
And I think his art is probably in filmmaking rather than writing books or doing research, right?
So in that way, I would say there's a kinship, a greater resemblance.
And, you know, and I run my own audio production company as he does a film company that takes up half my time easily.
So I'll allow it, but I feel very stupid.
You're not going to put it on your LinkedIn profile.
I'm like, yeah, okay.
So, you know, I interviewed him a couple of times and the one thing I noticed, especially with the explosion of documentaries, and I would put podcasts in that same category in terms of a media that has just exploded.
It does seem to me that the consumer just naturally assumes, if it's a documentary, that's gotta be true, right?
And you can see some documentaries out there, Lindsey, that would wake you to, well, I don't know about this.
This is kind of a conspiracy that's a little too off the grid for me, and I would put podcasting in that.
Do you think that the consumer, because it's a podcast, and maybe it has some cool logo on it, just naturally assumes,
well, I'll be dead, that's true.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that probably is the case, and, you know, reader or listener beware should be the, you know, that the maximum.
Agendas these days are really difficult to get away from, and certainly I'm accused of having my own agenda all the time.
Yeah, I apparently am on the vanguard of the woke establishment.
I've fallen on Twitter, I've seen it.
It is astounding to me how quickly politics can enter the conversation.
But, yeah, I can only, I can only tell my listeners that, hey, we do a lot of research,
and we try very, very hard to be, you know, as impartial and true to the facts as possible.
But, hey, look, if you don't like the way, you know, we did it, and you think it's politically driven, I can't stop you.
So, Lindsey, have you been accused of, because I follow you on Twitter, and that's a different, you know,
ecosystem than a produced podcast, because when I hear it, whatever the topic, you mentioned the Iran
conflict of the Asuka with Reagan in the mid in the 80s. I don't hear a political agenda in any of it.
And that's me. Have you been, you know, accused by ex number of listeners, saying, oh, this is just liberal junk?
Oh, yeah, that's probably the largest contingent of criticism. Now, I have been accused of being a
shill for industry and how those two work together. Oh, look, if you haven't figured this out as a person
of, in the public, whenever you say something out loud, you're going to be criticized.
And so, you know, it's demonstrated that people don't listen well. It's demonstrated that people bring,
you know, bring to any experience their own biases. They're looking for confirmation, and when they
don't find it, they get angry. You know, American scandal, in particular, is a very point of view driven
show. We drop you into the point of view of a certain character that we follow for a certain period
of time, and then we switch to another character, right? And, you know, the Iran Contra affair is a great
example of we might be following any number of people. It could be Reagan, you know, forgetting things,
or it could be a moment of shredding documents. You know, but we're conveying the story through the
eyes of the character. So if you get it, if you get a feeling that like, hey, shredding government
documents is okay. They're saying it's just fine. It's like, we're not saying that. The character
is feeling and expressing that. So there's me, there's a misunderstanding of what the show is.
People, people have weird filters. But also, you know, I've discovered a lot of people are
vociferously misinformed, you know, and find words to be tricky to really fully comprehend.
Like if I said that the Democratic Republicans that were birthed out of the early Thomas Jeffersonian
party did X and X, you know, I will be told, you know, that they're not Republicans. I will be told
that they're not Democrats. And I was like, yeah, you're right. They're Democratic Republicans.
That's what they call themselves. So did you have any discussion? Because I know when I joined
stone water here at a Dallas, there was a deliberate point to say we are not at all dipping any
part of a toe or any digit into the political realm. We don't want any part of it because it's
just so divisive and nasty. When you've had discussions with producers, writers, bosses, whomever
have all of you guys think we don't because it doesn't seem that you do other than to make parallels
to present day, it seems like you guys go out of your way not to touch anything that's a really
divisive hot button topic right now. Other than to make parallels.
Well, and we don't even deliberately make parallels. I mean, there's certain things like, you know,
I'm finishing up a series on the Carter presidency and you know, there's obvious reasons why we
chose that Jimmy Carter just passed, right? But there's no deliberate reason for us to choose
one topic over the other to make a point about today's news. That's never done. If you find a parallel,
that's just the magic trick of history. You're always going to find a parallel.
As for our political affiliation, you know, we don't editorialize. Most of the real critique
comes from misunderstandings or necessary language that other people feel is unnecessary. Like, for
instance, I will say white settlers moved west or something like that. And people get really touchy
that I mentioned the race of white settlers. Yeah. And go out of my way, their way to inform me that
there was one, you know, black settler too. And it's like guys, we all know that the
preponderance of people who moved west were white. And the preponderance of people displaced by
that movement were, you know, Native Americans. I mean, like, these are just facts, right? And,
but yeah, it gets really touchy. You can't avoid it. So you've had a couple brushes with
serious fame, one of which I did mention to you that you responded to the email on listening to
the wildly popular podcast smart lists hosted by Jason Bateman and Will Arnett. I'm forgetting
the other gentlemen's name. Anyways, they have on George Clooney. George, what do you listen to?
And he says, I listen to American history tellers when I go to sleep. And I was like, oh my gosh,
that's a guy I listen to. And I think by that point, I had already interviewed you. And you were
very modest about it. Have you gotten any more of those kinds of, I guess unintentional celebrity
shout outs or recognition from people that you, I can't imagine you expected that to come down
the road? Well, yeah, incredibly, yes. So probably the biggest name after Clooney would be Ryan
Reynolds, right? And so I had the fantastically bizarre experience of having Ryan Reynolds DM me
on Twitter to tell me he likes my podcasts. That was a fun day. And I somehow twisted his arm into
having him narrate our April Fools joke podcast on history daily two years ago.
About a year ago, Amy Poler came to a podcast convention and did the keynote and mentioned a
few shows that she listens to and American scandal was one of them. But that's pretty cool,
right? That's pretty neat. That's pretty. So you mentioned after the Ryan Reynolds one where he
hosted it, which was, which was such a great idea, you've got Ryan Reynolds number. Have you used
it since then? Yes, I texted him to congratulate him after I saw Deadpool, the most recent Deadpool.
Should I really enjoy it? Is there anybody else that you want? Because you've got some,
you've got some cash, you know, is there anybody else that you would say, oh, that would be a
fun person to host? Is there anybody on your wish list that you think you could get?
Well, I think working on a project with Tom Hanks would be amazing. He's already, you know,
a big history guy. Yep. And, you know, he does narration work. Yeah. I don't know if you remember
Allerster Cook's PBS series on America. Yeah. This is from the early 80s. And yeah,
dating ourselves here. Yeah, I would, I would love to redo that with Tom Hanks, especially as we're
going into the, what is it? The, I forget this word every single time, the semi-sescoot intent
centennial, the 150th anniversary of America's birth, right? Sess Quintennial, is that it?
Semi, semi, semi-quince centennial, I don't know. Is that what it is? Okay. Well, you're the
expert. I'll go with you. That's a great, well, I mean, and that kind of leads me into,
I've only got a couple of other questions for you. You've got this. Okay.
Centennial, semi-quince centennial. All right. I expect the 500 years, half a 500 years. All right.
So now that you've done this and you've established three shows, you have your own production
company. And I don't know if you've had the creative itch to say, you know, I wouldn't mind doing
something else too. Would you want to get into a different medium? Like a documentary or a film
or anything like that? Yeah, sure. We've had some close calls already, you know, with an audio
drama that I did 1865, a kind of post, well, Civil War Abraham Lincoln's death. That got close
to adaptation. That was a fun moment. You know, increasingly podcasts have some sort of visual
component as they move to YouTube as as a platform of choice. So I've had conversations with
with different people. I think it would be fun. I don't know if if it's narration or on camera
work or just producing it, I'm open to anything. But yeah, I I'm always I was always looking for
something new to do. It's you know, I'm not really ever content with having just built something.
I think the fun is in the building. And so, you know, we came out with a new show American criminal
that that I don't host, you know, that another friend of mine, another Dallas voice actor does.
But we produce it and it's it's good fun. And I've pitched just recently some other secret projects
to to Wondery for as a new show. There's a there's a whole host of things that I'd love to do.
You know, when you I'm sure you have had two things happen to you. One, I'm sure you get recognized
for your voice, which I can't imagine happens a lot, but it does. Where's the
weirder places that you have been recognized? Why do I know who you are? Where is that happen, Lindsay?
I don't think I have been recognized on the street, as they say, you know. So not at a restaurant
or making a reservation or anything like that. No, no, I mean, I have the the hindrance of my name,
right? So, yeah, people will will double take just at that probably more often.
And they've got to be sick of that. Are you not?
I've had to embrace it, you know, it's just something, you know. And in fact, my my my you know,
my personal URL is not that Lindsey Graham. Yeah, I love that.
But it is it is funny when for instance, I set up a Zoom call
within the industry, right? And they've done their research and they know who I am. And I get on
and I sound like I sound, right? Yeah, you do. And they're like, oh, God, you're just like the podcast.
It's like, well, yeah. Even now when you came on the screen and you talked to me,
like, oh, there's American history tellers, I'm sure at some point you've had young people,
you may be even people my age, who've said, God, so you mean young people? You're damn right.
Who've come up to you and said, I would love to do what you do.
I've had people and you know, ask me for years now. How do you do? I want to do what you do.
What do you tell them, Lindsey? Well, yes, I've had plenty of people asking for advice on podcasts.
You know, podcasting is so wonderful because the barriers to entry are so low, you know, and all,
you know, just like being on YouTube, you know, it's not really hard to do if you have a phone
or a laptop. And so my best advice is to just do it. If you want particulars about how to do it,
you know, you get to a little more specific, but, but there's, there's planning the thing and
there's doing the thing and doing the thing is altogether different than planning the thing.
And you won't know if you like what you're doing, if you're good at what you're doing,
if you can persist at what you're doing until you stop planning the thing and start doing the thing.
And so that would be my first piece of advice. Get up and do it. My personal story is so bizarre,
so lightning and a bottle that I can't, I couldn't possibly recommend do what I did,
which is get fired from your job, convince your wife to, you know, let you go off on a fantasy
career for a bit, fail at that, and then just wait for a phone call to happen.
Yeah. So there, you know, there's, there's no way that advice, that advice works.
So yeah, just go out and do it. And if you find it hard, think about why it's hard. Where are the
places where it's really difficult? And is it hard because it's work? Or is it hard because you
don't like it? And try and pay attention to, you know, what's, what's work that you can just get through?
And what's, what, what is it that you don't like? And maybe discover that it's not for you or
that you have the perseverance to get through it or your teammates or, you know, other partners that
can help you. How old is your daughter? She is a, gosh, she's 11, 11. So one thing I've done with
my job, and I haven't done it a while, as I incorporated our daughter with some stuff occasionally,
just to have some fun. It was a lot fun here when she was six and she would read mean tweets.
That was really fun. When she, so she's old enough to have an idea what dad does. And I would
imagine her friend's parents say, oh, yes, that's that guy. It's a really cool job. Do you want
to, like, introduce her to this at all, Lindsay, and see if she likes it? Or is that sort of a separation
of church and state? Yeah, well, the separation is there, but it's not by my doctrine, you know.
She just has no interest in dad, you know, I, you know, I, she absolutely hasn't
understand what I do. You know, there's been, you know, she went to a little, a, a week,
kind of nature camp last year. And it turns out one of the counselors is a big fan of mine,
and by accident, discovered that my daughter, you know, is my daughter. So that was kind of a cool
moment for her. She, you know, some, some sort of second hand celebrity. But yeah, she, she doesn't
listen to podcasts and doesn't really care about history so much. I mean, she's an 11-year-old girl.
Yeah. But yeah, I mean, if she gets older, I've left a piano around the house. My guitars
are available for her to grab. You know, if she wants it, it's there. So I was looking this up.
How many seasons do you think you've done of American history tellers?
Don't look it up. I know. I'm trying to think over 70, 81. How many episodes do you think
that is? That would be 350, I guess. 385. That is, and that's just one show. That's not American
history daily. That's not American scandal. It is incredible the work that you've put together.
And not only that is how good it is. I'm not saying that for any other reason than as a consumer,
I, you know, we all consume a lot. And in this day and age, it's really tough to stand out.
You stand out. I look forward to walking my dog, putting my headsets on to listen to whatever
the latest it is that you're doing. And I'm not sure it's the healthiest thing. I even asked my doctor
about this. I would put in a, like a head, it's, it's, it's a near bud. So for my ear, ear bud,
and my left ear, and I will go to sleep with whatever it is that your latest episode is. Now,
sometimes it can take a while to finish it because I fall asleep. But you mentioned the bedtime
story, and it is without fail, the best, and I don't mean this in a negative way. It's just outstanding.
And I hope you continue to do it for as long as your heart's content. I don't know if you get bored
with it, Lindsay. But you do a, you and your team do a phenomenal job. And I, the fact that you've
done it, however it is, you found out, you found this path more power to you because anybody else
is looking up, you're the best. And I give you all the credit in the world that I, like I said,
I hope you get to do it for as long as you want. Well, I am blushing. Thank you so much. I really
appreciate that. No, I appreciate this in your time. I know you're busy, and I know you've got a lot
of things to do. And for you to carve out, I didn't mean for it to go 40 minutes. I'm very grateful.
Thank you very much, Lindsay. Yeah, it's a pleasure.
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