Best Nelson Toro Podcasts (2025)

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LIVE: The Military Today with John Kelly, Carlos Del Toro, and Kathleen Miller 1:01:54

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8d ago1:01:54

1:01:54

This live episode was recorded at Mount Vernon as part of The American Military at 250: The 2025 George Washington Symposium. Retired Marine Corp General and former Chief of Staff John Kelly, the 78th Secretary of the Navy the Honorable Carlos Del Toro, and former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Comptroller the Honorable Kathleen Miller discuss t…

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LIVE: Civil-Military Relations with Kori Schake 59:09

14d ago59:09

59:09

This live episode was recorded at Mount Vernon as part of The American Military at 250: The 2025 George Washington Symposium. In this conversation, Lindsay Chervinksy and Kori Schake discuss the history of civil-military relations from George Washington to today. Dr. Schake leads the foreign and defense policy team at the American Enterprise Instit…

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Revolutionary Artists with Zara Anishanslin 47:51

1M ago47:51

47:51

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, historian, professor, and author Zara Anishanslin explores how art became a powerful form of leadership and resistance in London during the American Revolution. Through striking symbolism and emotional imagery, little-known Patriot artists transformed their creative talents into tools of protest, inspiratio…

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Thomas Jefferson and Leadership with Frank Cogliano 45:34

2M ago45:34

45:34

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, historian and author Frank Cogliano takes a fresh look at Thomas Jefferson as a leader of ideas, a party builder, and the President of the United States. By examining Jefferson’s strengths and weaknesses, Cogliano paints a vivid picture of an unconventional leader who learned from his mistakes, balanced lof…

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Leading in the Public and Private Sectors with Susan K Neely 31:55

3M ago31:55

31:55

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, Susan K Neely discusses her extensive experience in public service at the state and federal levels, as well as leadership in the business world. She was Special Assistant to President George W. Bush in the White House as well as the first Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of Hom…

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Core Pillars of Presidential Leadership with William Haldeman 42:12

4M ago42:12

42:12

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, presidential historian William Haldeman explores six defining characteristics of presidential leadership, each illustrated by a president who embodied that trait. From optimism and confidence to courage and dedication, Haldeman emphasizes how true leaders prioritize principle over popularity and understand …

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Summer Hiatus 0:28

5M ago0:28

0:28

Leadership and Legacy is on summer break -- but we'll be back in September with new great conversations.By George Washington's Mount Vernon

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Learning from First Ladies with Anita McBride 46:54

6M ago46:54

46:54

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, Anita McBride—author and former Chief of Staff to First Lady Laura Bush—offers an insider’s perspective on the evolving role of America’s first ladies. Drawing on her own White House experience, McBride highlights how communication, altruism, and quiet courage have shaped some of the most impactful partners…

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Revolutionary Leadership with Rick Atkinson 42:42

6M ago42:42

42:42

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Rick Atkinson delves into the nature of military leadership through the lens of George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Atkinson outlines the essential traits of an effective commander—unshakable resolve, strategic communication, and a keen ability to nav…

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Little Wolf and the American West with Megan Kate Nelson 39:24

8M ago39:24

39:24

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist Dr. Megan Kate Nelson illuminates the life and legacy of Little Wolf, a Northern Cheyenne military, political, and diplomatic leader. Drawing from her forthcoming book The Westerners, Nelson explores how Little Wolf embodied leadership values like consensus building, ge…

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Suffrage and Black Women's Leadership with Martha Jones 47:02

8M ago47:02

47:02

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, historian and legal scholar Dr. Martha S. Jones delves into black women’s battle for voting rights that began, rather than ended, with the passage of the 19th Amendment. Through the stories of several inspirational leaders of the Black Women’s Club movement, Jones highlights how these women earned leverage …

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Historical Lessons of Leadership with Catherine Allgor 38:18

8M ago38:18

38:18

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, historian Catherine Allgor explores the early First Ladies of the United States, examining how they navigated gendered power dynamics within their roles. She delves into how these women found agency in a male-dominated world, leveraging the social sphere to influence Washington culture and shape political p…

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The Power of Character with Jeffrey Engel 39:18

9M ago39:18

39:18

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, Jeffrey A. Engel, Director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University, shares his personal experience with former President George H.W. Bush and the valuable lessons he learned about the presidency—an office for which no one can truly prepare. Engel identifies memory, energy, an…

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Leadership on the Supreme Court with Steve Vladeck 38:41

9M ago38:41

38:41

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, Georgetown University Law Center professor Steve Vladeck explores the history of leadership on the United States Supreme Court, the qualities of an effective justice, and how public opinion does—or doesn’t—influence the court. He highlights the importance of institution building—his choice for most importan…

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Leading in Times of Crisis with Michelle Korsmo 41:15

10M ago41:15

41:15

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, Michelle Korsmo, President and CEO of the National Restaurant Association, shares expert insights on developing a strong leadership style, navigating crises, and transitioning into new leadership roles. She explores the essential qualities of emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and vision that define su…

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A Balanced Republic with Dr. Yuval Levin 48:53

11M ago48:53

48:53

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, historian, political analyst, and author Dr. Yuval Levin explores the foundations of American democracy, the qualities of effective presidential leadership, and the role of compromise in governance. Levin discusses how a successful presidency requires restraint over aggression and negotiation over conflict,…

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The Civic Bargain with Brook Manville 1:03:10

1y ago1:03:10

1:03:10

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, Brook Manville, author of The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives, discusses the concept of leadership in a democracy. He emphasizes that democracy is fundamentally a bargain, a system of self-governance where citizens act as checks on one another's power, ensuring that no single individual or "boss" can …

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Communication and the Digital Future with Dr. Colleen Shogan 44:12

1y ago44:12

44:12

This podcast episode features an interview with Dr. Colleen Shogan, the director of the National Archives and Records Administration. Dr. Shogan discusses the importance of effective leadership and communication, particularly in her role overseeing a vast collection of historical records. She emphasizes the need for clear and direct communication, …

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Learning from History with General David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts 45:35

1y ago45:35

45:35

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, General David Petraeus and historian Andrew Roberts discuss the art of leadership, drawing from their book Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine. They explore the timeless principles of strategic leadership, emphasizing the importance of getting the big ideas right, communicating them effe…

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Service and Respect with General John Allen 1:00:06

1y ago1:00:06

1:00:06

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, Dr. Patrick Spero interviews General John Allen, a retired U.S. Marine Corps four-star general, about his views on leadership. General Allen defines leadership as the means to accomplish difficult tasks and emphasizes the importance of humility, service, and respect. He shares his personal experiences, from…

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Integrity and Democracy with Representatives Steve Womack and Pat Ryan 59:53

1+ y ago59:53

59:53

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, Representatives Steve Womack and Pat Ryan, two elected officials on opposite sides of the aisle, discuss their views on leadership. They emphasize the importance of integrity, direction, and leading by example, drawing on their military experiences to illustrate these principles. Both congressmen reflect on…

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Leading Change with Carly Fiorina 57:47

1+ y ago57:47

57:47

In this episode of Leadership and Legacy, Dr. Patrick Spero interviews Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard. She discusses her experiences at AT&T and HP, highlighting the challenges of leading change within large organizations. Fiorina also reflects on the role of technology in leadership and the importance of preserving history in the dig…

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NOW AVAILABLE: Inventing the Presidency 1:49

2y ago1:49

1:49

Now Available on all platforms! In this new podcast from the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, we'll explore George Washington as both President and precedent. From the very origins of the US presidency at the Constitutional Convention to Washington’s final warnings in his Farewell Address, we will break down how one man shape…

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229. A Final Conversation with Dr. James Ambuske 53:44

2+ y ago53:44

53:44

In this final episode of Conversations at the Washington Library, Drs. Anne Fertig and Alexandra Montgomery bid farewell to former Digital Historian and host, Dr. James Ambuske, through a retrospective of his time and work at the George Washington Podcast Network.By George Washington's Mount Vernon

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228. Editing the Adams Family Papers with Dr. Sara Georgini 43:20

3y ago43:20

43:20

The Adams Family is one of the more prominent families in American history. They were at the center of the American Revolution, they helped create a new republic, shaped the young nation’s foreign policy, and later were central to the development of the history profession. Fortunately, we know much about their lives because of the countless letters…

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227. Welcoming a Deserving Brother with Mark Tabbert 25:49

3y ago25:49

25:49

In 1752, George Washington joined the Masonic Lodge in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was just twenty years old. Despite his early interest in masonry, Washington was not as active in the organization as some might imagine, but Masonic Lodges became important sites of social gathering for men in early America. And while masons and masonic rituals pla…

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226. Cross-examining Washington's Heir with Prof. Gerard Magliocca 42:45

3y ago42:45

42:45

When George Washington wrote his final will in the months before he died in December 1799, he named Bushrod Washington as heir to his papers and to Mount Vernon. He took possession of his uncle’s Virginia plantation when Martha Washington passed away in 1802. But Bushrod was not as interested in agriculture as George had been. He was a lawyer who l…

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225. Doing Public History with Dr. Anne Fertig 27:16

3y ago27:16

27:16

Why is the way that we remember the past oftentimes different than historical reality? And how can we use public history to inform conversations in the present about events that took place centuries earlier? On today’s episode, Jim Ambuske introduces you to Dr. Anne Fertig, our newest colleague here at the Washington Library, who will help us think…

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224. Unpacking the Slave Empire with Dr. Padraic Scanlan 39:49

3+ y ago39:49

39:49

In the early decades of the nineteenth century, the British Empire began dismantling the slave system that had helped to build it. Parliament banned the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, and in 1833 the government outlawed slavery itself, accomplishing through legislative action what the United States would later achieve in part by the horrors of …

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223. Attending a Lecture on Female Genius with Dr. Mary Sarah Bilder 41:47

3+ y ago41:47

41:47

In May 1787, George Washington arrived in Philadelphia to attend the Constitutional Convention. One afternoon, as he waited for the other delegates to show up so the convention could begin, Washington accompanied some ladies to a public lecture at the University of Pennsylvania by a woman named Eliza Harriot Barons O’Conner. Eliza Harriot, as she s…

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Introducing Intertwined Stories: Finding Hercules Posey 19:33

3+ y ago19:33

19:33

We're delighted to bring you one of the bonus episodes from our other podcast, Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. In Intertwined Stories, we're featuring extended interviews with some of the expert contributors to the main Intertwined show. Today, you'll hear part of the conversation that Jim Ambuske and Jeanet…

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221. Reading the Political Poetry of Hannah Lawrence Schieffelin with Dr. Kait Tonti 55:17

4y ago55:17

55:17

Hannah Lawrence Schieffelin was an American poet who rhymed about some of the most important issues facing the early United States in the eighteenth century, including the British occupation of New York City during the American Revolution, the debate over the gradual abolition of slavery in the early days of the republic, and the legacy of George W…

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220. Educating Early Americans with Drs. Mark Boonshoft and Andrew O'Shaughnessy 1:03:46

4y ago1:03:46

1:03:46

In eighteenth-century America, you would’ve had little opportunity for formal schooling or an advanced education. Unless you were among the elite or at least of some means, your chances of attending a local academy or Harvard College weren’t great. But the American Revolution ushered in a new era of education in the United States that paved the way…

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219. Negotiating Federal-State Relations with Dr. Grace Mallon 44:09

4y ago44:09

44:09

For years after the ratification of the Constitution, Americans debated how the Federal Government and the several states should relate to each other, and work together, to form a more perfect union. The success, if not the survival, of the new republic depended on these governments cooperating on any number of issues, from customs enforcement to N…

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218. Finding Washington at the Plow with Dr. Bruce Ragsdale 44:34

4y ago44:34

44:34

In the 1760s, tobacco was one of Virginia’s chief exports. But George Washington turned away from the noxious plant and began dreaming of wheat and a more profitable future. Washington became enamored with new ideas powering the agricultural revolution in Great Britain and set out to implement this new form of husbandry back home at Mount Vernon. H…

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217. Exploring Star Territory with Dr. Gordon Fraser 50:39

4y ago50:39

50:39

In the 18th and 19th centuries, North Americans looked up at the sky in wonder at the cosmos and what lay beyond earth’s atmosphere. But astronomers like Benjamin Banneker, Georgia surveyors, Cherokee storytellers, and government officials also saw in the stars ways to master space on earth by controlling the heavens above. And print technology bec…

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216. Digitally Deconstructing the Constitution with Dr. Nicholas Cole 47:08

4y ago47:08

47:08

When delegates assembled in Philadelphia in the Summer of 1787 to write a new Constitution, they spent months in secret writing a document they hoped would form a more perfect Union. When we talk about the convention, we often talk of the Virginia Plan, the Connecticut Compromise, the 3/5ths clause, and other major decisions that shaped the final d…

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215. Reading Thomas Paine's Rights of Man with Dr. Frances Chiu 26:54

4y ago26:54

26:54

For most Americans, Thomas Paine is the radical Englishman, and former tax collector, who published Common Sense in early 1776. His claim that hereditary monarchy was an absurdity and that the “cause of America was in great measure the cause of all mankind” galvanized American rebels into thinking more seriously about independence than they had onl…

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Previewing Episode 1 of Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington's Mount Vernon 42:16

4y ago42:16

42:16

On this week's show, we bring you Episode 1 of Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington's Mount Vernon. Entitled "Passages," it features the life of Sambo Anderson, who was just a boy when he was captured in West Africa, survived the Middle Passage, and purchased by an ambitious George Washington sometime in the late 1760s. During h…

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Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington's Mount Vernon (Coming November 15, 2021) 1:21

4y ago1:21

1:21

Intertwined tells the story of the more than 577 people enslaved by George and Martha Washington at Mount Vernon. Told through the biographies of Sambo Anderson, Davy Gray, William Lee, Kate, Ona Judge, Nancy Carter Quander, Edmund Parker, Caroline Branham, and the Washingtons, this eight-part podcast series explores the lives and labors of Mount V…

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213. Sailing to Freedom with Dr. Timothy D. Walker 42:13

4y ago42:13

42:13

In May 1796, an enslaved woman named Ona Judge fled the presidential household in Philadelphia and escaped to freedom on a ship headed for New Hampshire. Judge’s successful flight was one of many such escapes by the sea in the 18th and 19th centuries. Enslaved people boarded ships docked in ports great and small and used coastal water ways and the …

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212. Recruiting the Hero of Two Worlds with Mike Duncan 56:12

4y ago56:12

56:12

To kick off Season 6, we bring you the story of America’s Favorite Fighting Frenchmen. In 1777, the Marquis de Lafayette sailed from France with a commission as a major general in the Continental Army. Unlike many other European soldiers of fortune, Lafayette paid his own way and had no expectation that he would be placed at the head of American fo…

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211. Revitalizing Myaamia Language and Culture with George Ironstrack (Summer Repeat) 1:11:14

4+ y ago1:11:14

1:11:14

In the eighteenth century, the Myaamia people inhabited what are now parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. More commonly known in English as the Miami, the Myaamia figure prominently in the early history of the United States, especially in the 1790s, when war chief Mihšihkinaahkwa (or Little Turtle) co-led an alliance of Miami and Shawne…

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210. Winning a Consolation Prize with Dr. Abby Mullen (Summer Repeat) 50:10

4+ y ago50:10

50:10

Consuls are essential to American foreign relations. Although they may not be as flashy or as powerful as an Ambassador like Thomas Jefferson or John Quincy Adams, they’re often the go-to people when an American gets in trouble abroad or when a trade deal needs to get done. Consuls operate in cities and towns throughout the world, helping to advanc…

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209. Reading Letters by Early American Women with Kathryn Gehred (Summer Repeat) 1:04:41

4+ y ago1:04:41

1:04:41

If you pull any decent history book off your shelf right now, odds are that it’s filled with quotes from letters, diaries, or account books that help the author tell her story and provide the evidence for her interpretation of the past. It’s almost always the case that the quotation you read in a book is just one snippet of a much longer document. …

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208. Harnessing Harmony in the Early Republic with Billy Coleman (Summer Repeat) 1:05:08

4+ y ago1:05:08

1:05:08

On September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key began composing "The Star-Spangled Banner after witnessing the British attack on Fort McHenry. Of all the things he could have done after seeing that flag, why did Key write a song? And how did his new composition fit into a much longer history of music as a form of political persuasion in the Early Republic…

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207. Offering George Washington a Royal Gift with Professor José Emilio Yanes (Summer Repeat) 39:59

4+ y ago39:59

39:59

In 1784, King Charles III of Spain sent George Washington a token of his esteem. Knowing that Washington had long sought a Spanish donkey for his Mount Vernon estate, the king permitted a jack to be exported to the new United States. Washington named the donkey Royal Gift in recognition of its royal origin, and the donkey became somewhat of a minor…

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206. Promoting Joseph Smith for President with Dr. Spencer W. McBride 44:33

4+ y ago44:33

44:33

The American Revolution dismembered a protestant empire. In the years during and after the war, states disestablished their churches, old and new denominations flourished, and Americans enshrined religious freedom into their state and federal constitutions. But claiming religious freedom in a democracy was not the same as enjoying it. In the republ…

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205. Grieving with the Widow Washington with Dr. Martha Saxton 40:03

4+ y ago40:03

40:03

In the eighteenth century, death stalked early Americans like a predator hunting its prey. In Virginia, as in other colonies, death made children orphans and wives widows, making a precarious existence all that much more challenging. For the Virginia elite, death also created opportunities for widows and widowers alike to protect their interests, t…

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204. Raising Liberty Poles in the Early Republic with Dr. Shira Lurie 37:54

4+ y ago37:54

37:54

If you’ve taken part in a part in a protest recently, perhaps you carried a sign, waved a flag, or worn a special hat. But if you had grievances in the American Revolution or early Republic, you might have helped raise a Liberty Pole. Now, you may ask yourself, what good is a large wooden pole gonna do about my high taxes? And you may ask yourself,…