In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson

ABC News

"In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson" presents a surprising and original portrait of Lady Bird Johnson, told in the former first lady's own words -- from over 123 hours of her White House audio diaries, heard here largely for the first time ever. It recasts Lady Bird's role in the Johnson White House as her husband's closest advisor and most trusted political partner and provides history-making revelations about LBJ's time in office. It's the story of how one vastly underestimated woman navigated the power, politics and polarization of her era to become one of the most influential members of the Johnson administration... even if we never knew it. An eight-part series from ABC Audio & Best Case Studios. Hosted by New York Times bestselling author Julia Sweig. read less

Our Editor's Take

When Julia Sweig first heard a voice recording from Lady Bird Johnson in a museum in Texas, she needed to know more. Little did she know that recording was one of many that the world had never heard. In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson explores over 120 hours of audio diaries recorded during her time in the White House. Most know the story of Lyndon B. Johnson's American presidency. But only a little is available in the American history books about his wife, Lady Bird. Most people don't even know her audio recordings exist.

Sweig hosts the podcast and guides listeners through these diaries. What she found in these recordings is a story about the power of a political partnership. Yet much of this only shows up in some of the accounts of LBJ's presidency. This partnership was one Lady Bird recorded as she and Lyndon tried to navigate the turmoil of the 1960s. In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson shows Lady Bird's crucial role.

The audio diary walks through the decade's political upheaval and the riots. The In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson podcast plays its most compelling clips. The show explores complicated relationships with other key people from the times. What was behind LBJ's decision to escalate the Vietnam War? Are any conspiracy theories about LBJ's presidency true? Are the history book recounts of the Civil Rights activism correct? Audiences can hear the answers to these questions and more in the former first lady's own words. Lady Bird explains her version of a true story as it was happening.

The In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson podcast replays these recordings and explores their meaning. Sweig says the audio rewrites some of the conventional wisdom about these times. That means what listeners know about American history could change forever. This award-winning host explains the details of these recordings in a storytelling format. Each episode of the 2021 podcast is about 40 minutes long, and there are eight episodes in the series.

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Play Trailer

Trailer: Introducing 'In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson'

Trailer: Introducing 'In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson'

"In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson" uncovers Lady Bird’s surprisingly powerful role in the Johnson presidency and provides history-making revelations about Lyndon B. Johnson's time in office. Told in the former first lady's own words from over 123 hours of her audio diaries -- most of it never-before-heard -- "In Plain Sight" reveals how one vastly underestimated woman navigated the politics and polarization of her era. Related shows: - Start Here: The award-winning daily news podcast from ABC News. (https://bit.ly/2ZAu4aN) - FiveThirtyEight Politics: Nate Silver and the FiveThirtyEight team cover the latest in politics, tracking the issues and “game-changers” every week. (https://bit.ly/2ZzI0ls) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episodes

Trailer: Introducing 'In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson'

Trailer: Introducing 'In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson'

"In Plain Sight: Lady Bird Johnson" uncovers Lady Bird’s surprisingly powerful role in the Johnson presidency and provides history-making revelations about Lyndon B. Johnson's time in office. Told in the former first lady's own words from over 123 hours of her audio diaries -- most of it never-before-heard -- "In Plain Sight" reveals how one vastly underestimated woman navigated the politics and polarization of her era. Related shows: - Start Here: The award-winning daily news podcast from ABC News. (https://bit.ly/2ZAu4aN) - FiveThirtyEight Politics: Nate Silver and the FiveThirtyEight team cover the latest in politics, tracking the issues and “game-changers” every week. (https://bit.ly/2ZzI0ls) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ep. 1: Fourteen Days

Ep. 1: Fourteen Days

In her first-ever diary entry, recorded eight days after President John F. Kennedy is assassinated, Lady Bird presents a dramatic, cinematically detailed moment-by-moment account of those terrible hours in Dallas, and the days that follow. The episode tracks the 14 days from the murder of the president to when the Johnsons move into the White House, days filled with tragic ceremony and heartfelt moments of solidarity between Jackie Kennedy and Lady Bird. We hear about the decade-long relationship between the two of them, one that dates back to the Kennedy’s arrival in Washington in the mid-50s, and hear fascinating observations these women make about each other. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ep. 2: Thank You, Mrs. Vice President

Ep. 2: Thank You, Mrs. Vice President

There are moments in Lady Bird’s audio diaries that truly re-write the known history of LBJ's presidency. This episode includes one of the most consequential. In a memo to Lyndon just five months into his presidency, Lady Bird predicts how the Vietnam war will derail his administration, and proposes a clear end-date for his time in office -- fully four years before he shocked the nation with his announcement in March of 1968 that he wouldn't run for reelection. We hear Lady Bird’s growing sense that Bobby Kennedy will become LBJ's political rival, and RFK’s bring-down-the-house performance at the Democratic Convention in the summer of 1964. In the run up to the ’64 election, Lady Bird makes a Whistle Stop tour of the South — her home turf — to try to keep Southern Democrats from defecting over Civil Rights. But she’s met with open hostility, and worse. And on her return to Washington, a sex scandal involving Lyndon’s closest aide presents an October surprise that could easily upend the election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fresh from landslide victory in the 1964 election, Lyndon and Lady Bird shuttle back and forth between Washington, DC and Texas as they make plans for their first full term in office. But despite all that public support, it’s clear there’s trouble ahead. The civil rights movement is confronting a violent backlash, especially in the South, and despite LBJ’s public stance, Lady Bird knows they have “a small war on our hands” in Vietnam. Amid this turmoil, Lady Bird’s ideas about her own work are changing -- what started as planting flowers in underserved DC neighborhoods is growing into an agenda that brings environmentalism and social justice together in America’s cities. And yet, after nearly two years in office, the Johnsons still find themselves in the shadow of the glamorous Kennedys, when a high profile event at the White House brings the Johnsons their first taste of public protest and bad press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ep. 4: Entangled

Ep. 4: Entangled

Network television comes calling for Lady Bird, as the president of ABC News convinces a reluctant first lady to host a documentary about her beautification work in DC. Lady Bird decides to use the opportunity to launch a full PR blitz to take her message to America. She’s on her way to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to talk to a group of privileged conservationists about the need to bring access to nature to the inner city, when Lyndon has another health scare. Though it’s not a heart attack, he’ll still need surgery. Recovering in the hospital, Lyndon is once again gripped by crippling anxiety and depression — and this time it threatens his presidency. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ep. 5: California

Ep. 5: California

Riots, uprisings and protests rock the country in the summer of 1966, and despite their progress with civil rights legislation, the Johnsons can’t seem to move fast enough. And an increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam begins to overshadow just about everything else. Luci Johnson’s wedding in Washington, DC becomes the setting of dramatic anti-war protests, and Lady Bird herself is the target of a bomb threat. Feeling the urgency, Lady Bird is looking for ways to make beautification have more impact for the people who need it most. And she finds inspiration and an unlikely collaborator in San Francisco. But just as their most ambitious, controversial project is about to get underway, tragedy strikes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ep. 6: Blindsided

Ep. 6: Blindsided

By the mid-60s, you can hear a growing distance between Lady Bird and the protest movement that’s sweeping the country. Bird’s a true believer in progressive causes -- civil rights, environmentalism -- but she’s also the product of her own generation and background. On a trip to two New England colleges to give speeches supporting their new environmental studies programs, Lady Bird is confronted by outspoken dissent from both students and faculty who walk out of her speeches, picket her presence and circulate letters denouncing the war in Vietnam. Lady Bird feels increasing under siege, even as she vows not to retreat into a bubble in the White House. But then dissent comes to lunch at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when singer, actor and activist Eartha Kitt participates in one of Lady Bird’s “Doers Luncheons,” and delivers a fierce critique of the war and its effect on young Black men. The resulting media backlash, fueled by the White House PR machine, is swift and brutal, effectively derailing Kitt’s career for decades to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lyndon Johnson has been talking about escaping the presidency almost since the day he took office. But finally, on March 31, 1968, he stuns the nation with an announcement that he won’t seek reelection that fall. This episode presents a beat-by-beat account of the day, through Lady Bird’s perspective -- it’s a moment she’s been planning with Lyndon for four years. But there’s just a brief bit of relief following Lyndon’s speech. Just four days later, Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated in Memphis, and violence erupts across the nation. Riots rock Washington, DC. Both Lyndon and Lady Bird seem besieged in the aftermath of this tragedy: neither attends the funeral for Dr. King in Atlanta, ceding it to a constellation of ‘60s stars like Stevie Wonder, Harry Belafonte, and Diana Ross, as well as members of congress, and presidential candidates. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ep. 8: Claudia All My Life

Ep. 8: Claudia All My Life

It’s four in the morning when Lyndon wakes up Lady Bird to the news that Senator Robert Kennedy has been shot. This episode takes us through the tragic hours of vigil as the nation grapples with his death -- the third political assassination in five years, and just two months since the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. We’re led by Lady Bird’s experience of these days -- the nonstop TV coverage, the hushed atmosphere in the White House, and her vivid impressions of the funeral in New York, including a tense encounter with Jacqueline Kennedy. In the aftermath, it’s a bittersweet final months for the Johnsons’ presidency: a final push for their ambitious projects, last minute bids to draft Lyndon to run again. The season ends with the Johnson family at home in Austin, watching a chaotic convention play out in Chicago from their living room at the LBJ Ranch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing 'Reclaimed: The Story of Mamie Till-Mobley'

Introducing 'Reclaimed: The Story of Mamie Till-Mobley'

You may know the story of Emmett Till. But you might’ve never heard his story if it weren't for one woman: Mamie Till-Mobley. In a new three-part season of ABC News' "Reclaimed" podcast, host Leah Wright Rigueur explores who Mamie Till-Mobley was before she lost her son: a young girl growing up in Illinois. Rigueur traces Mamie's journey after Emmett’s death, and how she turned her grief into a movement that changed the course of American history. The first two episodes of "Reclaimed" are available now. To listen, follow the show on Apple Podcasts (https://apple.co/3zofsOC), Spotify (https://spoti.fi/3PSLBDU), Amazon Music (https://amzn.to/3tgHfNf), or wherever you like to listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices