United States of Kennedy

iheart commission George and Julia for another pop culture history pod!! PLEASE, I was laughing and learning. Enjoyed their takes

I was skeptical about this series because I thought it would be the usual love/hate gossip about the Kennedy family. But I was impressed with several of episodes and how well the hosts dealt with the topics. Too bad it ended since there are many other things to cover.

I love this podcast! I listened a ton this summer and fall and recently picked it back up - just finished the episode about Catholicism. I wrote my college history thesis about Irish American identity and focused heavily on the Kennedy’s being the turning point from when it went from being a shameful, lower class thing to be of Irish descent, to being “cool” to be Irish and to celebrate St Patrick’s day, etc. So this episode was ESPECIALLY interesting to me! Keep it up, these deep dives are fascinating.

when it comes to any media covering the Kennedy family, it seems to fall into two categories: vetted (or vying to be) by the Kennedy clan and given their attention in a positive way; or salacious gossip (generally but not always with very little basis in reality). This pretends to be the latter while falling firmly into the former. The glossing over of harm by the men in this family is particularly odious, followed closely by the ad count and duration. I hate listen and argue against the persistent Camelot propaganda, but the hosts seem to have little interest in talking to anyone with a less than sunny story to tell. Vastly disappointing.

I like the recaps of movies and the first few episodes where you actually address historical moments but that’s about it like idk it lacks focus it feels like you want to refer to modern times too often. Why are we talking about Mamdani when it’s Kennedy fashion. I just think discussing fashion is HARD when there’s no visual media like I just wanted more depth actual fashion talk.