US Presidents - Political Science Theme

Andi 0:01

Oh, of course he

Tanner 0:01

he did. Oh no.

Sups 0:02

Absolutely

Andi 0:03

I mean I have zero doubt that he cheated How do you know that? I

Tanner 0:09

know.

Sups 0:09

That's random person

Andi 0:11

that's so bizarre. So, yeah, he had a lot of superlatives in his presidency maybe that's the thing is like this fact gets buried

Tanner 0:21

How'd he get into Yale

Sups 0:22

I mean his father went to Yale, his grandfather went to Yale, his uncle went to Yale.

Andi 0:29

Hello and welcome to this episode of the I Should Have Known podcast, the trivia podcast that can't be trusted. Each week our Quizmaster presents you with four big facts on our topic, but one of those facts is a lie. And for this month, we are doing political science for our theme. So we are talking about governments and leaders in political history, but it won't get to. In the weeds, so today your quizmaster is rather hilariously soups.

Sups 0:56

Hello.

Andi 0:57

And it's hilarious because he's going to be presenting us with four facts on US presidents. but one of his four facts is a lie. So join the two American hosts on the podcast. Me, Andy, and our other host Tanner in trying to figure out which one of soups, presidential facts is a lie.

Sups 1:17

All right, so we are gonna be talking about four different US presidents. So since 1789 we've had 46 US presidents, But before we get going with the facts let's get started with the low hanging fruit of the week.

Tanner 1:31

all right.

Sups 1:32

George Washington, of course, is the first US president. Who's the first US vice president.

Andi 1:38

Oh no.

Tanner 1:39

Ooh, That's a tough low hanger. Oh,

Andi 1:43

My guess would have to be, John Adams the second president He must be Yeah

Sups 1:48

So John Adams, he's the first vice president and also the second US president after Washington.

Andi 1:54

Nice. Okay. So I, passed AP US History exam.

Sups 1:59

All right. Fact number one, before becoming the seventh US president, Andrew Jackson once killed a man in a dual.

Andi 2:08

Oh Andrew Jackson. Pretty low on my list of

Tanner 2:14

intense Yeah

Andi 2:15

Yeah. Not a great guy. Maybe bottom three even. killing a guy in a dual sounds just about right. Even though that's technically not a crime back in the

Tanner 2:24

Yeah, I was gonna say that's not disqualifying to be a president because it's not murder, it's a dual.

Andi 2:30

Yeah.

Sups 2:31

so this happened in 1806. This is way before he became president. Dickinson That's the name of the guy that he killed. Accused him of cheating on a horse, raced bet, and then insulted his wife Rachel. Okay.

Andi 2:46

Uhoh

Tanner 2:47

Wow

Sups 2:47

so Jackson and Dickinson, they were rival horse breeders in Southern plantation, Dickinson accused Jackson of reneging on a horse pit.

Tanner 2:58

keep. Ah-huh.

Andi 2:59

Okay.

Sups 2:59

That's how it all started. And then Dickinson called Rachel Jackson Andrew's wife, a Bigamist,

Andi 3:05

She's married twice.

Sups 3:07

Without knowing that the first husband still hasn't divorced

Tanner 3:11

first Oh,

Andi 3:11

no, Oh yeah.

Sups 3:13

that was like the big scandal. So he didn't get prosecuted for. But when his elections came up, this was the bigger controversy

Tanner 3:21

Oh, okay.

Andi 3:22

Yeah

Tanner 3:22

that was the controversy when he was running Yeah She wasn't even on the ballot

Sups 3:26

No but there are rumors Andrew Jackson actually cheated on that

Andi 3:31

do Oh, of course he

Tanner 3:32

he did. Oh no.

Sups 3:33

Absolutely

Andi 3:34

I mean, I have zero doubt that he cheated. Absolutely.

Sups 3:37

And so, Dickinson fired and it hit Jackson on his shoulder. So he had like a chronic shoulder

Tanner 3:45

it's Okay

Sups 3:47

he kind of stopped the blood and he shot back, but the gun didn't fire. So, which already the round is gone. Right. But he immediately like reloaded the gun and shot again which kind of is

Andi 4:00

murder. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds about right.

Tanner 4:05

This sounds really believable for Diand Jackson

Andi 4:08

does It really really does. Yeah. I mean definitely just the fact that he was in a dual sounds very believable.

Sups 4:14

in 18 hundreds, Dualing especially in Southern part, was viewed more as like a time honored tradition amongst men,

Andi 4:22

Oh yeah. It's very common in literature. It was very ritualistic. Mm-hmm. But also just like It's men are the worst. like, just, just rampant toxic masculinity right there. like, let's murder each other.

Tanner 4:36

it makes sense that Jackson was from the South. He had this I have to defend my honor with a dual

Sups 4:40

That's Yeah.

Andi 4:41

Yeah. And even, I mean Aaron Burke killed Alexander Hamilton very famously in a jewel. It's not a spoiler. It's like 200 years to go. But yeah, it's interesting, but I do think like now it seems very shocking, right? Right. That a US president would be involved in such like a violent, hyper-masculine ritual, right

Tanner 5:02

I could see why. That would be unbelievable. That would be the lie Yeah. He didn't actually kill him.

Andi 5:07

Yeah, I guess my question would be, Like is this even an interesting fact? Like maybe like literally all the first six presidents, maybe they didn't kill someone, but they had fought a dual, you know, like, I don't know how common that was. Yeah. I have to hear the other three facts, but I, I'm gonna put a pin in that one.

Sups 5:24

Okay, Fact number two. Third US President Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair.

Andi 5:31

Oh my God. Beautiful. That's

Sups 5:33

Yeah

Andi 5:34

So not the Declaration of Independence. That's not Thomas Jefferson's greatest contribution to mankind.

Tanner 5:41

This goes right along with, I've heard he invented the Lazy Susan, which is swiveling

Andi 5:46

in the kitchen That's a thing you've heard

Tanner 5:48

heard. Yeah Thomas Jefferson invented a lazy Susan.

Andi 5:51

How do you know that? I

Tanner 5:53

know.

Sups 5:53

That's random person

Andi 5:55

that's so bizarre. So for anyone who doesn't know what a lazy Susan is, Yeah, it's a shelf that swivels along an axis, like a swivel chair. But in. Cabinet, you can spin it so that things can be stored in the back of the cabinet and you can reach them easily.

Tanner 6:09

Yeah,

Sups 6:10

Clearly he had a thing for swiveling, right?

Tanner 6:13

He figured out the mechanism and then he just applied it to

Andi 6:15

Chase He's like What can I do with

Sups 6:17

with this Right. So all of this happened while he was preparing the Declaration of Independence, right? So this happened sometime during

Andi 6:26

1774. It wasn't He like 20

Sups 6:28

Yeah Yeah.

Tanner 6:29

Right

Sups 6:29

in his mid twenties. Yeah. Yeah. So he came to the conclusion that the Windsor chair the chair that he had been using for work it didn't offer enough movement. so he was like, Okay, I need to create something. Let's put the declaration on pause. And this chair is really bothering me. We gotta fix that. So

Andi 6:48

what's important Yeah.

Sups 6:49

Yeah what he did was he took an iron spindle between the top and the bottom puff, which allowed the chair to rotate on rollers taken from like window pull.

Tanner 7:00

take, Okay.

Andi 7:01

Yeah. Okay.

Sups 7:01

and he was so impressed with this

Andi 7:04

convention his own

Sups 7:06

Yeah That it took this chair with him when he returned in 1776 to his plantation in Monticello in Virginia The other thing which he did was also introduced like a writing pad on the

Andi 7:19

so you could just swivel away and your paper comes with

Tanner 7:23

Wow It's like one of those desks in school where the desk comes out of the

Andi 7:28

Can you imagine him at like the resolute desk, just like swivel in a way? Like that's what the president has to use is Thomas Jefferson's swivel desk instead of this like giant secret compartment desk in the oval.

Sups 7:41

Yeah. So this return to Philadelphia in 1836, where even today, it remains in the possession of the American Philosophical Society.

Tanner 7:51

Ah,

Andi 7:51

Wow. You can go see his

Sups 7:52

chair, You can go see his chair,

Andi 7:54

Wow. Okay. So I do have to say that if this is true, then Thomas Jefferson has probably bumped up a couple spots. Yeah. He was a kind of mid range there for presidents. He didn't himself to death, so that's a big plus on like other presidents. Yeah. You on slaves and was very unapologetic about it. But anyway.

Tanner 8:15

he also did a lot of

Andi 8:15

good, the chair thing it kind of bumps him up A little bit. You know, It doesn't undo the other things

Sups 8:21

Of

Tanner 8:22

Why don't we call it the Jefferson Chair? You know?

Andi 8:24

maybe cuz it's not true.

Tanner 8:26

it. Could be.

Andi 8:27

I think that would be in the Oval Office.

Tanner 8:29

I really like that story, even if it's not

Andi 8:31

true. Yeah. It's one of those things there's like, it could be true. The whole lazy Susan thing. Mm-hmm. that I'm learning for the first time. that leads me to two conclusions. One he just applied the same invention twice. Makes sense and it's true. Or two, that's what he invented. Right? And soups is like, Oh, a lazy, Susan spins, What if it's a chair? And then he came up with this lie, Right? So I'm skeptical here. it's like an election in Wisconsin. It can go either way

Sups 8:58

All right fact number three 45th US President Donald Trump is the US President with the most children.

Andi 9:06

Oh, interesting. Wow. So he does famously have many children and for some reason they were his

Tanner 9:12

he does Yes I mean, he has been married three times, so it stands to reason that He would have a lot of

Andi 9:16

kids. Yeah But I also find this very hard to believe because people back in the day had like 13 kids. How many does he have? Like six,

Sups 9:24

So he has five two sons, Donald Junior and Eric and daughter Ivanka with his first wife, Iana daughter Tiffany with his second wife Marla, and a son. Barron with his current wife Melania Millennia

Andi 9:38

Mm-hmm. Okay.

Tanner 9:39

five Five isn't that big of a

Andi 9:41

Five Five is not

Sups 9:42

Yeah most US presidents have had two or three children, Max,

Tanner 9:46

Is it also while they were in office? No.

Sups 9:50

Okay. No,

Andi 9:50

But I think they're also old that they weren't having more babies

Tanner 9:53

they were Yeah that's true. Right. Jimmy Carter's not having

Sups 9:55

kids now.

Tanner 9:56

Right.

Sups 9:58

Wow.

Andi 10:01

Oh my God. I mean yes,

Tanner 10:04

right. right But I mean, theoretically the number could

Andi 10:08

Yeah I'm very skeptical of this one. One is he was just the president, right? So, yeah, he had a lot of superlatives in his presidency maybe that's the thing is like this fact gets buried because there are so many other facts about his presidency, right. But also it's very unbelievable because back in the day people had like 13 kids. Yeah. Like how many kids did Van Buren have? Yeah. But I guess they were all very Protestant, right? Yeah. if it's not Dotty t then I think it's gotta be someone in like back in the day Yeah.

Tanner 10:40

Right. Yeah. We know he at least had one cuz he later became

Andi 10:43

President Yes True True Exactly. Or like Thomas.

Tanner 10:47

And we just won't

Andi 10:48

not talk about

Tanner 10:50

who those kids were or were their

Andi 10:51

mothers Exactly think

Tanner 10:53

if

Andi 10:54

I think it'd be hilarious if it's someone that's like Zachary Taylor

Tanner 10:58

Maybe it's something along those lines.

Andi 10:59

I guess a lot of them, they came from affluent families. They weren't farmers, so they didn't need to have a lot of kids.

Tanner 11:05

Oh man, that's a tough one.

Andi 11:06

a hard one too Oh boy. Fact number four. Yes. See if that one gives it away.

Sups 11:11

Okay. Fact number four 43rd, US President George W. Bush is the only president with an MBA degree

Tanner 11:21

Oh, Interesting.

Andi 11:23

That's a weird degree to have for president

Tanner 11:25

Yeah. Right. Most presidents were lawyers A lot of these presidents went to Ivy League schools, but not for business.

Sups 11:31

Yeah. that's the fact,

Andi 11:32

Yes exactly

Sups 11:33

he graduated from Harvard Business School in 1975. So he wasn't very academically gifted. Um Before joining Harvard, he went to Yale. And his, GPA in high school was 2.35. So, which is kind of C,

Andi 11:49

wait.

Tanner 11:50

How'd he get into Yale

Sups 11:51

I mean his father went to Yale, his grandfather went to Yale, his uncle went to Yale. And actually even Harvard Business School, during those days, didn't have that kind of reputation as they do right now.

Andi 12:04

well they didn't have presidents graduate from their school yet.

Sups 12:08

So Harvard Business School was more like a soft landing place for not to bright rich kids before entering the business so that they can say that they have like a degree

Tanner 12:19

the

Sups 12:19

and need like a credential Right

Andi 12:22

the board

Sups 12:22

Yeah, exactly. Harvard. Yeah. And they didn't have like grades. They only had like pass or.

Tanner 12:28

great. Mm-hmm.

Sups 12:28

It was only later, when Harvard Business School started getting compared a lot with like Stanford and Wharton. And because those were the two top schools, right? So And that's when like Harvard They got their act together and became like One of the top business programs.

Andi 12:43

Okay. Yeah. I mean, like, he seemed like he'd be a fun guy to have a beer with.

Tanner 12:47

Right Yeah

Andi 12:47

Yeah. I mean, I was even part of his shtick and his appeal to many people was that he wasn't this like stuck up. intellectual elite. He was a normal guy whose dad was a famous politician and got a legacy acceptance into Yale and Harvard. You know, Yeah, right. Super normal. that was a how he portrayed himself and that appealed to many people. So like that kind of makes sense. The whole Harvard Business School, I guess, honestly. I don't have a high opinion of MBAs So like I don't really have a good sense of like, is that really that surprising that a president wouldn't have an mba? That he would be the first? Or is it like No, they all have MBAs

Tanner 13:27

why does everyone else have like a law degree? And he doesn't. Was it like he couldn't get into law school? He wasn't interested in law?

Andi 13:33

Yeah he

Tanner 13:33

he, went for business instead of law, do we see business nowadays? An MBA means you're cut out for being an executive. Like he was cut out for being president. Like obviously the other presidents didn't see it that

Sups 13:44

No No

Andi 13:45

Yeah. It's one of those things where it's like, I guess probably this would be a fact. I believe you Like I was a first generation college student. I don't know how this stuff works. So to me it's like, Sure. Yeah

Sups 13:57

Yeah, so those were my four facts about the us precedence

Tanner 14:01

All right.

Andi 14:01

Wow. can you repeat those four facts for us and then we will guess which one is a lie?

Sups 14:06

sure. Fact number one, before becoming the seventh US President, Andrew Jackson once killed, man in the due fact number two. Third US President Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair. Fact number three 45th US President Donald Trump is the US president with the most number of children. And fact number four 43rd, US President George W. Bush is the only president with an MBA

Andi 14:50

Okay what do

Tanner 14:50

you think is a lie?

Andi 14:52

the lie, I think it's probably two or three.

Tanner 14:57

Okay. Thomas Jefferson?

Andi 14:59

Thomas Jefferson, or Donnie. T Cuz I think that the first one, par for the course. And also what's the truth if that's a lie, He didn't kill somebody. You know

Tanner 15:10

he was going to get in a dual, but he

Andi 15:12

didn't. Right It seems kind of like so make it up. And then the last one, I mean, it's one of those things where it's like, the way that would be a lie would be that it's somebody you should know.

Tanner 15:21

For the nba, You think someone else has one and it's obvious. It's like, Yeah. Yeah, definitely. You should have known,

Andi 15:27

Yeah. I don't know enough about business schools as a concept. Apparently in the seventies they weren't at least Harvard's wasn't super big. So I mean, yeah, I don't know.

Tanner 15:35

I also I know what Obama did before he was president because I was alive. You know, I don't know what JFK did before he was president. Like when you go back to these other presidents, I don't know what they did. I don't know if they got degrees in what,

Andi 15:47

you know? Yeah. the middle two I could figure out. So there's the Thomas Jefferson one where it's just simply like, that sounds like something SOS could invent. It's very clever. It's funny. Yeah. It's fun. You could make that up Right. Oh, there's a guy sitting down to write. Yeah. And he's not so much yeah. yeah You know, and like, It's a good lie. Classic lie. Mm-hmm. And then just number three, because it sounds so unbelievable, but I'm like kicking myself because I feel like if it is a lie mm-hmm. I ought to know who Yeah.

Tanner 16:13

know The

Andi 16:13

other person is, and I don't,

Tanner 16:15

Yeah. You don't really learn that. I know one of them didn't get married, like I know facts about like that, but I never go that deep into their family. Like how many kids did they

Andi 16:24

yeah. Right. I'm telling you, it's gonna be like Zachary Taylor has like 15

Tanner 16:28

Yeah

Andi 16:28

and you're just like, Okay.

Tanner 16:29

Or this is true. And like you said, it just gets buried among other interesting facts Exactly. Yeah.

Andi 16:34

part of me wants to believe that soups invented the swivel chair. Yeah. So I, I like that in honor of that hope, Yeah. This little fleeting butterfly I'm going to say that. I think that's the lie.

Tanner 16:44

Thomas Jefferson?

Andi 16:46

Yeah

Tanner 16:46

But I'm gonna say it's some other president who has that many kids.

Sups 16:50

Okay, Well, you narrowed it down to two and of course one of you is right. Unfortunately for you, Andy, that hope is going to dive very soon.

Andi 16:59

Aw I was so proud of you was like Oh sos That's such a great lie. I

Sups 17:03

love it. It's so good. Yeah. Jefferson did invent the swivel chair and also Lazy Susan later on,

Andi 17:11

All right

Tanner 17:13

He liked things that

Andi 17:14

he liked to swivel things

Sups 17:16

And so Fact number three. Yes. Donald Trump isn't the US president with the most number of children. in fact, it's John Tyler. From 1841 to 1845. He was the 10th

Andi 17:27

Yeah. See, I told you it'd be someone somebody really, really forgettable. Yeah. It's

Tanner 17:32

Tyler.

Sups 17:34

He had 15

Andi 17:35

children Oh my God. See I told you

Sups 17:38

with uh Two different wives. Eight with the first five, seven with the

Andi 17:42

what killed her

Tanner 17:45

Yeah First Oh my God. How do he have time to be President? That's

Sups 17:49

why he was president. Only for one term.

Tanner 17:51

Yeah.

Andi 17:51

High alert Yeah. Tyler, let's see if another president can top that

Tanner 17:56

Come on

Andi 17:57

president to have 15 kids Or even just like, I will take a president who has given birth.

Tanner 18:02

Ooh

Andi 18:02

That just

Tanner 18:03

president to give birth

Andi 18:05

or at least To have given birth. You know, that'd be something I would

Tanner 18:08

Yeah Wow It's Tyler. I should have known.

Andi 18:12

Yeah, I guess I should have known. Thanks for listening to this episode of the I Should Have Known podcast. We'll be continuing this month with political science, so be a look out for that. And as always, thanks for this meeting. All the presidential farts.