Doris Kearns Goodwin Knew Lyndon Johnson. Here's What She Told Us.

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Most historians study their subjects from a distance of decades, working through archives and second-hand accounts.

Doris Kearns Goodwin didn’t have that problem with Lyndon Johnson. She had the opposite one: she knew him.

As a 24-year-old White House Fellow, she found herself pulled into LBJ’s orbit — and after he left office, he asked her to help him write his memoirs. She spent mornings at the ranch in Texas listening to a former president talk, unguarded, about power, ambition, and regret. That experience became Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, still one of the most intimate portraits ever written of an American president — and launched a career that has since given us Team of Rivals, No Ordinary Time, and a Pulitzer Prize.

This week, Sally sat down with Doris for a full-length conversation about the Johnson she knew: charming, focused, and deeply concerned about his legacy.

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As always — thanks for listening, and for making conversations like this one possible.

— Sally & the HTW team