EPISODE 14 - Ted Roosevelt (Part 2): The Strenuous Life (Patreon)

He was the first American to receive a brown belt in Judo. 
He won the largest percentage of the vote ever by a third-party candidate.
He once took a bullet to the chest shot at point blank range, and rather than going to the hospital went to deliver a 90 minute speech. 
He survived tragedies that would break lesser men.
He spent his life fighting against the inner demons trying to destroy him. 
He was a perfect embodiment of what Nietzsche probably had in mind when he wrote, “You must still have chaos in yourself to be able to give birth to a dancing star."
He was a warmonger with a diplomatic tact. He was a hunter and an environmentalist. He was a nerd and an athlete. He flirted with white supremacist ideas and yet was very progressive about race by the standards of his day. He was a big proponent of personal responsibility and supported quasi-Socialist policies.

Love him or hate him, he was larger than life. 

He was Theodore Roosevelt.

In this episode: 

• The Youngest American President: Juvenile and Proud-Roosevelt and Racism 
• “Unless we keep the barbarian virtues, gaining the civilized ones will be of little avail.”
• Losing sight in one eye while sparring, and Judo days 
• Going to battle with JP Morgan. The 1902 Coal Strike. At war with Congress over environmental preservation 
• When the President camped outdoors in the Yosemite snow with John Muir
• “…a small bunch of shrill eunuchs…”
• Why American Football may not exist had it not been for Roosevelt 
• “We bought the son of a bitch, and then he didn’t stay bought”
• Jumping naked in the frozen waters of the Potomac River
• The Media Queen: Alice Roosevelt; “a young wild animal that had been put into good clothes”
• The Nobel Peace Prize
• War in the Philippines; The Panama Canal; The Brownsville Incident 
• William Howard Taft and his S&M marriage
• Eating an elephant’s heart