(If you loved Rob Reiner + Soledad O'Brien's WHO KILLED JFK?, perhaps you'll enjoy this story from JFK's early years. Thanks for Rob Reiner for joining the Very Special Episodes podcast to help us tell it.)

Eighty years ago this summer, a young John F. Kennedy took a job as a journalist for Hearst newspapers, filing dispatches in the final days of World War II. His columns capture the mood of a changing world. In today's Very Special Episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Fred Logevall and legendary director Rob Reiner join us to explore the forgotten summer that helped shape Kennedy's worldview.

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For more Very Special Episodes, follow the show wherever you get your podcasts.

Go see Spinal Tap II: The End Continues in theaters this September!

Check out Fred Logevall's excellent book: JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century.

Today's episode was written by Joe Pompeo. Very Special Episodes is hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, and Jason English. Produced and edited by Josh Fisher, Jonathan Washington, and Mary Dooe. And thanks to our JFK voice actor, Tom Antonellis, for nailing another role.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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