

The Preamble
Sharon McMahon
The world feels complicated. The Preamble is where it starts to make sense. Hosted by Sharon McMahon — known for making sense of complex issues — she and her guests dive deep into the stories and ideas driving our future, bringing clarity and honesty to every headline. If you want real insight, bold conversation, and answers that matter, this podcast is your must-listen. Hit play, and join the movement that will shape history.
An Audacy Podcast.
An Audacy Podcast.
Episodes
Mentioned books

May 31, 2023 • 39min
Life Worth Living with Miroslav Volf and Ryan McAnnally-Linz
On today’s episode of Here’s Where It Gets Interesting, Sharon talks with Yale professors and two of the authors behind Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most. Initially a class in Yale’s humanities program, Life Worth Living sought to find answers to the age-old philosophical question: what’s the meaning of life? The book brings the classroom lessons to a new audience, and Sharon talks to Volf and McAnnally-Linz about how to go beyond TikTok and Cheetos and find true fulfillment.Special thanks to our guests, Miroslav Volf and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, for joining us today. Find Life Worth Living here.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonGuests: Miroslav Volf and Ryan McAnnally-LinzExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny Snyder Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

May 29, 2023 • 39min
Drama Free with Nedra Tawwab
To kick off a new season of guest interviews, Sharon sits down with the amazing Nedra Tawwab: bestselling author, relationship therapist, and boundaries expert. Nedra and Sharon talk about some of the key ideas Nedra shares in her latest book, Drama Free, and about how to navigate unhealthy family dynamics and relationships and move them into a healthier space. The change starts with us.Special thanks to our guest, Nedra Tawwab for joining us today. Find Drama Free here.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonGuest: Nedra TawwabExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny Snyder Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

May 26, 2023 • 36min
From Hoovervilles to Hummingbirds in Space
Do you celebrate National Beer Day on April 7th every year? Did you even know that the U.S. has a National Beer Day? We do! And it’s all thanks to our 32nd president, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his signing of the Cullen-Harrison Act. Celebrated across the country in 1933, the act was just one small step on the path to the ratification of the 21st Amendment and the final nail in the coffin for Prohibition.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny SnyderWritten and researched by: Heather Jackson, Valerie Hoback, Amy Watkin, and Mandy Reid Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

May 24, 2023 • 38min
The Tide Begins to Turn
At its beginning, prohibition was spearheaded by outspoken women. Women who saw a need for social change and then set up the scaffolding to build, what they thought, would be a better America. So maybe it won’t be a surprise to hear that the repeal of Prohibition began in pretty much the same way. By the late 1920s, it was clear to many that Prohibition was a big flop. It was especially clear to one of its initial supporters who realized it was time to change her mind.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny SnyderWritten and researched by: Heather Jackson, Valerie Hoback, Amy Watkin, and Mandy Reid Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

May 22, 2023 • 36min
Luck Be A Lady Governor
In the middle of the 1920s, when Prohibition was at its peak, leaders and law enforcement could go one of two ways: they could crack down on Volstead Act violators… or they could look the other way. Today, we’ll meet the first two women governors in the nation’s history–and a couple of lawmen–and learn how they handled their duties during Prohibition. Hosted by: Sharon McMahonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny SnyderWritten and researched by: Heather Jackson, Valerie Hoback, Amy Watkin, and Mandy Reid Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

May 19, 2023 • 33min
White Squares Off Against the KKK
In its fight for a dry, anti-alcohol nation, the Anti-Saloon League recruited the Ku Klux Klan to join its mission to make Prohibition the law of the land. Klan members themselves weren’t specifically pro-Temperance, but they were happy to use dry laws as a way to target and perpetrate violence against Black Americans, immigrants, Jews, and Catholics. But the power of the Klan was beginning to fade…Hosted by: Sharon McMahonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny SnyderWritten and researched by: Heather Jackson, Valerie Hoback, Amy Watkin, and Mandy Reid Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

May 17, 2023 • 39min
A Movie and a Man Who Revived the Klan
How did one of the most popular movies in the country–a blockbuster of epic proportions–fuel the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan? And how, in just a few short years, did the Klan grow from small pockets of state chapters into a national social organization with a membership in the millions? The KKK and the prohibitionists of the 1920s worked hand-in-hand to turn America into a dry, white, Protestant-ruled nation. As booze dried up in towns across the nation, white supremacy began to rise.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny SnyderWritten and researched by: Heather Jackson, Valerie Hoback, Amy Watkin, and Mandy Reid Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

May 15, 2023 • 43min
A Cocktail Toast to the Mob
On today’s episode of our series on Prohibition, we talk about two things that go hand in hand with the enforcement of dry laws: crime and cocktails. The spread of both was a direct consequence of the 18th amendment as mobsters ruled the violent industry of bootlegging and the rough liquor they sold was made more palatable with mixers. Hosted by: Sharon McMahonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny SnyderWritten and researched by: Heather Jackson, Valerie Hoback, Amy Watkin, and Mandy Reid Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

May 12, 2023 • 35min
The Suckers and Celebrities of the NYC Speakeasy Scene
Today on Here’s Where It Gets Interesting, it’s a battle between the lawman and the barkeep; we’re going to explore the New York jazz and speakeasy scene. Along the way, we’ll meet a few people who embodied that old adage: sometimes appearances can be deceiving. And, of course, if there’s anywhere in time and place to reinvent yourself, it’s New York City in the 1920s.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny SnyderWritten and researched by: Heather Jackson, Valerie Hoback, Amy Watkin, and Mandy Reid Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

May 10, 2023 • 43min
A Physician, a Rabbi, and a Bootlegger Walk into a Pharmacy
By 1920, America was officially a dry country. In theory. In practice, the law came with enough loopholes that opportunists found plenty of ways to make, trade, sell, and guzzle vast quantities of alcohol. Some turned to religion and some walked into a pharmacy with a doctor’s note. Still others knew how to rig the system so well that they made their fortunes and even got away with murder.Hosted by: Sharon McMahonExecutive Producer: Heather JacksonAudio Producer: Jenny SnyderWritten and researched by: Heather Jackson, Valerie Hoback, Amy Watkin, and Mandy Reid Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices


