Matt Blumberg: Welcome to Country Over Self: Defining Moments in American History. Each episode we welcome a notable historian to tell us the story of a president and a choice that president made to strengthen the country without regard to the impact of that decision on himself, his power or his party.

Welcome to episode zero of Country Over Self defining moments in American history. I'm your host, Matt Blumberg. I'm a career technology entrepreneur and CEO, business author, and host of the Daily Bolster podcast on leadership. I'm also an amateur presidential historian, emphasis on the word amateur, having read between 150 and 200 biographies of U. S. presidents. Politically, as I like to say, I'm not red, I'm not blue. But rather, I'm red, white, and blue. As Bruce Springsteen said recently, Perhaps not since the Civil War has this great country felt as politically, spiritually, and emotionally divided as it does at this moment. It doesn't have to be this way.

The common values, the shared stories that make us a great and united nation are waiting to be rediscovered and retold once again. This new show will retell some of our shared stories, some of those defining moments in American history, and hopefully help some of my fellow red, white, and blue citizens rediscover some of our most important common values, like the boss said. We'll explore through these defining moments. Whether or not country over self is a real thing, or whether we've romanticized some of the towering figures from our national story, and in fact there are no completely selfless decisions in politics, but the stories are defining nonetheless.

Country Over Self will feature 30 to 45 minutes with about a dozen prominent presidential historians, including Noah Feldman, Julian Zellzer, Richard Norton Smith, H. W. Brands, Alexis Coe, Rick Perlstein, and others. We'll be talking about some major presidents, the ones you'd expect, and some minor ones you might not even be able to pick out of a lineup.

But whether or not they held office during a time of elevated need or crisis like Lincoln or FDR or Washington, they all made consequential decisions. and advanced the cause of the American project. I hope you enjoyed listening to or watching Country Over Self: Defining Moments in American History as much as I'm enjoying making it.

I'll be back after the final interview with a conclusion about the topic. Thank you for listening to the Country Over Self podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a minute to give us five stars and leave us a review. If you have an idea for an episode or want to reach Matt directly, please email Podcast@countryoverself.com