In the hands of podcaster Lindsay Graham, historical events aren’t relics of the past; they’re a lens into humanity’s triumphs and tribulations in the present.
“Everyone should pay attention to history, because the weird thing is we have not changed much since we humans started,” says Graham, a Dallas-based entrepreneur. “Our struggles are the same. Our relation to dangerous threats is the same. Our joys and delights are the same. [Author and historian] David McCullough said it succinctly: ‘History is human. Even if you’re not trying, you’ll reflect the present in almost any historical story.’”
Graham has been doing just that through no less than three successful podcasts: American Scandal, American History Teller and History Daily. The latter was picked up this year by the AudioBoom network in an exclusive global partnership agreement.
Stuart Last, the CEO of the global audio publisher, says he was drawn to Lindsay’s ability to make history accessible. “What makes Lindsay and History Daily especially compelling is that the podcast has cultivated a ritual for its audience. Lindsay gives people a moment they can look forward to each day, where they can learn and be inspired.”
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An accidental entrepreneur, Graham developed his fascination with the subject organically. While attending St. Mark’s School of Texas in Dallas, he was inspired by a favorite teacher who brought the typically dusty subject to life through engaging narration.
The narration was “made very exciting by really focusing on the people instead of the dates and places,” recalls Graham, now 52. “It wasn’t just memorization for me; it was story time.”
While attending the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, Graham initially envisioned a career in history, ultimately pivoting to business because it “seemed like a more obtainable goal.” As he was also passionate about music, he developed a post-graduation side hustle as a musician and audio engineer, gaining experience in sound production and design. While balancing corporate gigs, Graham launched a short-lived audiobook company before creating the political thriller podcast Terms, which caught the ear of Hernan Lopez, the former CEO of Wondery, one of the biggest podcast publishers in the United States.
Lopez hired Graham to write and read ads for the cult hit Dirty John before asking him to create American History Tellers, which shot to the top of the Podcast charts and earned a 2019 Webby Award for Science and Education. Graham’s lively way of blending in original music and sound design caught the ears of laymen and celebrities alike — he was floored to hear that George Clooney was a fan on an episode of SmartLess, a podcast hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes.
Finally able to quit his day job and devote himself to podcasting full-time, Graham formed Airship, a podcast company with five employees, which he runs out of his parents’ backyard in the Junius Heights neighborhood of East Dallas.
At the urging of the U.K. network Noiser’s CEO, Pascal Hughes, Graham spun off his historical passion into yet another show in 2021: the bite-sized History Daily, which takes on everything from The Simpsons to the Siege of Leningrad. Actor Ryan Reynolds even slid into Graham’s DMs on Twitter, ultimately hosting History Daily’s annual April Fool’s shows in 2023.
Now with more than 1,000 episodes and 70 million downloads, History Daily is both the newest addition to AudioBoom’s stable and the impetus for Graham’s “The Days That Made America Tour,” a lively stage show he’ll unveil at the Granada Theater on March 6 before taking it on an East Coast tour.
Backed by a soundtrack from members of the local bands Pleasant Grove and Motorcade, the tour aims to inspire and educate future history buffs by bringing Graham’s “audio-first” philosophy into three dimensions with a “fun variety show.”
“I’m super excited but also super anxious,” Graham says. “I’m trying to take the spectacle of all of my history podcasts and combine them. We’ll discuss six days that made America, and it’s not all July the Fourth. All of this is such a surprise and a fantastic delight, but I’d love to reach more people, and that’s why I’m experimenting with a live show.”
Details
“Lindsay Graham: The Days that Made America Tour” comes to the Granada Theater in Dallas on March 6 at 8 p.m. $46.51-$58.41. A VIP add-on with a preshow Q-and-A session with Graham is $60.29. prekindle.com.
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