wildly curious
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Undelivered Great Speeches

Renee Bright
/
KUER

Have you ever wondered what Hillary Clinton might’ve said if she’d become president? Actually, you can know — by reading her speech that was never delivered.

And that’s just one example. There are many speeches that were written for powerful people that they never gave. Why? Sometimes, because someone got the outcome wrong, or had a change of heart. We never heard Dwight Eisenhower’s apology for D-Day failing or Nixon refusing to vacate the presidency. But the speeches exist. We’ll talk with speechwriter Jeff Nussbaum about the history of such undelivered speeches, as well as what they can tell us about ourselves today.

GUEST

  • Jeff Nussbaum | He’s an author and speechwriter, most recently for President Joe Biden. His most recent book is “Undelivered: The Never-Heard Speeches that would have Rewritten History.”

The actors on today’s program include:

  • Lance Blair as Richard Nixon
  • James Lailey as King Edward 
  • Adam Gifford as Wamsutta Frank James
  • Brian Bowles as John F. Kennedy
  • Glen McCready as Dwight Eisenhower
  • Kathleen Chalfant as Hillary Clinton

Airdate: Friday, Jan. 6, 2023 at 12 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 7 at 11 a.m. Rebroadcast on Friday, Friday, April 28, 2023 at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. 

Stay Connected