June 30, 2025 • 29 mins
Joe Kennedy, the patriarch of the Kennedy family, lived out the American dream. He amassed a fortune and gave his children a launching pad to political and cultural dominance. Lyra and George introduce themselves, the show, and the cast of characters who will be featured throughout.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
What's the first thing you think of when I say Kennedy,
The style, the.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Great the intelligence, They're rich. I think JFK an RFK
might have been cool, But I don't know Robert Kennedy.
If he didn't like you, he could be incredibly fucking.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Taylor Swift for some reason.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Then I start to think about the mom.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
So many places my mind goes when it comes to Kennedy's.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm Lyra Smith and.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'm George Savers, and this is the United States of Kennedy.
A podcast all about the Kennedys, A family that symbolizes
whatever you wanted to symbolize, the American dream, American statesmanship,
nostalgia for twentieth century American liberalism, the power of nepotism,
the power of media spin, the power of being Catholic,
(01:07):
and from Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
They're America's royal family.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Every week will go into one aspect of the Kennedy
story through.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Research and gossip we heard, and personal anecdotes.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Oh yeah, Larra, you have so many of those.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
It's very strange. Each time I've brought this podcast up
to like friends or family, I get a new one
popping up, and the juiciest one was about a family
friend who interned for JFK and then had an affair
and then broke up with him once he tried to
(01:41):
get her to have a threesome with him and Bobby, I'm.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Sorry, are you saying there was a Kennedy who had
an affair? Yeah? That is really crazy to believe. But
I don't know. I mean, I guess, well, I guess
we'll have to do our own research and see. I
have to say, I want to tease one of my stories.
They're not as juicy as yours, but a re one
I heard from a friend involved a pet snake, so
I'm excited to get into that in a later episode.
(02:06):
But generally, we're going to explore everything that has to
do with the Kennedy's week after week. We're going to
look at everything from what really happened at chap Equittic
to the fashion of proto influencer Carolyn Bissett to the
online antics of Jack Schlossberg.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Well look at where RFK Junior came from, what he wants,
how he found his way into the Trump White House.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
And we'll also talk about later topics like the shocking
number of very good movies and some kind of bad
ones inspired by the Kennedys. I'm thinking Oliver Stone's JFK,
Natalie Portman's performances, Jackie O, The Parker Posey cult classic
House of Yes, and of course our favorite, the infinitely
rewatchable Gray Gardens.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
The first piece of clothing that I ever bought on
the Internet was a T shirt of Little Edie, and
it's kind of like the Chay Gavara shirt, but underneath
it says revolution.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
And listen, I no whys detected. I remember the first
time I saw Grey Gardens. I was living in San
Francisco and I went to a screening at the Castro
Theater that I believe was hosted by two drag queens
dressed as Big Edie and Little Eg.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Oh my gosh, that's so good.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
It was heaven.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Each week we'll revisit a different historical event, tabloid controversy,
or pop culture moment and try to get closer to
answering the question, what is it about the Kennedy family
that keeps us locked in? When Jack Schlasberg TikTok pops up,
I honestly can't look away.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Hey, everybody, Valentine's Day is coming up in one month
and I need a Valentine. I don't have a Valentine
right now, So if you want to be my Valentine,
please like, comment and share, write me a message DM me.
Someone from my team will get back to you. I
can't make any promises. I'm going to pick the best
Valentine for me, So show us your stuff and thanks
(03:56):
a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
That is JFK's grandson. I'n alerting the world that he's
still in need of a Valentine leading up to Valentine's
Day this year, so we should probably introduce ourselves. I'm
Lyra Smith. I've been making podcasts for over a decade.
I've worked on shows like Stown, This American Life, and The.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Dream, and I am George. I'm a comedian and a writer.
I was a former editor at Gawker and I'm currently
the host of the comedy podcast Stradio Lab. But before
we get into it all, Lyra, don't you think we
should introduce the cast of characters in our story.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
It's necessary because there are so many Kennedys in each
generation and their stories build on each other. So we
have the patriarch, Joe Kennedy. His grandparents immigrated from Ireland,
He's born in eighteen eighty eight and married Rose Fitzgerald
in nineteen fourteen, and he basically lived out the American dream.
(04:49):
He amassed a huge fortune and he and Rose had
nine kids. This is the original lineup of the famous
Kennedy family, and you've.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Definitely heard of some of them. So of course we
have JFK. You might know him as the thirty fifth
President of the United States. Some of his greatest hits
include ask Not what your country can do for you,
The Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, signing the
first nuclear weapons treaty, establishing the Peace Corps, his marriage
to Jackie Kennedy, who's a rumored affair with Marilyn Monroe.
(05:19):
He was, of course assassinated in Texas in nineteen sixty
three in one of the most memorable days in American history.
Then we have JFK's brother and his Attorney General RFK.
And no it's not the one that is in the
news lately. It's his father, Bobby Kennedy. Bobby also ran
for president and was also famously assassinated shod publicly five
(05:40):
years after JFK in nineteen sixty eight.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
The brothers are of course the most lasting famous members
of the family, but I've always been more interested in
their sister Rosemary. There was also Kick as she was known,
and Ted, who has his own infamy later on.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
And the one that I feel like I grew up
with seeing in a government position.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Sure, and I thought that he was just a big joke,
because my first memory of Ted Kennedy is a Mad Magazine.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
He is sort of a classic Mad Magazine character he had.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Especially at this time. He had like the perfect frame
and face to fit like the illustrations. And that's literally
all I remember is just that he seemed to be
like the perfect cartoon character. And I've since learned more
about him, but as a kid, I was just like, oh, yeah,
that Ted Kennedy. He's the joke one, right.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
No, they do all have sort of a version, especially
the men, a version of the same face. And you
can have like the more cartoonish one, you can have
the redhead one, you can have the more handsome one,
you can have the more kind of gooky looking one.
But anyway, we have those nine kids, many grew up
and had their own children who also went on to
become pretty famous. So this brings us to the next generation,
we have JFA Kay's children, so that is JFK Junior
(07:03):
and Caroline Kennedy, who was most recently the Ambassador to
Australia under Joe Biden, and she was also the Ambassador
to Japan under Barack Obama. JFK Junior, her brother, was
an attorney, a journalist, a magazine publisher, and many other things,
but perhaps most importantly, he was the most eligible bachelor
in Manhattan until he married Carolyn Bassett, which was a
(07:25):
relationship the media covered mercilessly until their tragic death in
a plane crash in nineteen ninety nine, something we'll get
into a lot in a future episode. Then we have
other notable Kennedys of this generation. We have Bobby Kennedy's
son RFK Junior, Eunice Kennedy's daughter Maria Shriver who went
on to marry Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Connecticut state Senator Ted
(07:46):
Kennedy Junior, and former Massachusetts Congressman Joe Kennedy the second.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Then after that generation, we finally get to current day
with Jack Schlossberg, JFK's only grandson and Pat Schwarzenegger, Marias
Shreiver and Ur old Schwarzenegger's son, Yes, from White Lotus.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
All right, we're getting ahead of ourselves, so let's start
at the beginning.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
George, what was your memory of the Kennedys growing up?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
So?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I had a sort of very splintered childhood because I
spent half my childhood in Greece and half my childhood
in suburban New Jersey. So I spent my early childhood
in Athens, moved to New Jersey from second grade to
eighth grade, and then moved back to Greece for high school.
So my memories are very kind of tied to whatever
location I was at the time to state the obvious,
(08:34):
much like everyone's memories are, one might argue, And so
I have the sort of, you know, the New Jersey
element of my Kennedy memories, which is just like you know,
being in the northeast. Of course, I was aware of
the Kennedys. I was aware of Ted Kennedy, as I said,
I would see him on TV. I watched documentaries and
movies about the Kennedy's. I knew them as sort of
this emblem of American liberalism. But I think what stuck
(08:57):
with me a little more was what the Kennedy meant
in Greece, and in Greece, a huge part of kind
of Greek pop culture and contemporary Greek lore was Jackie's
relationship with Aristotle Onassis. So obviously Jackie already kind of
beloved by the Greeks when she was married to JFK.
(09:17):
There was all these stories about her visiting the Parthenon
and saying publicly that she would like to see the
Elgin Marbles return to Greece, which is sort of like
the magic sentence. You have to tell any Greek person
if you want them on your.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Side, what are the Elgin Marbles?
Speaker 3 (09:31):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
So the Elgin Marbles are a series of sculptures that
were removed from the Parthenon I believe in the nineteenth century,
and they are currently in the British Museum. So many
people believe they should be returned to Greece. And if
you ever want to pander to Greek people, just say
you believe the Elgin Marbles should be returned.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
That, actually, I mean, honestly, feels like a really progressive
statement for a first lady at that time.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yes, no, absolutely, yeah, I wonder if this was sort
of like the time before media training where it was
just you know, something she read in the newspaper and
she said, you know, that seems unfair. They should be
a returned to Greece, and didn't really runt it by anyone.
And then there she is sort of like saying it
at a I don't know, at an interviewer, to a
camera or something in Greece. But this is something that
many Greek people will tell. You know, Jackie was always
(10:14):
a friend of Greece because she said that they should
return the Elder Marbles. But then, of course after JFK's death,
she dated and then married Aristotle Onassis, who was this
huge Greek shipping tycoon, just like a huge figure in
Greece and one of the richest people in the world.
And that is when she really became a huge Greek celebrity.
(10:35):
I mean, I think they maybe lived part time in Athens.
She was sort of both beloved by certain people and
also kind of you know, held in suspicion by others
that really wanted Aristotle Onasis to marry Maria Callis and
thought of her as sort of a you know, dare
I say, gold digger, And so there were people had
mixed feelings about her, she was sort of a tabloid figure,
(10:57):
and Maria.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Kallis is the one that Angelia Jolie just played.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
That is correct. Angelina Jolie played her in the film
and her relationship with Onasis was portrayed in the film,
so they sort of famously were in a relationship while
both of them were married.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Well, and also the whole reason that Jackie got with
him is because he was with her sister, Lee Radswell,
who was married.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Right exactly. I think there was not a lot of fidelity.
I think maybe there was something about Jackie actually marrying
Onassas that was like, well, this is the final straw.
We know all these people are having affairs, but how
dare you make it official? But yes, it's I mean,
especially the connection between Onasas and Maria Callis, it's like
these were the two most famous Greek people globally basically.
(11:45):
I mean he was this like rich, you know, tycoon playboy,
and she was the big diva, and so I think
that meant a lot in terms of, you know, Greece's
place in culture around the world.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
It's also interesting that it's both Pablo Lorraine, right.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Oh, yes, that's right. Le Loraine get both Jackie starring
Natalie Portman and Mario with Angelina Julie. But anyway, so
Jackie O really is, you know, she's someone that has
been in the ether in Greece for a long time.
And one of my favorite sort of small elements of
that is the fact that the biggest gay club in Mikonos,
which is of course like the gay island in Greece,
(12:24):
is named Jackie O and it's actually a growing empire.
There is a Jackie O Club, there is a Jackie
O restaurant. They do drag shows. I saw someone at
my gym the other day wearing a Jackie O Mikono's hat.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
And then I went online and I was like, oh,
maybe I'll buy us hats as a little gag gift
for the show. Couldn't find them. I did, however, find
a photo of a Greek drag queen meeting Natalie Portman
at Jackie O. So that really is closing the loop,
which is the actress that play Jackie is at the
Jackie O club meeting a drag queen that's sort of,
you know, dressed like a Greek goddess.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
It's interesting because because I feel like another family possibly
would shut that down, would be like, you're making money
off of the name. But you know, but the Kennedys.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Don't never do that. I that is a good point.
I had never it had never even occurred to me.
I mean, it's the Kennedy's, but it also is the
Jackie side of the family as well, because you know
it's named Jackie.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I mean, we'll get into this more when we talk
about Grey Gardens, But the fascination with Jackie sort of
extended beyond the Kennedy part of her life and towards
like her own relatives, like her various cousins, the Onasis's kids,
and the feelings that they had towards Jackie. I mean,
I honestly think if she starts, I mean, if her
estate starts banning Jackie Omikinos, it's like, I don't know
(13:45):
where they're going to stop, because it's sort of a
whack a mole in terms of poor representations of the
family name. Lara, I want to know, what was your
(14:11):
family's connection to the Kennedys.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
So, yeah, my mom is an Irish Catholic from the
DC area. To her family, it was a huge deal
that they had an Irish Catholic president. It meant that
they were seen. They felt like this was major representation
and major change for the family and then everybody else
(14:36):
who shared their ancestry and religion, and even as like
a tiny kid, my mom was like, he's the most
handsome man in the world. Because it's like that was.
It's funny now because when you I feel like looking
back at like images of him, you're like, all right,
he's okay. And at that time, though, it was like, we're.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Gonna have to talk about that at some point, because
you really it does feel like a form of gas
lighting that you go through your entire you know, adolescence
in America, where it's like he's the one who was
the hot president. Yeah, he was a hot president, and
she was the hot first lady, and of.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Course not Teddy Roosevelt.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Right. I mean it's tough because we've watched a lot
of sort of like documentaries and footage and whatever and
preparing for this, and from today's point of view, you
don't quite get it. But you have to remember that
before the Kennedys, I mean everyone was like, you know,
a painting of an old wizard. You know, we had
(15:37):
never had like a young, vibrant couple in the White
House and don't don't fact check us on that.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I mean, that's the thing that they always say. They're like,
it's the first time anyone saw children in the Oval
office in the White House, and like how impactful that was.
And I mean, also the thing about JFK is the charisma,
which you know, a person who is ten times more
attract when they have like an incredible personality and like presence,
(16:05):
And I think that's like part of it.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And so much of the JFK as president origin story
is you know, the famous televised debate with Nixon where
Nixon came across as nervous and sweaty and JFK came
across as charismatic and confident and calm. And so it
sort of sets you up for success if the person
that you were being compared to on television is Richard Nixon.
(16:29):
But then it's sort of stuck that he his main
thing is the is the charisma and the in telegenic vibe.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
I think also for my mom's family, they were like
for kids, they were pretty involved in civil rights protests.
I think that they have over the years combined JFK's
involvement in civil rights and Bobby's involvement with civil rights
to be you know, representative of what their hopes were
(16:59):
at that time.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
So it wasn't just you know, for your family. They
weren't just a symbol of Northeastern Catholicism. It was a
symbol of like American progressivism. Like Kennedy's really like symbolized
this liberalism that was so hopeful, especially for white people
that wanted to feel better about themselves. So it was
so hopeful throughout the twentieth century.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, I mean, they're really it in terms of the
personification of that hope from that time. And you know,
the assassinations are like the loss of innocence for so
many Americans that like that was their president, and they
were you know, proud and happy and felt like this
(17:39):
is such a like youthful restart to you know, what
America can do. But I will say even with all
of that, my big family story, or the story that
I remember growing up, was about how RFK Junior was
heavily pursuing my mom to date, and she rejected him repeatedly,
(18:05):
which is something she's a lady, I know, which is
something that as a child, You're like, what are you
talking about? Are you kidding me? Like, why would you
not like do it for the story? But you know
they felt differently back then. But also she had a
lot more intel, and she also is a lot smarter
than me.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
I would say, well, maybe she's the one who could
have saved us from what we'd now.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
No, well, this is the thing, is that like when
he was running for president and you know, married to
Cheryl Hines. I teazed her and I was like, mom,
you could have been the first lady. And my mom
can be kind of morbid again Irish Catholic. So she said, no,
I would not have been the first lady. I would
have killed myself, which is how I learned that his
(18:51):
previous wife committed suicide. She said, what you are seeing
today is not the man that we were around then.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, And I'm you brought up RFK Junior because there
is something about him being the most visible Kennedy right
now in twenty twenty five that I think, to me
encapsulates why we wanted to make a show like this now.
Because one of the constants of twentieth century America and
even early twenty first century America was just like what
(19:20):
the Kennedy family meant, what it connoted, like what we
think about when we think about the Kennedys. And there
is something about RFK Junior, with his current political views,
with his place in the Trump administration, being the most
visible Kennedy that really just shows that there has been
some sort of break in how things are happening all
(19:41):
around us in America.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Even though they were never perfect, always deeply flawed, the
representation of the like the pride and respect and the
class that their family represented was a net positive for
like our cultural understanding of like what a family in
(20:05):
politics should look like and how they should behave, and
we are losing that every day.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I think it's sort of you know, their flaws were
America's flaws, and it's yes, their flaws were what you know,
they were hypocrisy, they were nepotism, They were kind of
like this pretense that they are they can somehow be
progressive an anti establishment, despite the fact that they are
one hundred percent always the establishment. It is, you know,
(20:33):
achieving the American dream by amassing immense wealth and then
passing it down to your children and sort of building
generational wealth. It's the Kennedys were sort of like, how
good can you be while still having all the flaws
that America has? And in some ways RFK in his
own way is a classic Kennedy archetype. I mean he
(20:56):
struggled with addiction and exhibited a certain kind of bad
way behavior in his youth. He like championed liberal causes
earlier on, he was an environmental lawyer like his whole
you know, he railed against fracking and pollution. Even later
he spoke out about forever chemicals and microplastics. He like
talked about raising the minimum wage, and he has that
(21:16):
Kennedy face too. There were elements of him where were like, Okay,
this is just a different, more contemporary version of the
kind of Kennedy that we are used to. Even the
scandals are so Kennedy to me, Like the fact that
he was accused of flying on Jeffrey Epstein's play, and
I mean that sounds like something a Kennedy would do.
Of course, I mean his history of infidelity, the fact
(21:36):
that he's like married to a Hollywood actress. Like again,
all these are very sort of like Kennedy things. And
then I think where it really takes a turn is
we start going into the conspiracy theorizing, the anti vaccine activism,
the embrace of Donald Trump, and there's sort of just
this like break from tradition, And I think something that
(21:58):
I find fascinating about it is that it like is
emblematic of a larger shift in American politics and this
larger political realignment where what we think of as liberal
and conservative just is not what it was in nineteen
ninety eight or nineteen sixty four or even you know,
twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
It's funny that you mentioned him going into the conspiracy theories,
because there are so many conspiracy theories about the Kennedy
family themselves, including this concept of a Kennedy curse, which
even talking about RFK Junior and his like rise and fall,
(22:36):
it's like there's always going to be evidence to support
this idea that the Kennedys are cursed. They're in the
public eye, they have great wealth, they have great privilege.
When they make a mistake or when you know, tragedy
befalls them, it can always get knocked under this idea
(22:59):
of the family being curse.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
It is sort of a I don't want to say
it's a self fulfilling prophecy. But there's something where you
hear something tragic about a Kennedy and you almost nod
your head solemnly, like, well, you know, something bad was
bound to happen. You've sort of been trained to think
that way. I mean, especially now that there's this new
generation of young, handsome Kennedy's, there's a part of me
that's like, oh my god, don't leave the house, Patrick Schwarzenegger,
(23:26):
don't go to Thailand. You don't know what might happen.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
When RFK Junior was running for president, he had a
fundraising element that was that you could get a ticket
to go on a sailboat with him, and every single
person on Twitter was just like, do not get on
a boat, don't get on a boat, don't get on
a boat, don't get on a plane, don't get in
a car with any Kennedy ever.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I remember, personally, RFK came into my consciousness because I'm
a huge curb your enthusiasm Larry David fan, and famously
Larry David was the one who introduced RFK to Cheryl Hines.
You know, during a different time, back when RFK Junior
was in fact still a proud Democrat who was an
environmental lawyer. Despite I have to say people call him
(24:27):
an anti vaxer. Being an anti vaxer is one thing.
He is an anti vaccine activist, it is oh, he's not.
He doesn't just have beliefs that are cuckoo.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
He travels to other countries and convinces them not to vaccinate.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
He has lobbied with celebrities in DC against against vaccines.
But anyway, that's neither here nor there. The point is
in terms of the Kennedy Curse, I remember, like when
I read that Larry David introduced RFK to Cheryl Hines,
I'm like, leave her alone, Like why are you introducing
Why are you literally introducing her to this family where
oh my god, every single generation fifty tragedies happened this
(25:01):
poor woman.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
And the photos of him at their wedding are incredible.
It just looks like they're filming an episode. He looks
so upset, so funny, but he's in every photo. The
wedding photographer definitely was following him around, very interested.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
In what he was going to do.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
But also, you know, that's another of my initial understandings
of the Kennedy's was the JFK junior episode of Seinfeld,
which you know, I'm sure Larry David maybe felt like
he was giving her her a lain moment trying to
look up with the Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
It's like, I mean, there is this lasting idea that
what every single woman wants is to date a Kennedy.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Sure, Taylor Swift, Yeah, Taylor Swift. She could have had anybody.
She got her Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
I mean, we don't even know who. At some point,
Jack Schlasberg is going to debut a girlfriend and that
is going to be a huge moment.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yes, he's on Riyah. I've seen him on Riyah many times.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Really, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, I've I tried to message him. You know, I
have not gotten a response. I did delete the app.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Oh my god, sacrificing your journalistic integrity, I know. But yeah,
he was one of.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Those celebs that were kind of famously always showing up
for people on there. And we did a little like
Reddit gossip research and you know, to our surprise, found
nothing but like positive reviews of him as an individual.
(26:29):
And it seems like he's had a few girlfriends and
there are no negative stories to tell so far.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
He does seem not to use a cliche to be
sort of what you might call chaotic good at the
end of the day. I mean, I don't know if
I would like to, you know, be roommates with him
or something, but I think he ultimately his heart is
maybe in the right place.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
It's a lot of singing. Sure, it would be hard
to share space with him. Probably he does have a.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Sort of theater kid vibe about him and also like
forever being celebrated for just putting any piece of himself
out publicly.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Because the thing is is that like his mother somewhat
famously and many of the other like past Kennedys, like
they don't put their personal being out into the public
like that. They stay very kind of stoic. They have
their you know, this is the positive story of them,
(27:30):
is that they are public servants or that they are
working in politics for the good of the American people,
and that they care about committing to a life of
public service. In a lot of ways. Until RFK Junior,
most of the Kennedys have stayed pretty quiet outside of
these diplomatic duties. Jack Schlosberg was doing that for a while.
(27:55):
He was clearly media trained and operating as the family
of representative.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I mean, there are a couple of counter examples. I'm thinking,
you know, JFK Junior in his heyday was a true socialite.
I think that was also sort of part of what
you know sounded the alarm bells in the Kennedy family
was that, you know, the Kennedies are not supposed to
be socialites like prancing around New York City. But if
there's one thing RFK and Jack have in common is
that they love showing off their torsos.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yes, I feel like the first video I saw of
Jack Schlasberg was him singing shirtless in a parking lot,
and I didn't realize who it was, but I was
still captivated. And then when he was on the skateboard
reciting the poem was a Lord Byron poem, Like, you know,
(28:48):
he's having a great time, but yeah, now he's gotten
the attention. It feels like people have been watching him
very closely, and they notice whenever he pulls back from
social media. But he is just one of many Kennedy's.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yes, it's being watched is just like a consistent part
of the Kennedy story, and Jack Schlasberg is just the
latest chapter of that. At every point, you know, people
sort of like keep up with them with a mix
of fascination, reverence, suspicion, and it's not dying down anytime soon,
so we are excited to jump into even more Kennedy stories.
(29:24):
Everything that we mentioned today was just the tip of
the iceberg. We have many, many weeks and months to
get into how we got here and where we came from.
So subscribe and follow to United States of Kennedy for
all things Kennedy every week.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Thanks for listening.
What's the first thing you think of when I say Kennedy,
The style, the.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Great the intelligence, They're rich. I think JFK an RFK
might have been cool, But I don't know Robert Kennedy.
If he didn't like you, he could be incredibly fucking.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Taylor Swift for some reason.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Then I start to think about the mom.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
So many places my mind goes when it comes to Kennedy's.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I'm Lyra Smith and.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I'm George Savers, and this is the United States of Kennedy.
A podcast all about the Kennedys, A family that symbolizes
whatever you wanted to symbolize, the American dream, American statesmanship,
nostalgia for twentieth century American liberalism, the power of nepotism,
the power of media spin, the power of being Catholic,
(01:07):
and from Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
They're America's royal family.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Every week will go into one aspect of the Kennedy
story through.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Research and gossip we heard, and personal anecdotes.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Oh yeah, Larra, you have so many of those.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
It's very strange. Each time I've brought this podcast up
to like friends or family, I get a new one
popping up, and the juiciest one was about a family
friend who interned for JFK and then had an affair
and then broke up with him once he tried to
(01:41):
get her to have a threesome with him and Bobby, I'm.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Sorry, are you saying there was a Kennedy who had
an affair? Yeah? That is really crazy to believe. But
I don't know. I mean, I guess, well, I guess
we'll have to do our own research and see. I
have to say, I want to tease one of my stories.
They're not as juicy as yours, but a re one
I heard from a friend involved a pet snake, so
I'm excited to get into that in a later episode.
(02:06):
But generally, we're going to explore everything that has to
do with the Kennedy's week after week. We're going to
look at everything from what really happened at chap Equittic
to the fashion of proto influencer Carolyn Bissett to the
online antics of Jack Schlossberg.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Well look at where RFK Junior came from, what he wants,
how he found his way into the Trump White House.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
And we'll also talk about later topics like the shocking
number of very good movies and some kind of bad
ones inspired by the Kennedys. I'm thinking Oliver Stone's JFK,
Natalie Portman's performances, Jackie O, The Parker Posey cult classic
House of Yes, and of course our favorite, the infinitely
rewatchable Gray Gardens.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
The first piece of clothing that I ever bought on
the Internet was a T shirt of Little Edie, and
it's kind of like the Chay Gavara shirt, but underneath
it says revolution.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
And listen, I no whys detected. I remember the first
time I saw Grey Gardens. I was living in San
Francisco and I went to a screening at the Castro
Theater that I believe was hosted by two drag queens
dressed as Big Edie and Little Eg.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Oh my gosh, that's so good.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
It was heaven.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Each week we'll revisit a different historical event, tabloid controversy,
or pop culture moment and try to get closer to
answering the question, what is it about the Kennedy family
that keeps us locked in? When Jack Schlasberg TikTok pops up,
I honestly can't look away.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Hey, everybody, Valentine's Day is coming up in one month
and I need a Valentine. I don't have a Valentine
right now, So if you want to be my Valentine,
please like, comment and share, write me a message DM me.
Someone from my team will get back to you. I
can't make any promises. I'm going to pick the best
Valentine for me, So show us your stuff and thanks
(03:56):
a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
That is JFK's grandson. I'n alerting the world that he's
still in need of a Valentine leading up to Valentine's
Day this year, so we should probably introduce ourselves. I'm
Lyra Smith. I've been making podcasts for over a decade.
I've worked on shows like Stown, This American Life, and The.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Dream, and I am George. I'm a comedian and a writer.
I was a former editor at Gawker and I'm currently
the host of the comedy podcast Stradio Lab. But before
we get into it all, Lyra, don't you think we
should introduce the cast of characters in our story.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
It's necessary because there are so many Kennedys in each
generation and their stories build on each other. So we
have the patriarch, Joe Kennedy. His grandparents immigrated from Ireland,
He's born in eighteen eighty eight and married Rose Fitzgerald
in nineteen fourteen, and he basically lived out the American dream.
(04:49):
He amassed a huge fortune and he and Rose had
nine kids. This is the original lineup of the famous
Kennedy family, and you've.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Definitely heard of some of them. So of course we
have JFK. You might know him as the thirty fifth
President of the United States. Some of his greatest hits
include ask Not what your country can do for you,
The Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, signing the
first nuclear weapons treaty, establishing the Peace Corps, his marriage
to Jackie Kennedy, who's a rumored affair with Marilyn Monroe.
(05:19):
He was, of course assassinated in Texas in nineteen sixty
three in one of the most memorable days in American history.
Then we have JFK's brother and his Attorney General RFK.
And no it's not the one that is in the
news lately. It's his father, Bobby Kennedy. Bobby also ran
for president and was also famously assassinated shod publicly five
(05:40):
years after JFK in nineteen sixty eight.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
The brothers are of course the most lasting famous members
of the family, but I've always been more interested in
their sister Rosemary. There was also Kick as she was known,
and Ted, who has his own infamy later on.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
And the one that I feel like I grew up
with seeing in a government position.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Sure, and I thought that he was just a big joke,
because my first memory of Ted Kennedy is a Mad Magazine.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
He is sort of a classic Mad Magazine character he had.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Especially at this time. He had like the perfect frame
and face to fit like the illustrations. And that's literally
all I remember is just that he seemed to be
like the perfect cartoon character. And I've since learned more
about him, but as a kid, I was just like, oh, yeah,
that Ted Kennedy. He's the joke one, right.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
No, they do all have sort of a version, especially
the men, a version of the same face. And you
can have like the more cartoonish one, you can have
the redhead one, you can have the more handsome one,
you can have the more kind of gooky looking one.
But anyway, we have those nine kids, many grew up
and had their own children who also went on to
become pretty famous. So this brings us to the next generation,
we have JFA Kay's children, so that is JFK Junior
(07:03):
and Caroline Kennedy, who was most recently the Ambassador to
Australia under Joe Biden, and she was also the Ambassador
to Japan under Barack Obama. JFK Junior, her brother, was
an attorney, a journalist, a magazine publisher, and many other things,
but perhaps most importantly, he was the most eligible bachelor
in Manhattan until he married Carolyn Bassett, which was a
(07:25):
relationship the media covered mercilessly until their tragic death in
a plane crash in nineteen ninety nine, something we'll get
into a lot in a future episode. Then we have
other notable Kennedys of this generation. We have Bobby Kennedy's
son RFK Junior, Eunice Kennedy's daughter Maria Shriver who went
on to marry Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Connecticut state Senator Ted
(07:46):
Kennedy Junior, and former Massachusetts Congressman Joe Kennedy the second.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Then after that generation, we finally get to current day
with Jack Schlossberg, JFK's only grandson and Pat Schwarzenegger, Marias
Shreiver and Ur old Schwarzenegger's son, Yes, from White Lotus.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
All right, we're getting ahead of ourselves, so let's start
at the beginning.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
George, what was your memory of the Kennedys growing up?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
So?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I had a sort of very splintered childhood because I
spent half my childhood in Greece and half my childhood
in suburban New Jersey. So I spent my early childhood
in Athens, moved to New Jersey from second grade to
eighth grade, and then moved back to Greece for high school.
So my memories are very kind of tied to whatever
location I was at the time to state the obvious,
(08:34):
much like everyone's memories are, one might argue, And so
I have the sort of, you know, the New Jersey
element of my Kennedy memories, which is just like you know,
being in the northeast. Of course, I was aware of
the Kennedys. I was aware of Ted Kennedy, as I said,
I would see him on TV. I watched documentaries and
movies about the Kennedy's. I knew them as sort of
this emblem of American liberalism. But I think what stuck
(08:57):
with me a little more was what the Kennedy meant
in Greece, and in Greece, a huge part of kind
of Greek pop culture and contemporary Greek lore was Jackie's
relationship with Aristotle Onassis. So obviously Jackie already kind of
beloved by the Greeks when she was married to JFK.
(09:17):
There was all these stories about her visiting the Parthenon
and saying publicly that she would like to see the
Elgin Marbles return to Greece, which is sort of like
the magic sentence. You have to tell any Greek person
if you want them on your.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Side, what are the Elgin Marbles?
Speaker 3 (09:31):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
So the Elgin Marbles are a series of sculptures that
were removed from the Parthenon I believe in the nineteenth century,
and they are currently in the British Museum. So many
people believe they should be returned to Greece. And if
you ever want to pander to Greek people, just say
you believe the Elgin Marbles should be returned.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
That, actually, I mean, honestly, feels like a really progressive
statement for a first lady at that time.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yes, no, absolutely, yeah, I wonder if this was sort
of like the time before media training where it was
just you know, something she read in the newspaper and
she said, you know, that seems unfair. They should be
a returned to Greece, and didn't really runt it by anyone.
And then there she is sort of like saying it
at a I don't know, at an interviewer, to a
camera or something in Greece. But this is something that
many Greek people will tell. You know, Jackie was always
(10:14):
a friend of Greece because she said that they should
return the Elder Marbles. But then, of course after JFK's death,
she dated and then married Aristotle Onassis, who was this
huge Greek shipping tycoon, just like a huge figure in
Greece and one of the richest people in the world.
And that is when she really became a huge Greek celebrity.
(10:35):
I mean, I think they maybe lived part time in Athens.
She was sort of both beloved by certain people and
also kind of you know, held in suspicion by others
that really wanted Aristotle Onasis to marry Maria Callis and
thought of her as sort of a you know, dare
I say, gold digger, And so there were people had
mixed feelings about her, she was sort of a tabloid figure,
(10:57):
and Maria.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Kallis is the one that Angelia Jolie just played.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
That is correct. Angelina Jolie played her in the film
and her relationship with Onasis was portrayed in the film,
so they sort of famously were in a relationship while
both of them were married.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Well, and also the whole reason that Jackie got with
him is because he was with her sister, Lee Radswell,
who was married.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Right exactly. I think there was not a lot of fidelity.
I think maybe there was something about Jackie actually marrying
Onassas that was like, well, this is the final straw.
We know all these people are having affairs, but how
dare you make it official? But yes, it's I mean,
especially the connection between Onasas and Maria Callis, it's like
these were the two most famous Greek people globally basically.
(11:45):
I mean he was this like rich, you know, tycoon playboy,
and she was the big diva, and so I think
that meant a lot in terms of, you know, Greece's
place in culture around the world.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
It's also interesting that it's both Pablo Lorraine, right.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Oh, yes, that's right. Le Loraine get both Jackie starring
Natalie Portman and Mario with Angelina Julie. But anyway, so
Jackie O really is, you know, she's someone that has
been in the ether in Greece for a long time.
And one of my favorite sort of small elements of
that is the fact that the biggest gay club in Mikonos,
which is of course like the gay island in Greece,
(12:24):
is named Jackie O and it's actually a growing empire.
There is a Jackie O Club, there is a Jackie
O restaurant. They do drag shows. I saw someone at
my gym the other day wearing a Jackie O Mikono's hat.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
And then I went online and I was like, oh,
maybe I'll buy us hats as a little gag gift
for the show. Couldn't find them. I did, however, find
a photo of a Greek drag queen meeting Natalie Portman
at Jackie O. So that really is closing the loop,
which is the actress that play Jackie is at the
Jackie O club meeting a drag queen that's sort of,
you know, dressed like a Greek goddess.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
It's interesting because because I feel like another family possibly
would shut that down, would be like, you're making money
off of the name. But you know, but the Kennedys.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Don't never do that. I that is a good point.
I had never it had never even occurred to me.
I mean, it's the Kennedy's, but it also is the
Jackie side of the family as well, because you know
it's named Jackie.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I mean, we'll get into this more when we talk
about Grey Gardens, But the fascination with Jackie sort of
extended beyond the Kennedy part of her life and towards
like her own relatives, like her various cousins, the Onasis's kids,
and the feelings that they had towards Jackie. I mean,
I honestly think if she starts, I mean, if her
estate starts banning Jackie Omikinos, it's like, I don't know
(13:45):
where they're going to stop, because it's sort of a
whack a mole in terms of poor representations of the
family name. Lara, I want to know, what was your
(14:11):
family's connection to the Kennedys.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
So, yeah, my mom is an Irish Catholic from the
DC area. To her family, it was a huge deal
that they had an Irish Catholic president. It meant that
they were seen. They felt like this was major representation
and major change for the family and then everybody else
(14:36):
who shared their ancestry and religion, and even as like
a tiny kid, my mom was like, he's the most
handsome man in the world. Because it's like that was.
It's funny now because when you I feel like looking
back at like images of him, you're like, all right,
he's okay. And at that time, though, it was like, we're.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Gonna have to talk about that at some point, because
you really it does feel like a form of gas
lighting that you go through your entire you know, adolescence
in America, where it's like he's the one who was
the hot president. Yeah, he was a hot president, and
she was the hot first lady, and of.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Course not Teddy Roosevelt.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Right. I mean it's tough because we've watched a lot
of sort of like documentaries and footage and whatever and
preparing for this, and from today's point of view, you
don't quite get it. But you have to remember that
before the Kennedys, I mean everyone was like, you know,
a painting of an old wizard. You know, we had
(15:37):
never had like a young, vibrant couple in the White
House and don't don't fact check us on that.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I mean, that's the thing that they always say. They're like,
it's the first time anyone saw children in the Oval
office in the White House, and like how impactful that was.
And I mean, also the thing about JFK is the charisma,
which you know, a person who is ten times more
attract when they have like an incredible personality and like presence,
(16:05):
And I think that's like part of it.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
And so much of the JFK as president origin story
is you know, the famous televised debate with Nixon where
Nixon came across as nervous and sweaty and JFK came
across as charismatic and confident and calm. And so it
sort of sets you up for success if the person
that you were being compared to on television is Richard Nixon.
(16:29):
But then it's sort of stuck that he his main
thing is the is the charisma and the in telegenic vibe.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
I think also for my mom's family, they were like
for kids, they were pretty involved in civil rights protests.
I think that they have over the years combined JFK's
involvement in civil rights and Bobby's involvement with civil rights
to be you know, representative of what their hopes were
(16:59):
at that time.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
So it wasn't just you know, for your family. They
weren't just a symbol of Northeastern Catholicism. It was a
symbol of like American progressivism. Like Kennedy's really like symbolized
this liberalism that was so hopeful, especially for white people
that wanted to feel better about themselves. So it was
so hopeful throughout the twentieth century.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Yeah, I mean, they're really it in terms of the
personification of that hope from that time. And you know,
the assassinations are like the loss of innocence for so
many Americans that like that was their president, and they
were you know, proud and happy and felt like this
(17:39):
is such a like youthful restart to you know, what
America can do. But I will say even with all
of that, my big family story, or the story that
I remember growing up, was about how RFK Junior was
heavily pursuing my mom to date, and she rejected him repeatedly,
(18:05):
which is something she's a lady, I know, which is
something that as a child, You're like, what are you
talking about? Are you kidding me? Like, why would you
not like do it for the story? But you know
they felt differently back then. But also she had a
lot more intel, and she also is a lot smarter
than me.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
I would say, well, maybe she's the one who could
have saved us from what we'd now.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
No, well, this is the thing, is that like when
he was running for president and you know, married to
Cheryl Hines. I teazed her and I was like, mom,
you could have been the first lady. And my mom
can be kind of morbid again Irish Catholic. So she said, no,
I would not have been the first lady. I would
have killed myself, which is how I learned that his
(18:51):
previous wife committed suicide. She said, what you are seeing
today is not the man that we were around then.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, And I'm you brought up RFK Junior because there
is something about him being the most visible Kennedy right
now in twenty twenty five that I think, to me
encapsulates why we wanted to make a show like this now.
Because one of the constants of twentieth century America and
even early twenty first century America was just like what
(19:20):
the Kennedy family meant, what it connoted, like what we
think about when we think about the Kennedys. And there
is something about RFK Junior, with his current political views,
with his place in the Trump administration, being the most
visible Kennedy that really just shows that there has been
some sort of break in how things are happening all
(19:41):
around us in America.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Even though they were never perfect, always deeply flawed, the
representation of the like the pride and respect and the
class that their family represented was a net positive for
like our cultural understanding of like what a family in
(20:05):
politics should look like and how they should behave, and
we are losing that every day.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I think it's sort of you know, their flaws were
America's flaws, and it's yes, their flaws were what you know,
they were hypocrisy, they were nepotism, They were kind of
like this pretense that they are they can somehow be
progressive an anti establishment, despite the fact that they are
one hundred percent always the establishment. It is, you know,
(20:33):
achieving the American dream by amassing immense wealth and then
passing it down to your children and sort of building
generational wealth. It's the Kennedys were sort of like, how
good can you be while still having all the flaws
that America has? And in some ways RFK in his
own way is a classic Kennedy archetype. I mean he
(20:56):
struggled with addiction and exhibited a certain kind of bad
way behavior in his youth. He like championed liberal causes
earlier on, he was an environmental lawyer like his whole
you know, he railed against fracking and pollution. Even later
he spoke out about forever chemicals and microplastics. He like
talked about raising the minimum wage, and he has that
(21:16):
Kennedy face too. There were elements of him where were like, Okay,
this is just a different, more contemporary version of the
kind of Kennedy that we are used to. Even the
scandals are so Kennedy to me, Like the fact that
he was accused of flying on Jeffrey Epstein's play, and
I mean that sounds like something a Kennedy would do.
Of course, I mean his history of infidelity, the fact
(21:36):
that he's like married to a Hollywood actress. Like again,
all these are very sort of like Kennedy things. And
then I think where it really takes a turn is
we start going into the conspiracy theorizing, the anti vaccine activism,
the embrace of Donald Trump, and there's sort of just
this like break from tradition, And I think something that
(21:58):
I find fascinating about it is that it like is
emblematic of a larger shift in American politics and this
larger political realignment where what we think of as liberal
and conservative just is not what it was in nineteen
ninety eight or nineteen sixty four or even you know,
twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
It's funny that you mentioned him going into the conspiracy theories,
because there are so many conspiracy theories about the Kennedy
family themselves, including this concept of a Kennedy curse, which
even talking about RFK Junior and his like rise and fall,
(22:36):
it's like there's always going to be evidence to support
this idea that the Kennedys are cursed. They're in the
public eye, they have great wealth, they have great privilege.
When they make a mistake or when you know, tragedy
befalls them, it can always get knocked under this idea
(22:59):
of the family being curse.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
It is sort of a I don't want to say
it's a self fulfilling prophecy. But there's something where you
hear something tragic about a Kennedy and you almost nod
your head solemnly, like, well, you know, something bad was
bound to happen. You've sort of been trained to think
that way. I mean, especially now that there's this new
generation of young, handsome Kennedy's, there's a part of me
that's like, oh my god, don't leave the house, Patrick Schwarzenegger,
(23:26):
don't go to Thailand. You don't know what might happen.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
When RFK Junior was running for president, he had a
fundraising element that was that you could get a ticket
to go on a sailboat with him, and every single
person on Twitter was just like, do not get on
a boat, don't get on a boat, don't get on
a boat, don't get on a plane, don't get in
a car with any Kennedy ever.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
I remember, personally, RFK came into my consciousness because I'm
a huge curb your enthusiasm Larry David fan, and famously
Larry David was the one who introduced RFK to Cheryl Hines.
You know, during a different time, back when RFK Junior
was in fact still a proud Democrat who was an
environmental lawyer. Despite I have to say people call him
(24:27):
an anti vaxer. Being an anti vaxer is one thing.
He is an anti vaccine activist, it is oh, he's not.
He doesn't just have beliefs that are cuckoo.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
He travels to other countries and convinces them not to vaccinate.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
He has lobbied with celebrities in DC against against vaccines.
But anyway, that's neither here nor there. The point is
in terms of the Kennedy Curse, I remember, like when
I read that Larry David introduced RFK to Cheryl Hines,
I'm like, leave her alone, Like why are you introducing
Why are you literally introducing her to this family where
oh my god, every single generation fifty tragedies happened this
(25:01):
poor woman.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
And the photos of him at their wedding are incredible.
It just looks like they're filming an episode. He looks
so upset, so funny, but he's in every photo. The
wedding photographer definitely was following him around, very interested.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
In what he was going to do.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
But also, you know, that's another of my initial understandings
of the Kennedy's was the JFK junior episode of Seinfeld,
which you know, I'm sure Larry David maybe felt like
he was giving her her a lain moment trying to
look up with the Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
It's like, I mean, there is this lasting idea that
what every single woman wants is to date a Kennedy.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Sure, Taylor Swift, Yeah, Taylor Swift. She could have had anybody.
She got her Kennedy.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
I mean, we don't even know who. At some point,
Jack Schlasberg is going to debut a girlfriend and that
is going to be a huge moment.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yes, he's on Riyah. I've seen him on Riyah many times.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Really, I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, I've I tried to message him. You know, I
have not gotten a response. I did delete the app.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Oh my god, sacrificing your journalistic integrity, I know. But yeah,
he was one of.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Those celebs that were kind of famously always showing up
for people on there. And we did a little like
Reddit gossip research and you know, to our surprise, found
nothing but like positive reviews of him as an individual.
(26:29):
And it seems like he's had a few girlfriends and
there are no negative stories to tell so far.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
He does seem not to use a cliche to be
sort of what you might call chaotic good at the
end of the day. I mean, I don't know if
I would like to, you know, be roommates with him
or something, but I think he ultimately his heart is
maybe in the right place.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
It's a lot of singing. Sure, it would be hard
to share space with him. Probably he does have a.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
Sort of theater kid vibe about him and also like
forever being celebrated for just putting any piece of himself
out publicly.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Because the thing is is that like his mother somewhat
famously and many of the other like past Kennedys, like
they don't put their personal being out into the public
like that. They stay very kind of stoic. They have
their you know, this is the positive story of them,
(27:30):
is that they are public servants or that they are
working in politics for the good of the American people,
and that they care about committing to a life of
public service. In a lot of ways. Until RFK Junior,
most of the Kennedys have stayed pretty quiet outside of
these diplomatic duties. Jack Schlosberg was doing that for a while.
(27:55):
He was clearly media trained and operating as the family
of representative.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I mean, there are a couple of counter examples. I'm thinking,
you know, JFK Junior in his heyday was a true socialite.
I think that was also sort of part of what
you know sounded the alarm bells in the Kennedy family
was that, you know, the Kennedies are not supposed to
be socialites like prancing around New York City. But if
there's one thing RFK and Jack have in common is
that they love showing off their torsos.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yes, I feel like the first video I saw of
Jack Schlasberg was him singing shirtless in a parking lot,
and I didn't realize who it was, but I was
still captivated. And then when he was on the skateboard
reciting the poem was a Lord Byron poem, Like, you know,
(28:48):
he's having a great time, but yeah, now he's gotten
the attention. It feels like people have been watching him
very closely, and they notice whenever he pulls back from
social media. But he is just one of many Kennedy's.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yes, it's being watched is just like a consistent part
of the Kennedy story, and Jack Schlasberg is just the
latest chapter of that. At every point, you know, people
sort of like keep up with them with a mix
of fascination, reverence, suspicion, and it's not dying down anytime soon,
so we are excited to jump into even more Kennedy stories.
(29:24):
Everything that we mentioned today was just the tip of
the iceberg. We have many, many weeks and months to
get into how we got here and where we came from.
So subscribe and follow to United States of Kennedy for
all things Kennedy every week.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Thanks for listening.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com