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BOB DOLE LECTURE: One Soldier’s Story
Special Edition

In this extraordinary special edition, Bob Dole returns home to Kansas—and to the school that bears his name—to tell the story that shaped everything that came after.

Standing before a new generation, Dole recounts the moment on a battlefield in Italy when his life was shattered by war, and the long, uncertain months that followed in a military hospital. With humility, clarity, and quiet courage, he describes learning to live again from a hospital bed, facing pain, disability, and doubt—while refusing to surrender the future.

But this is not just a story of survival.

It is the story of how a wounded soldier became a national leader.

From Percy Jones Army Hospital to the halls of Congress, from small-town Kansas to the pinnacle of American political life, Dole traces the improbable road that carried him from despair to purpose, and from service in uniform to service in government.

Recorded before students at the Bob Dole–named school, this lecture is both deeply personal and profoundly American—a testament to resilience, duty, and the idea that adversity does not define us, but can instead forge us.

One Soldier’s Story is Bob Dole, in his own words, offering a legacy lesson about courage, perseverance, and what it truly means to serve.

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Season 17 Premiere

Before Bob Dole became a Senate leader, a presidential nominee, or a national symbol of resilience, he was a 21-year-old second lieutenant fighting for his life on a hillside in Italy.

This season-opening episode begins at the moment everything changed.

Through Bob Dole’s own words and historic audio, we return to the brutal final months of World War II and the Allied push through Italy during Operation Grapeshot, the last great offensive in Europe. We hear Dole describe the battlefield where he was struck down, the comrades he was trying to save, and the wounds that would leave him permanently disabled—but never defeated.

The story widens through the voices of two other giants of American history who were fighting just miles away.

Senator Ted Stevens recounts the shock of Pearl Harbor and America’s sudden plunge into global war.
Senator Daniel Inouye, wounded only a few hills from where Dole fell, shares his harrowing combat experience and the loss that forever marked him.

Their paths would converge at Percy Jones Army Hospital in Michigan, where Dole, Inouye, and future Senator Frank Hart lay in hospital beds, learning how to live again. In this episode, we explore what life was like inside that ward of shattered young men—and what Bob Dole was like when the world he knew had just ended.

We also hear from Michael Glassner, Dole’s longtime aide and traveling companion, who describes the daily realities of caring for Dole’s war-caused injuries, and from Senate Leader Trent Lott, who reflects on Dole’s character and on the enormous debt America owes to the Greatest Generation.

This is more than a war story.
It is the origin story of a statesman.

Episode 420 launches Season 17 of our landmark Bob Dole series, beginning the final great chapter of the World War II generation—told through the life of the last of its national leaders.

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In this special tribute episode, we honor the extraordinary life and legacy of Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell — Olympic athlete, decorated Marine, master silversmith, and one of the most consequential Native American leaders in the history of the United States Senate.

Campbell’s journey was uniquely American: from a childhood marked by hardship, to representing the United States in the Olympics, to becoming a powerful voice for Native nations and Western communities in Washington. As a U.S. Senator from Colorado, he reshaped the national conversation on tribal sovereignty, cultural preservation, and the dignity of Indigenous peoples, while also embodying a rugged independence that defied political labels.

This episode is also dedicated to Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, a fellow Western original whose music, like Campbell’s life, celebrated freedom, wandering, and the search for something deeper than fame or power. Both men came to represent a uniquely American kind of spirit — restless, generous, and rooted in tradition while never afraid to push beyond it.

Through stories, reflections, and historical context, we remember Ben Nighthorse Campbell not just as a senator, but as a craftsman, a warrior, and a bridge between worlds — a man who carried the past forward while carving out space for a more honorable future.

This is a tribute to a life lived with courage, authenticity, and enduring impact — and to the kindred spirit of Bob Weir, whose music has long been the soundtrack for America’s long and winding road.

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Bob Dole returns January 20, 2026

Bob Dole: The Life That Brought Him There — Season Preview

How does a small-town Kansas boy, gravely wounded on an Italian battlefield, rise to become one of the most powerful and respected figures in American politics?

This season of Bob Dole: The Life That Brought Him There traces the extraordinary journey of Bob Dole from the moment his life was forever changed in World War II through his ascent to the highest levels of American government. Beginning with his devastating combat injury and long recovery, the series follows Dole through his early political career in Kansas, his elections to Congress and the U.S. Senate, his tenure as Republican National Committee Chairman, and his emergence as a central figure in Washington during some of the most turbulent decades in modern history.

Listeners will travel with Dole through the Nixon years and Watergate, the razor-thin 1974 Senate race against Dr. Bill Roy, and his rise onto the national stage as Gerald Ford’s 1976 vice-presidential running mate. The season continues through his 1980 and 1988 presidential campaigns, his pivotal role as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and his leadership in landmark moments such as saving Social Security in 1983 and launching the historic McGovern–Dole effort to feed hungry children around the world.

As both Senate Minority Leader and Majority Leader, Bob Dole became one of the great legislative strategists of his era, and this series reveals how power was actually wielded in Congress from the 1970s through the 1990s—how deals were made, how coalitions were built, and how policy became law.

Featuring voices of friends and foes alike—fellow senators, staffers, journalists, and contemporaries—along with rare archival audio from news coverage and C-SPAN, this season offers an intimate, inside-the-room portrait of a man who helped shape a generation of American politics.

More than a biography, Bob Dole: The Life That Brought Him There is a master class in leadership, resilience, and the inner workings of the United States Senate at a time when history was being written day by day.

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Here is a little bit about our coming book projects:

16 Leadership Lessons From the Cold War

By Randal Wallace

What does it really take to lead in moments when history is on the line?

Drawing on five years of research from The Randal Wallace Presents Podcast, 16 Leadership Lessons From the Cold War distills timeless leadership principles from the men and women who shaped the American Century. From President Herbert Hoover through leaders like Robert Dole—and countless senators, diplomats, and public servants in between—this book explores how character, restraint, courage, and strategic thinking carried the United States through its most dangerous era.

Rather than abstract theory, Wallace brings readers behind the scenes of real decisions made under extraordinary pressure. These lessons apply not only to politics and government, but to business leadership, community service, and family life.

This is a practical guide for anyone who believes leadership is about responsibility, not celebrity—and that history still has something vital to teach us.

A Riddle in the Sand

A Novel by Randal Wallace

Roger Walker is midway through his second term as President of the United States when the world begins to unravel.

As war erupts across the Middle East, Israel is drawn into a deadly two-front conflict with Hamas and Hezbollah. At the same time, a shadowy Iranian-backed terrorist organization launches global “lone wolf” attacks designed to fracture the Western alliance. When prominent American businessmen are taken hostage, Walker must navigate a crisis that threatens not only global stability—but everything he believes in.

At the center of the storm is the one thing the lifelong bachelor president never expected to face again: the woman he once loved, now entwined in events that could cost them both everything.

In the spirit of Casablanca, A Riddle in the Sand is a modern political thriller infused with romance, sacrifice, and the eternal tension between personal desire and duty to nation.

An Ocean of Time

A Novel by Randal Wallace

When scandal destroys his political future, former Myrtle Beach mayor Cary Lockwood retreats to the last place he ever expected to start over—Key West.

Fresh off a devastating gubernatorial loss, Lockwood buys a crumbling historic guesthouse and bar on the corner of Olivia and Duval Streets—once owned by his late uncle, now his final gamble at redemption. As he rebuilds both the property and his life, Lockwood collides with a corrupt local mayor, a city full of eccentric characters, and a dangerous undercurrent beneath the island’s laid-back charm.

Then he meets a young woman with a past she’s desperate to escape—and a secret powerful enough to put both their lives at risk.

Set against the sun-soaked beauty of the Florida Keys, An Ocean of Time is a story of second chances, political intrigue, and the high price of love when the past refuses to stay buried.

These are the three projects we have on tap over the next year and a half. We hope you will want to join us.

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In this landmark season finale, The Great American Authors brings its sweeping literary and political journey to a powerful close by spotlighting a remarkable group of leaders who turned to fiction to tell their stories — Jimmy Carter, Marilyn Quayle, Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, and James Patterson — and by sharing major news from our own host, Randal Wallace.

We begin with President Jimmy Carter’s The Hornet’s Nest, a deeply researched historical novel that reflects Carter’s lifelong devotion to moral complexity, faith, and the human cost of conflict. It is not simply a former president writing fiction — it is a statesman continuing to wrestle with America’s past through story.

We then turn to one of the most overlooked voices in presidential-era fiction: Marilyn Quayle. With limited public material but unexpectedly strong reader reception, her novels — especially The Campaign — received the highest reviews of any of the books featured in this episode, a striking contrast to how rarely her writing is discussed today. It is one of the quiet surprises of the series.

Next, we explore Newt Gingrich, whose prolific post-political career includes best-selling political thrillers and alternate-history novels, along with the children’s books co-written by his wife Callista Gingrich. Together, they created one of the most expansive literary universes ever produced by a political family.

From there, we dive into one of the most successful collaborations in modern publishing: Bill Clinton and James Patterson. Their three blockbuster novels — The President Is Missing, The President’s Daughter, and The First Gentleman — are examined not just as thrillers, but as a masterclass in how insider political knowledge and elite commercial storytelling can fuse into global bestsellers. We also share James Patterson’s own writing principles, offering practical insights for aspiring authors.

The episode concludes with an announcement from host Randal Wallace, who unveils three major upcoming works:
• 16 Leadership Lessons from the Cold War, the companion book to this podcast
• A Riddle in the Sand, a contemporary political romantic thriller
• An Ocean of Time, a novel of political scandal turned redemption set in the tropical paradise of Key West, Florida.

Finally, we close the curtain on The Great American Authors itself — a series that examined how power, politics, and storytelling collide across generations of American history. This season, and this entire series, are dedicated to the memory of Gloria Wallace Bulmer, the beloved mother of our host, a former English teacher at Myrtle Beach High School, and a lifelong lover of American and British literature whose passion for books helped inspire everything this series became.

This is not just a finale.
It is a tribute — to stories, to history, and to the people who teach us to love them.

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In this episode of Great American Authors, we take an unforgettable look at two astonishing works born from the tumultuous aftermath of Nixon-era Washington — The Canfield Decision by Spiro T. Agnew and The Company by John Ehrlichman.

Today, The Canfield Decision enjoys a surprisingly warm reception online, with roughly 87% of readers awarding it three to five stars on Goodreads and similar platforms. But that wasn’t always the case. Upon its release, critics and much of the media savaged the book, dismissing it as thinly veiled political wish-fulfillment from a disgraced Vice President. We unpack the striking discrepancy between that early panning and the thoughtful, often affectionate audience it’s gained in recent years — readers who find nuance, ambition, or just plain fun in a novel penned by a man few expected to ever write fiction.

We place the book in the context of Agnew’s political fall from grace. Once the second-in-command in the nation, Agnew’s public resignation and subsequent legal troubles left him a pariah. Remarkably, The Canfield Decision became his first major step back onto the national stage — a work that speaks volumes about ambition, image, and reinvention. What did Agnew hope to say with this book? And why do modern readers connect with it in ways early reviewers didn’t anticipate?

From there, we pivot to another Nixon-era insider turned novelist: John Ehrlichman, author of The Company. A former aide to Richard Nixon and one of the central figures of Watergate, Ehrlichman wrote a sprawling fictional chronicle of power, corruption, and betrayal in America’s secretive intelligence community. Unlike Agnew’s quietly redemptive tone, Ehrlichman’s The Company bristles with bitterness toward the very system he once served — especially toward Nixon himself.

We explore the reviews then and now for The Company, and how Ehrlichman’s own disillusionment shaped a narrative that many readers and critics call prophetic, sprawling, and ethically complex. As we compare and contrast these two presidential novels, we also ask: what happens when real political trauma is transmuted into fiction? What does each author reveal about themselves — and about American power — in the act of storytelling?

Join us for a deep, insightful, and sometimes surprising conversation about politics, prose, reputation, and the curious afterlives of The Canfield Decision and The Company — two books that defy expectations and challenge how we think about presidential literature.

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This episode is a tribute to a great actor, Gene Hackman, who decided to retire from the silver screen and write novels. He wrote five of them and all got some level of acclaim. They were :

1. “Wake of the Perdido Star” with Daniel Lenihan (1999)
2. “Justice for None” with Daniel Lenihan (2004)
3. “Escape from Andersonville” with Daniel Lenihan (2008)
4. “Payback at Morning Peak” (2011)
5. “Pursuit” (2013)

While this episode is a focused examination at his second career it is also a retrospective of his amazing life. Hackman passed away on most likely February 18, 2025, he was 95 years old. Hackman was one of our host, Randal Wallace's favorite actors and he plans to read a couple of his novels this coming year in 2026.

Gene Hackman's writing tips emphasize the importance of discipline, rigorous editing, and emotional connection to the material.

• Write with discipline: Hackman writes in the morning, stopping by early afternoon, to maintain a routine.
• Edit heavily: He stresses the importance of the editing process, advising writers not to fall in love with their first draft and to be open to criticism. He would go over his work many times.
• Write what you care about: To be fulfilled as a writer, he suggests focusing on subjects close to your heart.
• Keep dialogue minimal: Drawing from his acting experience, he often cut his own lines, saying, "I can act that," highlighting the power of non-verbal communication in storytelling.
• Use research: He incorporated extensive research into his historical fiction and thrillers, including scouting locations and consulting experts.
• Stay in the moment: He advises against over-analyzing and to "let the characters tell the damn story," focusing on action and immediate events rather than excessive introspection or backstory.
• Seek feedback: Hackman worked closely with his co-author and relied on his wife for critique and typing up his longhand manuscripts.

Questions or comments at , Randalrgw1@aol.com , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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