Speaker 1: Welcome to brainstud a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff. Lauren
Speaker 1: Vogelbaum here. American President Jimmy Carter spent only four years
Speaker 1: in the White House, but he worked for decades to
Speaker 1: build peace, democracy, and a better quality of life for
Speaker 1: fellow Americans and people around the world. His presidential stint
Speaker 1: was just a jumping off point for a lifelong devotion
Speaker 1: to making the world a better place. Our thirty ninth
Speaker 1: President was born James Earl Carter Junior in rural Georgia,
Speaker 1: to a father, Earl, who was a peanut farmer and businessman,
Speaker 1: and a mother, Lillian, who was a registered nurse. They
Speaker 1: were a faithful Baptist family. Carter attended public school in Plains,
Speaker 1: followed by university study at two Georgia colleges before graduating
Speaker 1: from the United States Naval Academy in nineteen forty six.
Speaker 1: That same year, he married Rosalind Smith. The two grew
Speaker 1: up just a few miles away from each other. They
Speaker 1: technically first met when he was three and she was
Speaker 1: just one day old, and married once they had both
Speaker 1: finished college. The'd go on to have four children together.
Speaker 1: During his time with the Navy, Carter served the Atlantic
Speaker 1: and Pacific fleets. As a submariner, he achieved the rank
Speaker 1: of lieutenant and was assigned to the nuclear submarine program,
Speaker 1: and then did graduate work in reactor technology and nuclear physics.
Speaker 1: But upon his father's death in nineteen fifty three, Carter
Speaker 1: returned to Georgia to run the family farm and its
Speaker 1: supply company. Back in Plains, he became active in local
Speaker 1: political life, earning a seat in the Georgia Senate by
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two, a running for governor and losing in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six, then winning in nineteen seventy, all before
Speaker 1: announcing his run for president in nineteen seventy four. As
Speaker 1: governor of Georgia, Carter was a progressive and a reformer.
Speaker 1: He called for an end to segregation in his inaugural
Speaker 1: address and increased to the number of black staff members
Speaker 1: in the state government. He worked to improve the state
Speaker 1: government's wasteful bureaucracy, was pro environment, and pushed for more
Speaker 1: funding for schools. Carter entered the White House on January
Speaker 1: twentieth of nineteen seventy seven after defeating President Gerald Ford
Speaker 1: with campaign slogans like a leader for a change and
Speaker 1: not just peanuts. He inherited challenges of the post Vietnam era,
Speaker 1: including rising inflation and unemployment. After four years, the Carter
Speaker 1: administration had increased the job market by nearly eight million
Speaker 1: jobs and decreased the budget deficit, though inflation and interest
Speaker 1: rates were still up before the article. This episode is
Speaker 1: based on How Stuff Works. Spoke with Sarah B. Snyder,
Speaker 1: a historian of US foreign relations and an associate professor
Speaker 1: at the School of International Service at American University. She
Speaker 1: explained that during his presidency, Carter helped restore quote American
Speaker 1: faith in US government that had been eroded during the
Speaker 1: Nixon and Forward years. American people came to trust him,
Speaker 1: and by extension, came to regain their trust in the
Speaker 1: US government. Carter talked more openly than most about his
Speaker 1: faith and how it affected his worldview. The focus was
Speaker 1: on personal morality and the way that the United States
Speaker 1: conducted policies. A. Snyder said it was something he was
Speaker 1: very comfortable talking about, and he linked his own faith to,
Speaker 1: for example, his support for human rights. Carter's foreign policy
Speaker 1: was driven by a commitment to human rights, which he
Speaker 1: stated in his inaugural address had to be absolute. Generally,
Speaker 1: his administration did take steps to support regimes that advanced
Speaker 1: human rights and limit cooperation with abusive ones, though critics
Speaker 1: have pointed out that they sometimes overlooked violations and the
Speaker 1: interest of forwarding diplomacy and national security. Some of Carter's
Speaker 1: important foreign policy achievements included the signing of the Panama
Speaker 1: Canal Treaties, which returned control of the canal to Panama
Speaker 1: and removed a significant irritant in US relations with the
Speaker 1: rest of the Americas. Carter is also known for the
Speaker 1: Camp David Accords, in which he helped negotiate a peace
Speaker 1: between Israel and Egypt. He also signed the Salt to
Speaker 1: Nuclear Limitation Treaty with the Soviet Union, though it never
Speaker 1: really went into effect, and established diplomatic relations between the
Speaker 1: US and the People's Republic of China. Domestically, the Carter
Speaker 1: administration deregulated transportation industries and oil and natural gas prices,
Speaker 1: leading to lower costs for both businesses and consumers. He
Speaker 1: championed energy security and sustainability and created the Department of
Speaker 1: Energy to handle existing suppliers and research new technologies in
Speaker 1: wind and solar power. His administration pushed for environmental protection
Speaker 1: in other ways, including doubling the size of the national
Speaker 1: park system and tripling the wilderness area through conservation programs
Speaker 1: and places like Alaska. Carter also chanmed education as a
Speaker 1: fundamental right that's essential to democracy, and created the Department
Speaker 1: of Education to elevate for the first time, the access
Speaker 1: to learning to a federal cabinet level priority. He often
Speaker 1: struggled with Congress, but found successes like these and in
Speaker 1: other programs like raising the minimum wage, despite his recognized
Speaker 1: skillet diplomacy. The final year of Carter's presidency was plagued
Speaker 1: by the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the Iran hostage crisis.
Speaker 1: This was a situation following the revolution that overthrew the
Speaker 1: US backed monarchy in Iran. The Carter administration granted the
Speaker 1: deposed king asylum in America for cancer treatment, and in protest,
Speaker 1: a group of students took sixty six Americans hostage at
Speaker 1: the US embassy in Tehran, demanding the Shah's extradition. The
Speaker 1: crisis went on for four hundred and forty four days,
Speaker 1: with the final hostages only released on the last day
Speaker 1: of Carter's term. Failures to negotiate and to rescue the
Speaker 1: hostages became a political liability. It painted Carter as being
Speaker 1: weak or indecisive, and thus, despite gains and trust and jobs,
Speaker 1: Carter failed to win a second presidential term. Ronald Reagan
Speaker 1: defeated him in a landslide victory. Reagan took four hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty nine electoral votes to Carter's forty nine, one
Speaker 1: of only ten incumbent presidents to fail to be re elected.
Speaker 1: Carter left Washington, d c. In nineteen eighty one, but
Speaker 1: his national and international humanitarian work was just beginning. Jimmy
Speaker 1: and Rosalind Carter established the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia,
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty two in collaboration with Emory University. The
Speaker 1: Center is a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization dedicated to, in
Speaker 1: their words, resolving conflict, promoting democracy, protecting human rights, and
Speaker 1: preventing disease and other afflictions. The building itself is coupled
Speaker 1: with the library and museum and opened in nineteen eighty six.
Speaker 1: During the summer, they host a local farmers market on weekends.
Speaker 1: Haustuffworks also spoke with Deanna Kong Gilio, who was at
Speaker 1: the time the director of Communications for the Carter Center
Speaker 1: and president and Missus Carter's press secretary, As she said,
Speaker 1: when they left the White House, they weren't ready to retire.
Speaker 1: They were looking for some way to use the influence
Speaker 1: they had and continue working on the issues that were
Speaker 1: important to them. Since its establishment, the Carter Center has
Speaker 1: operated in eighty nations around the world and been a
Speaker 1: pioneer on many fronts. Just for one example, their campaign
Speaker 1: to eradicate guinea worm disease has produced cases from three
Speaker 1: and a half million worldwide in nineteen eighty six to
Speaker 1: fewer than one hundred today. It's also observed more than
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty five elections in countries abroad, working
Speaker 1: to share knowledge of democratic processes and standards. The former
Speaker 1: president was also named a University Distinguished Professor at Emory
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty two, and he spoke at classes and
Speaker 1: hosted town halls and luncheons every year since nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 1: President and Missus Carter were also known for their involvement
Speaker 1: with Habitat for Humanity International, which works to help people build, repair,
Speaker 1: and finance affordable housing in the US and beyond. The
Speaker 1: image of a former president personally doing construction work changed
Speaker 1: the way that people thought about a post presidency and
Speaker 1: gave the organization a boost. In two thousand and two,
Speaker 1: Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his decades
Speaker 1: of extraordinary humanitarian work, of just one of four American
Speaker 1: presidents to receive the honor and the only one cited
Speaker 1: for his work outside of office. Carter continued to teach
Speaker 1: Sunday school at a Baptist church in Plains up until
Speaker 1: he was sidelined by the COVID nineteen pandemic. Hou stuff
Speaker 1: Works also spoke with Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity.
Speaker 1: He said, it is all about service. He really has
Speaker 1: lived his faith in such a con assistant way. Reckford
Speaker 1: noted that he had been with Carter in situations with
Speaker 1: the most powerful people in the world and with the
Speaker 1: least powerful, and found him to be the same person
Speaker 1: in all of those situations. One famous story about the
Speaker 1: Carter's first trip with Habitat for Humanity sums up the
Speaker 1: couple's character. In the volunteer housing, only one bedroom was
Speaker 1: available and it had been reserved for the Carters, But
Speaker 1: when they learned that a couple had decided to celebrate
Speaker 1: honeymooning by volunteering with habitat. The Carters gave the bedroom
Speaker 1: to them and slept in the common area with everyone else.
Speaker 1: Rosalind Carter passed away in November of twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: and her husband followed her a year later, surrounded by
Speaker 1: family in Plains. He was one hundred years old, making
Speaker 1: him America's longest live president. Today's episode is based on
Speaker 1: the article a Portrait of Jimmy Carter, America's oldest living
Speaker 1: President ever on HowStuffWorks dot com, written by Kerry Whitney.
Speaker 1: Brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with hostufforks dot
Speaker 1: Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts
Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.