Hi, it's Gregg, like most of you, I'm always trying to find a great podcast series to dive into. I can't get enough and with the newest Spotify original from park ass, I found my next favorite. It's called very presidential with actually flowers at it highlights the wild your side of the american presidency, every Tuesday, through the twenty twenty election host, Ashley flowers uncovers the most damning details about histories, most high profile leaders from love affairs and cover ups to blackmail, schemes and even murder

She'll exposed the personal and professional controversies. You may never knew existed ready to dive in check out this exclusive clip from the first episode on the secret and not so secret exploits of President John F Kennedy. If you want to listen to the full episode, follow very presidential with Ashley flowers, free fonts modifying or wherever you get your Pont casts hiding eyes, I'm Ashley flowers and if you ve heard my podcast crime, junkie or supernatural, you might know me as a true crime lover, but there's another interest of mine that I'm excited to share with you guys and depending on who were talking about. There is even a little true crime ask in there too. If you grew up in the? U S, you probably grew

with this image of the former presidents. As these serious dignified insanely boring old men who never had any fun in their lives and theirs reason. This is all the history books tell us, because the truth is well. It's embarrassing for the country and almost to wild to believe the White, as has been full of scandals, secrets, drama and even a little bit of true crime. From the very beginning and the more you learn about what is really going on in the oval office, the more you'll have to wonder. How did we make it? This far, welcome to very president

a par cast original in this podcast. I'm gonna be looking at fifteen President's who'd b on the Mount Rushmore of bad behaviour, and today I am starting off with one of the most beloved president's in american history, John Fitzgerald Kennedy in three years. J O K was involved in more scandals than most people can hope for in a lifetime. He basically turn the White House into the Playboy mansion accidentally slept with not one but two spies

met with foreign leaders in a drug, addled haze and nearly started a nuclear war, because he wanted to look good in the press for decades. The public didn't have a clue about any of this, but the facts. We have now call into question everything we thought we knew about. The Kennedys John F Kennedy was a rock star at forty three years old. He was the youngest president ever elected and arguably the hottest every woman in a mirror was swooning over his boyish good, looks tussled, hair and casual self confidence, and even though the Kennedys or one of the richest families in America, he was seen a sort of an underdog. He was the first catholic President ever elected, which was a big deal for the Irish Catholic Community

more than anything Jack as his friends called him, was a breath of fresh air. He was young, energetic, a family man, his wife, Jackie, was already becoming a fashion icon. His brother Bobby, was appointed as a new attorney general, which, let's just say, was a bit of a controversial choice but love them or hate them. The Kennedys were America's new royalty. Of course, though, that image was carefully crafted. Even after his death, the Kennedy family went to extreme lengths to high anything that might compromise Jack's reputation, and there was a lot. Let's start with that, youthful vigour. That was one of his main selling points just fifteen years, for in nineteen. Forty five fifty had died in office after a long period of illness, so everyone was worried that the same thing might happen again, which is why, throughout the nineteen Sixty campaign Jack insisted that he was in perfect health. But this was a complete lot.

J of case health problems are no longer a big secret today, but most historian still kind attendance, skin over how serious they actually were and what he did to cope with them literally a miracle that Jack was still alive to be president at age. Forty three I mean he been Ring Lee deftly ill, his entire life. He actually been so close to dying that he had his last right administered on four separate occasions. He was eventually diagnosed with collide, as which is this chronic disease of the large intestine, and he also had artisans disease, which causes hormone deficiencies and as a side effect of the stairway that he had to take. He had bad problems that caused him to be in constant pain. No none of this sounds too serious in terms of how it affects someone's decision making and make sure it's distracting to be in pain all the time, but

was still mentally sound right. Well, he would have been, but to deal with his pain. Jack was taking basically every drug known to pharmacology. I mean we're talking morphine sedatives, barbecuing narcotics. He was even on four kinds of steroids daily, including anabolic steroids and that's the same kind please use for muscle, building and their known to cause paranoia mania and aggression after long term use. Essentially it Jack had to take a drug test. He would have been fired from any government job and probably referred to a rehab centre and yet here, he was with his finger on the nuclear button making decisions that would affect the entire globe. Now, a lot of biographers insist that Jack's health problems

medications didn't have any effect on his leadership but psychiatrists, monsieur Gummy, who were view Jack's medical files said that claim was hard to accept biologically, especially when you look at his actual behaviour in office, which was in endless parade of disasters, On day three in the White House, before he even had time to settle in Jack, got it from the CIA director. There was one little thing that needed. The president's attend shit. The CIA had been training a gorilla army to invade Cuba and overthrow the government. The? U S wasn't a fan of Cuba's Prime Minister Fidel Castro, because he was a socialist and this was the cold war. But Jack wasn't totally convinced that staging a coup was the best answer. Mostly because if anyone tied it back to the

You as it be a whole international crisis, but the CIA says: listen, don't worry about it. We're gonna invade yes, but it's not gonna. Look like an invasion we recruited over thousand cuban rebel fighters for the job. So we play our cards right. No one will have any idea that, the? U S was ever involved so Jack says: ok, fine, let's do it, but just to be extra sure that it does not fall back on ice. U S. Forces are not allowed to participate in the invasion at all in any way, shape or form ever the end, but the fifteen hundred cuban grow this send em on their own, with no backup and let's just see what habits and, of course, what happens is a complete disaster. When the invasion takes place on April, seventeen

The guerrilla fighters barely make it onto shore a hundred and eighteen of them or killed over three hundred or wounded and the rest are all captured, and not only does the bay of pigs invasion fail miserably, but it's obvious that the? U S was behind it. The biggest consequence for Jack is that he kind of looks like a bumbling idiot, both at home and abroad. Everyone's worst fears were confirmed. Maybe J F K is just a pretty face and he's too young two inexperienced to actually led the next night. Jack is meeting with a couple advisers in the oval office when he suddenly breaks off mid sentence and walks out into the rose garden he spends in our just

walking around silently by himself. The next warning his press secretary finds him crying in his bedroom and then over the next few days. He keeps just muttering to himself. How could I have been so stupid? Of course it might have had something to do with the FBI. Storage, one it is worth of drugs that he was taking and, despite all the med, his underline conditions were only getting worse. In fact, just a month later, in May of nineteen sixty one he drew out his back during a tree planting ceremony, I mean so bad that he couldn't even walk. This was a problem because in a couple of weeks he was supposed to fly to Europe to meet the soviet premier. Nikita Khrushchev in the cold war perception was everything he couldn't show up hobbling around on crutches, he'd look like a weakling in front of the whole world press, so he decides.

To call this guy doktor MAX Jacobson, Doktor Jacobson was sort of a mad scientist, slash doktor to the stars. He treated every one whose any one- and he had this miracle shot that gave his patient so much energy and euphoria that they actually called him. Side. Maybe never go to someone called doktor feel good. So, with this summit coming up, Jack invites Doktor feel good to the White House without consulting any of his regular doctors. After one injection jack is practically leaping across the room without his crutches. He feels on top of the world clear, headed, no pain, so he even ass Doktor Jacobson too. Pain, so he even ass Doktor Jacobson to come with him to Europe in case he needs another fix, so you're, probably asking what was actually

in these magic injections, mostly amphetamines. So if your keeping score or the president is now shooting up speed, he's androids, downers, narcotics and whatever else was in Doktor Jacob since shots, because even today, No one is totally sure what the full recipe woods but Jack said. I don't care if its horse piss it works. The thing about amphetamines, though, is when they stop working. You are in a world of trouble, especially if you're trying to negotiate a piece treaty with the soviet premier when Jack arrived in Vienna for the summit, Doktor Jacobson gave him a quick injection and then he was off to the races. I mean he was even described as bounding down the steps of the embassy he looked like he could run labs around. Sixty seven year old Khrushchev, but as soon as they got to talking Jack was cleverly

not functioning at a hundred percent. He bumbled his way through the whole afternoon without accomplishing really anything by dinner time. Even reporters who saw Jack leading the building could tell that his energy crashing and by the end of the second day, will it jack is to assume that he was going through withdraws, because the only other explanation is that he just to get lost his mind during their very last meeting. Khrushchev threatened. It is up the you asked to decide whether there will be war or peace and Jack replied. Then, Mr Chairman, there will be war, it will be a cold winter. Now this was the exact opposite of what the? U S was hoping to get out of this bent Jack said it best himself in an interview immediately after the meeting worst,

being in my life. He savaged me for a minute. It looked like. Khrushchev might have rhetorically bein him to death a week or two after he gets back to the White House on June. Sixteenth Jack comes down with a fever. I mean he can't even get out of bed. He has to cancel all of his appointment. Doctors or on red alert, because when you have Edison's disease, any small infection can potentially be life threatening, so they decide to pump him full of I buy attics and steroids and narcotics even more than usual, but his condition just keeps getting worse for a whole week by June twenty second, he nearly dies all the while the press is being told that he has a mild viral infection. The public has no idea that the commander in chief, is basically on his death bed, miraculously Jack's health.

Really starts to turn around. He makes a slow but steady recovery and when the test come back, they all finally find out what caused this near fatal infection. Arrow backdoor Chloe see a bacteria That outside of a hospital setting, is usually sexually transmitted, so the president just almost died of an std and the burning question pun intended is who gave it to him? Well, it's a little hard to narrow down because in his downtime between creating international crises and shooting up enough drugs to kill a racehorse, J F K was sleeping with just about every woman in the beltway defined

What happens next listened to very presidential, with actually flowers free on Spotify or wherever you get. Your pod casts.