The newest episode in the Presidential podcast is all about the 42nd president, Bill Clinton. David Maraniss, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Clinton, explores how his core character traits had both a bright and a dark side.  "He’s sort of chaos theory," says Maraniss, a longtime reporter for The Washington Post and the author of First in his Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton. "The same forces that drove Clinton for the better also drove him for the worse."  Fellow Washington Post reporter Jim Tankersley also joins the episode to examine how Clinton's policy legacy has had a similar duality—where some of the things initially hailed as his greatest achievements have, with time, come back to haunt his legacy in certain ways.  Listen to the episode here or on iTunes:  In previous episodes of the Presidential podcast, we've explored topics like Theodore Roosevelt's heartbreak and the way Lyndon Johnson exercised power. The podcast is hosted by Lillian Cunningham, editor of The Washington Post's On Leadership section.  As listeners tune in each week, the podcast reveals the ways in which our collective sense of what’s ’presidential’ has evolved over the years and how each president—esteemed, loathed or nearly forgotten—has something to tell us about what it takes to hold the nation’s highest office.  A new episode comes out every Sunday. Here's how to follow along:  * Subscribe for free on iTunes to automatically get new episodes when they launch * Check out our Presidential page on the Washington Post site for new episodes and the full series archive * Follow us on Twitter for discussion about the episodes and upcoming teasers * Follow us on Instagram for images from history and from behind the scenes of the podcast
The newest episode of the Presidential podcast explores the character traits at the root of both his successes and failures.