Episode
Chappaquiddick | The Weight of the Name | 5
- Podcast
- American Scandal
- Published
- May 26, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2153
- Processing state
not_requested
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Summary
Ted Kennedy spent the rest of his life in the shadow of Chappaquiddick. The accident that killed Mary Jo Kopechne effectively ended his chances at the presidency, but raised longlasting questions about whether a less powerful man would have faced far greater consequences. Peter Canellos is a veteran political journalist and editor of Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy. In this conversation, he examines how the Kennedy machinery closed ranks after the accident, what it meant to be the last surviving Kennedy brother, and how a man defined by his failures ultimately became what many consider the most legislatively consequential senator of the twentieth century. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .