pplpod Episode 48 traces Andrew Jackson’s turbulent arc—from Revolutionary War orphan and frontier lawyer to general at Horseshoe Bend and New Orleans, then seventh President of the United States. We unpack the populist rise that redrew party lines, the kitchen cabinet era, and the bruising fights that defined his presidency: the Bank War and veto politics, the Nullification Crisis and a hard line for federal union, and the expansion of executive power that reshaped the office. We also reckon with the lasting harms of Indian removal—policy, politics, and human cost—alongside the Petticoat affair, spoils system, and a nation moving toward mass democracy with deep exclusions. Legacy, contradictions, and how Jackson’s rough-hewn image became a template, and a warning, for American power.