The Obama Presidency Oral History @INCITE_Columbia launches today(!) with a tranche of interviews related to environmental politics, energy, and climate action during the Obama Years. Spend some time exploring on our new (and gorgeous) website:

Peter Baker's story drawing on today's @INCITE_Columbia release on the ACA from the Obama Presidency Oral History project https://t.co/VmVpN4SaFt

Last last thing is that this still just represents <10% of all the interviews we did over the last 5 years. So: always more to come. For now cheers to team at @INCITE_Columbia for bringing this very big thing to life.

One hope is that all these interactive features make the website attractive as a teaching tool. So, if you've got healthcare reform on the syllabus this spring or are thinking about it for the fall, consider the site! And reach out with any questions/feedback.

btw, that interview with Jim Houser--an Oregonian auto mechanic who was activated by the issue of how health care costs were affecting his co-op--is a great one to experiment with https://t.co/Csyt7y8AVR

Once you're in the interview, the transcript is interactive -- you can bounce out to other topics that are mentioned in the interview, or click through the index labels. I.e., no more ctl+F-ing your way through oral history transcripts!

Here's an example of one great 'story' among the 400+ in the healthcare tranche -- Carolyn Britton of the Natl Medical Association talks about rushing to Capitol Hill on the night of the ACA's passage and encountering John Lewis https://t.co/aVirTXGz8q

Or you can explore by topic (here are all 26 interviews on the ACA) https://t.co/dqw4B2gl4E

The archive is parsed, tagged, and identified by "stories" -- exchanges betw interviewer/interviewee on discrete topics. You can search & explore the website using these smaller >10min chunks (and even build playlists of them). https://t.co/7v1DMNZFH6

There are now 40+ interviews on Obama's climate/environment policies and health care reform. These interviews include the stories of memories of insiders, outsiders, and more ordinary people -- a resource for thinking about the presidency in a much wider context

I'm not exaggerating when I say the Obama oral history website will be a game-changer for how people interact with, learn and teach from oral histories (esp policy ones). Go spend some time today exploring and see what I mean. https://t.co/3BGiewd22O

Attn: political, policy, health care historians (among others). After years of hard work, such a thrill to see more of the Obama Oral History interviews go public. Couldn't be prouder of my team @INCITE_Columbia!

🌶️🌶️🌶️presidential oral history takes aside, the proof is in the pudding. Go check out the Obama Presidency Oral History website, our early release of interviews on environmental politics, policy, and climate -- and stay tuned for more soon. https://t.co/3BGiewd22O

having worked so hard w the very lit team at @INCITE_Columbia to bring this to life, cant help but humbly agree w @_Jahan "With all due respect to the stellar presidential oral histories compiled by...other institutes, Columbia's is just…well…more lit." https://t.co/WOeFtguggr

I'm quoted in this @peterbakernyt piece about today's launch of the Obama Presidency Oral History and the first tranche of interviews on environmental politics and climate

just imagine how I feel about eventually getting to the global/foreign policy material! (Only one of my 90 interviews is in today's release, but it's a doozy -- a long session with Todd Stern on the full arc of int'l climate diplomacy from Copenhagen to Paris.)

I've spent the last 4 years working with a brilliant, thoughtful team @INCITE_Columbia to deliver on the promise of a presidential oral history capable of illuminating historical Qs about the presidency in a democratic context (and not just the office itself). Today is exciting

Keystone XL, the Paris Agreement, Deepwater Horizon, Waxman-Markey, Clean Power Plan, the Recovery Act...it's all in here, and visible from an array of perspectives.

This tranche includes the stories of environmental activists, farmers, a teacher, an Alaska Native climate advocate ... alongside EPA administrators, White House officials, and a special envoy

One thing you'll notice right away is that this doesn't look like a traditional presidential oral history. In addition to elite decision makers, we also systematically interviewed outsiders and ordinary people touched by Obama Admin policies.

This represents a small sliver of the 470 interviews we recorded over the last 4 years, and the first of several topic-specific releases we'll be doing this year ahead of the project's full release. In other words, if this piques your interest, stay tuned!