A southern-style string melody and train whistle sound somewhere in the distance as the voice of student host Jade Emerson marks the first episode of The Drag’s “Lady Bird” podcast. “In a private room adorned with family photos scotch taped to the walls, 51-year-old Lady Bird Johnson prepared to give a speech…”

The Drag, UT’s audio production house, partnered with the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation to produce its newest podcast, “Lady Bird.” The 12-episode series connects student hosts with UT alumna and first lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson through archived audio interviews. An intimate look into Lady Bird’s life and legacy, the podcast details her studies at UT, romance with President Lyndon B. Johnson and personal experiences in the White House. 

“When you think of significant first ladies, you think of Eleanor Roosevelt or Jackie Kennedy,” said Katey Outka, managing director of The Drag. “But Lady Bird hasn’t been in that conversation. She’s reduced to the beautification lady or the wildflowers lady or whatever. A lot of people don’t realize she was so much more than that. She was such a valuable adviser to LBJ. She had a front-row seat to so many significant parts of history from the perspective of being a politician’s wife. I think she’s often overlooked, especially as the spouse of someone with as big of a personality as LBJ.”

After a successful launch at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center last week, the first episode of “Lady Bird” is now available on podcast streaming platforms. Future episodes will include a special installment dedicated to Lady Bird and President Johnson’s love letters and a bonus interview with the couple’s daughter, Luci Baines Johnson. 

“I remember we were at a listening session, and I thought, ‘Wow, this just reminds me of going through my old childhood diaries or sitting with my grandma and going over her little scrapbooks,’” said Sofia Vargas Karam, marketing communications manager of The Drag. “We really wanted to keep in mind that this is somebody else’s voice and story that we’re telling in a very intimate way.”

Unique among The Drag’s productions for its extensive use of historical records and in-depth story-telling, the series is “unlike anything that’s ever been made before” for Karam. 

“My hope and my goal is to get people my age to listen to (“Lady Bird”) and fall in love with it,” Karam said. “We can read textbooks, and we can read articles online, but a lot of people don’t want to sort through archives or a lot of letters and old handwriting just for fun. So we did “Lady Bird” in a cool way where you have all this content in one place with cute and interesting audio.”

New episodes will be released every Tuesday. Robert Quigley, founder of The Drag and executive producer of the podcast, said he hopes student listeners can draw inspiration from Lady Bird’s story.

“First ladies are a fascination of the American public,” Quigley said. “But hearing about (Lady Bird’s) dating struggles, how she hated her chemistry class or about her friends and where they go to have fun around Austin — it’s a lot of fun. I think students will see a lot of themselves in her story.”