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PODCAST

This Day

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

To mark our 250th birthday, “This Day” presents "50 Weeks That Shaped America," a series of deep dives into the stories that brought us to this moment. "This Day" takes you beyond the head-spinning headlines of today and into the unexpected historical moments that have shaped American politics and culture. Hosted by Jody Avirgan (538), and historians Nicole Hemmer (Vanderbilt), and Kellie Carter Jackson (Wellesley), each episode explores a moment from that day in U.S. political history to

history

All Episodes

30:13

The "Axis Of Evil" (2002) [Part 1]

This Day ·

2026/01/27

This week on "50 Weeks That Shaped America," we're headed to January 2002 and the first State of the Union speech after the 9-11 attacks. In it, George W Bush referred to Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as an "axis of evil," signalling that the response to 9-11 would be a much larger campaign, and a moral fight. Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how Bush landed on that phrase, what it was meant to evoke, and how it set the stage for the "War on Terror" period in American history.Join our

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18:42

A New Orleans Slave Rebellion [Some Sunday Context]

This Day ·

2026/01/25

For our "Sunday Context" series, we build on this past week's coversation about the Battle of New Orleans with a look at the largest slave rebellion in US history, led by Charles Deslondes, which took place just outside of New Orleans in 1811. Like the story of the War of 1812, this involved the mix of ethnic, political, and cultural forces that only New Orleans has -- and highlights the way in which the future of slavery would become the defining issue of the era.Join our America250

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24:57

Andrew Jackson Takes Control (1815) [Part 2]

This Day ·

2026/01/22

If part two of our "50 Weeks" look at the Battle Of New Orleans. Jody, Niki, and Kellie look at the pirates, generals, and others who fought that day in January of 1815 -- and how the events burnished the reputation of future President Andrew Jackson. In the end, the battle itself may not have had much of a military impact, but the story of the battle helped define a new American century.Join our America250 newsletter community! Subscribe for free to get the latest news and analysis of how

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33:20

The Battle Of New Orleans and The New American...

This Day ·

2026/01/20

This week on "50 Weeks That Shaped America," we're headed to January 1815 and the Battle Of New Orleans -- which actually took place after the War of 1812 had formally concluded. Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the US, Britain, France and others were still squabbling over their empires as the US turned its sights to a new frontier.Join our America250 newsletter community! Subscribe for free to get the latest news and analysis of how America250 is playing out. Paying subscribers get

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36:03

The Drinking Continues (1920) [Part 2]

This Day ·

2026/01/15

Part two of our look at the rise of prohibition looks at the many ways in which Americans tried to evade the law, and how a burgeoning police state went after them. Plus: How did Prohibition shape America, in the end?Join our America250 newsletter community! Subscribe for free to get the latest news and analysis of how America250 is playing out. Paying subscribers get access to early, ad-free versions of the show. Plus bonus features throughout the year. To support our work and get access

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32:04

The Bicentennial Boondoggles (1976) [Part 2]

This Day ·

2026/01/08

In part two of our look at the bicentennial, Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the festivities played out, and how Philadelphia ended up becoming the center of the action, depsite (or because of) their corrupt mayor Frank Rizzo.Join our America250 newsletter community! Subscribe for free to get the latest news and analysis of how America250 is playing out. Paying subscribers get access to early, ad-free versions of the show. Plus bonus features throughout the year. To support our work and

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25:18

Bicentennial Fever! (1976) [Part One]

This Day ·

2026/01/06

It's Week 1 of "50 Weeks That Shaped America," and we're headed to 1976 to look at how America's last big birthday came together. In part one, Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the country was in a deep malaise headed into the bicentennial, and the shambolic planning of the festivities reflected the larger distrust and dysfunction of government.Join our America250 newsletter community! Subscribe for free to get the latest news and analysis of how America250 is playing out. Paying

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19:48

2026 Predictions and Provocations

This Day ·

2026/01/04

2026 is here! As is America250. On Tuesday, we're launching our 50 Weeks That Shaped America series, but today we get together to ring in the new year with a few "predictions and provocation."Note: The full version of this episode, with video, is available for paying subscribers to our newsletter. Our America250 series will always be free in the regular podcast feed, but throughout the year we will be bringing our newsletter community bonus conversations -- and access to early, ad-free

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32:18

Wikipedia Saves The Internet [2025 Favorite]

This Day ·

2025/12/28

We're bringing you some of our favorite episodes of 2025 while we get a holiday break -- and prepare for our big America250 series. See you in 2026!It's June 24th. In 2003, Jimmy Wales, the owner of Wikipedia, made the decision to put the site under the ownership of a non-profit company.Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why this decision made a huge difference for the site, and reflected a lot of the ways that the Internet has worked, and not worked, in the decades since. They are joined by

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19:59

Sanctuary Churches vs Immigration Enforcement [2025...

This Day ·

2025/12/25

We're bringing you some of our favorite episodes of 2025 while we get a holiday break -- and prepare for our big America250 series. See you in 2026!It's March 25th. This day in 1980, a church in Tucson announces that it will provide sanctuary to immigrants -- in open defiance of US law.Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss the roots of the church sanctuary movement, the conviction of eight leaders including Reverand John Fife, and the ongoing role of religious progressivism.Sign up for our

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21:05

Starbucks Fixes Racism [2025 Favorite]

This Day ·

2025/12/21

We're bringing you some of our favorite episodes of 2025 while we get a holiday break -- and prepare for our big America250 series. See you in 2026!It's April 3rd. In 2015, Starbucks announces that it is bringing its "Race Together" initiative to a close, after it was relentlessly mocked and critced online and in stores.Jody, Niki, and Kellie look back at the very-Obama-era effort by the coffee chain to spark conversations about racial inequality by having their baristas write #racetogether

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28:30

Meet America's Most Influential Black Congressman...

This Day ·

2025/12/11

It's December 11th. This day in 1971, Representative Charles C Diggs of Michigan resigned from a UN delegation in order to protest the US stance towards South Africa's apartheid regime.Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by Dr. Marion Orr of Brown University to discuss Diggs's decades-long fight to oppose apartheid, and his long tenure in Congress, where he built bridges and worked the halls of power. He was also brought down by a corruption scandal in the late 1970s, for which he might best

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25:40

The First Transgender Celebrity (1952)

This Day ·

2025/12/09

It's December 8th. This day in 1952, the New York Daily News runs a feature on Christine Jorgensen headlined "Ex-GI Becomes Blond Beauty." Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the life and legacy of Christine Jorgensen, who became the first transgender celebrity -- and how her story reflected sexual and cultural norms of the era.Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.Find out more at thisdaypod.comThis Day In Esoteric Political

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22:57

A Big Vaccine Win (Some Sunday Context)

This Day ·

2025/12/07

Welcome to Some Sunday Context, where we bring you new conversations and archival episodes to provide some context on the stories playing out in the news today. This week, we just wrapped up our two-part series on early vaccine skeptics from the 1890s through the 1920s. We discussed how a lot of the skepticism began to fade away in mid-century, in part because of the success of vaccines. Perhaps the biggest win was the arrival of the polio vaccine in 1954. So, today, as we see a return of

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28:49

The Vaccine Fights Go Mainstream (Part Two)

This Day ·

2025/12/04

It's December 1st. This week, a two-part look at the roots of vaccine skepticism and anti-vaccine activism in the United States. First we look at the early legal battles of the 1860s-1900s, then discuss how anti-vaccine activists found more purchase in the cultural and political spheres going into the first half of the 20th century.Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.Find out more at thisdaypod.comThis Day In Esoteric

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24:16

The First Vaccine Fights (Part One)

This Day ·

2025/12/02

It's December 1st. This week, a two-part look at the roots of vaccine skepticism and anti-vaccine activism in the United States. First we look at the early legal battles of the 1860s-1900s, then discuss how anti-vaccine activists found more purchase in the cultural and political spheres going into the first half of the 20th century.Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.Find out more at thisdaypod.comThis Day In Esoteric

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27:04

Hippo For Thanksgiving w/ Dan Pashman [Thanksgiving...

This Day ·

2025/11/27

This Thanksgiving Week, some episodes favorite about community, what binds us -- and food!It’s April 2nd. This day in 1910, a Louisiana senator proposes allocating a quarter of a million dollars to import hippos from Africa and grow them in American swamps, then harvest them for food.Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Dan Pashman of The Sporkful to talk about how the hippo plan was intended to solve a hunger and ecological crisis — and why Americans never quite found the taste for hippo

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13:41

An Aid Ship To Ireland (1847) [Thanksgiving Week]

This Day ·

2025/11/25

This Thanksgiving Week, some episodes favorite about community, what binds us -- and food!It’s May 2nd. In 1847, a US military ship, the USS Jamestown, was loaded up with food and other relief to sail to Ireland and help with the famine in that country.Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how disparate communities in the US rallied around the cause, and how the Jamestown represented one of the first moments of international camaraderie for a new country.Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be

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15:36

"Death By Lightning" and Chester Arthur's Rise (Some...

This Day ·

2025/11/23

The new Netflix series "Death By Lightning" focuses on the unexpected rise of James Garfield in the 1880 election, and his assassination by Charles Guiteau. It also features Nick Offerman as Chester Arthur, a product of machine politics who ends up as Garfield's VP and then as president. So, today, some Sunday context in the form of an episode we recorded a few years ago about Chester Arthur and how he took control when he became president.Sign up for our America250 Watch newsletter, where

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23:07

Evacuation Day: NYC's Forgotten Holiday (1783)

This Day ·

2025/11/20

It's the last week in November -- on November 25th, 1783, British troops finally left New York City, which had suffered a brutal two years since the formal end of the Revolutionary War.Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss what life was like in the period when British troops were occupying the city, what Evacuation Day was actually like -- and why the commemoration of that day was eventually overshadowed by Thanksgiving.Sign up for our America250 Watch newsletter, where you'll also get links and

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