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PODCAST

This Day (An America 250 History Show)

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

44:27

The Age Of Dark Money w/ Alex Lovit [Some Sunday...

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/10/04

Every Sunday during our month-long collaboration with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Jody Avirgan chats with Alex Lovit, host of the Kettering podcast "The Context."The story of Citizens United continues with a look at the state of money in our current elections. Jody and Alex discuss the staggering amounts of dark money guiding our elections, and some of the efforts to reform. Plus, reflections on our month-long partnership as it draws to a close.Join our America250 newsletter

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39:24

Citizens United: Corporations Are People Too w/...

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/10/01

All this month, we're partnering with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation for a series called "Democracy Under Construction." You can find out more about their work at kettering.org and listen to their podcast "The Context" at kettering.org/thecontextThe Citizens United story continues with the case itself — a 90-minute anti-Hillary documentary that became the pretext for one of the most sweeping rulings in Supreme Court history. Celina Stewart is back to dig into the corporate speech

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41:59

Citizens United: Money Is Speech w/ Celina Stewart...

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/09/29

All this month, we're partnering with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation for a series called "Democracy Under Construction." You can find out more about their work at kettering.org and listen to their podcast "The Context" at kettering.org/thecontextFor the thirty-sixth installment of "50 Weeks That Shaped America" we go to 2010 and the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision — which enshrined corporate spending as protected speech and unleashed a new era of dark money in American

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33:07

Our Dog Whistle Politics w/ Alex Lovit [Some Sunday...

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/09/27

Every Sunday during our month-long collaboration with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Jody Avirgan chats with Alex Lovit, host of the Kettering podcast "The Context."Today, they follow up on the conversation about the Southern realignment in the 1960s, as White voters shifted to the Republican party -- and the party embraced a strategy to woo them. Jody and Alex discuss the mix of cultural and racial issues that lead to voting patterns, and how the story of realignment isn't as simple

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35:18

Southern Realignment: Hunting Where the Ducks Are w/...

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/09/24

All this month, we're partnering with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation for a series called "Democracy Under Construction." You can find out more about their work at kettering.org and listen to their podcast "The Context" at kettering.org/thecontextThe story of Southern realignment continues with the Southern Strategy itself -- how Nixon looked at the 1964 and 1968 electoral maps and saw an opening, how coded language replaced overt racism, and how a regional story became a national one

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44:08

Southern Realignment: The Impossible Coalition w/...

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/09/22

All this month, we're partnering with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation for a series called "Democracy Under Construction." You can find out more about their work at kettering.org and listen to their podcast "The Context" at kettering.org/thecontextFor the thirty-fifth installment of "50 Weeks That Shaped America" we go to 1964, and a moment when the two major parties in this country, in a sense, switched. Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Eric K. Ward, Executive Vice President of Race

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36:04

Seneca Falls: The Legend w/ Deva Woodly (Part Two)

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/09/17

All this month, we're partnering with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation for a series called "Democracy Under Construction." You can find out more about their work at kettering.org and listen to their podcast "The Context" at kettering.org/thecontextOur conversation about Seneca Falls continues with a look at what happened after the convention -- and how the story of the women's rights movement got written, rewritten, and contested in the decades that followed. Deva Woodly is back to

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42:41

Seneca Falls: The Burnt-Over District w/ Deva Woodly...

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/09/15

All this month, we're partnering with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation for a series called "Democracy Under Construction." You can find out more about their work at kettering.org and listen to their podcast "The Context" at kettering.org/thecontextFor the thirty-fourth installment of "50 Weeks That Shaped America" we go to western New York in the summer of 1848. Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Deva Woodly, Kettering Fellow and professor at Brown University, to discuss the Seneca

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35:29

2008 Crash: The Collapse (Part One)

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/08/25

For the thirty-first installment of "50 Weeks That Shaped America," we go to fairly recent history -- the spring and summer of 2008, when the US banking industry began to collapse on the back of instability in the housing market. Jody, Niki, and Kellie revisit the world of Credit Default Swaps, Subprime mortgages, and a steady collapse of financial institutions. All while the Bush administration was flailing and Obama and McCain are mounting their campaign.Join our America250 newsletter

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17:25

Teaching Evolution [Some Sunday Context]

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/08/23

This past week we did a two-parter on the Scopes "monkey trial" in 1925 -- today we bring you an episode from the archives about the repeal of the Butler Act in 1967, and the way that evolution worked its way into curriculums across the country.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

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16:28

JFK's Fallout Shelters [Some Sunday Context]

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/08/16

This past week we did a two-parter on the race to the moon, whichs started under JFK, and started as part of a growing arms race with Russia. Today, for our Sunday Context episode, a conversation we had in 2020 that helps paint the picture of fear, threat and response in 1961, just as the space race got going.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

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33:54

Moon Landing: It Was Not Faked (Part 2)

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/08/13

We continue our conversation about the moon landing with a play-by-play of how Apollo 11 made its way to the surface; a conspiracy-by-conspiracy debunking of the popular "it was fake" myths; and a look at the role that space exploration plays in our modern politics.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

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14:18

Eleanor Roosevelt'sTuskegee Plane Ride [Some Sunday...

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/08/09

This past week we did a two-parter on the desegregation of the military. For today's "Sunday Context" episode, we revisit an episode we dd about the time First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt took an airplane ride in a small plane piloted by Charles “Chief” Anderson, a Black pilot and member of the Tuskegee airmen.Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how the photo caused a sensation, and controversy — and helped bolster the case for Black pilots to serve in WWII.Join our America250 newsletter community

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21:42

The Capitol Cornerstone Conspiracy (Revolutionary Rerun)

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/07/30

As we take a mid-summer-post-4th-of-July break, we are bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives about the Revolutionary era. We'll be back with new "50 Weeks That Shaped America" episodes soon!It's September 17th. This day in 1793, President Washington visits a site where construction is beginning on what would be the Capitol.Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how the ceremony around the laying of the cornerstone was shot through with Masonic symbolism and pageantry --- and

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41:31

Little Bighorn: The U.S. Conquers The West (Part 1)

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/06/16

For the twenty-fourth installment of “50 Weeks That Shaped America” we go to the Montana Territory in the spring of 1876. General George Custer (and his cinnamon-scented hair) have been sent to the area to defeat the Plains Indians. But at the Battle Of Little Bighorn (aka Custer’s Last Stand) things would go awry. Over two episodes, we discuss the post-Civil-War Westward expansion; how Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse mounted an Indian defense; and how a bloody defeat was spun into a military

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33:27

A Nation Of Readers: Nate DiMeo's Memory Palace

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/06/14

Nate DiMeo, host of "The Memory Palace" podcast and author of "The Memory Palace" book, on the small details that shape the work of history.For the past 250 years of America’s existence, books have been fundamental instruments through which we preserve, interpret, and engage in history as an ongoing practice of free expression. At “This Day”, we’re partnering with Random House, the legendary book publisher, to bring you a special, month-long series called “A Nation of Readers.” In this

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32:24

After Watergate: Reforming Government (Part 1)

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/06/09

For the twenty-third installment of “50 Weeks That Shaped America” we go to 1974. Of course we had to do an episode on Watergate as part of this series, but in this week’s two-parter we try to paint a picture of what came immediately after the scandal that brought down Nixon. We trace an era of genuine government reform, the decades-long debate over presidential power… and how many of those reforms are being weaponized and outright perverted today. We’re all living in Nixon’s long

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39:11

Mariel Boatlift: Cuba In Crisis (Part 1)

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/06/02

For the twenty-second installment of “50 Weeks That Shaped America” we go to Miami, Florida in the spring and summer of 1980. With the Cuban economy in crisis and many Cubans trying to flee the country, Fidel Castro declared that anyone who wanted to escape was free to do so -- as long as they were picked up by a boat from Florida. The ensuing flood of refugees -- and the language that was used to describe them -- set the modern template for how we treat and talk about immigrants.Join our

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24:07

Reckoning With Racial Violence (Some Sunay Context)

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/05/31

This past week, we talked about the Tulsa Massacre of 1921. For today's "Sunday Context" episode we jump a couple generations ahead to the summer of 1967, when president Johnson convened the “Kerner Commission” to look into the roots of violence and unrest in America, largely in Black and brown communities around the country. The report came out next year and offered a frank and damning assessment of the complicity of white Americans. But it's recommendations were largely ignored and

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41:17

Tulsa Massacre: Erasure (Part 2)

This Day (An America 250 History Show) ·

2026/05/28

We continue our conversation about the 1921 race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma with a depiction of the descruction over two days, and how just as quickly the story of Tulsa got covered up.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 to everything, subscribe now.This

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