250 Years Later, Why We’re Still Fighting About Our Founding

The Daily

The New York Times

News, Daily News

4.3 • 107.8K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2026

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With so many prisms through which to see the past, is there a story about the founding of America that can still be unifying?

Transcript

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0:00.0	From New York Times, I'm Michael Bobarrow.
0:04.3	This is the Daily.
0:09.2	250 years ago, the founding fathers gave rise to a new nation and an enduring myth.
0:18.7	A myth about their virtue and what that meant about our virtue as a country.
0:28.4	Today, my colleague, Gia Lin-Yan, on the evolution of the founding myth, why we're still
0:37.1	fighting about it, and why it may hold the key
0:41.6	to America's future.
0:49.6	It's Friday, July 3rd.
0:55.9	Gehlin, it is really lovely to have you on the show.
0:59.4	It's great to be here.
1:01.2	You are massively overdue to be a guest on the show
1:04.1	because for a very long time,
1:06.8	you were unbookable as a guest on the Daily
1:09.1	because you were the national editor.
1:11.3	National editors don't really come on the show.
1:13.9	They tell us which of their reporters can come on the show, and that was our relationship with you.
1:18.8	Could we please book this reporter?
1:20.9	Yes, and I've been a huge fan, and it's just so lovely to finally be here.
1:24.7	Well, now that you're not the national editor, you're a reporter focused on
1:29.4	big ideas and big debates in the United States. And as a result, it feels very fitting that
1:37.1	your debut appearance on the show comes on the anniversary of the United States turning 250 years old.
1:47.0	And on that anniversary, you set out to think about what the 250th really means,
	...

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