Hey everybody election season has officially begun and that means we are back and this season we're going to really lean into one part of our mission to explain the roots of the deepest, oldest debates in society.

Because you know, there was this moment in middle school

that's always stuck in my head.

I had a teacher and he was lecturing about the Civil War and he was kind of going on

about it being a war over states rights. Now I was way too young to really know the

history but still as I listened to, I felt like this is wrong.

Somehow black people are being erased in this.

And that mattered.

Because how we tell the story of the past absolutely shapes what we think about the future.

That's the idea that inspires this whole season.

I'm Kywright and welcome back to the United States of Anxiety, a show about the unfinished business of American history and its grip on our future. Like, U.S.S.S.S.S.S.

U.S.C.S.

U.S. H.P.S.P.M. I met a new friend last fall.

I met a new friend last fall.

Hey Vernita.

Hey, how are you? A woman named Vernita Blocker.

And the thing about Vernita is she grew up country.

So I don't know if you have ever heard of this, but you can make snow cream, snow ice cream cream and she told me all these rustic

stories about stuff she did as a kid in Mississippi now how they did it don't ask me

I was a little girl but I remember it tasted good.

You could not pay me to eat some ice cream made from snow that fell from the sky

any place I have ever lived.

...