America250 Is Here, Are You Ready?
This Day
Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia
4.6 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 3 July 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hello and happy 4th of July! (One day early) America's 250th birthday is next year, but the celebration is, in many ways, kicking off this week. Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why the 250th will be such a key moment for understanding US history, how the Trump administration is already framing the story -- and how we plan to cover it into 2026.
The big news is that we are announcing the launch of America 250 Watch! Our newsletter will be the hub, along with the podcast of course, for our ongoing coverage and commentary on how America 250 is playing out. To get it all, and support our efforts, subscribe to the newsletter now at whatever level you can.
https://thisdaypod.substack.com/
We'll be back with part two of this conversation, including our reaction to President Trump's speech at the Iowa State Fair, on Sunday.
Find out more at thisdaypod.com
This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.
If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com
Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod
Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Three, two, one. |
| 0:03.0 | Hello and welcome to this day, a history show from Radiotopia. |
| 0:07.0 | My name is Jody Avergan. |
| 0:09.0 | And happy 4th of July, everyone. |
| 0:14.0 | The United States is marking its 249th birthday today. |
| 0:18.0 | And yeah, that's not that special of a day. It's not that great of a number. It is one year shy of 250, which is a nice big round number. And that is kind of what we're really here to talk about in a special two-part episode. So first, let me say hello to Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello there. |
| 0:42.8 | Hello, Jody. Happy 249. It just has a little bit into it. Yeah. Hi. Hi. I know. |
| 0:49.3 | And hello to everyone who is watching on YouTube. This is a video episode. We do those from time to time, |
| 0:54.2 | especially when we do episodes that kind of try and touch on more current events and provide some historical perspective. So be sure to check us out on YouTube. Subscribe to our YouTube page. But here is the |
| 0:59.7 | deal. Yes, we are celebrating 249. But I think people know, listeners, I think we've mentioned it a few |
| 1:05.3 | times, but next year, 26, is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It is the semi-quincennial. |
| 1:13.6 | Get used to saying that. And we here at this day have a full year's worth of programming planned. |
| 1:19.6 | This is by far the furthest out we've planned the show, but we're going to do a full year of programming next year with kind of a suite of stories that we think basically help tell the story of how we got to this moment. |
| 1:32.1 | And you're going to hear a lot more about it throughout the fall. |
| 1:34.7 | And we really want to include you listeners as we put together this project. |
| 1:38.4 | But I will say today's conversation, it does kind of feel like this whole America 250 thing is kicking off right now, in part because President Trump is giving a big speech at the Iowa State Fair on the third. |
| 1:51.0 | It is reportedly billed as the kind of kickoff to the America 250 celebration one year out from the big one next July 4th. |
| 1:59.0 | And moreover, in recent weeks, we have learned a lot more |
| 2:02.1 | about how I think this celebration will come together and the kind of American history |
| 2:08.1 | that the Trump administration is eager to tell. And, you know, that's how I see America |
| 2:13.6 | 250. It's kind of this moment where the country stops and tells a story to itself |
| 2:18.5 | about itself. And the Trump administration is very eager to tell a particular kind of story |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.