My colleague, Frank Langfit, has covered the world.

He was in Ukraine when Russia invaded in February of 2022.

He was NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi and covered the Civil War in Somalia.

He drove a free taxi around Shanghai for a series on a changing China as seen through the eyes of everyday people and wrote a book about it.

Now he reports for NPR as a roving correspondent traveling the country, focusing on stories that help us understand

a changing America. Last weekend, he covered both the military parade that brought tanks and

armored personnel carriers rolling through the nation's capital, as well

as the No Kings protests, where people in dozens of cities across the country rallied against

the politicization of the armed forces by someone they called a would-be autocrat.

It was a bit of a split-screen moment for America, and for Frank.

See, covering the two events last week on the same day,

gave him the same feeling he felt covering other countries.

I felt kind of like a foreign correspondent in my own homeland.

Consider this.

You could look at that day as an example of a divided America, a moment where our differences were placed in pretty stark relief.

But maybe being in both places on the same day, you see something different.

Today, for our weekly report's notebook series, Frank Langfit, tells us about the people he met at the two events and the surprising thing he found.

From NPR, I'm Andrew Limbong.

The best kind of celebrity interview is one where you find out that the person who made a thing you love also thinks in a way that you love.

Nothing is more foreign than when Ariel says in The Little Mermaid, I want to be where the people are.

I don't want to be where the people are. I just don't.

I'm Rachel Martin. Listen to the Wild Card podcast, only from NPR.

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