Hello! And welcome back to the Curious Kid podcast. This week, we are getting curious for a listener that sent us an email three years ago. And there's a very good reason we selected this moment to get curious about the suggested topic.

2026 happens to be a very special milestone birthday.

I'm turning 45 this year, and I guess that's a milestone, but it's not really a big deal.

Olivia has a bigger milestone birthday this year because she will be celebrating her lucky number 13th birthday.

That's certainly an exciting birthday, but dare I say, there is an even bigger birthday to celebrate

this year.

Believe it or not, the United States of America turns 250 years old this year.

That makes it a perfect time to get curious about how it all started.

Mailbag!

Mailbag!

Hi, my name is Nicole. I am 5.5 years old. I listen to your podcast every day with my mom. We love it. I'm

curious about the colonies and how America started. What was it like back in the day? Thank you,

Nicole from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Nicole, we are so excited to get curious for you this week.

My dad loves learning and studying American history,

so prepare yourselves because this episode is going to be overflowing with facts.

There is so much to learn, so let's get right to it. What's the question of the week?

The current U.S. population, as record this episode is 342 million, 365,665. Not as many people lived in the United States

250 years ago in the year 1776. The question of the week is, what was the population of the United States back in 1776?

All right, it's time to do something we haven't done in a while.

It's time to dust off the time machine and climb inside.

Once we're inside, we want to dial the time machine back

more than 400 years. Please keep your powdered wigs inside the time machine at all times. Yes,

...