So today on the podcast, we continue our news and analysis stories for the month of December.

First up is this question.

In a politically hypercharged culture, how does Disney celebrate America's 250th birthday next summer

while offending as few people as possible.

And then, in Zootopia 2, which is an excellent film, by the way.

Disney adjust how it incorporates contemporary cultural and political discussions

into its movies in terms of how those elements are arranged into the film structure, creating a more

organic and enjoyable film, while also extending the themes of the previous Zootopia movie.

And lastly, earlier this week, Disney did something that it rarely does.

It dropped a whole bunch of updates and opening timeline announcements for attractions and experiences at its American parks for later this year.

We'll not only look at what was announced and there was a lot announced, but also we'll explore why Disney

seems to be changing its approach for new announcements right now. And lastly, there are a few

more new band camp subscribers that I need to thank today. Our band camp subscribers are the people

who keep this whole enterprise going. I'm grateful for each and every person over on band camp.

But today, a special note of thanks is going out to new subscribers, Amy, CDM gal, Southern Miss Girl,

and Savonko. Thanks to each of you and to all of our subscribers for supporting what we do here.

And now let's kick on over to the show.

So next year, America will celebrate its 250th birthday,

the semi-quincennial, which literally means half of 500.

Probably not the most elegant word in the world, but still a pretty big deal.

When I was a young kid, I loved the Bicentennial. That was the 200th anniversary of America. The freedom train came to our town,

which was a big deal. It featured a traveling exhibit of national museum pieces, such as George

...