Flightless Bird: Flags

Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard

Armchair Umbrella

Tv & Film, Music, Comedy

4.6 • 68.3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 June 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on Flightless Bird, David sets out to understand why Americans love their flag so much, buying nearly 150 million of them every year. Joined by Dax and Monica, David quizzes them about what it’s like to go to school and pledge allegiance to the flag, before Dax recalls his colorful interactions with an American flag and a flag pole. David talks to flag expert, TedTalker and podcaster Roman Mars about what makes a good flag design, before chatting with vexillologist Tory Laitila - curator of Textiles and Historic Arts of Hawai'i at the Honolulu Museum of Art - about the dos and don’ts of flag etiquette. Thanks to first amendment attorney Floyd Abrams, we discover how the burning of a flag led to one of America’s most divisive court cases.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm David Farrier, a Kiwi who ended up accidentally marooned in America.
0:06.1	And I want to grasp what makes this country tick.
0:09.1	Now one good thing about being in America is that you never forget that you're in America.
0:14.2	Just look out the window and there they'll be.
0:16.9	Flags proudly flapping in the wind.
0:19.4	Signpost to remind you of your current location on the planet.
0:22.8	Tomorrow's flag day, a holiday originated by a school teacher in Wisconsin more than
0:27.0	130 years ago.
0:28.8	The idea was to celebrate the official adoption of the stars and stripes.
0:32.5	While there's an official flag day, June 14th, I don't really understand why you need it
0:37.2	because every day is flag day in the United States.
0:40.9	Not a day goes by where I don't see a flag on a pole, the back of a truck, or proudly
0:45.9	planted in someone's lawn.
0:48.5	Americans love it.
0:49.5	They sing to it, they admire it, and they put one on the moon.
0:52.9	They love buying it as well.
0:54.8	According to the Flag Manufacturers Association of America, around 150 million American flags
1:00.2	are sold every year.
1:01.8	I want to know why the flag is so popular here, a flag that's changed a lot over the
1:06.8	last 246 years.
1:09.5	So roll up those sleeves and get ready to hoist like your laughter pens on it.
1:14.1	This is the Flag episode.
	...

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