History is vast and complex, but it can be better understood by looking at critical moments

in which a single person approached a crowd with something important to say.

James Baldwin said people are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.

Dr. Maya Angelou said, history despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived.

However, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

It's true for our personal lives, for our family systems, and for our nation.

I am committed to knowing history not because of what it reveals from the past,

but what it reveals about me, my family, my nation, and how it is a tool to help us lead to healing.

And I'm here to share a preview of the new season of It Was Said,

the 2021 Webby Award winner for Best Podcast Series.

Written and narrated by Pulitzer Prize-winning author historian John Meacham,

It Was Said Season 2 will focus on 10 generation defining speeches,

including those from Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Frederick Douglass.

In every episode, Meacham, along with other historians, authors, and journalists,

offers expert insight and analysis into the origins, the order, and the historical context of these speeches,

helping tell the stories of visionary leaders and disciplined communicators whose words continue to resonate today.

Listen to It Was Said, a creation and production of Peabody Award-nominated C-13 originals

in association with the History Channel, available now on the Odyssey app or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

We stand on a lonely wind-swept point on the northern shore of France.

The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke,

and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon.

When visionary leaders capture the imagination of a nation,

...