The past is never past.

This phrase, which is a remix of a passage by the famous American writer William Faulkner,

is basically the tagline for this show.

But it isn't just a tagline.

It's kind of like a guiding principle.

Here on Thurline, we're constantly trying to understand the mechanics of history, its

limits, the way it oscillates between the light and shadows, darkness and hope.

And ultimately, how the past and our interpretation of it has shaped the world we live in today.

This task can be especially challenging when it comes to the history of the country we

live in, the United States, the complex, murky, painful, and beautiful history of this country

has always been ammunition for the political battles of the present.

This is because the story we're told about the past shapes the way we view the world

and our role in it.

So history becomes something we're always updating and fighting over, whose stories are

being told, whose are being left out.

Who gets to decide what stories we teach our children, who gets the final word on truth?

There's a battle waging across this country over these questions, and there's one person

who for the last few years has been at the center of it.

My name is Nicole Hannah Jones.

I'm a reporter at The New York Times and the creator of the 1619 Project.

In 2019, Nicole Hannah Jones conceived and curated the 1619 Project, a collection of essays

by scholars from different disciplines that reframes the origin story of the United States.

...