Hello and welcome to this day, a history show from Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan.

And this day we go to the campus of the University of Michigan, 1965, and the birth of the teach-in.

Obviously, the middle of the 1960s, the civil rights movement,

growing resistance to the war in Vietnam. It is a time of lots of protest and activism,

but the teach-in was slightly different. Here were professors and students gathering, often for a full

day or more at a time to share lectures and lessons and engage in conversations and debate,

all under the grand notion that the exchange of ideas can set the stage for action and change.

Also, not for nothing to get professors to teach for free, and students to attend a lecture

that they aren't required to attend is quite a feat on its own.

So kudos to the teach-in organizers for that. But look,

we are talking about the history of the teach-ins because it's very interesting, but also,

well, because we are putting on a teach-in of our own. On Sunday, October 26th in Washington, D.C.,

we will all be there, right there on the National Mall, from sunup to sundown, in the spirit of the original

teach-in, sharing lessons and stories and conversations in defense of the work of history and the

role of museums, which is an issue that you listeners know matters a lot to us. And I will tell you

a lot more about the details of our teaching. But first, let me introduce our crew here, Nicole

Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter-Jackson of Wellesley. And also welcome back the great Nate DeMayo of the Memory Palace, fellow Radiotopia podcast, who was the first one who came to us with this idea of the teach-in. So here we are. It's a little bit of a sneak preview. But Nikki, Kelly, Nate, hello there. Hello, Jody. Hey there.

Well, look, we want to do this as a proper This Day episode, so we will look at the history of the teaching.

But very briefly, Nate, you were the one, and I won't read people the text, but you texted

me a few weeks ago and said, I have an weird idea.

Where did this idea come from and give us a taste of how it's all been coming together?

So, this is sort of rooted in two different epiphanies on two different cross-country trips taken in my younger days.

...