About a year ago, Hannah, we made an episode about the Declaration of Independence.

And it had a healthy dose of my enthusiasm for 1776.

The declaration will be a triumph.

I tell you a triumph.

And it had different takes from three scholars on what the document was.

It had the job of justifying one of the most consequential political decisions ever

taken.

It had the declaration of independence as originally written as a secession ordinance.

This was as close to a perfect document on human agency that won whatever fight.

And I love making that episode.

I really did.

And since then, the declaration has found its way into many of our episodes.

Yes, our exploration of that document feels forever unfinished.

And on the cutting room floor of that episode was something our guest, Byron Williams, said,

how the declaration was exclusionary.

But the ideas in it evolved into the words of Abraham Lincoln, James Baldwin, the poet

and activist Langston Hughes.

As we pass this most recent quarantine 4th of July, I call Byron up to just get a little

more on this.

And when does it take us three times before we start to start like 30 minutes?

I got 31 for you.

Byron Williams is a professor, theologian and host of the show, the public morality.

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