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Throughline

The Mother of Thanksgiving

Throughline

NPR

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.715K Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On today's show, a Thanksgiving story you might never have heard -- not about Pilgrims or Native people, but instead about a woman who, as civil war loomed, pushed for a shared national holiday she thought would keep the United States together. This episode originally ran in 2024.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This message comes from Bayer.

0:02.3

Science is a rigorous process that requires questions, testing, transparency, and results that can be proven.

0:09.5

This approach is integral to every breakthrough Bayer brings forward.

0:13.0

Innovations that save lives and feed the world.

0:15.8

Science delivers.com.

0:17.9

Hey, it's runned.

0:19.4

We know that as we head into the holiday season,

0:21.7

there are always a lot of think pieces about what it all means,

0:25.2

especially Thanksgiving.

0:26.9

And when we started looking into it,

0:29.2

we found a story we had actually never heard before.

0:32.6

We first ran this story last year,

0:34.5

and we think it's very timely now.

0:37.0

We hope you enjoy this throughline

0:38.6

Thanksgiving tale.

1:01.7

Our good ancestors were wise, even in their mirth.

1:11.3

We have a standing proof of this in the season they chose for the celebration of our annual festival, the Thanksgiving.

1:40.3

The funeral-faced month of November is thus made to wear a a story of Thanksgiving. Let me tell you a story of Thanksgiving, the traditional one.

1:46.3

In 1621, when the English colonists, now known as the Pilgrims, were newcomers to this continent,

1:54.0

there was a major feast between the Wampanogs and the English of Plymouth.

2:00.8

That's a very real event. The event that's now called the Fulminus, between the Wampanogs and the English of Plymouth.

2:02.8

That's a very real event.

...

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