The Woman Who Wrote "Mary Had A Little Lamb" Is the Godmother of Thanksgiving?
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 24 November 2023
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Thanksgiving used to be one of many days—"If you planned your itinerary carefully, you could have a good Thanksgiving dinner every day between Election Day and Christmas Day." That all changed when a songwriter worked long and hard to crystallize American culture as distinct from that of Britain - including by a new official holiday in the midst of the Civil War.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We all have a moment that splits us wide open. On my new podcast, Wide Open with Ashland Harris, |
| 0:06.1 | I'll sit down with trailblazers from sports, music, fashion, entertainment, and politics |
| 0:11.8 | to explore their toughest moments and the incredible comebacks that followed. Listen to Wide |
| 0:17.4 | Open with Ashland Harris, an Iheart women's sports production on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. |
| 0:26.5 | Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. |
| 0:30.6 | Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, Here's the Thing. I speak with musician, photographer, and philanthropist, Julian |
| 0:39.2 | Lennon. One of the really important things that happened to me with photography was I would |
| 0:44.5 | have people right to me, people that couldn't financially afford to travel the world. And what they |
| 0:50.3 | had all said to me is that you bring these stories to us. You bring the truth, |
| 0:55.1 | you bring cultures that we would never necessarily know anything about. |
| 0:58.7 | Listen to the new season of Here's the Thing on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 1:07.6 | I'm Maura Erin's Mealy, host of The Anxious Achiever. On the show, business leaders and experts |
| 1:15.0 | unpack the intersection of mental well-being, neurodiversity, leadership, and career. We offer tools |
| 1:23.4 | and strategies to enjoy better mental health and find the best way to work for you. |
| 1:30.0 | Listen to The Anxious Achiever on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we continue with our American stories. |
| 1:52.7 | You may not have heard of her, but Sarah Josiefa Hale may be the most famous woman in America |
| 1:58.9 | during the first half of the 1800s. She was well known as an editor for the most famous woman in America during the first half of the 1800s. |
| 2:02.5 | She was well known as an editor for the most popular subscription magazine in the country at the time, |
| 2:08.4 | but we have her to thank for a couple of days off each year. |
| 2:13.0 | You see, Hale was nearly single-handedly responsible for Thanksgiving becoming a national holiday. |
| 2:19.3 | Here is Melanie Kirkpatrick, author of Sarage Josipha Hale's biography, called Lady Editor, |
| 2:25.9 | to share with us the story of the 19th century, or at least the first part of the 19th century. |
... |
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