This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of IHeart Radio.

Hello and welcome to the podcast.

I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and I'm Holly Fry. It is time for our most

recent installment of unearthed, which is when we talk about things that were literally

and figuratively unearthed over, in this case, the last quarter of 2025. So this is once again

a two-part episode, as is pretty much always the case anymore.

We've got a ton of updates, some things about books and letters and animals and an exhumation,

and then we'll have other stuff that was unearthed on Wednesday.

So starting off with the updates, in last fall's installment of unearth, we spent

quite a bit of time talking about the executive branch's focus on the Smithsonian Museums, including

a request for the Smithsonian to send a wealth of information about the museums and their exhibits

to a committee at the executive branch for review.

The Smithsonian submitted materials on September 18th,

and three months later, on December 18th,

a letter that had been sent to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III

was posted on the White House website.

The letter characterized to the museum's submission

as a partial production of materials that was woefully incomplete and suggested that the Smithsonian's

federal funding could be withheld if it does not comply. This letter also reiterated that federal

funding is available to the Smithsonian only for use,

...