What Does it Mean to Be an American?

Pod Save America

News, Politics

4.5 • 87.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2026

⏱️ 86 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jon sits down with our own Ben Rhodes to talk about how American leaders tell the story of who we are — and who they think we should be — through the speeches they give. The two go through the seminal speeches Ben selected for his new book "All We Say," discussing their power for good (Frederic Douglass on human rights) and evil (Alexander Stephenson on the "moral truth" of white supremacy), and their own memories of writing presidential addresses for Barack Obama when the stakes were highest.

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