This Day (An America 250 History Show)

Latest Episodes:

Citizens United: Money Is Speech w/ Celina Stewart (Part One) Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

All this month, we're partnering with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation for a series called "Democracy Under Construction." You can find out more about their work at kettering.org and listen to their podcast "The Context" at kettering.org/thecontext

For the thirty-sixth installment of "50 Weeks That Shaped America" we go to 2010 and the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision — which enshrined corporate spending as protected speech and unleashed a new era of dark money in American politics. Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters, to trace how we got here: from the Tillman Act of 1907 through Watergate, the FEC, McCain-Feingold, and the long effort to keep corporate money out of elections. How much of the problem predates Citizens United, and how much did that ruling change everything?

Be sure to check out the League of Women Voters at lwv.org and their voter information resource at vote411.org.

Join our America250 newsletter community! Subscribe for free to get the latest news and analysis of how America250 is playing out. Paying subscribers get access to early, ad-free versions of the show. Plus bonus features throughout the year. To support our work and get access to everything, subscribe now.

This Day is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories. If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Our Dog Whistle Politics w/ Alex Lovit [Some Sunday Context] Sep 27, 2026

Show notes

Every Sunday during our month-long collaboration with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Jody Avirgan chats with Alex Lovit, host of the Kettering podcast "The Context."

Today, they follow up on the conversation about the Southern realignment in the 1960s, as White voters shifted to the Republican party -- and the party embraced a strategy to woo them. Jody and Alex discuss the mix of cultural and racial issues that lead to voting patterns, and how the story of realignment isn't as simple as a North-South thing.

Be sure to check out “The Context” at kettering.org/thecontext

Join our America250 newsletter community! Subscribe for free to get the latest news and analysis of how America250 is playing out. Paying subscribers get access to early, ad-free versions of the show. Plus bonus features throughout the year. To support our work and get access to everything, subscribe now.

This Day is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.

If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Southern Realignment: Hunting Where the Ducks Are w/ Eric K. Ward (Part Two) Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

The story of Southern realignment continues with the Southern Strategy itself -- how Nixon looked at the 1964 and 1968 electoral maps and saw an opening, how coded language replaced overt racism, and how a regional story became a national one. Plus, how it all connects to the counter-majoritarian movements of today, and the current debate over who gets to be included in American democracy.

Be sure to check out Eric's documentary "White with Fear" on PBS.

This Day is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories. If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Southern Realignment: The Impossible Coalition w/ Eric K. Ward (Part One) Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

For the thirty-fifth installment of "50 Weeks That Shaped America" we go to 1964, and a moment when the two major parties in this country, in a sense, switched. Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Eric K. Ward, Executive Vice President of Race Forward, to trace the story from Jim Crow through the New Deal and into the Civil Rights Act -- and to understand why the Democratic coalition that produced it was always too contradictory to survive. How did Black voters move from Lincoln's party to LBJ's? And what did white Southerners do when their party started to leave them behind?

Be sure to check out Eric's documentary "White with Fear" on PBS.

This Day is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories. If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Seneca to Prohibition to the 19th w/ Alex Lovit [Some Sunday Context] Sep 20, 2026

Show notes

Every Sunday during our month-long collaboration with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Jody Avirgan chats with Alex Lovit, host of the Kettering podcast "The Context."

Today, they follow up on the conversation about Seneca Falls by looking at how the movement for women's rights fractured after the Civil War -- and what it says about the long, winding road to progress.

Be sure to check out “The Context” at kettering.org/thecontext

This Day is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.

If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Seneca Falls: The Legend w/ Deva Woodly (Part Two) Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

Our conversation about Seneca Falls continues with a look at what happened after the convention -- and how the story of the women's rights movement got written, rewritten, and contested in the decades that followed. Deva Woodly is back to connect all of it to how movements tell their own stories today.

Be sure to check out Deva's book “Reckoning: Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Necessity of Social Movements”

This Day is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories. If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Seneca Falls: The Burnt-Over District w/ Deva Woodly (Part One) Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

For the thirty-fourth installment of "50 Weeks That Shaped America" we go to western New York in the summer of 1848. Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Deva Woodly, Kettering Fellow and professor at Brown University, to discuss the Seneca Falls Convention on women's rights -- the characters who cooked it up over afternoon tea, the Declaration of Sentiments they wrote in the shadow of the Declaration of Independence, and the one resolution that nearly didn't pass, until Frederick Douglass stood up to speak. Plus: why western New York was the hotbed of basically every radical idea of the 19th century.

Be sure to check out Deva's book “Reckoning: Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Necessity of Social Movements”

This Day is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories. If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Are We Locked In To Two Parties? w/ Alex Lovit [Some Sunday Context] Sep 13, 2026

Show notes

Every Sunday during our month-long collaboration with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Jody Avirgan chats with Alex Lovit, host of the Kettering podcast "The Context."Today, they follow up on what the battle over the Bill of Rights was really about, and whether the US is forever locked into the two-party system that the Founders fell in to.

Be sure to check out “The Context” at kettering.org/thecontext

This Day is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.

If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Bill Of Rights: Factions w/ Dahliah Lithwick (Part Two) Sep 10, 2026

Show notes

All this month, we’re partnering with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation for a series called “Democracy Under Construction.” You can find out more about their work at kettering.org and listen to their podcast “The Context” at kettering.org/thecontext

Our conversation about the Bill of Rights continues with a look at how the fight over the document led to the first hard-line parties in the United States. The ink was barely dry on the Bill of Rights when the founders split into camps, which would carry over to the other fights of the day. Dahliah Lithwick is back to discuss the partisan fights — and what it tells us about the two-party system we're still living with today.

Be sure to check out Dahlia’s “Amicus” podcast and all her work at Slate.

This Day is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.

If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Bill Of Rights: We Forgot Freedom w/ Dahliah Lithwick (Part One) Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

For the thirty-third installment of “50 Weeks That Shaped America” we go to 1789. The founders spent months that summer hammering out a Constitution — and nearly forgot to include freedom. Jody, Niki and Kellie are joined by Dahlia Lithwick of Slate to look at how the Bill of Rights came to exist: the philosophical fight over whether rights even needed to be written down, what ended up in it (and what didn't), and what it tells us about who the founders were actually building this government for.

Be sure to check out Dahlia’s “Amicus” podcast and all her work at Slate.

This Day is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.

If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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