Our conversation about the millions of Black Americans who left the South and moved to the North and Midwest continues with the post-War years, where millions came to cities like Chicago and started to fundamentally reshape the country. Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how these changes led to the rise of the Civil Rights movement; how backlash deepened in many communities, and what brought the great migration to a close in the 1970s.

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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.

For the forty-second installment of "50 Weeks That Shaped America" we discuss the millions and millions of Black Americans who left the South in the first decades of the 20th century in what came to be known as the "Great Migration." Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the economic prospects that drew Black southerners to cities like Chicago and Detroit; how it reshaped every corner of the country; and the intense backlash that followed.

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.

Our conversation about the life and legacy of Al Gore continues. We discuss what a post-9/11 era with Gore as president would have looked like, and how he turned to environmental activism with An Inconvenient Truth in the mid-2000s. Plus, how he's remembered today.

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.

For the forty-first installment of "50 Weeks That Shaped America" we talk about Al Gore's life and legacy. We use it as a chance to talk about the fateful 2000 election, plus his advocacy for climate change issues. This episode, Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss Gore's upbringing, how his political path reflected the larger politics of the 80s and 90s, and how he found himself in the middle of the most controversial election of our lifetimes.

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.

To cap off our collaboration with the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, the This Day team went to Washington, DC, for a live conversation at the Howard Theatre about whether the next big realignment in American democracy is on the horizon -- and what history can teach us about the path forward. We were joined by Alex Lovit, host of Kettering’s podcast The Context, and  Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II—bishop, author, founder of the Poor People's Campaign and the Moral Mondays movement, and Kettering Foundation senior fellow. Thanks to everyone who joined us in DC, and thanks to Kettering for being our partners over the last month!

You can find out more about Kettering at kettering.org and listen to their podcast “The Context” at kettering.org/thecontext 

Our conversation about Ross Perot continues with a look at his drop -- and re-entry -- into the 1992 presidential race, including those iconic infomercials. Plus, how his mix of personal wealth, folksy wisdom, and economic populism set a template for modern politics and politicians.

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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.

For the fortieth installment of “50 Weeks That Shaped America” we go to 1992, when Texas billionaire Ross Perot crashed the presidential election contest. We talk about how Perot got his money, why he jumped into politics — and why a short Texan with big ears, a folksy charm, and lots of charts managed to captivate the nation.

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.

This past week we looked at the voyage of Lewis & Clark's Corps of Discovery. Today, we re-run an episode from last fall about how the story of the journey remained in relative obscurity, only to be reframed about 100 years later as ideas about the American West began to shift.

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.

Our conversation about the Lewis & Clark expedition continues with a look at Sacagawea's role on the journey, the Native American encounters throughout the journey -- and Lewis's tragic life after returning from the frontier. 

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.

For the thirty-ninth installment of “50 Weeks That Shaped America” we go to the spring of 1804, when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark are tapped by Thomas Jefferson to lead an expedition into the northwest territories to map a route to the Pacific Ocean. We discuss why the Louisiana Purchase made mapping this territory a priority, how the two put together their group, and how hard the journey was, despite having a very cute canine companion.

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.

This past week we talked about the life of John Brown, and his attempted raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Here's an episode from the archives about his death and martyrdom. We'll be back on Tuesday with a brand new episode in our "50 Weeks That Shaped America" series!

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.