Grading America's First 250 Years: America, Actually with Astead Herndon
5/26/202628 min
America at 250 years old may need a new founding document. Historian Heather Cox Richardson drafts a new social contract. This show was edited by Kasia Broussalian, fact checked by Esther Gim, mixed by Shannon Mahoney, video edited by Christopher Snyder, and hosted by Astead Herndon. In this episode, Richardson references a tweet of Boebert's, not a text.
You can also watch this episode on youtube.com/vox.
Listen to more from America, Actually with Astead Herndon here.
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First 90 secondsKara Swisher· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher. We're off for the holiday today, so we have an episode of America Actually with Astead Herndon for you. In this episode, Astead talks with historian Heather Cox Richardson about America's first 250 years and how the US is facing its biggest stress test since the Civil War. Oh, joy. So you enjoy.
Speaker 10:26
So we are 250 years into this American experiment, and I'd say it's going okay. I'd give us like a C+. The Declaration of Independence, the women's rights movement, the invention of basketball or the iPhone, all good. Slavery, colonialism, income inequality, unequivocally bad. But what's gonna determine the next 250 years of America, and how do we write a new social contract that can give us the democracy we deserve? That's this week on America Actually. Let's dig in. [upbeat music] Joining me now is Heather Cox Richardson. She's a historian and professor at Boston College, but you probably know her from her very popular Substack, Letters From an American, and her YouTube channel. I am excited that Heather is joining us, 'cause she's gonna help us think about not only the future, but how the past connects to it. Thank you for coming.
Speaker 21:23
It's such a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 11:24
I appreciate that. I mean, I wanted to kind of start by looking at your work. As I was preparing for this,