As the 2020 election approaches, the survival of the United States as a democratic republic is a topic of national conversation—Trumpian authoritarianism; voter suppression and gerrymandering; concerns about foreign intervention, election security, and the role of money in politics.
Our twelve-part Season 4 series on democracy touches on those concerns but goes much deeper, effectively retelling the story of the United States from its beginnings up to the present as we complicate, maybe upend, our listeners’ understanding of American history. Our series title, The Land That Never Has Been Yet, is borrowed from the Langston Hughes poem, “Let America Be America Again.”
The Land reunites the Seeing White series team: my collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika, journalism and media studies professor at Rutgers University, and our editor, the public radio veteran Loretta Williams.
Season 4, Episode 1: Rich Man’s Revolt – Download a PDF of the transcript.
Season 4, Episode 2: “The Excess of Democracy” – Download a PDF of the transcript.
Season 4, Episode 3: The Cotton Empire – Download a PDF of the transcript.
Season 4, Episode 4: The Second Revolution – Download a PDF of the transcript.
Season 4, Episode 5: Feminism in Black and White – Download a PDF of the transcript.
Season 4, Episode 6: A New Deal – Download a PDF of the transcript.
Season 4, Episode 6.5: BONUS EPISODE – Pandemic America – Download a PDF of the transcript.
Season 4, Episode 7: Freedom Summer – Download a PDF of the transcript.
Season 4, Episode 8: The Second Redemption – Download a PDF of the transcript.
Season 4, Episode 9: American Empire – Download a PDF of the transcript.
Season 4, Episode 10: Schooled for Democracy – Download a PDF of the transcript.
Season 4, Episode 11: More Truth – Download a PDF of the transcript.
Season 4, Episode 12: More Democracy – Download a PDF of the transcript.
Season 4, Episode 12.5: BONUS EPISODE – Election 2020 – Download a PDF of the transcript.
