A show for July 4th weekend. We begin with perhaps the most moving, poetic inaugural speech in American history, and look at its legacy today. In his second inaugural address, Lincoln wondered aloud why God saw fit to send the slaughter of the Civil War to the United States. His conclusion: that slavery was a kind of original sin for the United States, for both North and South, and all Americans had to do penance for it.
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Act One
A Modern Politician, His God, And The Confederate Flag
South Carolina native Jack Hitt discusses the Confederate Flag's prominent place over the statehouse. (13 minutes)
Act Two
Nelson Mandela And Abraham Lincoln
Some stunning parallels between the political strategies of the two leaders, by John Matisonn. (10 minutes)
Act Three
Good Blacks, Bad Blacks
Writer Malcolm Gladwell, reads from a story that he first wrote for the New Yorker magazine about his cousins, who immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica 12 years ago. (11 minutes)
Act Four
Good Whites, Bad Whites
A documentary by Cecilia Vaisman and Christina Egloff, with Jay Allison, about a white woman named Carolyn Wren Shannon, who grew up hating blacks in a Catholic neighborhood, and how her attitudes change. (17 minutes)
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Act One: Cassandra
This American Life producer Nancy Updike tells the story of Conrad Crane, the head of the U.S.
Act Four: Bill Clinton’s 7-year-old Brother
Reporter Mary Wiltenburg tells the story of a little boy stymied by the question "Where do you come from?" (8 minutes)
Act Two: Does This Suit Make Me Look Terrorist To You?
Rany Jazayerli was thrilled when one of his closest friends, Mazen, was hired by the Obama campaign as the liaison to the Muslim community, in the months before the presidential election.
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