First hour: Special broadcast: “The Declaration Does Not Apply”
Second hour: Special broadcast: “Selected Shorts: Romance of the Summer”
We bring you special programming on this Independence Day.
In the first hour, the founders left three groups out of the Declaration of Independence: Black Americans, Indigenous peoples, and women. A few years ago, “Civics 101,” New Hampshire Public Radio's podcast about the basics of how our democracy works, did a series revisiting the Declaration of Independence, and three groups for which the tenants of life, liberty, and property enshrined in that document did not apply. We bring you all three parts of that series today:
- Part 1: Byron Williams, author of “The Radical Declaration,” walks us through how enslaved Americans and Black Americans pushed against the document from the very beginning of our nation’s founding.
- Part 2: Writer and activist Mark Charles lays out the anti-Native American sentiments within it, the doctrines and proclamations from before 1776 that justified ‘discovery,’ and the Supreme Court decisions that continue to cite them all.
- Part 3: Laura Free, host of the podcast “Amended” and professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, tells us about the Declaration of Sentiments, the document at the heart of the women’s suffrage movement.
Then in our second hour, another special broadcast with host Meg Wolitzer, who presents a light-hearted collection of summer-themed works including:
- “A Case for Remaining Indoors,” by Samantha Irby, performed by Retta;
- “The Miraculous Beach, or, Prize for Modesty,” by Massimo Bontempelli, translated by Jenny McPhee, performed by Hugh Dancy; and
- “The Thrill of the Grass,” by W.P. Kinsella, performed by Denis O’Hare
Our greatest actors transport us through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time. Sometimes funny. Always moving. “Selected Shorts” is the weekly public radio program that connects you to the world with a rich diversity of voices from literature, film, theater, and comedy.
