Exploring America鈥檚 evolving national story with Colin Woodard
Air Dates: June 30 鈥 July 6, 2025
For nearly 250 years, Americans have marked the fourth of July as the birthday of the nation, and in July of 2026, we鈥檒l celebrate 250 years. Colin Woodard argues that the Declaration of Independence is as relevant and vital as ever, and that its promise is essential to preserving the republic today.
Colin Woodard is a New York Times-bestselling historian and Polk Award-winning journalist. He is one of the most respected authorities on North American regionalism, the sociology of United States nationhood and how our colonial past shapes and explains the present. He has authored six books including the award-winning Wall Street Journal bestseller 鈥淎merican Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.鈥 Woodard is director of Nationhood Lab at 黑料网鈥檚 Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy, an initiative studying where America has come from, how we ended up as we are and how we might shape our future.
On this episode of 鈥淪tory in the Public Square,鈥 Woodard explained his research on the values and ideas that have come to define America and its citizens. He emphasized the importance of a nation鈥檚 identity and evolution and said, 鈥測ou need a story that describes what its purpose is, where it came from, who belongs and what its characteristics are.鈥
鈥Story in the Public Square鈥 broadcasts each week on public television stations across the United States. In Rhode Island and southeastern New England, the show is broadcast on Rhode Island PBS on Sundays at 11:00 a.m. and is rebroadcast Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Check your local public television listings for air times near you! An audio version of the program airs Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET, Sundays at 2:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. and Mondays at 4:30 a.m. ET on SiriusXM鈥檚 popular P.O.T.U.S. (Politics of the United States), channel 124. 鈥淪tory in the Public Square鈥 is a project of the Pell Center at 黑料网. The initiative aims to study, celebrate and tell stories that matter.