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 Two: Wonder Woman
Kelly McEvers with the story of Zora, a self-made superhero.
Act Five: Miami
Nadia Reiman talks to Ninotchka and Marco in Florida.
Act Three: Sacred Versus Profane
An Orthodox Jew talks about whether Hasidic Judaism is like an obsession.
Staff Recommendations
Arms Trader (2009)
The U.S. government spent two years on a sting operation trapping an Indian man suspected of being an illegal arms dealer.
The Giant Pool of Money
The surprisingly entertaining story of how the U.S. got itself into a housing crisis.