A Glimpse Of What's Coming...
collecting and connecting
Hey everyone! Jody here with a sneak-preview of what’s to come in the re-launched This Day newsletter. This sneak-preview will last for one day because we are sending out our first proper newsletter tomorrow!
But I did want to share a little bit of our thinking about what we hope to do with this project. We’re really excited about making this a place where the conversations we start on the show continue, and a place for some original and surprising historical analysis.
Before that, a huge shoutout to everyone who is signed up. If you want to get others on board, forward them this post. Time to get in on the ground floor!
And an even bigger shoutout to those of you who have (without us asking or even knowing this was a thing) pledged to pay for this newsletter if we ever do start to take subscriptions. For now, it’s free. But if you do want to pledge to support us when the time comes, hit this button.
So, what are we up to? Well, first, let me tell you about our show’s artwork. If I’m being honest, I’ve always been a little on-the-fence about the show’s art. I like that, like our show, it’s simple, and straightforward.
But, I’ve wondered whether the dots convey what we’re up to, I worry that it may not pop as much as show art should. But all that changed recently. I fell in love with our art, for two reasons.
One, we put the artwork on some merch, and it looks really good!
But the real reason I’ve come around on the artwork is because I’ve started to think about what those dots really mean. When we launched the show four (!) years ago, I was very interested in the idea of jumping around through history, almost without rhyme or reason, grabbing stories from the archives and diving in. One day we’d be talking about Dwight Eisenhower waging a war on squirrels, the next day we’d be talking about the Wilmington coup of 1898.
We were collecting those dots, at random…
But four years in, as we’ve done more and more stories, I’ve started to connect those dots. Themes have emerged, throughlines throughout history that I think you only see when you’ve spent time with an accumulation of smaller stories. As Niki puts it, the present is the product of the past.
I’m excited and enriched by both those modes: the random romp through history; and the concerted effort to learn lessons and make connections.
So that’s how we’re thinking about this newsletter. Each week, you’ll get two sections.
This will be a quick listing of events, a dozen or so, from the upcoming week in American history. We’ll bounce all over, silly and serious, obscure and infamous. Stuff we’ve covered and stuff we haven’t.
Hopefully you’ll get a lot of “huh” moments as you scan the list. And then…
In this section, a guest writer will take the list above and… riff. Find themes, throughlines, go down rabbit holes and more. Just a few paragraphs, but hopefully something that gets your thinking.
Niki, Kellie and I will contribute regularly, as will our researcher Jacob Feldman and producer Brittani Brown. But we’re also going to invite historians, snappy thinkers, and friends of the show to contribute as well.
I’m excited to see who joins in, and I hope this becomes a place for some original insight.
And then, as with any good newsletter, we’ll throw in some links, recommendations, and try to get you to buy some merch. (Remember that merch!)
So, there you have it. The first newsletter is coming tomorrow. We’ll give you some dots for the upcoming week, and I’ll try to do a little dot-connecting.
In the meantime, let us know what you think, forward this email to a friend, and did we mention the merch?
As always,
-Jody, Niki, Kellie, Jacob, Brittani-
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