We Changed The Name Of The Show

but are doing a project with an even more complicated name

Hi all, some of you noticed right away, some of you heard on our show this past Sunday, but we’ve changed the name of this podcast. Click the video below to see the change in action!

This isn’t too big a deal, but I understand that when you make a shift like this, there are some questions and some ~feelings~ — so here’s a little bit of our thinking.

• Generally, everyone’s been kinda calling the show “This Day” anyway, especially when talking about it to others.

  • So, hopefully this makes it a little easier to answer the question “hey, you listening to any good podcasts lately?” (hint hint — recommend the show!)

• Having to spit out “This Day In Esoteric Political History” at the top of every show was a whole thing for me. I’ve liked saying “This Day, a history podcast from Radiotopia” in the last couple episodes

• This is a more minor consideration, but truth be told that we’ve heard that the name might be getting in the way of some of the sales/sponsorship conversations. I don’t know — two three-syllable words in a show name might just be a little too clunky for the folks who want to buy ads on a podcast? I get it.

Here’s full video of our chat - I talk about the change at around 7mins in.

The bigger thinking is that we are starting to expand the idea of what this show is and will be over the coming year or two. We are heading into our fifth year. And while the core of this show will always be jumping around to fascinating and often overlooked stories from American history, I do think that over five years we have learned some big lessons about how this country got to this moment, an we want to be able to move just beyond the esoteric, and convene a broad and deep conversation about the present, through the lens of history.

To that end, we already have our eye on 2026. Next year is this country’s 250th birthday, aka the sesquicentennial¹ semiquincentennial, and we have a whole suite of ambitious programming already mapped out. We’ll be sharing more about our plans soon, but the idea is to really try and take a full year to understand how the American experiment came to this moment. We plan to tackle some of the more typical “dad history” stuff (Civil War, WWII) alongside the smaller but critical moments that often get overlooked (I know we want to do a big series on textbook fights).

As I said on Sunday’s show, anniversaries like this are a moment when a country tells itself a story about itself; and we want to be part of the conversation.

We plan not just the usual podcast episodes, but more video, social, hopefully an online archive, maybe even teacher guides… who knows.

As I also mentioned on the show, we are actively planning and looking for expaned support to do all the great things we have in store. So, I’m in hustle mode.

Gosh, I even took to linkedin!

If you have any ideas for people or organizations or brands who may want to support our work, please get in touch. I have a snazzy one-sheet laying out all our ambitions and the kind of support we’re looking for. We’re very flexible, very collaborative, open to all ideas.

For now, the best way to support the show is by spreading the word. We now have a shorter name, making it that much easier to recommend the show to a friend. Or just forward them this email — our newsletter will continue to be a big engine of our plans for the coming year and change.

Okay, thanks for reading, thanks for supporting, and let me know if you still see the old name/logo kicking around in the wild — it sometimes takes a bit for all these changes to settle in.

-Jody-

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1. thank you listeners who pointed out that I was wrong on Sunday’s show, it’s not the sesquicentennial (150) but the "semiquincentennial” — which is even MORE awkward!