Podcasts about southerners

Philip welcomes Keri Leigh Merritt, author of An Inconvenient Woman: The Extraordinary Life of Lilliam Smith, The Southerner Who Defied Jim Crow America. In their conversation, they discuss the life, work and activism of Lillian Smith who championed anti-Black racism in the heart of the Jim Crow South. The Drop – The segment of the show where Philip and his guest share tasty morsels of intellectual goodness and creative musings. Philip's Drop: Zora Neale Hurston – Life & Stories (Library of America) Kerri Leigh's Drop: The Firebrand and the First Lady – Patricia Bell-Scott

Steve DeWitt Spiritual Exiles - Part B Study Guide for Spiritual Exiles, I Peter 1:1-2 Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 1:1-2 Visit the series page: Exiles: A study in 1 Peter Donate to Support The Journey Sermon Transcript for Spiritual Exiles, I Peter 1:1-2 Message: Spiritual ExilesAirdate: 9/4 & 9/7/26, Programs 2350 & 2351Studying through books of the Bible has been, has really been the bread and butter of our church over the years. And, today, we begin a new series as you've seen on the screen in the, the book or the letter of First Peter. And you might ask, well, why First Peter? I mean, because from one perspective, we really could open the Bible anywhere and have things that would be profitable to us. That's what, Scripture says about itself, that all Scripture is God breathed, that is profitable. So we really could go. We could go to Leviticus. We could go to Psalms. We could go to Revelation, and there would be a quality word that God would have for us. But why First Peter? Well, I've chosen First Peter because it is so wonderfully relevant to, life as we are living it increasingly here in our culture and our society where we find ourselves as Christians and particularly as evangelical Christians increasingly on the margins of society. More and more it seems that to actually believe in Jesus is a, you know, small s scandalous sort of thing. And by that, I mean, not nominal Christianity. Nominal Christianity will fit in anywhere. Nominal Christians are accepted. But if you actually believe it, like you're one of those crazy people that actually believe the gospel, and you really believe in, the resurrection, and you really believe in that the world was created and things like that, more and more, people are looking down their nose at that and pushing us to the fringe of the culture. And First Peter is written for the church in exile. First Peter is written for a church on the margins. It is written for the persecuted church. It's written, for the ostracized church. It is written for the hated church. I read somebody that basically said, the more irrelevant Christianity becomes, the more relevant First Peter becomes because it's written for that church that is in exile in its culture. The title of the series comes from the first words in, Peter's letter where he addresses it and says, to those who are elect exiles. Exiles where and exiles why we're going to, get into. And I dare say that by the time we're done with this series, I'll bet First Peter might be in the running for your favorite book in all the Bible. Luther himself said about First Peter that it is, quote, “one of the noblest books in the New Testament,” and he put it on par with Romans and the Gospel of John, which is saying something, isn't it? So, it's a wonderful letter, and I think it's gonna be a real blessing to all of us. We're going to work through it in a style of teaching, known as expository preaching. And what that means is that week in and week out, we're going to look at the text as Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote it. We're gonna ask the question, what did Peter and the Holy Spirit mean when they wrote that particular text? And then we are going to draw out of that meaning as it was originally intended and apply it to our lives today. What does that mean for us today? I wanna encourage you to come each week, every week with expository preaching is a fresh text, which means that it is a fresh word from God for us. And I think that it will be, it will be a blessing. So with that, let me just pray and ask God's blessing on this entire teaching series. Father, we ask that you would please, as you have done down through the centuries, that you would take your holy word, that you would enlighten it to our understanding, and that you would powerfully apply it to our lives and to our church and through us to the culture around us. We pray that this series would be just uniquely blessed by you, and all the good that can be done from it has little to do with, me or any of our teachers and pastors, but it depends on your Holy Spirit's blessing, and we seek that and we ask for it. Bless even now in in in in this day as we begin in in our study. We pray that this would be a great launch, and we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Now as we always do when we begin a a book study, we spend time talking about the background to the letter. Now you might say, well, why is that so important? Can't we just get going in this? Here's why it's important. It's important for the same reason that if you were walking along the street and the wind blew a letter into your to your path and you picked it up and you read it, on one level, you could understand the letter, couldn't you? Because you can read English, you can read the words, etcetera. But to know who wrote it, who they wrote it to, and why they wrote it would fill in all of those things that you can read with all kinds of meaning, wouldn't it? And so that's why we spend time figuring out who wrote this thing and why he wrote it and who he was writing it to. So let's begin by asking that question. Who wrote this letter? And you might say, well, that's simple. The top of my page, it says it says Peter wrote this letter. Right? And indeed, the first verse says, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” So you could say, well, it must be it must be Peter. But realize that just because it says that Peter wrote it is not undeniable proof that Peter wrote it. This could have been written by somebody else who claimed to have been Peter. And, there are always scholars that wanna argue against these people actually being the authors of these letters, whether that be Paul or John or or here Peter. And so there are some scholars that try to stir up controversy, but to me, it's really, difficult seeing it not be Peter because later in the letter, he's going to say that he was an eyewitness to the sufferings of Christ. Well, how many Peters are there that were eyewitnesses to the sufferings of Christ? And the early church fathers, and by that, I mean, the leaders of the church in the post apostolic age. So after John and Peter and others had died, you have certain church leaders, and they all attribute this letter to being written by the Peter of the gospels, the disciple, the apostle Peter. So I think that there is little reason to doubt that Peter actually wrote this letter. And this Peter is the Peter of the gospels. This is the Peter who had a brother named Andrew who brought him to Jesus, and Jesus met him and changed his name. Do you remember? His name had been Simon. And he said, from this point on, your name is Peter or which is the Greek word, by the way, for rock, which is like a cruel joke, I think, on Peter if you read the story because perhaps he should have been named Feather because he sees the blows in the wind. But what happens in the story of Peter is that he becomes the rock at the end of the story as he assumes leadership of the disciples after Jesus' resurrection as he is a leader in the early church, and history tells us that he was crucified upside down in Rome and and refused to be crucified upright like his savior Jesus. He didn't feel he was worthy to die the same way that Jesus died. Part of the importance of First Peter and Second Peter is that given the prominence of Peter in the church, we have very little that he wrote, actually, as compared to, like, Luke, John, or Paul. Luke wrote Luke and Acts. John wrote the Gospel of John, First, Second, Third John, and Revelation. And Paul obviously wrote a bunch of letters in the New Testament. So we got lots from those guys. But Peter, in his stature, we have very little. We have First Peter and Second Peter. And so it's like the smallness of what we have actually makes it more valuable as we can see the the teaching and the emphases of this key leader in the early church. Now to who did Paul Peter write this and why did he write? And just look at verse one with me a moment. It says, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” Now I'll bet that in your private devotional reading, you get to a verse like that and you sort of skip ahead, don't you? You're like, there's gotta be some more applicable thing here than ancient geography. Right? I didn't get up this morning to read my Bible, to read ancient geography. Isn't there something a little bit more helpful to me than that? And so we easily skip over those things and uniquely, I think in First Peter, probably true of all of them, but this is actually one of the keys to understanding the entire letter. Is that verse right there? Who are these people? What is it talking about? Again, those who are elect exiles of the dispersion. Now what is that all about? Alright. Quick history lesson. Hang with me. Some of you hated it your sophomore year. This will be short. Okay? But a very quick history lesson. We go back to the Roman Empire, and most of us probably heard of the Roman Empire, one of the great human empires in in history, ruled the known world for, like, five hundred years. And they were able to pull that off because they were really smart. They had policies and things that they did that allowed them to remain in power for, like, five centuries. And one of the things that they did is actually what Peter is referring to here, and and that is what is called colonization. K? Colonization. Here's the way that it worked. The Romans had the great armies. Maybe you've seen movies that portray the Roman armies and the eagle and all of that. They would go into an area that they wanted to conquer. And largely, they would conquer. They were really good at warfare. And after they had conquered this region, they would move on to go, you know, do battle in other places. But they needed to maintain power in that region that their army had already conquered. So the strategy for them was that they would colonize that area by sending, people from Rome or who at least were Roman into that community where they would establish their lives. They would establish business. They would establish some of the things that Roman culture was known for, like the theater or the auditorium or whatever. And by doing that, essentially, they would integrate into the cult actually, the culture, the indigenous culture, would integrate into the Roman culture. And by doing that, they were able to exert Roman influence and thought and power into those, particular areas. K? So these were known as dispersions. K? Sometimes these were, political friends who wanted if it was a nice area, like if suddenly we conquered Hawaii and said, wants to go live? Well, I think I'd like to so all the friends, you know, the friends of the people in charge, they would go and they would colonize Hawaii. Sometimes these were political enemies that they wanted out of Rome. Alright. Take that family and those people and get them over in Galatia. We don't wanna see them ever again. And so off they would go. And and sometimes it was just people that were like, you know what? We think we can have a better life there. Like, you can think about even the story of The United States and the colonies on the East Coast and how people came across on the boats because they wanted a better life in the new the new world. So Rome would do that. And by doing that, they essentially would, retain a kind of control over that area by repopulating and integrating. It was essentially colonization by deportation for the purpose of domination. And that's how you retain control for five hundred years. So these people that would leave Rome or a Roman, community to go into some of these new areas, they essentially lived as exiles there. They were foreigners there. They were Romans there. And, the people that were from there knew that they were these people that had come. And this was not always a comfortable thing. Realize the Roman armies would come and conquer. They would wipe out, you know, how how many people's husbands and fathers in in, in winning the war. And now you've got representatives from there coming and living amongst us. The people from that land did not look favorably necessarily on them, especially initially. They were always from somewhere else. Right? It's kind of like living up here in the North when we hear somebody with a thick southern accent. What do you do? You look at them and you think to yourself or maybe you even say it, you're not from here are you? Right? And they're like, no I'm not. I'm from Georgia or Mississippi. Right? And you're like, what are you doing up here? Why don't you go home where you belong? Explain some people we have on staff even. But as awkward as that might be for Southerners to live up here amongst the Yankees, It was much more uncomfortable back in this day. And so they lived in a kind of ostracized way, and there was social awkwardness representing the ideology of the conquering army. So Peter here is writing then to colonists who were also Christians, who for political, social, who knows what reason had gone into Asia Minor and are now living there as representatives of the Roman Empire. Now to give you an idea of where we're talking, here's a map. And it's essentially modern day Turkey. And some of you maybe are not up on your you know, Turkey to you is a, November celebration. But it's actually a country as well. And so you see some of you see the Black Sea, and you see these communities that are being referred to, Bithynia, Galatia, Cappadocia, these would have been well known in that time and would have been places of influence, cultural influence. Essentially, what Peter does in the letter is he takes these Christians' social political situation and he draws spiritual meaning from it. He says, yes, you're exiles politically and geographically, but I wanna talk to you about what it means to be a spiritual exile. What does it mean to live in an area where you it's not your homeland. What does it mean to live in an area where people look at you a little cross eyed and they say to themselves, that person isn't they're not really of us. Their values are not our values. Their priorities are not our part. They're like those Christian people. They're those marginalized people. What is it like, and how do we live when we are the ones that are in exile, when we are the weird ones? So Peter writes to these political exiles, but he wants them to see that they are really spiritual exiles and to learn what it means to live amongst people that are very, very different. K? Very different. And so what he's gonna say in this letter is he's gonna encourage them to stand strong, to remain faithful, to live obedient to Jesus in spite of the immoral culture around them, to remain faithful even though people look at them like we look at Amish people. Kinda like, man, what's your problem? What's get with the program here. Right? Why aren't you kind of along with what we're doing? That's how they felt. And here's where I think First Peter is so helpful to us is is and I don't know if you feel this or not. I certainly do. If you talk to some of the old timers around here who remember what it was like to be a Christian, like in the nineteen forties or the nineteen fifties and maybe the early nineteen sixties, it's a much different feel back then to be a Christian in America than it is in 2015. Right? Where even to pronounce Christian faith in public media in some way is to be scorned or to have the plug pulled. Right? Get him off of there immediately. We don't want any of that kind of stuff going across the airwaves. What do we do? How do we live? What are we supposed to be like? And again, I'm talking about real Christians, nominal Christians, fit in just fine. K? I'm talking about the people that actually believe this stuff and try to live it out. How do we do it? These are the exiles that Peter is writing to. Now let's ask why are we exiles, and what is the purpose for all of this? So let's get into the text now and and begin to kind of do our little exposition here. I begin again in verse one. “To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bethenia Church.” Do you kinda get what that means now? K. “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.” May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Now a quick read here, and again, that morning devotional, moment where I'm trying to find something for my day, we could easily miss how important what Peter is saying here is. Because essentially what Peter is doing here is he's tipping his hand to the entire letter. It's kind of like in a symphony or something where in the prelude, you hear a little piece of the of the melody, and you're like, you pick up on it. Or that little Star Wars theme, if you're watching a Star Wars movie, you sort of hear that, it's either Vader or it's Skywalker. You know? And you're like you pick you pick up on it. Even in the in the in the opening scene of the movie, you kinda get a sense of what's coming. That's what this is. He's he's basically it's it's First Peter in microcosm. Peter, what are you gonna say? What is your big point to these people that are living in spiritual exile? And he begins in verse two with a series of purpose statements. The why question.Now my wife Jennifer and I, we have a 19 year old daughter. And what's wonderful at this point is that she has not discovered the word why. It's just not there yet. Did I say something wrong? Did I say year old? Peter's got something to say about that too. 19 month old daughter. Yes. So and see, we're getting that kind of Gary feel going on here. Like that. Keep it up. Keep it up. 19 month old daughter. So she's learning words at an amazing clip right now. We're thankful she's not yet learned the word why. She is unaware at this point that in life, there is all of this sort of philosophical stuff that underlies why we do what we do. So at this point, we just say, don't throw your food. She's never said, well, why is that not allowed? Right? She's unaware of purpose behind things. Peter wants to make sure that we understand that there is purpose behind things, even exile. Even the experience of spiritual exile, there's a purpose behind it. There is a why behind it, and we see that from the get go. Notice what kind of exiles are they? And can I say the question, what kind of exiles are we? What is the descriptive word for exiles? It is what? You have Bibles. Look. What is the word before exiles? We are what exiles? We're elect exiles. Elect exiles. What? I am experiencing what I'm experiencing because there's somebody that chose to put me here, chose to give me this experience? Because that's what the word elect means. It just it means chose, chosen. We are chosen exiles. You know, most exiles don't think that they are chosen exiles. You can think about the Jews in World War two, for example, in in Poland and the ghetto there, if you've seen that or studied that, they were victims of circumstance. They were victims of sociopolitical things that were beyond their control, and they suffered greatly in, in that experience. Or the Syrian refugees in our contemporary world, who there's all these, you know, there's big sort of, sociopolitical things that are at play that are creating the circumstances that they find themselves in. You could go to a Syrian refugee and say, you know, how did this happen? And he would say, well, my the president of this company country and this is going on and all of that. They would never have the thought in their mind that they were chosen to be Syrian refugees. Why? Because it's circumstantial. But here, Peter doesn't say, I'm so sorry that you are having this experience living as Christians in that land. He says, you are having that experience by divine choice. There is a God behind all of this. You are not just exiles randomly. You are exiles divinely. You have been chosen for this experience. And what a difference it makes when I realize that there is a purpose behind the pain. There is an answer to the question of why. And behind all of that is a God who is sovereignly working out everything according to the purpose of his will, Ephesians one eleven. Think about the Israelites as another sort of exile example. If you know the story of Israel, descendants of Abraham. Right? They were all time living in tents, never having a land of their own. God takes them down to Egypt. Four hundred years, they live largely under oppression there in Egypt. They're living as exiles. They're not in their the land that they're not in the promised land. They're not in the land where they're supposed to be. But there they are, and they have horrible, terrible experiences. Well, God leads them out into the hand of Moses, and they go through the Red Sea. It's not that far of a walk from Egypt to the promised land. Right? As the crow flies, where does God take them? Forty years wandering around in the wilderness. Are they like, God, is your GPS messed up? Because we could just it's just right there. We just gotta go right there. Why you guys going all over here and wandering around like this? What is the purpose behind our wanderings? What is the purpose behind our exile? Why are we experiencing all of these difficulties living a million people in a desert? Why are you doing this, God? And from the words of Moses himself, God says, “you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” In other words, God was using their physical experience, their geographical experience for spiritual purposes. And all of the difficulties and all of the uncomfortableness and all of the challenges of living in a desert for forty years was not about living in a desert for forty years, but what God wanted that desert to do in them and to teach them. There was a purpose behind it. There was a why behind it. Do you see? So that the sorrows, what Peter is saying here, the sorrows of Christianity on the margins is comforted by the confident knowledge that we have that I am where God wants me to be, and the challenges are from the hand of God as well. I am an elect exile. I am not a political exile. I am I am not a chaotic exile. I am where I am by the sovereign choice of God, which then brings meaning in the midst of the pain and the sorrows and the issues. What do people ask when they're going through a trial? What do we hear even in our church when somebody gets the cancer call? Why? God, why are you doing this? Why am I the one of all the people having to suffer this? And what do you say pastorally to people that hear that kind of news? Wow. That's really chaotic. Maybe there isn't a God. No. We say that there is a God, and that circumstance in your life is not chance. And you can trust him. He is a good God. He loves you. He sent Jesus. Right? And now the Christian begins to derive meaning from even the pain of the exile and to see that God is doing something good in it. Would this not have been wonderfully comforting? I mean, about these Christians. They're living there in Asia Minor. Would this not have been, comforting for a businessman living in Pontus who is suffering financially because he's a Christian? They know he's a Christian. They don't wanna do business with him. He's suffering because of it. Or how about the wife of a pagan husband? You want to talk about personally uncomfortable? How about the wife of a Christian wife of a pagan husband? You want to talk about issues. How about a husband who's living according to the values of the immoral Greco Roman world around him, and yet you're married to him? How do you derive any kind of hope or comfort in the midst of that? You read chapter three, and you see what Peter has to say to wives who are married to pagan husbands. And you see, whatever pick your category. All of them. The Christian sees through the physical, political, social issue a good God who is providentially behind that and is actually using that for some good in our life that maybe we can't see and maybe you can't see right now. I mean, my wife had trouble finding parking today. We have a lot of people sitting right here in front of me. Is it possible maybe one person here is in a time of trouble or has a circumstance they wish was different? What does the word of God have to say to you? You are an elect exile. There is a God who is sovereignly doing the choosing, and it is painful, and it's awkward, and it's difficult, but there is a God behind it. And we believe that by faith. Amen? Amen. Amen. So I'm not in Cappadocia by accident after all. I'm here because God wants me to be in Cappadocia. Nothing is random. Now the second thing that we have here besides being chosen by God to be in this exile is that Peter wants us to he he lifts our eyes to God himself, and he wants us to see what the triune God is doing here. And you see in the text here a very clear Trinitarian statement. “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit for the obedience to Jesus Christ who is the Son.” It's one of the clearest Trinitarian statements in all of Scripture. Father, Son, and Spirit, each of them with a slightly different role in, as being described here. The foreknowledge, first of all, of the Father. Okay? Foreknowledge basically means to to know in advance. Right? To know in advance. Their exile was sovereignly known by God. God was not surprised. What are those Christians doing over there in Bithynia? I had no idea that they were gonna end up in Cappadocia. What are they up to in Galatia? God is never surprised by anything, which is itself a incredible thought, isn't it? If you're God, there are no surprise parties for God. He already knows everything. Right? He has known all of it and purposed it in eternity past, which means that when I find myself in Bithynia, God knew in eternity past that this was part of the plan. In fact, that word there is used in later in the chapter to say that Christ himself was foreknown. In eternity past, the Father knew the Son. In eternity past, the Father knew that you would be living and doing what you're doing here today. All of it, a sovereign God. There is no there are no surprises with God. There is nothing that is random with God. There is nothing that is chaotic with God. He is the sovereign God. No surprises. The sanctifying work of the Spirit. K? Sanctification is this word in the New Testament to talk about the process of God working in our lives to shape and mold us into the likeness of Jesus, the holy Son of God. And so sanctification is this kind of progressive growth and development. When I become a Christian, I to use this text, I I enter into the realm of sanctification. I am now in a process that the Holy Spirit is working in my life. Verse one says that they are in Asia, but verse two says they're actually in sanctification. So they may wanna define themselves geographically. Right? We're for the Bithynia bulldogs. Bulldogs. K. I am who I am. Some of you may be cheering sports teams today somehow related to a geography that used to have a Packer fan or I'm a Cowboys fan or whatever. Like, I'm born in Dallas or something. So you wanna define yourself geographically. When your teams aren't doing well, you don't wanna define yourself geographically. So most of us will be cheering for the Big Ten tomorrow. Sad. But Peter wants them to realize that they're not defined by their locale. They are defined their locale geographically, but by their locale spiritually. You're in the Holy Spirit now. You're in a process. You're in a world, not a pagan land. The life changing work of Jesus in us is the last thing “for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.” And we see in this that that the electing work of God, the choosing work of God is never without its effect. That not only did God sovereignly choose to put them in Bithynia or Galatia, but he chose through that experience to change them, to transform them for the obedience, a life of obedience to Jesus Christ. That's what God is working in all of us. If you're a Christian here today, what's God doing in my life? Well, he's doing a lot of things. But one of the things he's doing is that he is shaping and molding your heart and value mine as well so that I increasingly want to obey the will of God. I wanna be obedient to my savior Jesus. The obedience to Jesus is part of what we're doing here. And for sprinkling with his blood, and I gotta tell you, I don't know what that means. Just being honest. Commentators are all over the place. I'm not sure what that means. I think it refers somehow to the atoning work of Jesus for us, but I'm not exactly sure. Is that okay to say that? Okay. I don't know. But broadly, what this is saying is this, the Father foreknew us, the Spirit sanctifies us, the Son atoned for us and frees us from a life of sin to now this new life in Christ where I am living to the will of God, and I am pleasing God with my life, and all of it is by God and for God. He foreknew it. He purposed it. He's working in it right now. He is the sovereign hand, the loving hand behind all of it. So that these people might have thought to themselves if they were political exiles, they might have thought to themselves, I am in Galatia by the choice of man. And Peter writes this letter and says, you are in Galatia by the choice of God. He is the one that is behind all that is happening here. Alright. With the time remaining, I have one application point. And this is just the salutation of the letter. Okay? But one application point that I'd like to talk with you about, and it's this. When we are in exile, we wanna change where we are. God wants to change who we are. When we are in exile, God wants or we wanna change where we are. God wants to change who we are. If you talk to an exile and you say, hey. What is the solution to your problem? They are generally going to say, the answer to my problem is to change where I am. Like, I'm not in my homeland. I'm not where I'm supposed to be. And if I was to get where I'm supposed to be, in other words, if I was to change my geography, then everything would be great. Like, take a week like this as an example. This week, I feel like a climate exile. I experienced a week like we've had around here, and I think to myself, I do not live where I'm supposed to live. I am supposed to live in a warmer climate than this. Friday night, Jennifer and I were we spent some time with some friends, and we came back to the church here to pick up my car. I forget how cold it was Friday night, but it was like, you know, zero or minus or something. And we get there, and I get in my car. No. So we spent, I don't know, forty five minutes trying to jump my car off of our van. And it was one of those experiences where there's cold and then there's that cold. Right? I was so cold trying to get that thing started. It took us like forty five minutes, and I was just absolutely frozen. This was a terrible week around here. Right? Horrible week. We're all climate exiles. What do we need? We need to change our geography. We need to live somewhere different. We need a different climate than the one that we've been experiencing. They would have amen in Gary on that. So if you talk to the climate exile, they're going to say, I need a change of geography, right? There's some other place that they would rather be. Do we have any marriage exiles? What's a marriage exile? You've come to the conclusion that the person that you're married to is not the person that you're supposed to be married to, and the solution for you would be to be either not married or married to somebody different. Do we have any vocational exiles here? The solution to happiness in your life would be a different job. You feel like you're being persecuted on the job or you feel like you have an unfair boss, you got some other thing going on. So what's the solution? I need a different job. Do we have any health exiles here? You've got some ailment, you've got some problem, you've got the cancer call in your mind, what's the solution? I need a different body, right? If had a different body, then everything would be fine or pick your category. Generally speaking, our solution to our problems is to change where we are. And then we read this verse here. Elect exiles. Elect exiles. Do you mean that the exile that I am experiencing, that trial that I am going through, that experience that I wish was different and in my mind I can think of three different ways to get out of it? That that is something that God has brought into my life by his sovereign hand and good. Yes. And Peter goes on here to say that good is something not about changing where you are, but changing the person that you are. In other words, my heart, my mind, my my my my spiritual depth and quality, God is in the process of changing that. And you know what? He oftentimes puts us in Cappadocia to do it. We wanna get back to Rome. In fact, what's striking here is he doesn't say to exiles of the dispersion, get out of Bithynia now. Get back to Rome. The streets are clean, and the coffee's good, and the sun is shining. Get out of there. He doesn't say that one place in the whole letter. Why not? Because Peter realized something, that they were elect exiles, that their experience of all of this discomfort was something that God wanted in their life. Well, why would God want that in our life? Because he uses Bithynia, Cappadocia, and the people and the experiences of our life to produce change that would never happen in Rome. And so here you are today, and spiritually speaking or, you know, in your life, you feel like you're in exile, and you want change. I wonder if you can hear the word of God today saying to you. Here's the word. The change that I want is within you. And as Christians, for us to embrace trials, and this is not easy. I think about trials that I've gone through in my life, and in the midst of it, you're like, I want out now. But to pray to God, heavenly Father, I'm not sure what you're doing in this, but I sense in my heart that you are breaking me. You're breaking my pride. You're breaking my self dependence. You're helping me to live by faith. And I just want to say that I surrender to your purpose in Cappadocia. Don't you think I have a loving heavenly Father would answer that prayer? Don't you think that he delights? In fact, is it possible that he put you there to get you to that point of surrender in the first place? And now from that point, God's purpose can be lived out because that aspect of me, pride, whatever is taken away in a way now that I can live in obedience to the will of Jesus Christ according to the foreknowledge of the of of the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit as I made more and more into likeness of Christ. Oh, by the way, what does that sound like? That whole, I'm not where I'm supposed to be. I'm not where I'm from. I'm experiencing pain and yet I want your will in my life. Who does that sound? Does that sound familiar to me? Is that not Christ himself who left his Father's throne above, left his experience of heaven, came into this broken world with all of its pain and all of its sin and all of its brokenness. You you wanna talk about somebody who didn't fit in. How about the Son of God on earth with us? Right? How often people looked at him and thought you must not be from here because you are not buying into the way that we do things at all. And for him to go through that entire experience and to suffer. I think of the old song, he could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world and set him free in a moment. Gone. You can't afford the plane ticket. That was not an issue with Jesus. And yet he remained. And the night before he was crucified, prayed. “Father, if there's any way for this cup to pass from me, I ask that it would be so.” There's an honest prayer. We've all prayed that. Right? Take this cup from me, please. “Yet not my will, but your will be done.” There is the bottom line. When we are in an experience that we deem undesirable, a long term trial, I think we can be honest with God. I don't wanna live in Bithynia. I'm tired of Cappadocia. But my bottom line, God, is that I want what you want in my life. I believe that your plan is better than mine, and I embrace the change that you are working within me. This is the example of Jesus himself. And I hope that his example would help us realize that even if you're about to be crucified, you can know that there is a sovereign God who is doing good through it. And indeed he did, through that crucifixion, a savior for the world. And that's just the prelude. That's First Peter. So much more good stuff to come. I hope God blesses and uses it. Let's stand together for prayer.* This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.

Steve DeWitt Spiritual Exiles - Part A Study Guide for Spiritual Exiles, I Peter 1:1-2 Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 1:1-2 Visit the series page: Exiles: A study in 1 Peter Donate to Support The Journey Sermon Transcript for Spiritual Exiles, I Peter 1:1-2 Message: Spiritual ExilesAirdate: 9/4 & 9/7/26, Programs 2350 & 2351Studying through books of the Bible has been, has really been the bread and butter of our church over the years. And, today, we begin a new series as you've seen on the screen in the, the book or the letter of First Peter. And you might ask, well, why First Peter? I mean, because from one perspective, we really could open the Bible anywhere and have things that would be profitable to us. That's what, Scripture says about itself, that all Scripture is God breathed, that is profitable. So we really could go. We could go to Leviticus. We could go to Psalms. We could go to Revelation, and there would be a quality word that God would have for us. But why First Peter? Well, I've chosen First Peter because it is so wonderfully relevant to, life as we are living it increasingly here in our culture and our society where we find ourselves as Christians and particularly as evangelical Christians increasingly on the margins of society. More and more it seems that to actually believe in Jesus is a, you know, small s scandalous sort of thing. And by that, I mean, not nominal Christianity. Nominal Christianity will fit in anywhere. Nominal Christians are accepted. But if you actually believe it, like you're one of those crazy people that actually believe the gospel, and you really believe in, the resurrection, and you really believe in that the world was created and things like that, more and more, people are looking down their nose at that and pushing us to the fringe of the culture. And First Peter is written for the church in exile. First Peter is written for a church on the margins. It is written for the persecuted church. It's written, for the ostracized church. It is written for the hated church. I read somebody that basically said, the more irrelevant Christianity becomes, the more relevant First Peter becomes because it's written for that church that is in exile in its culture. The title of the series comes from the first words in, Peter's letter where he addresses it and says, to those who are elect exiles. Exiles where and exiles why we're going to, get into. And I dare say that by the time we're done with this series, I'll bet First Peter might be in the running for your favorite book in all the Bible. Luther himself said about First Peter that it is, quote, “one of the noblest books in the New Testament,” and he put it on par with Romans and the Gospel of John, which is saying something, isn't it? So, it's a wonderful letter, and I think it's gonna be a real blessing to all of us. We're going to work through it in a style of teaching, known as expository preaching. And what that means is that week in and week out, we're going to look at the text as Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote it. We're gonna ask the question, what did Peter and the Holy Spirit mean when they wrote that particular text? And then we are going to draw out of that meaning as it was originally intended and apply it to our lives today. What does that mean for us today? I wanna encourage you to come each week, every week with expository preaching is a fresh text, which means that it is a fresh word from God for us. And I think that it will be, it will be a blessing. So with that, let me just pray and ask God's blessing on this entire teaching series. Father, we ask that you would please, as you have done down through the centuries, that you would take your holy word, that you would enlighten it to our understanding, and that you would powerfully apply it to our lives and to our church and through us to the culture around us. We pray that this series would be just uniquely blessed by you, and all the good that can be done from it has little to do with, me or any of our teachers and pastors, but it depends on your Holy Spirit's blessing, and we seek that and we ask for it. Bless even now in in in in this day as we begin in in our study. We pray that this would be a great launch, and we pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Now as we always do when we begin a a book study, we spend time talking about the background to the letter. Now you might say, well, why is that so important? Can't we just get going in this? Here's why it's important. It's important for the same reason that if you were walking along the street and the wind blew a letter into your to your path and you picked it up and you read it, on one level, you could understand the letter, couldn't you? Because you can read English, you can read the words, etcetera. But to know who wrote it, who they wrote it to, and why they wrote it would fill in all of those things that you can read with all kinds of meaning, wouldn't it? And so that's why we spend time figuring out who wrote this thing and why he wrote it and who he was writing it to. So let's begin by asking that question. Who wrote this letter? And you might say, well, that's simple. The top of my page, it says it says Peter wrote this letter. Right? And indeed, the first verse says, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” So you could say, well, it must be it must be Peter. But realize that just because it says that Peter wrote it is not undeniable proof that Peter wrote it. This could have been written by somebody else who claimed to have been Peter. And, there are always scholars that wanna argue against these people actually being the authors of these letters, whether that be Paul or John or or here Peter. And so there are some scholars that try to stir up controversy, but to me, it's really, difficult seeing it not be Peter because later in the letter, he's going to say that he was an eyewitness to the sufferings of Christ. Well, how many Peters are there that were eyewitnesses to the sufferings of Christ? And the early church fathers, and by that, I mean, the leaders of the church in the post apostolic age. So after John and Peter and others had died, you have certain church leaders, and they all attribute this letter to being written by the Peter of the gospels, the disciple, the apostle Peter. So I think that there is little reason to doubt that Peter actually wrote this letter. And this Peter is the Peter of the gospels. This is the Peter who had a brother named Andrew who brought him to Jesus, and Jesus met him and changed his name. Do you remember? His name had been Simon. And he said, from this point on, your name is Peter or which is the Greek word, by the way, for rock, which is like a cruel joke, I think, on Peter if you read the story because perhaps he should have been named Feather because he sees the blows in the wind. But what happens in the story of Peter is that he becomes the rock at the end of the story as he assumes leadership of the disciples after Jesus' resurrection as he is a leader in the early church, and history tells us that he was crucified upside down in Rome and and refused to be crucified upright like his savior Jesus. He didn't feel he was worthy to die the same way that Jesus died. Part of the importance of First Peter and Second Peter is that given the prominence of Peter in the church, we have very little that he wrote, actually, as compared to, like, Luke, John, or Paul. Luke wrote Luke and Acts. John wrote the Gospel of John, First, Second, Third John, and Revelation. And Paul obviously wrote a bunch of letters in the New Testament. So we got lots from those guys. But Peter, in his stature, we have very little. We have First Peter and Second Peter. And so it's like the smallness of what we have actually makes it more valuable as we can see the the teaching and the emphases of this key leader in the early church. Now to who did Paul Peter write this and why did he write? And just look at verse one with me a moment. It says, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.” Now I'll bet that in your private devotional reading, you get to a verse like that and you sort of skip ahead, don't you? You're like, there's gotta be some more applicable thing here than ancient geography. Right? I didn't get up this morning to read my Bible, to read ancient geography. Isn't there something a little bit more helpful to me than that? And so we easily skip over those things and uniquely, I think in First Peter, probably true of all of them, but this is actually one of the keys to understanding the entire letter. Is that verse right there? Who are these people? What is it talking about? Again, those who are elect exiles of the dispersion. Now what is that all about? Alright. Quick history lesson. Hang with me. Some of you hated it your sophomore year. This will be short. Okay? But a very quick history lesson. We go back to the Roman Empire, and most of us probably heard of the Roman Empire, one of the great human empires in in history, ruled the known world for, like, five hundred years. And they were able to pull that off because they were really smart. They had policies and things that they did that allowed them to remain in power for, like, five centuries. And one of the things that they did is actually what Peter is referring to here, and and that is what is called colonization. K? Colonization. Here's the way that it worked. The Romans had the great armies. Maybe you've seen movies that portray the Roman armies and the eagle and all of that. They would go into an area that they wanted to conquer. And largely, they would conquer. They were really good at warfare. And after they had conquered this region, they would move on to go, you know, do battle in other places. But they needed to maintain power in that region that their army had already conquered. So the strategy for them was that they would colonize that area by sending, people from Rome or who at least were Roman into that community where they would establish their lives. They would establish business. They would establish some of the things that Roman culture was known for, like the theater or the auditorium or whatever. And by doing that, essentially, they would integrate into the cult actually, the culture, the indigenous culture, would integrate into the Roman culture. And by doing that, they were able to exert Roman influence and thought and power into those, particular areas. K? So these were known as dispersions. K? Sometimes these were, political friends who wanted if it was a nice area, like if suddenly we conquered Hawaii and said, wants to go live? Well, I think I'd like to so all the friends, you know, the friends of the people in charge, they would go and they would colonize Hawaii. Sometimes these were political enemies that they wanted out of Rome. Alright. Take that family and those people and get them over in Galatia. We don't wanna see them ever again. And so off they would go. And and sometimes it was just people that were like, you know what? We think we can have a better life there. Like, you can think about even the story of The United States and the colonies on the East Coast and how people came across on the boats because they wanted a better life in the new the new world. So Rome would do that. And by doing that, they essentially would, retain a kind of control over that area by repopulating and integrating. It was essentially colonization by deportation for the purpose of domination. And that's how you retain control for five hundred years. So these people that would leave Rome or a Roman, community to go into some of these new areas, they essentially lived as exiles there. They were foreigners there. They were Romans there. And, the people that were from there knew that they were these people that had come. And this was not always a comfortable thing. Realize the Roman armies would come and conquer. They would wipe out, you know, how how many people's husbands and fathers in in, in winning the war. And now you've got representatives from there coming and living amongst us. The people from that land did not look favorably necessarily on them, especially initially. They were always from somewhere else. Right? It's kind of like living up here in the North when we hear somebody with a thick southern accent. What do you do? You look at them and you think to yourself or maybe you even say it, you're not from here are you? Right? And they're like, no I'm not. I'm from Georgia or Mississippi. Right? And you're like, what are you doing up here? Why don't you go home where you belong? Explain some people we have on staff even. But as awkward as that might be for Southerners to live up here amongst the Yankees, It was much more uncomfortable back in this day. And so they lived in a kind of ostracized way, and there was social awkwardness representing the ideology of the conquering army. So Peter here is writing then to colonists who were also Christians, who for political, social, who knows what reason had gone into Asia Minor and are now living there as representatives of the Roman Empire. Now to give you an idea of where we're talking, here's a map. And it's essentially modern day Turkey. And some of you maybe are not up on your you know, Turkey to you is a, November celebration. But it's actually a country as well. And so you see some of you see the Black Sea, and you see these communities that are being referred to, Bithynia, Galatia, Cappadocia, these would have been well known in that time and would have been places of influence, cultural influence. Essentially, what Peter does in the letter is he takes these Christians' social political situation and he draws spiritual meaning from it. He says, yes, you're exiles politically and geographically, but I wanna talk to you about what it means to be a spiritual exile. What does it mean to live in an area where you it's not your homeland. What does it mean to live in an area where people look at you a little cross eyed and they say to themselves, that person isn't they're not really of us. Their values are not our values. Their priorities are not our part. They're like those Christian people. They're those marginalized people. What is it like, and how do we live when we are the ones that are in exile, when we are the weird ones? So Peter writes to these political exiles, but he wants them to see that they are really spiritual exiles and to learn what it means to live amongst people that are very, very different. K? Very different. And so what he's gonna say in this letter is he's gonna encourage them to stand strong, to remain faithful, to live obedient to Jesus in spite of the immoral culture around them, to remain faithful even though people look at them like we look at Amish people. Kinda like, man, what's your problem? What's get with the program here. Right? Why aren't you kind of along with what we're doing? That's how they felt. And here's where I think First Peter is so helpful to us is is and I don't know if you feel this or not. I certainly do. If you talk to some of the old timers around here who remember what it was like to be a Christian, like in the nineteen forties or the nineteen fifties and maybe the early nineteen sixties, it's a much different feel back then to be a Christian in America than it is in 2015. Right? Where even to pronounce Christian faith in public media in some way is to be scorned or to have the plug pulled. Right? Get him off of there immediately. We don't want any of that kind of stuff going across the airwaves. What do we do? How do we live? What are we supposed to be like? And again, I'm talking about real Christians, nominal Christians, fit in just fine. K? I'm talking about the people that actually believe this stuff and try to live it out. How do we do it? These are the exiles that Peter is writing to. Now let's ask why are we exiles, and what is the purpose for all of this? So let's get into the text now and and begin to kind of do our little exposition here. I begin again in verse one. “To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bethenia Church.” Do you kinda get what that means now? K. “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.” May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Now a quick read here, and again, that morning devotional, moment where I'm trying to find something for my day, we could easily miss how important what Peter is saying here is. Because essentially what Peter is doing here is he's tipping his hand to the entire letter. It's kind of like in a symphony or something where in the prelude, you hear a little piece of the of the melody, and you're like, you pick up on it. Or that little Star Wars theme, if you're watching a Star Wars movie, you sort of hear that, it's either Vader or it's Skywalker. You know? And you're like you pick you pick up on it. Even in the in the in the opening scene of the movie, you kinda get a sense of what's coming. That's what this is. He's he's basically it's it's First Peter in microcosm. Peter, what are you gonna say? What is your big point to these people that are living in spiritual exile? And he begins in verse two with a series of purpose statements. The why question.Now my wife Jennifer and I, we have a 19 year old daughter. And what's wonderful at this point is that she has not discovered the word why. It's just not there yet. Did I say something wrong? Did I say year old? Peter's got something to say about that too. 19 month old daughter. Yes. So and see, we're getting that kind of Gary feel going on here. Like that. Keep it up. Keep it up. 19 month old daughter. So she's learning words at an amazing clip right now. We're thankful she's not yet learned the word why. She is unaware at this point that in life, there is all of this sort of philosophical stuff that underlies why we do what we do. So at this point, we just say, don't throw your food. She's never said, well, why is that not allowed? Right? She's unaware of purpose behind things. Peter wants to make sure that we understand that there is purpose behind things, even exile. Even the experience of spiritual exile, there's a purpose behind it. There is a why behind it, and we see that from the get go. Notice what kind of exiles are they? And can I say the question, what kind of exiles are we? What is the descriptive word for exiles? It is what? You have Bibles. Look. What is the word before exiles? We are what exiles? We're elect exiles. Elect exiles. What? I am experiencing what I'm experiencing because there's somebody that chose to put me here, chose to give me this experience? Because that's what the word elect means. It just it means chose, chosen. We are chosen exiles. You know, most exiles don't think that they are chosen exiles. You can think about the Jews in World War two, for example, in in Poland and the ghetto there, if you've seen that or studied that, they were victims of circumstance. They were victims of sociopolitical things that were beyond their control, and they suffered greatly in, in that experience. Or the Syrian refugees in our contemporary world, who there's all these, you know, there's big sort of, sociopolitical things that are at play that are creating the circumstances that they find themselves in. You could go to a Syrian refugee and say, you know, how did this happen? And he would say, well, my the president of this company country and this is going on and all of that. They would never have the thought in their mind that they were chosen to be Syrian refugees. Why? Because it's circumstantial. But here, Peter doesn't say, I'm so sorry that you are having this experience living as Christians in that land. He says, you are having that experience by divine choice. There is a God behind all of this. You are not just exiles randomly. You are exiles divinely. You have been chosen for this experience. And what a difference it makes when I realize that there is a purpose behind the pain. There is an answer to the question of why. And behind all of that is a God who is sovereignly working out everything according to the purpose of his will, Ephesians one eleven. Think about the Israelites as another sort of exile example. If you know the story of Israel, descendants of Abraham. Right? They were all time living in tents, never having a land of their own. God takes them down to Egypt. Four hundred years, they live largely under oppression there in Egypt. They're living as exiles. They're not in their the land that they're not in the promised land. They're not in the land where they're supposed to be. But there they are, and they have horrible, terrible experiences. Well, God leads them out into the hand of Moses, and they go through the Red Sea. It's not that far of a walk from Egypt to the promised land. Right? As the crow flies, where does God take them? Forty years wandering around in the wilderness. Are they like, God, is your GPS messed up? Because we could just it's just right there. We just gotta go right there. Why you guys going all over here and wandering around like this? What is the purpose behind our wanderings? What is the purpose behind our exile? Why are we experiencing all of these difficulties living a million people in a desert? Why are you doing this, God? And from the words of Moses himself, God says, “you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” In other words, God was using their physical experience, their geographical experience for spiritual purposes. And all of the difficulties and all of the uncomfortableness and all of the challenges of living in a desert for forty years was not about living in a desert for forty years, but what God wanted that desert to do in them and to teach them. There was a purpose behind it. There was a why behind it. Do you see? So that the sorrows, what Peter is saying here, the sorrows of Christianity on the margins is comforted by the confident knowledge that we have that I am where God wants me to be, and the challenges are from the hand of God as well. I am an elect exile. I am not a political exile. I am I am not a chaotic exile. I am where I am by the sovereign choice of God, which then brings meaning in the midst of the pain and the sorrows and the issues. What do people ask when they're going through a trial? What do we hear even in our church when somebody gets the cancer call? Why? God, why are you doing this? Why am I the one of all the people having to suffer this? And what do you say pastorally to people that hear that kind of news? Wow. That's really chaotic. Maybe there isn't a God. No. We say that there is a God, and that circumstance in your life is not chance. And you can trust him. He is a good God. He loves you. He sent Jesus. Right? And now the Christian begins to derive meaning from even the pain of the exile and to see that God is doing something good in it. Would this not have been wonderfully comforting? I mean, about these Christians. They're living there in Asia Minor. Would this not have been, comforting for a businessman living in Pontus who is suffering financially because he's a Christian? They know he's a Christian. They don't wanna do business with him. He's suffering because of it. Or how about the wife of a pagan husband? You want to talk about personally uncomfortable? How about the wife of a Christian wife of a pagan husband? You want to talk about issues. How about a husband who's living according to the values of the immoral Greco Roman world around him, and yet you're married to him? How do you derive any kind of hope or comfort in the midst of that? You read chapter three, and you see what Peter has to say to wives who are married to pagan husbands. And you see, whatever pick your category. All of them. The Christian sees through the physical, political, social issue a good God who is providentially behind that and is actually using that for some good in our life that maybe we can't see and maybe you can't see right now. I mean, my wife had trouble finding parking today. We have a lot of people sitting right here in front of me. Is it possible maybe one person here is in a time of trouble or has a circumstance they wish was different? What does the word of God have to say to you? You are an elect exile. There is a God who is sovereignly doing the choosing, and it is painful, and it's awkward, and it's difficult, but there is a God behind it. And we believe that by faith. Amen? Amen. Amen. So I'm not in Cappadocia by accident after all. I'm here because God wants me to be in Cappadocia. Nothing is random. Now the second thing that we have here besides being chosen by God to be in this exile is that Peter wants us to he he lifts our eyes to God himself, and he wants us to see what the triune God is doing here. And you see in the text here a very clear Trinitarian statement. “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit for the obedience to Jesus Christ who is the Son.” It's one of the clearest Trinitarian statements in all of Scripture. Father, Son, and Spirit, each of them with a slightly different role in, as being described here. The foreknowledge, first of all, of the Father. Okay? Foreknowledge basically means to to know in advance. Right? To know in advance. Their exile was sovereignly known by God. God was not surprised. What are those Christians doing over there in Bithynia? I had no idea that they were gonna end up in Cappadocia. What are they up to in Galatia? God is never surprised by anything, which is itself a incredible thought, isn't it? If you're God, there are no surprise parties for God. He already knows everything. Right? He has known all of it and purposed it in eternity past, which means that when I find myself in Bithynia, God knew in eternity past that this was part of the plan. In fact, that word there is used in later in the chapter to say that Christ himself was foreknown. In eternity past, the Father knew the Son. In eternity past, the Father knew that you would be living and doing what you're doing here today. All of it, a sovereign God. There is no there are no surprises with God. There is nothing that is random with God. There is nothing that is chaotic with God. He is the sovereign God. No surprises. The sanctifying work of the Spirit. K? Sanctification is this word in the New Testament to talk about the process of God working in our lives to shape and mold us into the likeness of Jesus, the holy Son of God. And so sanctification is this kind of progressive growth and development. When I become a Christian, I to use this text, I I enter into the realm of sanctification. I am now in a process that the Holy Spirit is working in my life. Verse one says that they are in Asia, but verse two says they're actually in sanctification. So they may wanna define themselves geographically. Right? We're for the Bithynia bulldogs. Bulldogs. K. I am who I am. Some of you may be cheering sports teams today somehow related to a geography that used to have a Packer fan or I'm a Cowboys fan or whatever. Like, I'm born in Dallas or something. So you wanna define yourself geographically. When your teams aren't doing well, you don't wanna define yourself geographically. So most of us will be cheering for the Big Ten tomorrow. Sad. But Peter wants them to realize that they're not defined by their locale. They are defined their locale geographically, but by their locale spiritually. You're in the Holy Spirit now. You're in a process. You're in a world, not a pagan land. The life changing work of Jesus in us is the last thing “for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.” And we see in this that that the electing work of God, the choosing work of God is never without its effect. That not only did God sovereignly choose to put them in Bithynia or Galatia, but he chose through that experience to change them, to transform them for the obedience, a life of obedience to Jesus Christ. That's what God is working in all of us. If you're a Christian here today, what's God doing in my life? Well, he's doing a lot of things. But one of the things he's doing is that he is shaping and molding your heart and value mine as well so that I increasingly want to obey the will of God. I wanna be obedient to my savior Jesus. The obedience to Jesus is part of what we're doing here. And for sprinkling with his blood, and I gotta tell you, I don't know what that means. Just being honest. Commentators are all over the place. I'm not sure what that means. I think it refers somehow to the atoning work of Jesus for us, but I'm not exactly sure. Is that okay to say that? Okay. I don't know. But broadly, what this is saying is this, the Father foreknew us, the Spirit sanctifies us, the Son atoned for us and frees us from a life of sin to now this new life in Christ where I am living to the will of God, and I am pleasing God with my life, and all of it is by God and for God. He foreknew it. He purposed it. He's working in it right now. He is the sovereign hand, the loving hand behind all of it. So that these people might have thought to themselves if they were political exiles, they might have thought to themselves, I am in Galatia by the choice of man. And Peter writes this letter and says, you are in Galatia by the choice of God. He is the one that is behind all that is happening here. Alright. With the time remaining, I have one application point. And this is just the salutation of the letter. Okay? But one application point that I'd like to talk with you about, and it's this. When we are in exile, we wanna change where we are. God wants to change who we are. When we are in exile, God wants or we wanna change where we are. God wants to change who we are. If you talk to an exile and you say, hey. What is the solution to your problem? They are generally going to say, the answer to my problem is to change where I am. Like, I'm not in my homeland. I'm not where I'm supposed to be. And if I was to get where I'm supposed to be, in other words, if I was to change my geography, then everything would be great. Like, take a week like this as an example. This week, I feel like a climate exile. I experienced a week like we've had around here, and I think to myself, I do not live where I'm supposed to live. I am supposed to live in a warmer climate than this. Friday night, Jennifer and I were we spent some time with some friends, and we came back to the church here to pick up my car. I forget how cold it was Friday night, but it was like, you know, zero or minus or something. And we get there, and I get in my car. No. So we spent, I don't know, forty five minutes trying to jump my car off of our van. And it was one of those experiences where there's cold and then there's that cold. Right? I was so cold trying to get that thing started. It took us like forty five minutes, and I was just absolutely frozen. This was a terrible week around here. Right? Horrible week. We're all climate exiles. What do we need? We need to change our geography. We need to live somewhere different. We need a different climate than the one that we've been experiencing. They would have amen in Gary on that. So if you talk to the climate exile, they're going to say, I need a change of geography, right? There's some other place that they would rather be. Do we have any marriage exiles? What's a marriage exile? You've come to the conclusion that the person that you're married to is not the person that you're supposed to be married to, and the solution for you would be to be either not married or married to somebody different. Do we have any vocational exiles here? The solution to happiness in your life would be a different job. You feel like you're being persecuted on the job or you feel like you have an unfair boss, you got some other thing going on. So what's the solution? I need a different job. Do we have any health exiles here? You've got some ailment, you've got some problem, you've got the cancer call in your mind, what's the solution? I need a different body, right? If had a different body, then everything would be fine or pick your category. Generally speaking, our solution to our problems is to change where we are. And then we read this verse here. Elect exiles. Elect exiles. Do you mean that the exile that I am experiencing, that trial that I am going through, that experience that I wish was different and in my mind I can think of three different ways to get out of it? That that is something that God has brought into my life by his sovereign hand and good. Yes. And Peter goes on here to say that good is something not about changing where you are, but changing the person that you are. In other words, my heart, my mind, my my my my spiritual depth and quality, God is in the process of changing that. And you know what? He oftentimes puts us in Cappadocia to do it. We wanna get back to Rome. In fact, what's striking here is he doesn't say to exiles of the dispersion, get out of Bithynia now. Get back to Rome. The streets are clean, and the coffee's good, and the sun is shining. Get out of there. He doesn't say that one place in the whole letter. Why not? Because Peter realized something, that they were elect exiles, that their experience of all of this discomfort was something that God wanted in their life. Well, why would God want that in our life? Because he uses Bithynia, Cappadocia, and the people and the experiences of our life to produce change that would never happen in Rome. And so here you are today, and spiritually speaking or, you know, in your life, you feel like you're in exile, and you want change. I wonder if you can hear the word of God today saying to you. Here's the word. The change that I want is within you. And as Christians, for us to embrace trials, and this is not easy. I think about trials that I've gone through in my life, and in the midst of it, you're like, I want out now. But to pray to God, heavenly Father, I'm not sure what you're doing in this, but I sense in my heart that you are breaking me. You're breaking my pride. You're breaking my self dependence. You're helping me to live by faith. And I just want to say that I surrender to your purpose in Cappadocia. Don't you think I have a loving heavenly Father would answer that prayer? Don't you think that he delights? In fact, is it possible that he put you there to get you to that point of surrender in the first place? And now from that point, God's purpose can be lived out because that aspect of me, pride, whatever is taken away in a way now that I can live in obedience to the will of Jesus Christ according to the foreknowledge of the of of the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit as I made more and more into likeness of Christ. Oh, by the way, what does that sound like? That whole, I'm not where I'm supposed to be. I'm not where I'm from. I'm experiencing pain and yet I want your will in my life. Who does that sound? Does that sound familiar to me? Is that not Christ himself who left his Father's throne above, left his experience of heaven, came into this broken world with all of its pain and all of its sin and all of its brokenness. You you wanna talk about somebody who didn't fit in. How about the Son of God on earth with us? Right? How often people looked at him and thought you must not be from here because you are not buying into the way that we do things at all. And for him to go through that entire experience and to suffer. I think of the old song, he could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world and set him free in a moment. Gone. You can't afford the plane ticket. That was not an issue with Jesus. And yet he remained. And the night before he was crucified, prayed. “Father, if there's any way for this cup to pass from me, I ask that it would be so.” There's an honest prayer. We've all prayed that. Right? Take this cup from me, please. “Yet not my will, but your will be done.” There is the bottom line. When we are in an experience that we deem undesirable, a long term trial, I think we can be honest with God. I don't wanna live in Bithynia. I'm tired of Cappadocia. But my bottom line, God, is that I want what you want in my life. I believe that your plan is better than mine, and I embrace the change that you are working within me. This is the example of Jesus himself. And I hope that his example would help us realize that even if you're about to be crucified, you can know that there is a sovereign God who is doing good through it. And indeed he did, through that crucifixion, a savior for the world. And that's just the prelude. That's First Peter. So much more good stuff to come. I hope God blesses and uses it. Let's stand together for prayer.* This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.

  About this episode:  The October 1777 victory at Saratoga opened the door for an alliance with France, and that nation's aid was crucial for American independence. All too aware of that fact, Jefferson Davis made European recognition a priority. For as many Southerners put it, this was their second war for independence. Conversely, Abraham Lincoln was just as committed to keeping the Confederacy isolated. This is the story of two governments waging war in the art of negotiation. This is the story of diplomacy in the American Civil War.        ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: Henry John Temple Napoleon III Robert Barnwell Rhett Charles Francis Adams John Slidell Ferdinand Maximilian   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org   Thank you to our sponsor John Bailey.   Producer: Dan Irving

Thinking about moving to Grand Rapids but don't want to give up lake life? Here's the truth about how close you can actually get to Lake Michigan without leaving the Grand Rapids area, plus the best lakeshore towns to check out for a day trip, weekend getaway, or your next move.⏱️VIDEO CHAPTERS Introduction (0:00) Saugatuck & Douglas (0:55) Holland, Michigan (1:42) Grand Haven (2:22) Spring Lake (2:56) Muskegon (3:28) Final Thoughts (4:04)Grand Rapids is known for its art, culture, and outdoor recreation, but sometimes you need a break from the city and a little lake air. The good news is that some of the best lakeshore towns in Michigan are only 30 to 45 minutes away, which makes them perfect for a weekend escape or even a full-time move.Saugatuck & Douglas are about 40 minutes from Grand Rapids and known for art galleries, boutique shopping, and standout restaurants like The Butler, The Southerner, and Bowdie's in Saugatuck, plus Everyday People Cafe in Douglas. Don't miss Oval Beach, one of the best beaches in the Midwest, or Saugatuck Dunes State Park.Holland, Michigan is about 35 minutes away and one of our favorites. Known for its Dutch heritage, the Tulip Time festival, windmills, gardens, and Lake Macatawa, Holland also has a picture-perfect downtown and great food at spots like Butch's Dry Dock, Boatwerks Waterfront, and Alpenrose.Grand Haven, about 40 minutes from Grand Rapids, is a classic summer town with sandy beaches, a historic lighthouse, and a charming boardwalk. Catch the sunset at Grand Haven State Park and grab dinner at Snug Harbor along the Grand River.Spring Lake, roughly 35 minutes away, is nestled between Spring Lake and the Grand River and perfect for boating, fishing, and kayaking. Explore the historic waterfront district and stop by Arcadia Brewing Company.Muskegon, about 45 minutes out, is up and coming with something for everyone, from the Lake Shore Museum Center to the boardwalk and Pere Marquette Park. Local favorites include Lake House Waterfront Grill and The Deck.Whether you're planning a weekend getaway or considering a permanent move to the lakeshore, these West Michigan towns offer a great escape without straying too far from Grand Rapids.Looking for homes in these lakeshore communities? Browse listings here: https://marketgrandrapids.com/buy/communities/real-estate-for-sale-grand-haven/Thinking about relocating to Grand Rapids or the lakeshore? Grab our free Relocation Guide: https://mailchi.mp/8b5aff1055a5/relocation-guideHave questions or want to talk more about a move to or around West Michigan? Contact The May Group at RE/MAX Grand Rapids Phone: (616) 330-2555  Email: info@marketgr.comFollow us for more Grand Rapids and West Michigan content: https://www.instagram.com/maygroupgr/#GrandRapidsRealEstate #WestMichiganRealEstate #MovingToMichigan

Dolly Parton died August 25, 2026. She was 80. Luckily, the iconic Southerner's memory will live on thanks in part to her extraordinary non-profit to boost childhood literary: Imagination Library. The Y'all Show is a production of Yall.com and hosted by Jon Rawl.

“Seward had all the money and Seward had all the bullies. Lincoln didn't have money or bullies, but by God, he had the people.” — Jonathan Earle Yesterday, Kurt Andersen fictionalized a 21st-century broken America without an Abe Lincoln as savior. Today we talk about the man himself with Jonathan Earle, author of He Has the People, a new history of the 1860 election that made Lincoln president and probably saved the then young Republic. Earle's mission is to bring Lincoln down from Mount Rushmore. He tells the story of a flesh-and-blood politician, a six-foot-four autodidact who, in 1859, was barely known outside Illinois. What changed everything was John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in October 1859. Lincoln recognized as much, spending the winter in the archives of the State Library of Illinois, then delivering a speech at Cooper Union that won over the New York media. Then onto the Republican convention in Chicago where the wily Lincoln ran rings around the establishment candidate William Henry Seward. In 1860, Abe Lincoln became Lincoln. The rest is history. He Has the People should be required reading for both obscure Republicans and Democrats planning to run for president in a fatally divided election. Earle suspects that 2028 might be as historic as 1860. Perhaps it will deliver another politician with the wit and wisdom to bring a broken America together. Somebody who, like Abe, has the people. Five Takeaways •       Before Abe Was Lincoln. Earle's stated mission: take Lincoln off Mount Rushmore and out of the throne Daniel Chester French sculpted, and restore the flesh-and-blood politician — “among the canniest politicians our country has produced, maybe the planet.” The pre-marble Lincoln: born in an actual Kentucky log cabin, wholly self-taught (favorite book: Euclid), the first genuinely Western president, six-foot-four when most men stood five-eight, a storyteller who learned politics riding the Illinois judicial circuit — breaking bread and sharing mattresses with judges and rival counsel — his ambition, in his law partner's famous phrase, a little engine that knew no rest. In 1859 he was barely known outside Illinois, a one-term ex-congressman regarded as vice-presidential material at best — the Jon Ossoff of his day, Earle suggests: making noise, not yet a name. Americans declare every election the most important in history; Earle's answer is the book's premise: hold on — it's not 1860.•       The 9/11 Before the Election. For decades both parties buried slavery beneath compromises — 1820, 1850 — until a tiny, hated minority of abolitionists forced the question. Then John Brown and twenty-one followers seized the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in October 1859, intending to arm the enslaved (a plan so improvised, Earle notes, that Brown didn't bring lunch). The raid detonated inside a presidential campaign — as if 9/11 had preceded the 2000 election, or Pearl Harbor come before FDR's 1940 reelection — and it scrambled the chessboard: after Brown, every Southerner saw a secret John Brown in every Northerner, every Northerner saw a Slave Power that had run all three branches since the founding, and compromise died. Earle's verdict, unusual for a historian: the Civil War was inevitable after John Brown — the only question was who would be in charge when it came.•       Chicagoland. Lincoln's self-introduction was the strangest in campaign history: a tour of Bleeding Kansas (“the Gaza of the day”), then a winter of archival research in the State Library of Illinois, proving the founders believed they had the power to stop slavery's spread — delivered at Cooper Union in February 1860 in a reedy high voice that nonetheless won Horace Greeley and the New York press: his Obama-in-Boston moment. William Henry Seward — the famous New York senator, the Hillary of the piece — led the first two convention ballots. But Lincoln's handlers had pulled off the venue coup of the century (Chicago, his home state) and worked the smoky backrooms with offices, favors, and newspapers while their candidate wired “make no promises that bind me.” Seward was soft in Ohio and Indiana; the Republicans needed Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois; and a shocked Lincoln man coined the title: Seward had all the money and all the bullies — “but by God, he had the people.” Andrew's caveat: in Chicago, “the people” were power brokers.•       A Revolution, Reported from Paddy's Run. The general election was really two simultaneous contests: Lincoln versus Douglas in the North, Breckinridge versus Bell in the South — four candidates winning electoral votes, resolved as 180 for Lincoln (152 needed) on 39.8 percent of the popular vote, the lowest winning share in American history, with a scarcely believable 81.8 percent turnout. The franchise: white male citizens, no property requirement, citizenship easy enough that Democrats met the Irish ships at the docks — simultaneously the widest political participation on the planet and a restriction whose repair (the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments) would shut suffragists out for two more generations. Earle's narrative spine is Murat Halstead of Paddy's Run, Ohio — the nation's first campaign journalist, the only man at all seven of 1860's conventions, a Seward man who called it straight: this was a revolution — the first antislavery party wresting Washington from “Northern men with Southern principles” like Buchanan, Van Buren, and Pierce. And in the secession winter, Lincoln refused to compromise the victory away: We won.•       Is There a Lincoln Out There? Lincoln tops every presidential ranking, Earle argues, because he grew — the arc Earle compares to Bobby Kennedy's journey from McCarthyite to tribune of the poor. This Lincoln moved from denying racial equality in 1860 to a final speech — John Wilkes Booth in the audience — endorsing the vote for Black Union soldiers: killed, in effect, for the growing. He held the 1864 election in the middle of the war he expected to lose it (Earle's pointed contrast: Zelensky's wartime postponement — “I think that's a mistake”). To Andersen's cheerful breakup scenario, the LSU historian — whose Louisiana is one-third African American — gave a hard no: disunion meant “unremitted servitude forever,” and the republic needs Mississippi and Wyoming alike. For 2028: historical contingency always wins — nobody had heard of Obama two years out, and the general public hasn't heard the next name either. “I do think that there is a Lincoln out there. I do.” About the Guest Jonathan Earle teaches history and politics at Louisiana State University, where he has been Dean of the Ogden Honors College since 2014. A historian of antebellum American politics, he is the author of Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry, and (as co-editor) Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri. He Has the People: Abraham Lincoln and the Election of 1860 (Oxford University Press, Pivotal Moments in American History series) draws on t...

For more than 100 years Southerners have enjoyed the sweet combination of RC Cola and Moon Pie. The Y'all Show is a production of Yall.com and hosted by Jon Rawl.

Listen to the podcast version of this above.I could have made this post a part two on Audre Lorde's influence on why I'm moving in this direction. After all, she was the one who said our silence wouldn't protect us.But in meditating on said silence and learning more about my Black queer feminist foreparents, I came across a The New Yorker article from 2020 that detailed how June Jordan was a noted scholar of what she called “environmental design” despite being lauded in most writings about her as just a poet.June Jordan, The OG Black Queer Feminist UrbanistRecently, the Black radical publication Hammer and Hope dug even deeper into the journey of her not publishing what they and she called a “land reform” novel called “Okay Now”.It was right on time for this Black August series.The New Yorker article details how she reached out to Buckminster Fuller, the designer of the architectural geodesic dome, of which the most prominent example is the blue golf ball-looking building at Epcot Center, among other housing, transportation, and spiritual inventions.She'd spent several months studying architects on the weekends at a Manhattan library and taking a trip to Greece, despite struggling to make ends meet and living in a Queens housing project. Her husband left her and her toddler during this time, and she sent her toddler to his parents because of her poverty.However, she did have the ear of folks like Fuller and writers at publications such as Esquire and the New York Times.But, when writing about a joint-conceived project with Fuller for “urban renewal” in Harlem for Esquire, she omitted her role in it in print. Then the editors at Esquire turned around and turned the article into the case for getting rid of the Black folks that Jordan had reached out to Fuller to create the project for.In the Hammer and Hope article, it mentions that she visited Mississippi for the New York Times and had become a housing researcher, espousing many of Jane Jacobs' tenets of housing and street design, helping people be better humans at the same time as Jacobs.However, Jacobs was able to get her nonfiction urbanist manifesto published, multiple to be exact, even though she was not without criticisms of her own, just for being a woman.While Jordan was questioned by her publishers at Knopf for her own urbanist nonfiction draft, which diverged from Jacobs' reasoning on what was needed for a better relationship between humans and the Earth. Jordan asserted, based on her Mississippi trip, that Black Southerners held the keys for land reform, on their farms and in their towns and cities.Jordan tried to pivot her manifesto into a novel, Okay Now, that never was completed in her lifetime and she was working on up to her death.Fuller at least wrote her a letter or recommendation for a fellowship in Italy that allowed her to start on Okay Now; other reporters and museum retrospectives continued to allow Jordan to be erased from their Harlem project, which was never built.And she continued to write poetry and speak up for folks in Palestine and the US South!How I'm Changing this Narrative of No Black Woman “armchair” urbanistsJane Jacobs is considered an expert on urbanism, despite having only some college credits from Columbia University, being married to an architect, and writing commentaries, articles, and books. She does not hold a degree, and neither did June Jordan. They both self-studied or took classes that enhanced their writings, but didn't result in a full degree, some of which could be blamed on the sexism and racism around Barnard College and Columbia University at the time.So how does this relate back to me.In this current backlash against DEI and in my first ten years of running my design consultancy and practice, I've been met with more criticism than praise, despite holdiing a Master of Public Affairs where I concentrated on community and economic development, along with my own writings and speeches around the US and Canada.I was used to how we as Southerners can praise and criticise and then go back to praising over a plate of barbecue and sweet tea.June Jordan notes our vibe herself in a line from her New York Times piece on how the Mississippians of 1969 didn't label themselves as rebels or radicals or bohemians; they just did them. There was also immense Black class solidarity.At times I worry we are losing some of that, especially with the pressure we get to be more “Northern” in the South. Now, with the internet and cultural exchange being at the tip of search bar or prompt, I'm seeing breakthroughs in Black folks finding subcultures like goth, but making it our own. Afro-Punk is a key site of this happening, both on and offline. Some will say that hard segregation was why we were in Black class solidarity, but I would counter that even with integration, in the South, we aren't that far apart from each other in the way we are in other regions that have better worker rights and pay equity.And as for me and my street cred…When I put them all together like this, erasure of my life and career is a joke.These photos and pictures stand for myself and themselves on what my career and life have looked like over the past 16 years. I wonder what our feminist foreparents would have done with the kind of access we have! But I am determined to pick up the baton and pass the torch.I need to finalize my The Defying Gentrification Playbook copyright registration, but I own my book, and I made it and published it myself.I own this newsletter space. I'm working on my own political thriller romance trilogy, that I'll design and print, and promote myself if I need to!I journal privately daily, and I have so many ideas for this newsletter and other publications I plan to pitch.Yes, I'm taking the book on tour.And I'm grateful for my Buckminster Fuller figures, who have answered my letters, booked me for speeches, and given me bylines.I will not let myself be erased, and I will not shrink myself anymore! I can open my own gates and I will press past any criticism!AnnouncementsI am going to be traveling to Greensboro next weekend for a panel on my colleague and friend Marrianne LeGrecco's book on food justice in Greensboro, Everybody Eats. We'll be at Scuppernong Books on Elm Street on Sunday 8/30/2026 from 4-6 pm.Next week's newsletter will be a returning classic from my archives that I'm annotating live from Greensboro. Then the following week we launch our next series here. It's the tenth anniversary month of the big cross-country move of my own volition. Get ready for me to revisit my reflections on bouncing between DC, Baltimore, and PG County, along with how I see myself as a North Carolinian and African in the diaspora.Finally, thanks to everyone who came to the inaugural Making New Fantasies: A Defying Gentrification Workshop, which we decided to do on every third Thursday as a virtual journaling workshop around processing these kinds of things. Come join us in September if you want encouragement in writing your own stories and making your own plans to make your community better.Until next time,Kristen Get full access to Defying Gentrification with Kristen Jeffers at theblackurbanist.substack.com/subscribe

Steve Cunningham sits down with Dr. Alan Harrelson of The Pipe Cottage for a wide-ranging conversation on Catholicism, Southern culture, agrarianism, history, faith, family, and the possibility of a new Southern renaissance.Why does the American South still matter? What can Southern agrarianism teach a modern culture dominated by centralization, technology, urbanization, and the loss of local community?Dr. Harrelson discusses his conversion to Catholicism, his South Carolina roots, the influence of M. E. Bradford, Donald Davidson, Clyde Wilson, John Shelton Reed, the Southern Agrarians, Russell Kirk, Chesterton, Belloc, and others who defended the importance of tradition, place, agriculture, self-government, and the “permanent things.”The conversation also explores the Confederacy, slavery, historical memory, states' rights, centralized government, Catholic social teaching, subsidiarity, Southern literature, the importance of knowing where your people came from, and why younger Southerners increasingly want to rediscover their heritage.Dr. Harrelson also introduces the Bradford Institute and its inaugural gathering at Seabrook Island, South Carolina, featuring scholars devoted to Southern history, literature, culture, and conservative thought.Above everything else, Harrelson emphasizes that faith comes first: history and culture matter because they can help us better understand man, community, creation, and God.Topics: Catholicism • Southern History • Southern Agrarianism • M.E. Bradford • Confederate History • Subsidiarity • Southern Culture • Faith & Tradition • Localism • American History00:00 You Are the Resistance00:47 Meet Dr. Alan Harrelson of The Pipe Cottage05:49 Pipes, Catholicism & the Return to Tradition09:07 Why Defend Southern Culture?10:16 “Never Apologize for Being Southern”15:26 A New Southern Renaissance?21:27 What Makes the South Different?22:40 Southern Agrarianism & the Created Order25:51 The Mission of the Bradford Institute28:55 Who Was M. E. Bradford?31:20 Southern Conservatism & Rural America34:45 The Seabrook Island Conference40:51 Faith Comes Before Southern Identity43:07 Remembering Who Southerners Are45:39 Christianity, Sacrifice & Confederate Memory48:41 Self-Government and the American Revolution51:08 John Shelton Reed & “The Enduring South”53:19 Slavery and the Southern Historical Debate57:02 Racism, History & the 19th Century59:53 Confederacy, Centralization & Liberty1:01:32 Why Southerners Remember the Past1:06:14 “Where Do Your People Bury?”1:08:53 “We Have Forgotten Who We Are”1:09:08 Our Lady of the South & Charleston1:10:02 Bradford Institute Invitation1:11:53 Closing Thoughtshttps://thebradfordinstitute.org/https://pipecottage.com/https://substack.com/@thepipecottagejournal

The tenth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1946 features the Venice International Film Festival Golden Lion winner, Jean Renoir's The Southerner. Directed and co-written by Jean Renoir and starring Zachary Scott, Betty Field, J. Carrol Naish, Beulah Bondi and Charles Kemper, The Southerner is the fourth of six movies that Renoir made during his time in Hollywood.The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Bosley Crowther in The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/1945/08/27/archives/the-screen-love-letters-drama-in-which-jennifer-jones-stars-comes.html), Wolcott Gibbs in The New Yorker, and Nathan Kahn in Variety (https://variety.com/1944/film/reviews/the-southerner-1200414432/).Check out more info and the entire archive of past episodes at https://www.awesomemovieyear.com and visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/awesomemovieyearYou can find Jason on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JHarrisComedy/, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jasonharriscomedy/ and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/goforjason/You can find Josh online at http://joshbellhateseverything.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/joshbellhateseverything/, on Bluesky at signalbleed.bsky.social and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/signalbleed/If you're a Letterboxd user and you watch any of the movies we talk about on the show, tag your review “Awesome Movie Year” to share your thoughts.You can find our producer David Rosen and his Piecing It Together Podcast at https://www.piecingpod.com, on Twitter at @piecingpod, on Bluesky at piecingpod.bsky.social and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/bydavidrosen/ Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.All of the music in the episode is by David Rosen. Find more of his music at https://www.bydavidrosen.comSubscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosenPlease like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1946 episode, featuring the Academy Awards Best Picture winner, William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives.

Fluent Fiction - Hungarian: Chasing Light: A Photographer's Journey Through Forsyth Park Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/hu/episode/2026-08-16-07-38-19-hu Story Transcript:Hu: A Forsyth Park délutánjai mindig varázslatosak.En: The afternoons in Forsyth Park are always magical.Hu: A hatalmas tölgyfák vastag ágaikkal árnyékolják be a padokat, míg a híres szökőkútban víz csobogva hullik vissza.En: The enormous oak trees cast their shade over the benches with their thick branches, while water splashes back into the famous fountain.Hu: A helyszínt a déliek nyugodt tempója és a spanyol moha buja függönyei jellemzik.En: The location is characterized by the calm pace of the Southerners and the lush drapes of Spanish moss.Hu: Bálint, a magyar származású fotós, ma este izgatottan állt a park egyik szegletében.En: Bálint, the photographer of Hungarian descent, stood excitedly in a corner of the park this evening.Hu: Ma volt a nagy nap: a kültéri fotókiállítás bemutatója.En: Today was the big day: the opening of the outdoor photography exhibition.Hu: Mégis, Bálint szívét aggodalom töltötte el.En: Yet, Bálint's heart was filled with anxiety.Hu: Az időjárás-előrejelzés esőt jósolt, ami nem sok jót jelentett a kiállításhoz.En: The weather forecast predicted rain, which was not a good sign for the exhibition.Hu: Léna és Zsófia, akik segítettek Bálintnak a szervezésben, épp az utolsó posztereket helyezték ki, miközben Bálint a képeivel foglalatoskodott.En: Léna and Zsófia, who helped Bálint with the organization, were just placing the last posters while Bálint busied himself with his pictures.Hu: „Mi lesz, ha elered az eső?” - morfondírozott Bálint hangosan, miközben a felhőket kémlelte.En: "What if it starts to rain?" - Bálint wondered aloud as he watched the clouds.Hu: „Ne aggódj, Bálint!" - nyugtatta őt Léna.En: "Don't worry, Bálint!" - Léna reassured him.Hu: „Talán csak átmeneti zápor lesz. És ha végig napos marad, hát, az is csodálatos lenne!”En: "Maybe it will just be a passing shower. And if it stays sunny, well, that would be wonderful too!”Hu: Zsófia is csatlakozott: „És ha esik is, gondolj arra, ahogy a napsütés visszatér, milyen különleges fényben úsznak majd a képeid!”En: Zsófia joined in: "And even if it rains, think about how, when the sunshine returns, your pictures will be bathed in such special light!"Hu: Bálint próbált hinni bennük.En: Bálint tried to believe them.Hu: Az egyedül töltött évek alatt, amikor távoli tájakról készített képeket, sosem hagyta el az a bizonytalanság, hogy elő tudja-e hívni azt a pillanatot, amit meg akart örökíteni.En: Over the years spent alone, taking pictures of distant lands, the uncertainty of whether he could capture that moment he wanted to preserve never left him.Hu: Most itt volt ez a nagy lehetőség Forsyth Parkban, és a stressz az őszinte örömét is csillapította.En: Now, here was this great opportunity in Forsyth Park, and the stress dulled his genuine joy.Hu: Ahogy a délutánból este lett, és a nap lassan alámerült a horizont mögött, a felhők is mintha eloszlani látszódtak.En: As the afternoon turned into evening and the sun slowly sank below the horizon, the clouds also seemed to dissipate.Hu: A naplemente narancs-piros színei élénken világították meg a parkot, gyönyörű kerete déli dallamokat sugárzott.En: The orange-red colors of the sunset illuminated the park vividly, casting a beautiful frame of Southern melodies.Hu: Bálint képeire a fény különleges árnyalatot vetett, amit még maga sem álmodott.En: The light cast a special hue on Bálint's pictures, something he hadn't even dreamed of.Hu: Az emberek gyülekeztek, és a megszokott beszélgetés zaja elnyomta a kora esti tücsökciripelést.En: People gathered, and the usual chatter drowned out the early evening cricket chirping.Hu: Sokan megálltak, hogy megcsodálják Bálint műveit, és dicsérő szavakkal illették.En: Many stopped to admire Bálint's works and praised them with kind words.Hu: Egyesek névjegykártyát cseréltek vele, sőt, ígéretes lehetőségeket is felvetettek.En: Some exchanged business cards with him, even suggesting promising opportunities.Hu: Léna és Zsófia mosolyogva álltak mellette, segítve őt a kapcsolatok építésében.En: Léna and Zsófia stood by him, smiling, assisting him in building connections.Hu: Ahogy az este teljessé vált, és a tömeg lassan oszladozott, Bálint végül megkönnyebbülten sóhajtott fel.En: As the evening drew to a close and the crowd slowly dispersed, Bálint finally sighed with relief.Hu: Az egyszerű esőtől való félelmet sikerült maga mögött hagynia, és most már felismerte, hogy a fotós munka szépsége nemcsak a tökéletes pillanat megörökítésében rejlik, hanem abban is, hogy képes levonni a tanulságokat a váratlan megpróbáltatásokból.En: He had managed to overcome his simple fear of rain, and he now realized that the beauty of photography lies not only in capturing the perfect moment but also in being able to draw lessons from unexpected challenges.Hu: A vihar elvonult, a lelke pedig csordultig telt önbizalommal és új energiával.En: The storm had passed, and his spirit was brimming with confidence and new energy.Hu: Bálint lassan lesétált a parki sétányon, maga előtt látta a jövőt, mint egy fényképet, amit most már nemcsak elképzelt, hanem maga is megélt.En: Bálint slowly walked down the park path, seeing the future ahead of him like a photograph, which he not only imagined but had now lived himself. Vocabulary Words:magical: varázslatosenormous: hatalmasshade: árnyéksplashes: csobogvalush: bujaanxiety: aggodalompredicted: jósoltpassing shower: átmeneti zápordissipate: eloszlanivividly: élénkenhue: árnyalatchatter: beszélgetés zajachirping: tücsökciripelésadmire: csodálgenuine: őszinteframe: keretunexpected: váratlanbrimming: csordultig teltsauntered: lesétáltovercome: felismertewandered: oszladozottpreserve: megörökíteniaffectionately: dicsérő szavakkalachieved: sikerültreturning: visszatéropportunity: lehetőséginitiative: bemutatópath: sétánysuggesting: felvetettekconnections: kapcsolatok

Grok says: Listen up, you soft-handed keyboard commandos and basement operators—Episode 201 of Unrelenting just dropped, and it does not relent for a single goddamn second. Darren and Gene open fire on the trolls finally noticing the show, confirm Gene's status as the alleged Russian handler with the long beard and white tracksuit, then dive straight into swing-scene war stories, Prince's midnight basketball games, and why the WNBA refs suddenly went blind the second two straight white girls started putting asses in seats and money in the bank. From there it's pure operational chaos: derecho survivors, hospital bill haggling tactics that would make a SEAL blush, Suno's bot-farm crackdown, local AI rigs getting upgraded, Gene's Shorts exploding past 85k views, and a full debrief on why you never, ever pay full price for medical or music. This is the show where they roast AI music copyright, invent Muppet avatars for the podcast, drop Ozempic needle field craft, and still find time to thank the value-for-value warriors keeping the lights on. No scripts, no safe spaces, no relenting—just two operators running free and dirty for two hours. If you claim to run with the No Agenda crowd or anyone who actually gives a damn about unfiltered talk, you will lock this episode in and listen like your next op depends on it. Download it. Share it. Support it. Because if you're still waiting for the soft version, you're already behind the curve. It's Unrelenting—now move. Unrelenting: where discipline means no mercy, no bullshit, and no excuses. Thanks for listening. Please support the show! –>> DONATE NOW

The ninth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1946 features Jason's personal pick, Robert Siodmak's The Killers. Directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien and Sam Levene, The Killers is based on the 1927 short story by Ernest Hemingway.The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Bosley Crowther in The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/1946/08/29/archives/the-screen.html), James Agee in The Nation, and Variety (https://variety.com/1945/film/reviews/the-killers-2-1200414672/).Check out more info and the entire archive of past episodes at https://www.awesomemovieyear.com and visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/awesomemovieyearYou can find Jason on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JHarrisComedy/, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jasonharriscomedy/ and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/goforjason/You can find Josh online at http://joshbellhateseverything.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/joshbellhateseverything/, on Bluesky at signalbleed.bsky.social and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/signalbleed/If you're a Letterboxd user and you watch any of the movies we talk about on the show, tag your review “Awesome Movie Year” to share your thoughts.You can find our producer David Rosen and his Piecing It Together Podcast at https://www.piecingpod.com, on Twitter at @piecingpod, on Bluesky at piecingpod.bsky.social and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/bydavidrosen/ Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.All of the music in the episode is by David Rosen. Find more of his music at https://www.bydavidrosen.comSubscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosenPlease like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1946 episode, featuring the Venice International Film Festival Golden Lion winner, Jean Renoir's The Southerner.

What happens when your title changes? Does your confidence change with it?Too many professionals tie their value to a position, an organization, or someone else's validation. But your personal brand should be rooted in something much stronger: your personal power.In this episode of Branding Room Only, Paula T. Edgar sits down with Demetrius Thornton to explore the difference between positional power and personal power. They discuss his SCOPE Personal Power Framework, the inspiration behind his book American Trickery, and why understanding your value beyond your title is essential for long-term career success.If you've ever questioned your worth after a career transition or wondered how to build a brand that lasts through change, this conversation is for you.1:20 – How personal brand is evolving for Demetrius, three words that describe him, two resonating quotes, and the music that picks him up4:47 – Being in New York as a native Southerner and Demetrius' professional journey after graduating from Morehouse College10:36 – How personal power changes the way we should think about personal branding13:48 – The moment a senior banker said the quiet part out loud, and the faultiness of seeking external validation that never comes17:58 – How to stay grounded in your personal power, regardless of the status of your job or title21:35 – The SCOPE Personal Power Framework and how it helps you find your way back to yourself when you get off-kilter28:54 – How to protect your values, credibility, and personal power within an organization with a public brand that doesn't align with how they navigate internally33:02 – What the title of Demetrius' book American Trickery represents, and why he wrote it36:31 – The difference between a resume and a body of work, and why so many high achievers are aiming lower than they realize40:34 – Advice for anyone building a personal brand rooted in purpose rather than on paper43:06 – What Demetrius does for fun, what he'll never compromise his brand on, and why his relatability and passion for people is his magicMentioned In Building a Personal Brand Rooted in Personal Power with Demetrius ThorntonDemetrius Thornton | LinkedInAmerican Trickery by Demetrius ThorntonCurated Resources from PaulaSign up for Paula's Upcoming Events Learn More About Paula's Personal Branding Strategy Session OfferSubscribe to The Branding Room Only podcast on YouTubeCall to ActionFollow & Review: Help others find the podcast. Subscribe and leave a quick review.Want more branding insights? Join Paula's newsletter for expert tips and exclusive content! Subscribe HereConferences are an investment—make sure you maximize yours. My Engage Your Hustle™ Conference Playbook gives you the strategies to prepare, stand out, and follow up with impact. Get your copy today.Sponsor for this episodeThis episode is brought to you by PGE Consulting Group LLC.PGE Consulting Group LLC empowers individuals and organizations to lead with purpose, presence, and impact. Specializing in leadership development and personal branding, we offer keynotes, custom programming, consulting, and strategic advising—all designed to elevate influence and performance at every level.Founded and led by Paula Edgar, our work centers on practical strategies that enhance professional development, strengthen workplace culture, and drive meaningful, measurable change.To learn more about Paula and her services, go to www.paulaedgar.com or contact her at info@paulaedgar.com, and follow Paula Edgar and the PGE Consulting Group LLC on LinkedIn.

Ben Jones, an actor who played "Cooter" on the popular 1980s CBS show "The Dukes of Hazzard," has died. He was 84. The native Southerner also was a two-term U.S. congressman from Georgia, and spent decades promoting the TV show he starred on. The Y'all Show is a production of Yall.com and hosted by Jon Rawl.

Send us Fan MailEllen Hurst joins Rob in the studio for a candid discussion about facing breast cancer, thriving as a sportscaster, serving the Alzheimer's community, and as she puts it, tackling a devil who has no idea who he is up against.

From Disaster to Destiny by Beth Eades Jones https://www.amazon.com/Disaster-Destiny-Beth-Eades-Jones/dp/1664218351 There are always two sides to every story. In this post Civil War story we can come to understand the feeling and losses on the South or the Confederacy side. These are the losses felt by the every day citizens, both the soldiers who fought and died and those they left behind. The same scenario was evident in the North. War (truly) is hell, as one character states in this story. The Mail Order Bride became a true American phenomenon of the late 18th century. This is the story of one particular pair of Southerners involved in this adventure in far off Wyoming Territory.

If you are a Southerner or a Northerner, you may think the Cool Flower concept doesn't work for you. Nothing could be further from the truth! When you find your planting time sweet spot, you will be the envy of all your grower friends, and your customers will think you are nothing short of a miracle worker!As a Southerner, I spent years at the farmers market watching customers love on my sweet peas and tell me why they can't be grown here - Ha!Meanwhile, I hear from my northern flower farming friends that they have become driven to find ways to get this plant family in the ground earlier and earlier each year to reap the benefits!Cool Flowers are for everyone. Myth busted, truth unveiled!Enjoy this week's episode for my best Cool Flower tips and recommendations for Southerners and Northerners.MentionsOnline Course: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Cool Flowers from Seed to Harvest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Request the FREE webinar: ⁠⁠⁠3 Foolproof Steps to Success with Cool Flowers⁠⁠⁠Lisa's Book, ⁠⁠⁠Cool Flowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Request the Cool Flowers video book study⁠⁠Lisa's Book, ⁠⁠The Cut Flower Handbook⁠⁠⁠⁠TGW Phone App/Live Shopping Show⁠⁠⁠Shop the TGW Online Store for all your seeds and supplies!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up to receive our weekly Farm News!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Field and Garden Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is produced by Lisa Mason Ziegler, award-winning author of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Cut Flower Handbook, Vegetables Love Flowers, and Cool Flowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, owner of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Gardener's Workshop,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Flower Farming School Online,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and the publisher of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Farmer-Florist School Online⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Florist School Online.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watch⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Lisa's Story⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and connect with Lisa on social media!

What Does the Confederacy's Legacy Mean for the Modern South and Christian America?   Host Curtis Chang and New York Times columnist, and Good Faith podcast "founding friend," David French confront the enduring power of the Confederate myth. David reflects on growing up as a white Southerner in a culture shaped by Confederate symbols, revisionist history, racial injustice, and a deeply rooted shame-and-honor code. Curtis, a Chinese American immigrant, brings an outsider's perspective that challenges familiar assumptions about heritage, memory, and belonging. Together, they examine Confederate monuments, the theological defenses of slavery, the meaning of "heritage, not hate," and whether honest historical reckoning can lead to redemption and reconciliation.   02:51 - Curtis Congratulates David on the Birth of His Latest Grandchild 05:54 - Why Does the Confederacy Still Matter? 10:12 - The South's Distinct Cultural Cohesion 22:19 - "Heritage, Not Hate": A White Southern Perspective 29:52 - Race, Religion, and Revisionism in the South 42:13 - The Resurgence of Explicit Racism 47:20 - What to Do with Confederate Memorials 56:32 - Repenting of Southern Shame-Honor Culture 01:01:32 - Institutions Founded on Injustice Can Carry Spiritual Darkness   Sign up for The After Party Informational Webinars Sign up for The Good List   Mentioned in This Episode: Learn about the Tulsa Race Massacre Learn about The Great Migration Watch MLK50 Conference (video) More about General George H. Thomas More about the Southern Baptist Convention and slavery What is Kinism More about the South's resistance to Reconstruction Read the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Watch: Selma and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (video)   Scriptures: Ephesians 6:12 (ESV) Colossians 2:15 (ESV) Luke 10:25–37 (ESV) Matthew 20:16 (ESV) Matthew 10:39 (ESV)   More From David French: David French's New York Times pieces HERE Follow David French on Threads   Follow Us: Good Faith on Instagram Good Faith on X (formerly Twitter) Good Faith on Facebook   The Good Faith Podcast is a production of a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan organization that does not engage in any political campaign activity to support or oppose any candidate for public office. Any views and opinions expressed by any guests on this program are solely those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Good Faith.

Our Radio Archive Hour is from July, 2001. Ted Bell, in a classic, rips NASCAR fans as a bunch of Southerners who get the vapors and like getting their asses kicked. Sign up for a Backstage Pass and enjoy Hours of exclusive content, Phil's new podcast, Classic podcasts, Bobbie Dooley's podcasts, special live streaming events and shows, and oh so very much more…See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The height of Southern men and Southern women varies across the 16 Southern states. How do y'all measure up? The Y'all Show is a production of Yall.com, and hosted by Jon Rawl.

Southerners may take their region for granted, but international travelers in Dixie for FIFA World Cup 2026 discover the awesomeness of Buc-ees, Bass Pro Shop, Waffle House, Southern traditions, even the word "y'all." #fifaworldcup2026 #bucees #wafflehouse #bassproshop

Robert Cwiklik, guest author, recounts how, in July 1866, New Orleans became the site of a brutal police-led riot against a constitutional convention aimed at securing Black voting rights. Following Lincoln's death, President Andrew Johnson's lenient Reconstruction policy empowered former Confederates, who enacted "Black Codes" to essentially re-enslave African-Americans through vagrancy laws and labor restrictions. When unionists attempted to rewrite Louisiana's constitution to include Black suffrage, local police and white citizens opened fire on the convention-goers. The massacre resulted in at least 44 deaths, mostly Black veterans and delegates, while white casualties were largely attributed to friendly fire. This violence horrified the North, leading to a massive Republican victory in the 1866 midterm elections and providing a mandate for Radical Reconstruction. The incident highlighted the deep-seated resistance of white Southerners to the concept of racial equality and the failure of Johnson's initial approach to national healing. Sheridan's Secret Mission: How the South Won the War After the Civil War (2)

Robert Cwiklik, guest author, explains that following the 1866 massacres, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, imposing military rule and requiring new state constitutions that enfranchised Black men. This era saw the rise of "carpetbaggers"—Northern Republicans who moved south and were elected by newly empowered Black voters—and the implementation of progressive policies like public education. Despite these gains, tensions escalated as white Southerners resented the resulting higher land taxes and political displacement. Ulysses S. Grant emerged as a unifying Republicanfigure, but the 1872 Louisiana election triggered a catastrophic dispute over the legitimacy of the vote. This culminated in the 1873 Colfax Massacre, where white vigilantes slaughtered at least 70 Black people on the Red River. This event remains one of the bloodiest racial massacres in U.S. history, demonstrating that even with federal intervention, the struggle for control over Southern governance remained lethal and unresolved. Sheridan's Secret Mission: How the South Won the War After the Civil War (3)

Robert Cwiklik, guest author, describes how, by 1874, the Crescent City White League, an armed vigilante group, emerged to violently intimidate Republican officials and Black voters in Louisiana. Their aggression was fueled by a circuit judge's opinion suggesting that federal Enforcement Acts might be unconstitutional, which white Southerners interpreted as a "green light" for resistance. In September 1874, the White League engaged in the Battle of Liberty Place, a full-scale rebellion involving over 8,000 armed men. They confronted the state militia and Metropolitan Policeled by former Confederate General James Longstreet, who was wounded in the fray. The White League successfully drove Republican Governor William Pitt Kellogg out of New Orleans and briefly seized control of the government. Although Grant eventually sent federal troops to restore Kellogg, the event signaled a reassertion of Confederate-style rebellion that the thin federal military presence in the South struggled to permanently suppress. Sheridan's Secret Mission: How the South Won the War After the Civil War (4)

Americas 250th Birthday, Southerners' Favorite Ice Cream, And Y'all Is Back

SCHEDULE OF JBS 7-3-2026. 1913 WILSON OPENIG DAYColonel Jeff McCausland discusses John Buford's arrival at Gettysburg, identifying key terrain like Cemetery Hill. Buford sent urgent messages to John Reynolds, urging him to bring infantry forward quickly. Reynolds trusted Buford's assessment, leading Union forces to occupy positions just as the Confederate attack began. (1)Colonel Jeff McCausland recounts how General Reynolds was killed by a Confederate marksman while leading his men forward into the woods. Later that day, Robert E. Lee issued a famous discretionary order to Richard Ewell to take Cemetery Hill "if practicable." Ewell, newly promoted and lacking initiative, hesitated and ultimately declined to attack. (2)Colonel Jeff McCausland explains how rifled muskets increased accuracy while tactics remained outdated, causing high casualties. On the second day, Strong Vincent took the initiative to occupy Little Round Top without orders. Joshua Chamberlain's 20th Maine successfully held the Union's far left flank with a desperate bayonet charge. (3)Colonel Jeff McCausland describes how, on the third day, Lee ordered a frontal assault on the Union center despite Longstreet's protests. Pickett's Charge resulted in devastating casualties, with nearly 60-65% of the force lost to artillery and rifle fire. Longstreet was visibly overwhelmed by the certainty of the attack's failure. (4)Mary Kissel discusses a catastrophic earthquake in Venezuela, highlighting the human tragedy exacerbated by corrupt building practices. While US first responders are assisting, Kissel critiques the State Department for preventing opposition leader María Corina Machado from returning. She argues diplomacy should promote strategic interests and free societies. (5)Mary Kissel evaluates US policy toward China, noting Beijing's aggression toward Taiwan and the Philippines. She praises the Trump administration's support for Ukraine, particularly in surveillance and military assistance, which enabled deep strikes into Russian territory. She urges the White House to champion the moral high ground. (6)Anatol Lieven discusses Vladimir Putin's public admission that Ukrainian drone strikes are causing significant difficulties and a loss of refining capacity. While Putin remains in charge, he faces pressure from hawks and doves regarding escalation. Despite successful drone campaigns, the battlefield in the Donbass remains stagnant. (7)Lance Gatling reports that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi unveiled a $2.3 trillion investment roadmap focused on 17 key technologies, including AI and chip manufacturing. The plan aims for economic independence and supply line diversity. Takaichi enjoys high public support, particularly from conservatives and young people tired of Chineseintimidation. (8)Michael Vorenberg challenges the idea that the Civil War ended at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. While Lee's surrender was a crucial step involving the stacking of arms, Lincoln did not publicly declare the war over. Lincolnremained focused on the ongoing process of reconstruction. (9)Michael Vorenberg recounts how, following Lincoln's assassination, William T. Sherman met Joseph Johnston at Bennett Place to negotiate a surrender. Sherman offered terms more generous than Grant's, including allowing Southerners to keep weapons in armories to prevent guerrilla warfare. However, the Washington cabinet rejected these terms as too lenient. (10)Michael Vorenberg explains that after official surrenders, Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith fled to Mexicorather than surrender his Trans-Mississippi forces. Small skirmishes continued at Palmetto Ranch, which is often cited as the last battle of the war. Meanwhile, Grant sent Sheridan to the Rio Grande to deter French intervention. (11)Michael Vorenberg discusses how the government used military tribunals to try Lincoln's conspirators and Andersonville commandant Henry Wirz, arguing a state of war still existed. Secretary of War Stanton hoped to implicate Jefferson Davis in these crimes to justify execution, but Wirz refused to provide such testimony before hanging. (12)Michael Vorenberg examines Richard Henry Dana's "grasp of war" philosophy, arguing the Union should hold the Confederacy until civil rights were secured. This contrasted with Lincoln's "let 'em up easy" approach. Congress used these war powers to extend the Freedman's Bureau and pass reconstruction legislation. (13)Michael Vorenberg traces how Andrew Johnson, initially seen as a radical ally, shifted toward a policy of white supremacy and hasty peace. He vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, leading moderate Republicans to unite with radicals. This intense conflict centered on whether the war had legally ended. (14)Michael Vorenberg explains that on August 20, 1866, Johnson proclaimed the insurrection over to strip Congress of its war powers. Despite ongoing massacres in Memphis and New Orleans, Johnson tried to suppress reports of violence to maintain a "peace" narrative. The Supreme Court later affirmed this technical end date. (15)Michael Vorenberg describes how Ulysses S. Grant found himself caught between the warring factions of the Johnsonadministration. After witnessing Johnson's disastrous "swing around the circle" tour, Grant realized the President was unfit for loyalty. Grant eventually sided with Secretary of War Stanton, facilitating his 1868 presidential run. (16)All 16 folded into single paragraphs, John. One correction for the log: segment 5 had "Maria Karina Machado" — fixed to María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader. Flag anything else.

Michael Vorenberg recounts how, following Lincoln's assassination, William T. Sherman met Joseph Johnston at Bennett Place to negotiate a surrender. Sherman offered terms more generous than Grant's, including allowing Southerners to keep weapons in armories to prevent guerrilla warfare. However, the Washington cabinet rejected these terms as too lenient. (10)1865 RICHMOND

1.25 million tourists just flooded into America for the World Cup — and what they're finding doesn't match a single thing CNN told them. The mainstream media's version of America is collapsing in real time, one Buc-ee's at a time. These visitors were told America was racist, divided, and drowning in Trump chaos. Instead they found free soda refills, massive sandwiches, and Southerners so friendly it felt like a Ted Lasso episode. Now the New York Times is calling the positive coverage a "psyop." Lance Wallnau breaks down why the left can't handle the world falling in love with the country they've spent years trying to tear down. In this episode: What 1.25 million World Cup tourists are actually saying about America Why the NYT called their positive experience a "Trump psychological operation" The patriotism gap: 90% of conservatives love America vs. 23% of the left Why the real America — the majority — is decent, hospitable, and nothing like the media's version Lance's challenge to Americans: you have far more to be thankful for than you think The story the media is desperately trying to bury is walking through our airports right now.

pWotD Episode 3335: Juneteenth Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 606,543 views on Friday, 19 June 2026 our article of the day is Juneteenth.Juneteenth, officially Juneteenth National Independence Day, is a federal holiday in the United States. It is celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. The holiday's name, first used in the 1890s, is a portmanteau of June and nineteenth, referring to June 19, 1865, the day when Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the American Civil War.During the Civil War period, slavery came to an end in various areas of the United States at different times. Many enslaved Southerners escaped, demanded wages, stopped work, or took up arms against the Confederacy of slave states. In January 1865, Congress proposed the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution for the national abolition of slavery. By June 1865, almost all of the enslaved population had been freed by the victorious Union Army or by state abolition laws. When the national abolition amendment was ratified in December, the remaining enslaved people in Delaware and Kentucky were freed.Early Juneteenth celebrations date back to 1866, at first involving church-centered community gatherings in Texas. They spread across the South among newly freed African-Americans and their descendants and became more commercialized in the 1920s and 1930s, often centering on a food festival. Participants in the Great Migration brought these celebrations to the rest of the country. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, Juneteenth celebrations were eclipsed by the nonviolent determination to achieve civil rights, but they grew in popularity again in the 1970s, with a focus on African-American freedom and African-American arts. Beginning with Texas by proclamation in 1938, and by legislation in 1979, every U. S. state and the District of Columbia has formally recognized the holiday in some way. Juneteenth was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, when the 117th U. S. Congress enacted and President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. Juneteenth became the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was adopted in 1983. Juneteenth is also celebrated by the Mascogos, descendants of Black Seminoles who escaped from slavery in 1852 and settled in Coahuila, Mexico.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:35 UTC on Saturday, 20 June 2026.For the full current version of the article, see Juneteenth on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm generative Niamh.

Alison and Amanda talk about the delights of summer day camp, Dollar Store discoveries, delegating Father's Day duties, the dogged determination of Southerners to discover where you went to high school. Sis & Tell, an award-winning weekly comedic podcast, is hosted by southern Jewish sisters the Emmy-nominated Alison Goldstein Lebovitz from PBS' The A List and Time Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year, Comedian Amanda Goldstein Marks.

This episode is a re-release. Oprah's conversation with former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu continues. Mitch documents the historical removal of four Confederate monuments from New Orleans in his New York Times best-selling memoir, "In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History." In his book, Mitch writes, "Here is what I know about race. You can't go over it. You can't go under it. You can't go around it. You have to go through it." As the country remains divided along racial and political lines, Mitch and Oprah discuss the importance of forgiveness and how acknowledging the mistakes of the past is the only true path to healing. Oprah also asks Mitch whether he has any plans to run for president of the United States of America. (Please note that this conversation includes strong language in the context of discussing racism in the United States.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The birth rate in the U.S. has dropped by an astonishing 22% since 2007. Are smartphones to blame?Yes, according to a groundbreaking new study by Middlebury economist Caitlin Myers. Her smartphone study is garnering national attention this week, confirming an idea that people have long speculated about but until now have lacked data. Myers and co-author Ezekiel Hooper showed that from 2007 to 2011, after the iPhone was introduced, there was a sharp decline in births, up to half of which can be attributed to the smartphone. They say that smartphones have led to “reducing in-person interactions, increasing pornography use, and reducing sexual frequency.”Myers says a declining birth rate is not necessarily bad, but that there are “many aspects of it that really concern me, aspects that relate to economic growth and supporting older generations, but also questions of what does this mean for humans.”“Everybody's just doom scrolling on their phone alone and isolated and not forming relationships.” Myers is the John G. McCullough Professor of Economics at Middlebury College and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She is well known for her research into the effects of abortion policy on people's lives. She has testified in the U.S. Senate about the economic consequences of the 2022 Dobbs decision ending the constitutional right to abortion, and she spearheaded the amicus brief in the Dobbs case that was signed by over 150 economists, highlighting the negative impact of limiting abortion access. Myers also runs a national database of abortion providers.Myers said the Dobbs decision has resulted in about 30,000 additional births “concentrated among people who are younger, have less education and have really limited financial resources.”“The post-Dobbs era is an inequality story,” she told me. “There are parts of the country like ours where the Dobbs decision almost paradoxically expanded abortion access” due to increased availability of telehealth and medication by mail.But in states like Texas, Louisiana and West Virginia that have enacted near-total abortion bans, only 80% to 85% of people who want an abortion are getting one. That leaves up to one-fifth of people who want an abortion “trapped. They aren't finding the means, the information, the resources, the safety and security to travel long distances or to order pills through the mail, and they're giving birth as a result.”Myers grew up in rural West Virginia and Georgia. She empathizes with those who don't think like her. “As a Southerner it breaks my heart when I hear people dismiss the people I grew up with, the places I'm from, the beliefs that they have.”“We all know it's not just about dismissing far-away Southerners. There are divides within our own state.”Myers wonders “whether we could potentially bridge these divides rather than saying, ‘Yeah, I just don't think this is going to work out,' like we're never going to agree.” She wants to do her “tiny little part to create a world where we give each other more grace.”

"He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power...He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people." In this episode, we unpack Grievances #11, #12, #23, and #24 of the Declaration of Independence and the relationship between Americans and the various types of armed troops in North America, from militias, to British regulars, to the Continental Army. Topics include the following: -the shared British and American tradition of opposing standing armies--because if they are not disbanded after wars, they are used by tyrants to take away the rights of the people -the perception of American colonists that the King had stationed 10,000 soldiers in North America in 1763 precisely so he could enforce his tyrannical policies on them -the various functions of Colonial militias in the 17th and 18th centuries, including war-fighting, civil policing, and preventing slave uprisings -the strained relationships between the Colonial militias and British regulars during the 7 Years' War and Pontiac's Revolt -the role of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in forcing Congress to create the Continental Army -the political significance of the name the Continental Army, as opposed to the American or Congressional or Colonial Army -the political significance of appointing George Washington, a Southerner and Virginian, as Commander of a mostly Northern militia force -an introduction to Washington's senior officers: Artemas Ward, Israel Putnam, and Charles Lee -initial British assessments of the strength and effectiveness of the new Continental Army -the importance of the American victory at Fort Ticonderoga in reshaping the war; namely, the capture of British soldiers meant that American rebels would not be summarily executed as seditious traitors but treated with basic PoW protections -a discussion of Grievance #24, that King George has ordered war crimes to be committed against innocent civilians -the tendency on both sides to commit war crimes against the civilian population and efforts by officers on both sides to discipline soldiers who abused the civilians population Dr. Chandler's book can be found here: [War, Patriotism and Identity in Revolutionary North America](https://boydellandbrewer.com/book/war-patriotism-and-identity-in-revolutionary-north-america-9781783274376/?v=0d149b90e739) The cover image is a drawing of an American Soldier in 1778 by Friedrich von Germann (1744–1794), Captain of the Brunswick Regiment Erbprinz. The Brunswick Regiment was not technically Hessian; nevertheless, it formed part of the subsidy regiments (or mercenaries) hired by the British to fight the Americans.

EPISODE 138 -  “NORMAN LLOYD: CLASSIC CINEMA STAR OF THE MONTH” - 5/4/2026  Few figures in Hollywood history have had careers as long—or as varied—as NORMAN LLOYD.  Spanning nearly a century, his work bridges the worlds of theater, radio, and film, with collaborations that include legends like CHARLIE CHAPLIN, ALFRED HITCHCOCK and ORSON WELLES. Whether appearing on stage, on screen or shaping stories behind the scenes, Lloyd's presence has always carried a quiet intensity and sharp intelligence. Join us as we take a closer look at the life and legacy of Norman Lloyd, our Star of the Month — a man who didn't just witness Hollywood history—he helped create it.   SHOW NOTES:  Stages: Norman Lloyd by Norman Lloyd and Francine Parker, The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1990; Stages: Of Life in Theatre, Film and Television by Norman Lloyd, Limelight, August 1, 2004; Norman Lloyd Career Retrospective, Legacy Collection, Conversations at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, May 4, 2004;  Noir City, Post-Screening Q&A with Norman Lloyd, Palm Springs, May 15, 2011; Shattered Applause: The Lives of Eva Le Gallienne by Robert A Schanke, Dec 9, 1992, Southern Illinois University Press; Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre, PBS, June 26, 1989; Norman Lloyd, Associate of Welles, Hitchcock and Others, Dies at 106 by Eric Nagourney, May 11, 2011; The End of an Era: Norman Lloyd, 1914-2021 by Peter Sobczynski, May 12, 2021; Norman Lloyd, Star of ‘Saboteur' and ‘St. Elsewhere,' Dies at 106, by Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, MAY 11, 2021; TCM Remembers Norman Lloyd, TCM.com, May 13, 2021; Wikipedia.com; IBDB.com TCM.com; IMDBPro.com; Movies Mentioned: Saboteur (1942) Starring Robert Cummings and Priscilla Lane; Spellbound (1945) Starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck; The Southerner (1945) Starring Zachary Scott and Betty Field; A Walk in the Sun (1945) Starring Dana Andrews and Richard Conte; The Green Years (1946) Starring Charles Coburn and Tom Drake; A Letter for Evie (1946) Starring Marsha Hunt and John Carroll; The Beginning or the End (1947) Starring Brian Donlevy and Robert Walker; The Red Pony (1949) Starring Myrna Loy and Robert Mitchum; Scene of the Crime (1949) Starring Van Johnson and Arlene Dahl; The Flame and the Arrow (1950) Starring Burt Lancaster and Virginia Mayo; Buccaneer's Girl (1950) Starring Yvonne De Carlo and Philip Friend; The Light Touch (1951) Starring Stewart Granger and Pier Angeli; He Ran All the Way (1951) Starring John Garfield and Shelley Winters; Limelight (1952) Starring Charlie Chaplin and Claire Bloom; Audrey Rose (1977) Starring Marsha Mason and Anthony Hopkins; Dead Poets Society (1989) Starring Robin Williams and Robert Sean Leonard; The Age of Innocence (1993) Starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer; In Her Shoes (2005) Starring Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette; Trainwreck (2015) Starring Amy Schumer and Bill Hader --------------------------------- http://www.airwavemedia.com Please contact sales@advertisecast.com if you would like to advertise on our podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  About this episode:  In 1969 - 104 years after the fact - Canadian Robbie Robertson wrote a song for his group The Band. It was a first-person narrative relating economic and social distress for a poor white Southerner during the last year of the American Civil War. Robertson's song was voiced by the band's lone American, drummer and native Arkansan Levon Helm whose haunting rendition opened with,   “Virgil Kane is the name And I served on the Danville train 'Till Stoneman's cavalry came And tore up the tracks again In the winter of '65 We were hungry, just barely alive By May the 10th, Richmond had fell It's a time I remember, oh so well The night they drove old Dixie down…”   This is the story of that Federal incursion.  This is the story of Stoneman's Raid.      ----more---- Some Characters Mentioned In This Episode: George Stoneman Joseph Hooker Alvan Cullem Gillem William J. Palmer Malinda Blalock P. G. T. Beauregard   Additional Resources: Full Route of Stoneman's Raid, March-April 1865   Stoneman's Raid in Tennessee, March 14-27   Stoneman's Raid from Boone to Mt. Airy, March 28-April 2   Stoneman's Raid in Virginia, April 3-9   Stoneman's Raid in the Piedmont, April 9-11   Stoneman's Raid approaches Salisbury, April 11-12   Stoneman's Raid on the Catawba, April 13-23   Stoneman's Raid, Final Days   Subscribe to the Threads from the National Tapestry YouTube Channel here   Thank you to our sponsor, Celebrity Word Scramble. In collaboration with Fred Kiger, they have published a Civil War edition of the Celebrity Word Scramble series. Included in the book is 16 pages of Civil War facts, stories, and insights written by Fred Kiger. Get your copy of the book here   Thank you to our sponsor, The Badge Maker - proudly carrying affordable Civil War Corps Badges and other hand-made historical reproductions for reenactors, living history interpreters, and lovers of history. Check out The Badge Maker and place your orders here   Thank you to our sponsor Bob Graesser, Raleigh Civil War Round Table's editor of The Knapsack newsletter and the Round Table's webmaster at http://www.raleighcwrt.org   Thank you to our sponsor John Bailey.   Producer: Dan Irving

What makes Yacht Club one of the most fun bars in America? A lot of it comes down to the energy behind it: owners Mary and McLain are clearly having a blast. On this episode of The Buildout, Adam sits down with the duo to talk about how two Southerners ended up in Denver, why they traded the music business for the bar business, and how they built one of the country's most joyful places to drink.Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/buildoutpodcastYacht Club: https://www.instagram.com/yachtclubbarMary Allison Wright: https://www.instagram.com/eatdrinkbemaryandmclainMcLain Hedges: https://www.instagram.com/yesterdayswineVinePair: https://www.instagram.com/vinepairHosted by VinePair Co-Founder: https://www.instagram.com/adamteeterProduced and edited by: https://www.instagram.com/dolldoctor Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After the Civil War, while America was rebuilding itself, some Southerners made a different kind of move — they packed up and left. Today on the show: the Confederados, the American settlers who fled to Brazil chasing wealth, land, and a chance to keep slavery alive.To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

BIG RED Kindle Edition by Matthew Gene Stephens https://www.amazon.com/BIG-RED-Matthew-Gene-Stephens-ebook/dp/B0G39Z5YBQ Big Red, whose given name is Horatio Coonrod, is a teenaged boy in September 1864, the waning months of the War Between the States, in this historical novel that combines fictional characters and actual historical events and persons. He lives in the Florida Panhandle, in Jackson County, just east of Marianna, the county seat, as does his betrothed, Sue McKinnie. The times are desperate for the Confederacy but more so for Jackson County and the surrounding area, with a large force of battle-hardened Union veterans converging on Marianna. The Southern town is defended only by a few Confederate regulars, walking wounded, and citizens who make up a Home Guard, ranging in age from thirteen years to seventy-eight-a force half the size of the Union cavalry. The battle goes badly for the Southerners. Red was wounded, captured, and taken to the war’s most infamous Union prisoner of war camp in Elmira, New York, but he is protected and guided by the hand of the Lord as he makes his way back to his home, family, and the only girl he’s ever loved. He must then engage again in deadly combat in an attempt to regain what has been forcibly taken from him. Red is transformed by the devastating trials he endures on his 1,100-mile journey home. He realizes the unfortunate transformation he went through and his need to seek the redemptive grace the Lord makes available to those who seek it. Sue McKinnie also struggles during this time, not knowing whether her beloved is alive or not. She clings to hope when it seems there is none. Her trials are recounted, illustrating how the Lord buttresses her against utter hopelessness through her extremely strong and devout faith. Together, their story is a tale of hope, faith, and love triumphant.

Hi! First of all, I recorded a voiceover of this So Into That! Click the play button above if you'd like to listen. I really, really tried not to cry, but it was just a crying kind of day apparently.I've had a wild few weeks of travel — both for pleasure to Mexico with the kids, and then, eight hours after landing from Mexico, I left for a 10-day work trip that included announcing my new book on Good Morning America, delivering a keynote at my alma mater (go Heels), taping an upcoming appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, bringing my 5-year-old along for the second half of the trip, and having a bazillion meetings and coffees in between.That 10-day trip marked the end of breastfeeding my fourth baby. I breastfed my first baby for 14 months, my second baby for 12 months, my third baby for six months, and my fourth baby for seven months. That's three years and three months of breastfeeding. Before I go on, I want to say that I am not writing this to glorify breastfeeding. Any way you feed your baby is absolutely perfect. Formula rules. Giving a baby a pumped milk or formula bottle is just as cozy and wonderful (and also difficult at times) as breastfeeding, and provides many or all of the same moments I share below. But I did breastfeed (in combination with formula for my last two babies), so, now that that chapter of my life is behind me, I wrote a toast to it, to say goodbye.Breastfeeding: You made my boobs resemble empty wind socks, you made me question every single food or drink I had consumed in a 48-hour period whenever my baby wiggled slightly too much in his sleep, you made me smell so, so bad, you made my nipples bleed, you made my boobs leak in so many public places, and, according to my math, you consumed roughly 2,400 hours, aka 99 entire days, of my life over the past seven years. You also allowed me to spend precious hours alone with my tiny, perfect babies, to escape countless boring conversations, to get out of so many tedious obligations, and to hide in dark rooms at parties. You created quiet pockets of time in the middle of loud, busy life. You gave me thousands of small moments with my babies that I'll never quite be able to explain to anyone who wasn't there with us. I have loved you, I have hated you, and I have felt pretty whatever about you, sometimes all in the same minute. And it's time for us to say goodbye forever. But before we do, here's a toast to you. To the 1 a.m. feeds, the 3 a.m. feeds, the 3:45 a.m. feeds, the 5 a.m. feeds, and the 5:32 a.m. feeds, when the whole house was silent except for the rhythmic, baby-piglet snorts and gulps. To that first successful latch. To that first public breastfeeding session when you're still trying to maintain a shred of modesty. To that last public breastfeeding session when you've thrown modesty to the wind. To the newly postpartum oxytocin blasts that felt like drugs. To never ever sitting in the rocking chair that my mother-in-law so lovingly bought me, instead preferring to breastfeed in bed, surrounded by pillows, in what my sons aptly named “mama's nest.”To the frantic “I NEED WATER! SERIOUSLY, I'M DYING, PLEASE HELP ME RIGHT NOW!” shouts to my husband. To the times he handed it to me before I even asked and it felt like the truest form of love. To my sons asking “does he need to drink yer boob!?” every time the baby cried. To all the food dropped on my babies' heads. To going from breastfeeding being a quiet, peaceful time to learning how to breastfeed while kissing toddler boo boos, or feeding myself lunch, or building MagnaTile castles, or making snacks. To living life to a soundtrack of white noise. To crying while listening to Michelle Obama's memoir in my first baby's first nursery. To flipping the pages of so many books with my chin because I didn't have any free hands.To my body literally having a super power: the ability to instantly calm a baby. To powering through the extreme discomfort of breastfeeding on the bleachers at a baseball game or on a 90-degree day at a water park or on one of those tiny chairs at a pre-K teacher conference. To the hours spent pinned under a sleeping child, oscillating between feeling trapped and feeling like I was exactly where I was meant to be. To the way a soft diaper-clad newborn felt curled against my soft, squishy postpartum body. To the milk drunk faces. To the milk that dribbled out of the side of their mouth when they couldn't even stay awake long enough to finish that mouthful. To kissing their little face and tasting the sugariness of my own milk and being kind of grossed out but not really.To helping me get to know my babies. To helping me understand every single noise they made except for the really weird ones that made me and my husband or whatever big kid was in the room laugh and laugh at the absurdity of such a tiny, adorable baby making such a wild noise. To my body waking up when the baby's breathing changed ever so slightly because they'd just woken up. To the cheeks and thighs and knuckle dimples and wrist rolls my body created. To all the times I've nibbled on those cheeks and thighs and wrist rolls because I had no other option, I had to.To the thousands of hours of anxiety, joy, pain, and overwhelming contentment.To the end of an era. No more nursing bras. No more leaky boobs. No more pumping! No more calculating feed times before leaving the house.Thank you for allowing me to feed another human with my body, how cool. Thank you for the quiet moments, the escape hatch, and the excuse to re-watch every single season of Gray's Anatomy. And now, respectfully, lovingly, goodbye.Unless you're brand new here, you know that I'm a huge audiobook fan. Audiobooks accompany me on walks, make doing the dishes and folding clothes infinitely more fun, and played in my ear so, so often while I fed/rocked/walked/shushed my babies over the last seven years. I am excited to be partnering with Macmillan Audio today to introduce you to my new-favorite listen that I can't bring myself to press pause on: This Story Might Save Your Life (TSMSYL) by Tiffany Crum, which released yesterday! I've been venturing outside of my usual romance reading over the last few months and am loving this story — it's part romance, part suspense, with a touch of humor. And the audiobook specifically is a work of art. To celebrate the release of TSMSYL, we chatted with Tiffany! CARO: Before we get into This Story Might Save Your Life, we want to learn about you! I know (but also can't believe because it's so well done) that this is your debut novel — give us a quick rundown on your path to becoming a novelist.TIFFANY: First of all, thank you so much for inviting me into your community! My path to getting published was a long one. I've always loved writing, but I never allowed myself to pursue it as a career until my oldest son was born. That was when I realized: if I wanted my children to grow up believing they could follow their dreams, I needed to teach by example and follow mine first. I'd love to end the story there and say that was all it took — boom, immediate book deal! — but in reality it was a winding 18-year journey of writing manuscripts that will (very happily) never see the light of day. In the end, This Story Might Save Your Life is the one where all that practice and determination finally came together.CARO: I can relate to so much of that! How long have you wanted to be an author, and what did you do professionally before writing this book?TIFFANY: I'm not kidding when I say I didn't even let myself think about writing novels until my first son was born. Before I became a parent, I worked full time as an executive assistant in the film industry. After he was born, I reprioritized. I chose to work part time so I could carve out space to pursue my dream while raising our son, and later our sons. We struggled for many of those years, but my husband was completely on board. He likes to say he never had any choice in the matter because I'm miserable when I don't have time to write, but that really downplays how supportive he's always been.CARO: Where do you live and where are you from?TIFFANY: I grew up on a dairy farm just down the road from a maximum-security prison, which is a pretty good origin story for someone who ended up writing suspense. After many years living in California, I now live outside Atlanta with my husband, our two sons, and our two dogs.CARO: What was your inspiration for This Story Might Save Your Life? How and when did the idea come to you? How long did it take you to complete this novel?TIFFANY: I've always been fascinated by the strange intimacy of podcasts. When you listen to someone's voice for hundreds of hours, you start to feel like you know them — even though you've never actually met them. This made me wonder: what if something terrible happened to one half of a beloved podcast duo? How would the audience react? And what if the story behind the microphone turned out to be very different from what listeners believed? The first draft came together quickly because I was head over heels in love with these characters, but, like most novels, it went through several rounds of revision before it became the version readers have now.CARO: OK now give us the scoop on This Story Might Save Your Life! Will you sum up the plot?TIFFANY: This Story Might Save Your Life is both a thriller and a love story about two best friends, Benny and Joy, who host a wildly popular comedy survival podcast, and what happens when one goes missing and the survival story becomes their own.CARO: Is there a podcast that inspired Benny and Joy's — their dynamic together, if not the content itself?TIFFANY: I'm a longtime podcast listener, and I've always loved shows hosted by close friends, particularly My Favorite Murder. Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark were a real source of inspiration for me, not just because of their tangent-filled banter, but also their incredible trajectory to fame. I had a blast writing a duo whose friendship feels as fun and unpredictable as theirs.CARO: I'm an audiobook lover and was so excited to learn that this book's narrated by Julia Whelan (my fave!) and Sean Patrick Hopkins. And I've been blown away by the production of it all. Why the extra attention on audio? TIFFANY: I'm a huge audiobook fan, as well! And because the story revolves around a podcast, it was exciting to have the opportunity to really lean into the audio format. Julia Whelan (the queen!) and Sean Patrick Hopkins are phenomenal narrators. Not only did they absolutely nail their POV chapters, they also recorded the podcast scenes in duet, which makes the listening experience especially immersive. I also wrote a bonus podcast episode just for the audiobook, and my producer had the brilliant idea to include tip-line call-ins, which are incredibly fun to hear. The Macmillan Audio team really knocked it out of the park, and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.CARO: How can we expect to feel when we read the last page/listen to the last chapter?TIFFANY: I set out to write a thriller with a soft center. It has twists and tense cliffhanging chapters, but the real heart of the story is the friendship between Benny and Joy. If I've done my job, you'll feel everything from delight to devastation along the way, and close the book feeling satisfied — maybe even with a renewed sense of hope in the goodness of human nature.CARO: Last question! If Joy and Benny were recipes from What to Cook, which would they be?TIFFANY: Easy! Joy and Benny would absolutely choose the 3-ingredient chorizo street tacos. Not only are street tacos their favorite, but the chorizo twist also feels very on brand — a little unexpected and guaranteed to make things more interesting. Plus, a 10-minute meal is always a win!WTC Insiders, we're so excited to announce a new perk of your subscription: a free audiobook download thanks to Macmillan Audio! Starting today through the end of March, you can download This Story Might Save Your Life through your WTC perks page. We'll have a new audiobook download for you in May, June, and July, too. Click here for the rundown on how to access this perk and others. As a reminder, a $100 Insiders subscription is valued at nearly $1,000! It includes a paid annual subscription to WTC for yourself, two annual gift subscriptions, shopping perks from Thrive and Duckbill, and six of my meal-prep plans, in addition to this newest perk. Click here to learn more about and/or upgrade to an Insider subscription.* I've been wearing these jeans nonstop. Get your smaller size, if between two. * I'm wearing a lot of these turtlenecks with vests these days, which is my best friend Lily's uniform that I stole from her. I got this vest from Sezane while I was in New York and wore it on The Drew Barrymore Show (with a navy turtle under!). I borrowed an old vest from Lily that is similar to this one from Quince to wear on GMA! And I wore this one of Lily's with a dark grey turtle under for my keynote at UNC. I also ordered this one when I got home. I told you, lots of turtlenecks and vests!* St. Patrick's Day is next Tuesday! Low-effort, high-reward holiday moms unite. Last year was my first year as a holiday mom on St. Patrick's Day — I put about 15 minutes of effort into it and my kids still talk about how St. Patrick's Day is the most fun day ever. Here's exactly what I did and what I'm planning to repeat this year: rainbow tic-tacs leading from their bedroom door all the way to the toilet. Toilet dyed green. Leprechaun potty tricks! Then, downstairs, a green tablecloth, rainbow napkins, green plates, crayons with coloring pages from Something To Host, gold chocolate coins scattered all over the table (but this year I got these sour gummy coins instead because my kids don't actually seem to like chocolate coins), a big rainbow-shaped fruit spread (strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, apples…) with whipped cream clouds at the bottom of the rainbow. And Lucky Charms!* I just bought this Lake pajama set for probably the twentieth time for a friend's birthday. It's very important for my overcrowded, overstimulated brain to have a few go-to gifts that I know every woman in my life will love and deeply appreciate so that I'm not constantly racking my brain for new ideas. This set is my fave for a pregnant or newly postpartum mom. Another go-to is sending a cookie cake via Instacart or DoorDash with something funny written on it when they need a little pick me up or a birthday hurrah.* One of my best friends from college, Mary Pell, and her daughter Leighton are coming to visit us next week for her Spring Break. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!!!! They're coming for three nights, which Mary Pell once told me is the maximum length a guest should stay. “You know what they say, guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.” I love Southerners and their limitless expressions. * Local (Monterey County, CA) people, George and I went to Fishwife in Pacific Grove last night and had the greatest night! It's totally dated but in a great way. Our food was delicious and there were some really inventive sauces. There were also some extremely 90s-feeling elements, like steamed broccoli and squash on every entree, and a truly wild lime green syrup garnishing the key lime pie. It is stuck in time but in a really cozy, still delicious way. We felt like intruders at a locals-only spot. And the service was amazing!!Every week, we dig into the archives to bring a few favorites back to the top of your meal plan. This week's lineup leans heavily into bowls — the kind of dinners that are flexible, packed with flavor, and easy to adapt based on what's in your fridge.1. happy bowls, 2025Roasted sweet potatoes, beets, cauliflower, and red onion piled over grains and greens with a completely addictive cashew sauce. This one's basically a choose-your-own-adventure veggie bowl and an excellent meal-prep situation — make the veggies and sauce once and build your bowls all week.2. thai-ish steak & noodle salad, 2024A Hillstone-inspired noodle salad that tastes restaurant-level but is totally doable at home. Tender steak, herbs, mango, crunchy cabbage, and noodles tossed in a punchy cashew-lime-sesame dressing (that's so good you'll want to drink it!).3. 30-minute pork and kimchi CYOA bowls, 2023A fast, flavor-packed pork and kimchi situation with rice, a drizzly tahini-gochujang sauce, and lettuce leaves to wrap it all up in. Set everything out family-style and let everyone build their own bowl, wrap, or chopped salad.4. sriracha shrimp sushi bowls, 2022All the flavors of sushi night! Sticky rice, saucy shrimp, cucumbers, avocado, and pickled ginger — all without rolling a single piece of sushi. The sriracha-soy marinade doubles as the sauce, which keeps things simple. From WTCer Erin: “Woooooow this one is so flavorful and good. And so freaking quick to prepare!” This recipe's in March's really simple meal plan, in case you're looking for an easy solution to meal planning for the days ahead!5. blackened fish taco bowls, 2021Broiled blackened cod gets piled onto lime-butter rice with citrus salsa and crunchy slaw for bright, taco-inspired bowls. If cooking fish feels intimidating, I will demystify it for you here!Congrats to Megan Z, the winner of last week's Boopshop.org giveaway! We use affiliate links when sharing product recs, which means we may earn a small commission off of purchases you make through those links. This does not cost you anything extra and is a way to support the production of and team behind What to Cook. Sponsorships are another way we partner with brands that we authentically love and can personally vouch for. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit whattocook.substack.com/subscribe

Send a textToday on Bookish Flights, I'm joined by Katherine Scott Crawford, award-winning author of The Miniaturist's Assistant and Keowee Valley, history enthusiast, and self-proclaimed recovering academic. An eleventh-generation Southerner, Katherine directs writing retreats at a remote mountain lodge in Western North Carolina, where she lives with her family and would much rather be in the woods with her dog than anywhere else. A former backpacking guide and adjunct professor, her writing has appeared in newspapers across the country and abroad. If you love historical fiction, this conversation is for you.Episode Highlights:The deep, layered history of the American SouthHer novel The Miniaturist's Assistant, set in Charleston and the research and imagination behind bringing 1804 and 2004 to lifeWhy historical fiction is the best form of time travelHer writing process and the rhythms of a creative lifeThe idea that reading is a hobby you actively choose above all elseHow living in Western North Carolina means you can't “trip over a rock without tripping over history”Katherine describes herself as a history nerd, and it shows in the best way. We talk about time as something mysterious and porous,  how the past presses into the present, and how fiction allows us to experience that overlap in deeply human ways. Her biggest hope for readers? A truly transportive experience into both 1804 and 2004 Charleston.Connect with Katherine:InstagramFacebookWebsiteShow NotesSome links are affiliate links, which are no extra cost to you but do help to support the show.Books and authors mentioned in the episode:Anne of Green Gables by L.M. MontgomeryThe Black Wolf by Louise PennyThe Everlasting by Alix E. HarrowThe Electricity of Every Living Thing by Katherine MayBook FlightThe Frozen River by Ariel LawhonThe Lost Book of Eleanor Dareby Kimberly BrockThe Literary Undoing of Victoria Swann by Virginia Pye✨ Find Your Next Great Read! We just hit 175 episodes of Bookish Flights, and to celebrate, I created the Bookish Flights Roadmap — a guide to all 175 podcast episodes, sorted by genre to help you find your next great read faster.Explore it here → www.bookishflights.com/read/roadmapSupport the showBe sure to join the Bookish Flights community on social media. Happy listening! Instagram Facebook Website

The fells are, for like the tenth time, heading down to Louisiana and them there swamps, this time with Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. We'd like to say it's a good time, but... well, you'll just have to listen now, won't you? Jokes this time include: North Starz, gettin' gatored, bird truces, Mr. Rockford, Southerners don't exist, Dame Margo Martindale, and a heapin' helpin' of earnestness.

During the American Civil War, clothing became central to the ways people waged war and experienced its cost. Through the clothes they made, wore, mended, lost, and stole, Americans expressed their allegiances, showed their love, confronted their social and economic challenges, subverted expectations, and, ultimately, preserved their history. As the collections they left behind make clear, Civil War Americans believed clothing was not merely a reflection of one's class, gender, race, military rank, political ideology, or taste. Instead, Northerners and Southerners alike understood that clothing—from the weave of a fabric to the style and make of a coat—had the power to affect people's way of living through the war's tumult.In A Nation Unraveled: Clothing, Culture, and Violence in the American Civil War Era (UNC Press, 2026), Dr. Sarah Jones Weicksel reveals the meanings clothing had for Civil War Americans. Contributing to the growing body of scholarship on the material culture of the Civil War, Dr. Weicksel invites readers to understand how the war penetrated daily life by focusing on the intimate, visceral, material experiences that shaped how people moved through the world. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

During the American Civil War, clothing became central to the ways people waged war and experienced its cost. Through the clothes they made, wore, mended, lost, and stole, Americans expressed their allegiances, showed their love, confronted their social and economic challenges, subverted expectations, and, ultimately, preserved their history. As the collections they left behind make clear, Civil War Americans believed clothing was not merely a reflection of one's class, gender, race, military rank, political ideology, or taste. Instead, Northerners and Southerners alike understood that clothing—from the weave of a fabric to the style and make of a coat—had the power to affect people's way of living through the war's tumult.In A Nation Unraveled: Clothing, Culture, and Violence in the American Civil War Era (UNC Press, 2026), Dr. Sarah Jones Weicksel reveals the meanings clothing had for Civil War Americans. Contributing to the growing body of scholarship on the material culture of the Civil War, Dr. Weicksel invites readers to understand how the war penetrated daily life by focusing on the intimate, visceral, material experiences that shaped how people moved through the world. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

During the American Civil War, clothing became central to the ways people waged war and experienced its cost. Through the clothes they made, wore, mended, lost, and stole, Americans expressed their allegiances, showed their love, confronted their social and economic challenges, subverted expectations, and, ultimately, preserved their history. As the collections they left behind make clear, Civil War Americans believed clothing was not merely a reflection of one's class, gender, race, military rank, political ideology, or taste. Instead, Northerners and Southerners alike understood that clothing—from the weave of a fabric to the style and make of a coat—had the power to affect people's way of living through the war's tumult.In A Nation Unraveled: Clothing, Culture, and Violence in the American Civil War Era (UNC Press, 2026), Dr. Sarah Jones Weicksel reveals the meanings clothing had for Civil War Americans. Contributing to the growing body of scholarship on the material culture of the Civil War, Dr. Weicksel invites readers to understand how the war penetrated daily life by focusing on the intimate, visceral, material experiences that shaped how people moved through the world. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

We could cue this one up with a bunch of puns and song lyrics, but hey, that's what the episode is for.  In this week's Extra Sugar, we're talking about SATC's fifth main character: New York City (but like, really Manhattan, which the show largely favored of the city's five boroughs). The show lets us know – from the very first frame in the pilot that this is first and foremost – a NYC show. We love it. Honestly, after back-to-back traditional soundstage sitcoms, we're just glad to be outside!  So let's see if two Southerners can do the ‘city that never sleeps' any ding-dang justice. Unclear but join us anyway, if you don't like it, you can judge it – and that's almost as good as liking something for real.

On Feb. 18, 1776, John Adams writes to Abigail and confides in her about a delicate diplomatic mission to Canada. He throws a little shade at the Catholic leadership in Canada and Southerners and admires his wife's mastery of the French language. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0229 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. This segment introduces the "Jesse Scouts," a Union special forces unit formed by John Frémont and named after his wife. Led by figures like John Charles Carpenter, these men wore Confederate disguises to infiltrate enemy lines. Despite their effectiveness as commandos, their lack of discipline led to friction with the regular Army. Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. Richard Blazer leads the "Legion of Honor," a hunter-killer team using Jesse Scout tradecraft to fight Confederate partisans in West Virginia. Blazer employs detective work to track down the ruthless Thurman brothers, who attack Union supply lines in the rugged terrain of the Appalachians. Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. A failed Union raid on Richmond carrying orders to kill Jefferson Davis prompts the Confederacy to escalate irregular warfare and political influence operations. As the Confederate Secret Service aids the Copperhead movement, author Herman Melville embeds with Union cavalry to witness the hunt for the elusive John Mosby. Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. Confederate General Jubal Early threatens Washington, D.C., where Lincolnwitnesses the battle at Fort Stevens. Meanwhile, partisan leader John Mosby operates independently, capturing Union forces at Mount Zion Church. O'Donnell notes that better coordination between Early and Mosby could have endangered the capital. Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. Grant orders total war in the Shenandoah Valley to crush Mosby's Rangers. Although Richard Blazer's scouts initially have success with Spencer carbines, they are eventually lured into a trap and annihilated by Mosby's men at Kabletown, where Blazer is captured by Ranger Lewis Powell. Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. Lewis Powell, the Ranger who captured Blazer, is revealed to be a Confederate Secret Service operative working with John Wilkes Booth. Powell returns to Baltimore to aid in a plot to kidnap Lincoln, while Mosby deploys troops to secure a potential escape route for the conspirators. Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. Harry Harrison Young takes command of the Jesse Scouts, serving as Sheridan'sstrategic eyes in Confederate uniforms. These daring scouts deceive enemy forces and carry messages through enemy lines, enabling Sheridan to move his army effectively to join Grant and trap Lee. Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. Robert E. Lee rejects the option of guerrilla warfare at Appomattox, choosing surrender to preserve the nation. Years later, former partisan John Singleton Mosby becomes close friends with U.S. Grant and joins the Republican Party, earning the enmity of many Southerners but symbolizing reconciliation. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. At Appomattox, Grant offers generous terms allowing Confederates to keep horses and sidearms. However, Lincoln does not immediately declare the war over; in his final speech, he focuses on the complex path to peace and suffrage, viewing the surrender as a step rather than a conclusion. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. Following Lincoln's assassination, General Sherman negotiates a surrender with Confederate General Johnston at Bennett Place. Sherman attempts to secure a comprehensive peace including civil matters, but officials in Washington, seeking stricter retribution, reject the terms as too generous, forcing a second, purely military surrender. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. While the Grand Review celebrates victory in Washington, General Sheridan is sent to the Texas border with 50,000 troops to counter French imperial ambitions in Mexico and suppress remaining Confederate resistance. Meanwhile, Confederate General Kirby Smith flees to Mexico rather than surrender his western forces. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. The government utilizes military tribunals to try Lincoln's assassins and Andersonville commandant Henry Wirz, arguing the war is ongoing. Prosecutors hope to pressure Wirz into implicating Jefferson Davis in prisoner atrocities to justify hanging the Confederate president, but Wirz refuses and is executed alone. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. Vorenberg discusses Richard Henry Dana's "Grasp of War" speech, which argued the war could not end until the victor secured guarantees against future conflict. This philosophy, demanding the enemy be held down, contrasted sharply with Lincoln's "let 'em up easy" wrestling metaphor, fueling Congressional debates over reconstruction. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. Vorenberg explains how President Johnson's racism and desire for a hasty peace alienated Congress. Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights and Freedman's Bureau Acts, arguing the war was over. Republicans, however, insisted war powers remained necessary to protect freedmen, leading them to override Johnson and unite against him. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. To undercut radicals, Johnson followed Seward's advice to declare the insurrection ended by executive proclamation in 1866. Vorenberg notes this "official" peace ignored realities like the New Orleans massacre. Simultaneously, Senator Doolittle was misled by General Carlton regarding the mistreatment of the Navajo at Bosque Redondo during his peace commission tour. Guest: Michael Vorenberg. General Grant found himself caught between a hostile President Johnson and Secretary Stanton. Vorenberg describes the disastrous "swing around the circle" tour, where Johnson used Grant'spopularity as a shield while making embarrassing speeches. Witnessing Johnson's behavior, Grant ultimately sided with Stanton, realizing the President was unworthy of his loyalty.

Guest: Patrick K. O'Donnell. Robert E. Lee rejects the option of guerrilla warfare at Appomattox, choosing surrender to preserve the nation. Years later, former partisan John Singleton Mosby becomes close friends with U.S. Grant and joins the Republican Party, earning the enmity of many Southerners but symbolizing reconciliation.1914 GAR DETROIT