Episode Details

0:01:00

Former This American Life producer Sarah Vowell shares the history of Revolutionary War icon, the Marquis de Lafayette

Vowell was an early contributor to This American Life, before she became a voice actor, and the author of several books. 

She shares the story of the Marquis de Lafayette’s triumphant and celebratory return to the United States in 1824-25 as the only living general on the side of the American Revolution.

Sarah Vowell, was a longtime contributor to This American Life, the voice actor for Violet in the Disney animated series The Incredibles, and is the author of “Lafayette in the Somewhat United States.”

A version of this conversation originally aired in April 2026.

0:13:00

‘John Chavis: Quiet Leader of an Early Revolution’

A preacher, teacher and Revolutionary War veteran, John Chavis was a free Black man in North Carolina born a century before Emancipation. 

Today, we’ll hear about John Chavis’ huge influence and impact, despite the walls built to block him. And how at the end of his life, his livelihood was taken away from him as the rights of free Black men in North Carolina were seized after Nat Turner’s Rebellion.

Ben Justesen, writer, and author of chapter “John Chavis: Quiet Leader of an Early Revolution” in the University of North Carolina Press book North Carolina’s Revolutionary Founders 

0:33:00

Chef Ricky Moore represents the South for America 250

Durham chef Ricky Moore sits down with Leoneda Inge to chat what America means to him. Moore was in a group of four chefs who made food for a “Taste of America” celebration by the National Archives Foundation.

Ricky Moore, James Beard award-winning chef, the creator and owner of The Saltbox Seafood Joint in Durham, and represented the American South for a celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary