Hey there, it's Wayfair here, where delivery and setup are as easy as a few taps on your phone. You're relaxing in an old hammock, scrolling Wayfair's app, when you spot it, a brand new patio set.
Next thing you know, Wayfair delivers it right to your patio and sets it up. Whoa, you need a new grill too?
Alright, Wayfair's got you covered. With Wayfair's room of choice delivery and fast experts set up on qualifying orders, life gets a little easier. Visit Wayfair.com or the Wayfair app. Wayfair, Every Style, Every Home. What is that?
Oh, yeah, it's a World Cup holder? Like the soccer tournament World Cup? Holder. For the world. Fits every car, holds every cup.
It has a Carvana logo? Carvana made it. They buy and sell cars, so they made a car cup holder.
So, uh Got any good cups lately? Used to, just couldn't figure out where in the world to put 'em. The World Cup Holder. Brought to you by Carvana. Proud sponsors of the World Cup holder.
Sign up today to win yours at cup-holder2026.com. Not authorized or endorsed by FIFA, not a real product, for parody and fair use purposes only. Oh no. Good morning from a breezy New York Harbor. I'm Jane Pauley.
And this is a special edition of Sunday Morning. all about these United States. The nation's long-awaited milestone birthday is just a few days off. And all through the morning, we'll be celebrating the history, culture, and just some of the events that have shaped our nation over these 250 years. Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind.
that truly reversed the course of government. and with three little words. We the people. And so my fellow Americans. The energy.
the face. The devotion. which we bring to this endeavor. Um Will light our country and all who serve it. We will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people.
Yes, we can. The American experiment, they called it. since from the first there were those with doubts a nation such as ours could stand the test of time. Of course, the Founding Fathers certainly hoped the Republic would endure. But even they understood there were no guarantees.
To begin this morning, Mo Ranka examines the men and their revolutionary ideas. who turn the world upside down. They weren't commonly known as the Founding Fathers until the 1920s. But by the twenty twenties that powerful honor had become fraught. Lots of times people just want to say, we'll just write off the Declaration of Independence because of Thomas Jefferson's hypocrisy.
We can't write it off. We shouldn't write it off. Ahead on Sunday morning, the men whose radical beliefs continue to shape America. What would a celebration of America be without a rogue trip? Lee Cowan will take the wheel for a ride down America's Main Street.
Route 66. It hasn't been around for 250 years, but Route 66 sure captured America's spirit. It's a road for blue bloods and rednecks. It's a road of humanity for everyone. Everyone has traveled this road.
A drive down the mother road. Wait. on Sunday morning. From Benjamin Franklin to Mark Twain Kevin Hart. Comedy has always been a pillar of American culture.
No surprise then that comedy legend Larry David is marking the semi-quincentennial with his unique take on American history. We decided there was no one better for him to talk with than his longtime on screen foil. Susie Asman. Hi, La. Hey.
We're discussing Life Larry and the pursuit of unhappiness. Yeah. He's my foil on curbing your enthusiasm. I know you look ridiculous. How about that?
You act ridiculous. Are you kidding? And he finds funny in all things American. I don't want to live in a country. Where people share umbrellas.
Larry Davids' take on our nation's history. What's your name? Rosa. I'm Marie. Ahead on Sunday morning.
No, uh I hadn't love a good debate. We decided to ask a group of some notable Americans a provocative question. What are our nation's most essential songs? Tracy Smith has helped us come up with 250 songs for 250 years. Let the arguments begin.
There's something happening here Think of a moment in American history, and chances are you'll think of a song. Is there something that makes a song American? Is it a melting pot just like America is? What matters most is how they connect with listeners. Our nation's soundtrack coming up on Sunday morning.
We'll have those stories and much more. Sunday morning celebrates These United States, America's 250th birthday. Our semi-quincentennial. and we'll be back after this. The Founding Fathers, 250 years on, their philosophies, arguments, and contradictions still shape our lives.
But who were these men? Why have their ideas endured? From Mooracca, we have a lesson in American history. Yes, they were flawed. Many of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence Indeed, the men who wrote it were themselves slaveholders.
Yes also. what they did that summer changed the world. Lots of times people just want to say, we'll just write off the Declaration of Independence because of Thomas Jefferson's hypocrisy. We can't write it off. We shouldn't write it off.
It is our inheritance. Harvard professor Danielle Allen is one of the world's foremost experts on the Declaration of Independence. To honor the 250th, what's the best thing each of us can do? Take the time to read the Declaration of Independence out loud. I mean, it's only 1,337 words, yet it's one of the most important philosophical statements about what a good government is, what the people deserve, what we are as human beings.
By the summer of 1776, the Revolutionary War was in full swing. Delegates from the 13 colonies meeting in Philadelphia authorized the drafting of a Declaration of Independence. The drafting committee included Benjamin Franklin, a self-made printer and inventor, and Massachusetts lawyer John Adams. But it was the new kid, thirty-three-year-old Jefferson, who hammered out the first draft. including the phrase, All men are created equal.
But did he really mean everyone? Alan says yes. Just consider what didn't make the final draft. They included a paragraph critiquing George III for the slave trade, and they described that as a violation of the sacred rights of life and liberty of a distant people in Africa. In other words, they applied the same concept of sacred rights to Africans as they did to themselves.
Why did they take that passage out? In the period of 1776, just as later with the Constitution, they needed to compromise, and one contested issue was already slavery. Fifty-six men signed the Declaration, a death sentence if the Revolution was unsuccessful. What did the Founding Fathers give us? of certain basic facts that within human nature, there is an instinctive yearning and desire.
For life. Liberty. and the pursuit of happiness, but those things are there in nature and the purpose of government is to foster them. Purpose of government is not to rule over the people. That is an enormous gift.
in the history of human ideas. As a group, says University of Florida professor Alan Gelzo, the founders represent the most gifted group of leaders who ever lived in one generation in one place. How did you decide who made the grade as a founding father?
Well, in a way, I don't know that I've ever consciously sat down and made up an official list. There are some people whom you can point to and say, all right, they are really indispensable.
Somebody like Washington. Take George Washington off the table, and I don't really think you have a successful revolution. He's vital. Do your founding fathers include any women? Yes, they do.
I think almost everybody includes someone like Abigail Adams. Because? Because she was the wife of John Adams, and she was constantly peppering him with advice, and she expected it to be taken. Do your founding fathers include any black Americans? Oh, yes.
They include the soldiers, the rank and file of the Rhode Island Regiment that paraded here through the streets of Philadelphia en route to Yorktown. I can't see. Gelzo was a student tour guide in Philadelphia during the bicentennial. Yeah. Since that time, he's seen a stark change in how the founding and the founders are remembered.
I think part of it is because we have come through and are still involved in some very difficult and contentious times. We're not on the other side. of these contentions yet. Danielle Allen says that this year, our 250th, we should celebrate America and, yes, its founding fathers. not for its perfection, but for its promise.
I am proud of our country. this country put on the world stage. This proposition that people can govern themselves. at the scale of a nation. Didn't exist, that idea.
What this team did over at Independence Hall is a big deal. It's a huge deal. And we should be proud of that. And again, pride doesn't mean you can't be clear-eyed about shortcomings, but we should be proud of what we've made possible for human beings: the birth of freedom, the pursuit of equality among us. What is that?
Uh yeah, it's a World Cup holder. Like the soccer tournament World Cup? Holder for the world. Fits every car, holds every cup. It has a Carvana logo?
Carvana made it. They buy and sell cars, so they made a car cup holder.
So, uh Got any good cups lately? I used to, just couldn't figure out where in the world to put them. The World Cup Holder. Brought to you by Carvana, proud sponsors of the World Cup holder. Sign up today to win yours at cup-holder2026.com.
Not authorized or endorsed by FIFA, not a real product for parity and fair use purposes only. Insurance isn't one size fits all. That's why drivers have trusted Progressive's name-your-price tool for years. Just tell Progressive what you want to pay, and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Visit Progressive.com to find a car insurance rate that works for you.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and Coverage Match Limited by State Law. Welcome to the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, Texas. I'm Luke Allen. This is the midpoint of America's Main Street, Route 66.
Chicago is 1,139 miles that way, and LA is 1,139 miles the other way. And like our country, the road is celebrating an anniversary too. And there's only one way to celebrate. Uh Yeah. Route 66 begs to be driven.
You don't have to do it in a 56 pickup, but... We borrowed one anyway, just for the fun of it. You're on the main street of America. Riding shotgun with this, Michael Wallace. journalist, author, and longtime Route 66 historian.
Nothing about Route 66 is predictable. It's a word you should never use. That's why I like it, it's unpredictable. Uh Celebrating its 100 years requires a lot of looking back in our rearview mirrors. That 66th Highway, it's mighty hard.
All day you're hot, all night you freeze. In the 30s, Route 66 was a highway of hope, the mother road, as John Steinbeck called it, for those fleeing the Dust Bowl. Get your kicks on route. By the 40s, it'll become a place to get your kicks. And by the 60s, Get your motor running Head on.
Drivers found its endless expanse. Pretty easy rough. But Route 66 had its dark stretches too. in states shrouded by Jim Crow laws? Black Americans were advised where and where not to drive.
Sometimes the mother road could be an abusive mother. Long since decommissioned, Route 66 once stretched from Chicago all the way to Los Angeles, some 2,400 miles through eight states. and along the way it offered scenic vistas and roadside curiosities.
Something our Charles Corral knew a thing or two about. We were just coming over this little rise on Route 66 west of Amarillo, and I said, will you look over there? That looks for all the world like ten Cadillacs nosed down in a wheat field. They were. Cadillac Ranch outside Amarillo remains a must-stop to this day.
Mm-hmm. If you go up the road to Tulsa, you'll find towering characters lining the road, including. Buck Adam the Space Cowboy. Imagined by Mary Beth Babcock. We call it Tulsa Land of the Giants now.
She runs a Route 66 gift shop in what used to be an old filling station. It's about, I mean, the people, right? It's always about the people. Always about the people. That's what it's all about.
People, people, people. CBS has been down this road before, of course, meeting all kinds of people. Gee, wow. Like 99-year-old Angel Delgadillo. a retired barber in Saliman, Arizona.
When we first met back in 1989, It it touched millions and millions and millions and millions of people. for years and years and years and years and years. But once nearby I-40 was finished in 1984, Everything changed.
So when we open that highway The traveling public took to I-40. like ducks take to water. Route 66 became the road less traveled. The bones of old motels and bars and restaurants litter the road. beaten by time.
and the desert sun. For a while Route 66 was for Pat. Nuts, Lily and Red. When we visited her back in 1993, She was bemoaning that life had somehow sped up. whizzing past her blue swallow Motel.
in Tucum Carrie, New Mexico. People went as fast as they could, everywhere they could go. Even so, some tourists did slow down, from time to time anyway. which at first puzzled Angel Delgadillo. I finally asked myself, what are these people looking for?
It finally dawned on me they're looking for America of yesterday. He got the idea that if parts of the road were designated historic, it might just bring people back, like those scenic viewpoint signs that convince drivers to stop. And it worked! Tour buses now arrive here in Seligman almost every day. Back in Tucum Carry, New Mexico at the Blue Swallow Motel, Rooms are now usually booked solid, and while Lillian Redmond is no longer here, It's still family run.
This is a little bubble back into the 1950s and 60s and we call it our little happy bubble and it's a neat place to be. Rob and Don Federico don't call themselves owners, they're caretakers, they say. of a rich roadside ritual. The lamps. Have you seen the lamps in there?
For decades, travelers have pulled in as strangers, but after watching the sunset together, they often hit the road again. as friends. And while we're the ones keeping it rolling, it's the folks that keep it alive. Bridge 66 is a paved Norman rockway. The two-lane thread where The progress of the East.
once met the traditions of the West and became part of our national tapestry. It was always a beloved road, always. If you're looking for the fastest way to get somewhere, your GPS probably won't bring you here. But if it's the open road you want. with all its possibilities and surprises.
There are two lanes waiting for you. to find Americana. Yeah. On the go. For 250 years now, you might say the world has been playing our song.
But if you had to make a list to decide just what goes into the essential American songbook, What songs would you choose? For months now, we've asked some very accomplished folks of all callings, that very question. The result, the Sunday Morning Essential American Songbook. 250 years. 250 songs.
Here's Tracy Smith. Hope you When we try to think about what does it mean to be American, this almost impossible question, one of the ways we might try and answer that is through music. I'm in heaven. What are the sounds that defined the American experience at different points in time? Nate Sloan, a professor of musicology at USC's Thornton School of Music, is something of an expert on our national soundtrack.
What makes a quintessential American song?
Well, it has to be something that people can sing along to. I think an American song needs to be communal. Yeah. And beyond that, I think an American song can take a lot of different forms. I think it can be something that comments on society and our nation in some way.
No. Or it can simply be a song that has stood the test of time. Wail over the rainbow way ahead and the dreams. What's so unique about our country is the plurality of cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds we have here. Um It's reflected in composer George Gershwin's beguiling mixture of classical and jazz in Rhapsody and Blue.
And when we asked our Sunday morning jury about their other favorite songs, there was pretty much something for everyone. Hi. ESP33 for my What it means to me. Among the top favorites, Respect. But if there is a number one, it's this Woody Guthrie tune.
This land is your land. This land is my land. It's such a powerful homage to this country. It's not overly nationalistic. It doesn't take sides.
It's a message we can all relate to, this land. Is this powerland? The list is full of contrasts. Billie Holiday's devastating song about lynching, strange fruit. Black bodies swinging.
In the southern breeze. isn't far from this Beach Boys classic. God only knows what I'd be without you. This list, the songs are kind of all over the place. And is that.
Very American. We're a diverse country, and we're a young country. This list is almost like the Wild, Wild West of music. Anything goes. The sort of chaos of that is actually a beautiful representation of America itself.
It's only a ten-minute ferry ride from Lower Manhattan to Governor's Island. But that short trip feels like a journey to another world. Parks and open space cover about two-thirds of the island's 172 acres. Yeah. The Lenape people were the first to settle here.
They called it Pagunk, or Nut Island, for its abundant trees. The Dutch arrived in 1624 before relocating to Manhattan. Then when the British took control, they reserved the land for colonial governors, giving Governor's Island its name. Yes. Following the American Revolution, the island became a military installation, which it remained until the 1990s.
Today, visitors come for its parks, cultural events, and sweeping harbor views. You can even glamp on the island. That's glamorous camping for the uninitiated. That alone makes Governor's Island truly one of New York City's most unique public spaces. It's long been said that these United States are a melting pot.
From Luke Burbank, A Tasting Menu. For 250 years, the key ingredient in American culture has been immigration. And nowhere is that more obvious than in the kitchen, which is where you'll find Truong Nguyen most days. How about I cook the fried rice? Nguyen came from Vietnam as a teenager in the 1980s and discovered something interesting.
The flavors that he grew up with paired perfectly with, of all things, Cajun food. I suggest you to put this on just in case it kind of spilled in your shirt a little bit. Love it, okay. Anytime you gotta put gloves on, you know it's gonna be a good food experience. Yes, sir.
Right? You gotta put on safety equipment. It's called Viet Cajun cuisine, and it's something that could only happen in America. The clean, bright flavors of Vietnamese food combined with the earthy, smoky spice of Cajun cuisine. We try to marry the two cultures together because Cajun style, you have a little sour.
There is sati. and spicy. But on this style, on Vietnamese, everybody loved to eat fresh. This version of what's sometimes called fusion cuisine has become wildly popular in Houston, with hundreds of restaurants serving it. Including at Nguyen's Crawfish and Noodles.
Hey, it's Francis Lamb, host of The Splendid Table today. Francis Lamb, host of Public Radio's The Splendid Table, says the story of new fusion food is about as old as the nation itself. Really, unless you're talking about true indigenous food, like the food of the native peoples, Or arguably, you're talking about the food of Africans who were brought here against their will. Then every other form of food in America is the result of something that came from somewhere else, took root here, mixed and mingled with what else was here, and that's what created our cuisine. Texas fishermen claim Vietnamese refugees are overfishing the Gulf waters.
But it's been a long journey to get here. Back in the 1980s, the wave of post-war Vietnamese refugees was often anything but welcome. citizens In 1981, the Ku Klux Klan burned a fishing boat they named the USS Viet Cong. The people reject you. at the beginning because they don't understand who you are.
But when the Americans accept you, they accept you with the heart. Cajun food itself was a fusion of French, Native American, West African, and Spanish cuisines. America is often described as a melting pot. But Francis Lamb uses a different food analogy. I always think it's more like a mixed salad.
It's all these ingredients and they're all together. but you can still see their individuality. But the whole thing. is. A unified whole.
Or maybe a salad roll. That is, if you're eating yet Cajun food. I'm pretty confident talking into a mic. Hey, I'm doing it right now. But home projects, I second-guess everything.
Is that noise normal? Is that water damage? Who do I even call? That's where Thumbtack comes in. Just upload a photo or voice note, and it uses AI-powered search to match you with a right top-rated local pro.
So instead of guessing, you get clarity and can hire with confidence. For your next home project, try Thumbtack. Hire the right pro today. Hey sweetie, your mother showed me this Carvana thing for selling the car. I'm gonna give it a try.
Wish me luck. Me again, I put in the license plate, it gave me an offer. Unbelievable.
Okay, I accepted the offer. They're picking it up Tuesday from the driveway. I haven't even left my chair. It's done. The car is gone.
I'm holding a check. Anyway, Carvana, give it a whirl. Love ya.
So good, you'll wanna leave a voicemail about it. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up these may apply. I'm David Pogue at the Steamtown National Historic Site in Pennsylvania, and this It is Big Boy, the biggest functioning steam train in the world. Mm.
It's a lovingly restored 1941 Union Pacific locomotive. crossing the country to celebrate America's 250th birthday. Are you seeing crowds? Enormous crowds. We're talking millions of people.
Ed Dickens is the chief engineer. There's actually smells that you're feeling. There's sounds that you get acclimated to. It's a total sensory experience. It was people, it was cargo, it was mail, it was everything that you needed to go west.
According to Steam Town Superintendent Jeremy Comez, the railroad opened up the American West. When we finished the Louisiana Purchase, it was said that it would take 1,000 years to settle the West. It took less than 100. The railroad didn't get off to a promising start. The story we learn in grade school is the building of the transcontinental.
Nobody looks at what happened next. There's a reason historian Richard White called his book railroaded. The people who built the railroad were largely speculators and small-time operators who were hoping to make a large amount of money from the stock manipulation and from the actual building of the railroad and then get out. Legions of mistreated Chinese laborers worked on the construction. Native Americans were displaced.
And once it was complete in eighteen sixty nine, the railroad wasn't even very good at carrying stuff. In the winter time, that became very, very difficult to do because of the weather and because the route was built quickly but very, very poorly.
So the irony is they're built as freight railroads, but the cheaper way to go freight is to go through Panama. But by the 1890s the bugs were worked out and the railroad began delivering a lot more than cargo. For example, it brought us time zones. Used to be, noon was whenever the sun was overhead.
So the time might be off by a few minutes from town to town. Mountain time, Pacific time, all of that is going to be an invention of the railroads. Companies could now sell products coast to coast. Wrigley chewing gum becomes a national brand because it can be sold everywhere and everyone recognizes it. Even our eating habits changed.
For the first time, California farmers could ship fresh fruit nationwide. The orange becomes a national fruit. The orange juice becomes a breakfast drink because of the railroads. after its rocky start. The railroad affected just about everything in America.
Transportation, communications, commerce, cities and suburbs, politics. It changed our perception of time and distance. and the country itself. No wonder Jeremy Comaz gets a thrill from watching the last great steam train cross the country. I think that railroading history is American history.
This thing built in the 1940s, still here running, still out here showing that ingenuity and that innovation of the United States. 250 years ago, Thomas Jefferson provided the moral justification for American independence with the words, all men are created equal. And ever since, Martha Teischner tells us, women have been fighting to make certain those words include us. Equality of rights under the law by the United States or by any state on account of sex. That's all the Equal Rights Amendment says.
No mention even of women. Just 24 words, fighting words, written by Alice Paul, a driving force behind the passage, finally in 1920, of the vote for women. Paul first submitted a version of the ERA to Congress in 1923. What do we want? Be quiet!
Window A lot. The fight to get it passed took nearly fifty years. Getting it ratified by three-quarters of the states was supposed to be the easy part. Why? Because.
who's based on justice and common sense and fairness. Eighty-seven-year-old feminist writer Letty Cotton Pogrebin was one of the founders of Ms. magazine and is a titan of the women's movement. By nineteen seventy five, The country will wake up and we'll have equality. Wrong.
The opposition was ferocious. Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, its loudest voice. Women do have ambition and work hard, but most women choose to apply those energies to building their family. Congress set a time limit for the ratification process until 1982. But the yes vote stalled at thirty-five, three short of the thirty-eight states needed.
This was Me at my desk. Even without the ERA, change has come. This is the chicest woman I've ever seen. Exhibit A. Letty Cotton Pogrebin at the beginning of her career in the early 1960s.
compared to her granddaughter Maya and daughter Robin. There was a set of pink cards in every employment agency that were women's jobs and blue cards that were men's jobs. Because that's little Robin. It wasn't as if I grew up conscious of barriers. Robin Pogrebin, 61, has been a prominent New York Times journalist for more than 30 years.
My generation had the luxury of my mother's generation breaking down the doors for us.
So we were not taking to the streets ourselves. I just didn't feel like we were putting all our chips on the ERA. A lot of women I know, really their ultimate goal are is to be wives and mothers. Twenty-seven-year-old Maya Claris works in finance. She does intend to have a career, a big one.
But the Equal Rights Amendment, not something that ever crossed her mind. I never really considered. The fact that I was a woman in the way I was living my life. When I was told about we were doing this, it was kind of like, Do women not have equal rights under the law? That's right.
In twenty twenty Virginia became the thirty eighth state to ratify the ERA, but the deadline was long past.
So, a constitutional guarantee of equality for women, still nonexistent.
Meanwhile, battles thought to have been decided once and for all. over reproductive rights, equal pay. military service, and more are battles. Once again. Nothing says July 4th quite like fireworks.
This year's show on the National Mall in Washington figures to be a classic. Faith Saley got a sneak preview. 250 years ago, founding father John Adams predicted how we'd spend our future Independence Days, writing in a letter to his wife Abigail, we'd be celebrating them with bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other. By illuminations, he meant fireworks. It's an industry that bleeds red, white, and blue.
We help America celebrate our independence. That's still a holiday that people understand and appreciate and don't see as. you know, just another day off. This is a 10-inch show. Oh my gosh.
So it's heavy. That's going to go up about a thousand feet. Stephen Vital is the fourth generation owner of Pyrotechnico, headquartered in the fireworks capital of America, Newcastle, Pennsylvania. While only two remain, up to nine firework companies once operated here, founded by Italian immigrants who came to work in the nearby tin mills. You see, fireworks may have been invented in China, but modern displays were perfected in Italy for religious festivals.
Vital's great-grandfather, Constantino Vital, carried that colorful tradition to America. He learned to trade in Italy and brought the trade and his recipes over to the United States. They used to work and make their fireworks in their garages.
So they would do firework displays on weekends and the 4th of July. If Constantino could see them now. On Saturday, Pyrotechnico will produce the official July 4th celebration in Washington, D.C. Last year's show used around 15,000 fireworks. This one will feature more than 860,000 as the company attempts to set a new world record.
It is the largest canvas for a fireworks show that we've ever experienced. Yeah. It's amazing. To pull it off, Matt Peterson has been designing the show for months, using special software to choreograph every ooh and ah. He gave us a sneak peek.
These items here, I actually giggled when we put this together. These are called bracelets. Yeah. You can kind of see how their rings, the color changing on those are a ghosting effect. Oh.
Yeah. It was my turn to get in that July 4th spirit, and pyro technician Mike Fox was there to help. How have you been doing this? 46 years. How's your hearing?
Huh? How's your hearing? It's fine. That was a joke. It's fine.
It's fine. Okay, so now Faith, you're going to fire the sequence.
So what you're going to do is hit the fire button. That's it. That's it. All right, here we go. Oh my gosh!
There's nothing like your first time, Mike. Oh, thank you. Oh my gosh, I feel so American. Wow. Why is this in here?
It is illegal to take deep breaths outside?
Well, it should be. You want to see people walking around going, ah, no. A new series tells the story of America through the bespectacled eyes and neurotic sensibilities of comedy legend Larry David. It's all about, as he puts it, life, liberty, and the pursuit of unhappiness. A different sort of story, which we decided required an assist from Larry Davids' comic sidekick, Susie Essman.
At Larry David's Los Angeles office, there are posters. pictures and the preamble to the Declaration of Independence.
Sort of. It is illegal to ask to share an umbrella. Why? What's wrong with sharing an umbrella? Because the person who has the umbrella is getting wet because you're squeezing in.
Bring your own umbrella. What if it's a loved one? Uh none. What's this one? It is illegal to stroke one's beard.
What's wrong with stroking a beard? I can't stand seeing men doing this. What if you Dr. Freud? Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Are you upset that these were not included in the original declaration? I think there should have been some humor in that declaration. There should be jokes in everything. Are you kidding? That includes American history.
So leave it to a creator of Seinfeld and curb your enthusiasm to give us life, Larry, and the pursuit of unhappiness. Because I don't want to live in a country. Where people share umbrellas. The limited seven-episode sketch comedy series that premiered this past Friday on HBO and HBO Max. The history that you're showing is real events.
But it's not real history. No. It's completely skewed. Yes, completely. Like the founding father who wanted this in the Declaration.
No sharing desserts.
Well not animals, Mr. Franklin. It's unsanitary.
Sometimes I don't want a whole slice of pie. I just want a taste of pie. Get your own damn piece of pie, Franklin! Mr. Watson.
Or Alexander Graham Bell inventing the telephones.
So, um What are you doing? Not a lot. or Larry as a World War I soldier. If I was in that war, knowing who I am, I would start to... Hard to run and pretend I got shot.
I said to get onto the back of the bus. And I said no. And a civil rights pioneer.
Well, I'm going to have to have you arrested. Seriously? We're not doing this, okay? I'm very comfortable here. If she gets up, that means I have to get up.
The Rosa Parks thing. I know that she refused to go to the back of the bus. What if she was sitting next to me? She'd want to go to the back of the bus. Huh.
I'm even in the show as Susan B. Anthony. Susie to her friends. How did you decide to do that? I just thought it would be funny if I could play a really sexist character.
As soon as I heard the name Susan, oh, Susie's got to be Susan B. Anthony. So I thought it would be a funny dynamic, and you know, we just go at it. I did a lot of research on Susan B. Anthony.
I watched a Ken Burns documentary on her, and I read all about her, and none of that served me any purpose in doing the scene. Why would it? There are historic figures behind the show as well. The producers are Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. Remember them?
Nothing. has prepared me. For working with Larry David. Did he give you any notes? You don't take notes.
You don't get notes. The entire time we did Curve never gave us a note.
So here you are with the President of the United States. The president. The former President. Yes. He really liked the show.
He had an issue with one of the sketches, and he started telling me that, well, I don't think this is. And I looked at him and I went. Come on. And he said, you know, I was president, you know, if there was an issue, I would ask their opinions, and if somebody had a good idea, I would listen to it. And I was the President of the United States.
And I said I'm the president here. The answer is no, Larry. Oh, that's Michelle. Good luck with that. You see what I'm dealing with here?
The Brooklyn-born Larry, who turned 79 on July 2nd, happy birthday, Lar, was always interested in the subject. I was a history major in college. That's right, I know that. People would always say to me, What are you going to do with that? I'm not going to do anything.
What did your mother say when you told her you were going to be a history major? As long as I was in college, that was planning. Because she wanted you to be a civil servant. She wanted me to be a mailman. That's right.
The Postal Service didn't deliver. Luckily, comedy did. Beggars can't be choosers. You know what? I'm a choosy beggar.
Larry David finds the funny and annoying in just about everything. All of these things that have happened over the past 250 years that have been progress, you're painting as nightmares. The plane, all of a sudden, there's all these rules here. You're going to sit for five hours? Are you crazy?
This is the airplane experience. Those planes that keep you on the runway. Such needless torture. It's sadism. It's sadism.
It's not a good experience. On this 250th anniversary of our nation, Larry gives us something to laugh at. Nobody churns butter better than me. Nobody likes your butter! Not a bad way to celebrate.
You are the American dream. It is only in America that this could have happened. Where else could this have happened? France? UK?
Maybe. Norway? Sweden? Nah. They don't have a sense of humor.
You're the American dream.
Okay, thanks. Hey, you are fantastic.
Well, thank you. Yeah. You know that thing where you get an amazing pair of shoes at a really great price and want to tell everyone about it? Yeah, so do we. Here at Designer Shoe Warehouse, we'll give you something to brag about.
like the latest styles from brands you love, or the trends everyone's obsessing over, or shoes that make you feel like, well, you.
So go ahead, show off a little. Find shoes that get you and prices that get your budget. Head to your DSW store or DSW.com today. DSW, let us surprise you. Mom, can you tell me a story?
Sure. Once upon a time, a mom needed a new car. Was she brave? She was tired, mostly. But she went to Carvana.com and found a great car at a great price.
No secret treasure map required. Did she have to find a dragon? Nope, she bought it 100% online from her bed, actually. Was it scary? Honey, it was as unscary as car buying could be.
Did the car have a sunroof? It did, actually.
Okay, good story. Car buying you'll want to tell stories about. Buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply. I'm Nancy Giles.
Washington, D.C. is a city filled with monuments to the nation's founding fathers, like the Thomas Jefferson Memorial behind me. But the history of America wasn't built by them alone. Frederick Douglass, in my mind, is really the quintessential American. He basically made real.
many of the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. A remarkable achievement for someone born enslaved in 1818. He taught himself to read and escaped to freedom at just 20 years old. Today, Frederick Douglass is remembered as an influential orator, writer, and intellectual. Could you imagine Douglas?
What a speaker. But Lonnie Bunch, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, says the abolitionist was a pioneer in a surprisingly modern way, too. Frederick Douglass was the most photographed person in America in the nineteenth century. Bar anyone. more photographed than Walt Whitman, George Custer, or even Abraham Lincoln.
Take a look at this portrait, circa 1862, now at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in DC. What was Frederick Douglass trying to project?
Well, Frederick Douglass knew that any image would be Deconstructed.
So everything about Frederick Douglass is: I'm middle class, I'm educated, I'm equal. I'm worthy. He recognized photography was an accurate medium that accurately represented African Americans in a time in which there were all kinds of racist caricatures. Harvard University professor John Stoffer compiled more than 160 photographs of Douglas for his book. and curated an exhibit about him at the National Portrait Gallery with senior curator of photographs Anne Schumard.
How effective was photography in the movement to? gain equality. Douglas's image, its circulation spoke to the humanity of this individual. And then it's supplemented by the images of those who have been brutalized by slavery. And the combination of the two is very effective.
Is that the original of this picture? This is the only one. This is utterly unique. Oh, my. Yes, this piece of glass was in the camera facing Douglas.
It's called an ambrotype. Later on, Douglas used paper photographs like these to help his image and his message reach an even larger audience. Are there reasons why he decided not to smile? He did not want to be interpreted as a happy slave. In eighteen sixty one, just two years before his first meeting with President Abraham Lincoln and four years before slavery was abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment, Douglas wrote Poets, prophets, and reformers are all picture makers, and this ability is the secret of their power and of their achievements.
they see what ought to be by the reflection of what is, and endeavor to remove the contradiction. He used his writing, he used photography, he used speeches, everything he did in order to sort of move a country forward. He expected more of America than most Americans did.
So, what to make of these United States on this semi-quincentennial? Thoughts from historian Douglas Brinkley. 250 years after the founders put their lives on the line in their signatures on the Declaration of Independence. It's easy to forget how close it came to not happening at all. On the battlefield, American patriots were spilling their blood for the cause of freedom.
the thirteen northern and southern colonies were divided on the question of slavery. and the public was split on whether to seek independence in the first place. But on july second, seventeen seventy six, as the mighty British Army sailed into New York harbor, the delegates in Philadelphia's Independence Hall voted yea. It was done freedom was ours. but it wasn't quite so simple.
The freedom we won from the British we would long withhold from women and black people. that freedom was also denied Native Americans, whose land our forebearers took by force and coercion. And external attacks have tested our national resolve. But our freedom is tested most grievously when we turn on ourselves. A bitter civil war cleaved our nation in two.
as did the struggle for civil rights a century later. it may seem like cold comfort in our fiercely polarized time, But take it from me. We have survived worse. Much worse. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence, may we allow ourselves to hope against hope.
that our divided nation can find unity. May we pause to thank the founders Imperfect men who gave us not just the gift of freedom, but the responsibility to preserve it. and may we practice those American virtues of tolerance, Compromise and perseverance in the hope of mending the American tapestry wherever it is frayed.
Some days that hope can seem futile, but History tells us It is not. Thank you for listening. Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning. Having insurance isn't the same as having state farm. It's like needing a best man speech, but getting one from some random plus one.
I am honored to be standing here today. Also confused. And a little hungry. Does uh anyone wanna switch entrees? Pretty sure I checked beef.
You wouldn't settle for just any speech.
So don't settle for just any insurance. Get the real deal with State Farm. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Criminal Minds Evolution is back on Paramount Plus. Do you think it's possible to discern some hidden pattern shared by all serial killers?
With a new killer each week. I see those wheels turning. When a copycat killer emerges, the BAU will form a dark alliance with a familiar foe. Elias, would you help us? This season, evil is contagious.
Once it starts, it can't be stopped. Criminal Minds Evolution. New season now streaming on Paramount Plus.
