This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years, and now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint.
It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250.
America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org. I turned off news altogether.
I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything. It's the rage bait. It feels like it's trying to divide people. If we got clear facts, maybe we could calm down a little. NBC News brings you clear reporting.
Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News reporting for America. What's up y'all? Summer's got a different temper.
Everything's a little looser, brighter. One plan turns into another. You hear something, you stay a little longer.
Next thing you know, you're somewhere you didn't plan to be. It's those in between moments. That's where the ideas hit. conversations stretch out, little memories sneak up on you.
Sometimes it's just about what's in your hand. that color. That chill. a new tropical butterfly refresher from Starbucks. guava and passion fruit flavors with mango pineapple flavored pearls.
Yeah. That feels like summer before you even taste it. Funny how one small stop becomes the best part of the day. Start your summer rhythm. with Starbucks.
Try the new Tropical Butterfly Refresher from Starbucks. Hi, it's Karen in Georgia from My Favorite Murder. We cruised around LA in the Hyundai Ionic 5 and dove into the fascinating life of actress and inventor Hedy Lamar. Want the full story? Take a listen.
She starts dating Howard Hughes. And in fact, she helps him design a faster plane.
So she finds the fastest bird and the fastest fish and sketches out a drawing of what the two would look like as a plane. And that becomes the plane that we know today. And he calls her a genius. Check out our new episode, Spotlighting Groundbreaking Innovators like Hedi Lamar and Billie Jean King. Presented by the Hyundai Ionic 5.
Goodbye. Mm. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. Coming to you from the city where the West begins, Fort Worth, Texas. Up next, a father-daughter story, a travel story from Lindsay Gallant.
Her story about winning an eating contest is a mainstay around Thanksgiving. Here's Lindsay with her story. She's called Once Upon a River. Take it away, Lindsay. Dad and I keep in time with our paddles.
The sky is mottled above us, and the first hints of green are breaking out on the willows along the bank. There was a sprinkling of rain this morning, and I have my raincoat on, with a hood up. Here on the border between Alberta and the Northwest Territories, late May can be downright chilly. but this is the perfect weekend for our overnight canoe trip down the Salt River. It's the spring runoff that swells the river into a passage wide enough to bear our weight.
and this trip with dad is a teenage rite of passage. We have been canoeing all morning. Mm. He keeps his coffee thermos handy in the canoe, along with binoculars and bird book. The aluminum sports pal is packed with tent, tarps, sleeping bags, dad's green canvas backpack, reindeer, cooler, food pack, life jackets, and gun.
There are a few mosquitoes. Enough to warrant bug spray, but not so many as to quell our adventurous spirits. I pause. The day is warming. I lay the paddle across my knees and begin to unzip my raincoat, peeling off the damp.
The morning has been spent following the river's meandering turns along the edge of Wood Buffalo National Park. On this next section, heading north west toward the salt plains, the river widens out in a long, straight stretch that will take up most of the afternoon. With the sun on my bare arms, we make the final turn that sets our bows straight northwest. The river glistens ahead of us, a shimmering carpet rolled out in welcome. And, as fortune would have it, the May wind gusts sweet from the south east.
Dad, ever resourceful, begins rummaging around for the tent's rain cover. In a typical stroke of ingenuity, he soon has it rigged up as a makeshift sail. The wind catches it. And suddenly, we are no longer voyageurs, but sailors. Dad stretches out his legs, one hand on the sail and the other on his paddle-turned rudder, a contented grin on his face.
Our aching arms are off the hook and we relax into the wind at our back. It is a glad surrender to the currents of water and wind. I chucked the pile down beside me. As far as the eye can see, a glory of rippling silver stretches before me as the river catches the sun's rays and throws them back in bursts of white light. Do you And then the white seems to increase.
Something else is ahead on the water. Dad perks up, picks up binoculars. What is it? I ask. Birds he says, excited.
Those are tundra swans. Dad whispers, and passes me the binoculars. I have never seen these great white birds before. Dad explains they are on their migratory path north to their breeding grounds. and like us, are resting on the river.
Over the next couple of weeks their strength will propel them all the way to the Arctic coast. The closer we get, The more we can see. There must be hundreds of them. Hushed, we float nearer and nearer. And then the magic begins.
As the canoe makes its silent approach, The swans begin to lift off the river, graceful wings beating, long necks outstretched, till they fly up and right over our heads. Woof. Yeah. Like an entryway to a hidden kingdom. they surround us with a canopy of feathered white.
As that group resettles upstream behind us, We meet with another and another lifting up to let us pass through. They are beyond count. For a handful of spellbound hours, We are captured in an effortless flow of wind, water, and wing, carried by the powerful strokes of spring on the move. To this day. When I think of perfection, I think of that particular afternoon.
Even now, decades later, I press into the memory. Breathing life into a long ago May. I must breathe that air again. The waterways of my youth are almost six thousand kilometers away. The river I live beside now flows east into the Atlantic.
I am paddling for all of us now. My arms carry a crying four year old upstairs to bed and baskets of wet laundry to the clothes line. I stack school books and pancakes and dirty dishes in the sink. The dripping has been the leak under the washing machine, the hole in the eavestrough. The tears off the curve of my cheek as I wrestle with all it means to be needed.
with all of love's burdens packed to the gunwales. Can I bear the weight? When my arms are weary with the task at hand, I ache for the strength of the tundra swans. For too long, I've been paddling upstream, into the wind. on the edges of an ill-defined map.
I've lost my vigor. And someday is my vision. But then there are moments of the turn, And I can't forget. I won't forget. How grace opens up like a river to the northwest.
and sails can still be made from scraps of tattered cloth, and favour still comes in the form of a holy wind, and even the sparrows find resting places in sacred corners. There is still a river whose streams dance with the gladness of an endless spring. Whoosh. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Monty Montgomery and Reagan Habib. A special thanks to Lindsay Gallant for sharing her story Once Upon a River here on Our American Stories.
Lee Habib here, and I'd like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get our podcasts. Any story you missed or want to hear again can be found there daily. Again, Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these great American stories coming. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans.
It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues.
Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semiq. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history.
It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org. I'm U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. We all get distracted when we drive, but how we handle these distractions can be a matter of life or death.
Please put your phones on silent and take a mental note to focus on driving. Fade 4 by Nitza. Hi, it's Karen in Georgia from My Favorite Murder. We cruised around LA in the Hyundai Ionic 5 and dove into the fascinating life of actress and inventor Hedi Lamar. Want the full story?
Take a listen. She starts dating Howard Hughes. And in fact, she helps him design a faster plane.
So she finds the fastest bird and the fastest fish and sketches out a drawing of what the two would look like as a plane. And that becomes the plane that we know today. And he calls her a genius. Check out our new episode, Spotlighting Groundbreaking Innovators like Hedi Lamar and Billie Jean King. Presented by the Hyundai Ionic 5.
Goodbye. We learned how to love dogs from the dogs that loved us and waited for us to get home from school. They were the dogs that raised us. We returned the love with pedigree dog food. It was good then.
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