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.
Fall is the perfect time to refresh and reorganize your space. At the Home Depot, find power tools and tool sets starting at $50 to help tackle DIY projects, home updates, and more. Whether you're drilling brackets to support new shelving or sharpening your hedge trimmer blade with an angle grinder, the Home Depot has the tools you need to check projects off your list. Shop Labor Day 6. Savings at the Home Depot and gear up for fall projects with the right tools to keep your projects moving.
Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer. Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S. and can become harder to treat if left undetected. That's why sun protection and timely detection matter. Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs.
Learn more and take the pledge to see a dermatologist annually at Let's Get RealaboutskinCancer.com. Indeed, Sponsored Jobs gets you quality candidates when you need them most. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.
And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at indeed.com/slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. You've watched racing.
Now get behind the wheel. At Kaizen Autosport Racing School at VIR, professional race drivers teach you how to drive faster, safer, and with more confidence on one of America's legendary racetracks. Never driven on track? We'll get you started. Already experienced, we'll take you to the next level.
Ready to race? Earn your competition license and learn real wheel-to-wheel racecraft. Stop watching, start driving. Go to racevir.com. That's racevir.com.
Um This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. Up next, the story of an Italian immigrant whose love for the homeland that adopted him. created some of the finest art our nation has ever seen, so good, in fact. that some have dubbed him America's Michelangelo. Let's get into the story.
It's an utterly unlikely union. America's Cincinnatist George Washington, and America's Michelangelo painter Constantino Bramidi. Never met. Washington was born in 1732. third generation Virginian.
Bermidi was born in Rome in 1805 and emigrated to America in 1849, becoming a naturalized citizen soon after. Washington left his mark on the nation like no other military and political leader before or after. Earning the honorific, America's indispensable man. Bermidi, who honed his craft painting frescoes and murals in Rome, would leave his mark throughout the nation's most important building. Earning the honorific, the United States Capitol's Indispensable Artist.
The Capitol Historical Society wrote in an essay on the man, quote, those beautiful hallways on the Senate side of the Capitol? Promethe. The historic committee rooms and the fancy reception rooms? Bromeedi. The decorative band wrapping around the rotunda with the scenes from American history.
That would be Bromidi 2. Romidi's crowning achievement among many throughout the capital painted over a 25-year period is the mural known as the Apotheosis of Washington. Painted in eleven months, not long after the new Capitol Dome was completed in eighteen sixty four, the magnificent fresco is suspended one hundred and eighty feet above the rotunda floor. and covers an area of four thousand six hundred and sixty four square feet. How did this Italian immigrant earn this commission, and why was George Washington chosen as the main subject of his masterpiece?
To understand the answer to the former question, it's best to answer the latter. There's no better American to describe Washington's importance than Abraham Lincoln. who said these words to an audience in Springfield, Illinois? in eighteen forty two. Quote.
Washington's is the mightiest name of earth. To add brightness to the sun, or glory to the name of Washington, is alike impossible. What none attempted? and solemn awe pronounced the name, and in its naked, deathless splendor, Leave it shiny on. And for Lincoln's words were not hyperbole.
but rather an expression of well-earned reverence. Washington not only led an upstart fighting force to victory over the mighty British Army, He resigned his commission not long after the big win. When told by the American artist Benjamin West that Washington was walking away from power, King George the Third of England famously said If he does that. He will be the greatest man in the world. Washington, the man who chose not to be king.
returned to Mount Vernon to pursue civilian life. Duty called again when Washington was summoned to Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to serve as President of the Constitutional Convention. Washington was then unanimously called upon to be our first President. Among his achievements he signed into law the Northwest Ordinance of seventeen eighty nine, which, among other things, precluded slavery in the new territories of the United States. After serving just two terms, Washington once again walked away from power.
to return to Mount Vernon. But who was Bramidi? And how did he become the U.S. Capitol's most important painter? Here's how the U.
S. Capital Historical Society described him. As a boy in Italy, he studied at a famous arts academy. And learned how to fresco, painting on wet plaster so colors could become a permanent part of the wall. In Rome, he would paint frescoes in palaces and chapels.
and at the Pope's residence at the Vatican. Forced to flee the Italian Revolution in 1852, Bromidi came to America. Living in New York, he traveled extensively to paint private homes and churches, including a cathedral in Mexico City. It was on his way back home that Brometes stopped in Washington, D.C. to visit the Capitol.
That side trip would forever change his life. The timing couldn't have been better for Bermude and America. The Capitol had recently doubled in length to make room for larger chambers for the House and the Senate. What was left after construction was a building filled with empty walls. Walls beckoning for an artist.
to bring them to life. Bromidi was determined to win the commission. demonstrating his talents with a small painting in a Capitol meeting room. He passed the audition and would paint in the Capitol, for the next 25 years. Indeed, few people could remember a day when Brumidi was not painting at the Capitol.
If Bromete was a fixture there, so too was the scaffolding needed. for his most memorable creation. Here's more from the Capitol Historical Society. Quote, the enormous wooden scaffolding for the apotheosis of Washington Mural raised Bermidi 180 feet into the eye of the dome. Often, Bermidi would lie down on that platform, working flat on his back.
as he painted on the curved surface 17 stories. above the rotundus floor and corpus. It was dangerous work. And people often gathered simply to watch him get up. all the way to the scaffolding's peak.
One fall nearly cost him his life, but for a watchful security guard who was able to save him. Injured, he would continue to paint for another year before his death. in 1880. The most memorable creation of Bermidi's career is his effort to honor our nation's founding father. In the central group of the fresco, Bermidi depicted Washington rising to the heavens in glory.
Flanked by female figures representing liberty. and victory and fame. A rainbow arches at his feet and thirteen maidens symbolizing the original thirteen states flank the three central figures. The figures in the painting, up to 15 feet tall, were painted to be intelligible from up close. as well as from one hundred and fifty feet below.
What was the significance of this godlike rendition of Washington? I quote author Naeeli Riano. Quote. The fresco is less a deification of Washington than a creative recording of his achievements. And like any historical painting, it's telling us a story about how we understand our nation and its identity.
She added, quote, We might easily mistake such a work as blind reverence. But that's not the case. Ramidi's fresco demonstrates instead the purpose of art: to lift our spirits and grant us something, an ideal. worth striving for. End quote.
One of our great historians, the late David McCullough, agreed: quote. This isn't ancestor worship. This is reality. This is the truth. To be indifferent to people like Washington is a form of ingratitude.
We ought to be down on our knees thanking God we're a part of this country. And we ought to know about the people. made it possible. That's precisely what Brumidi believed. expressing his reverence for Washington and the nation that adopted him.
Not with a pen. put paint and a paintbrush. Washington died at his home on December 14, 1799. To worldwide accolades. From Edi died more than 80 years later at his home in Washington, D.C., in near anonymity.
and with another important work left unfinished. the capital's freeze of American history. Thus ended the mystical story of America's Cincinnati and America's Michelangelo, forever connected in a fresco adorning the dome of the U. S. Capitol.
one the American people have admired for centuries. and will be admiring for centuries to come. The story of America's Cincinnati and America's Michelangelo here. on our American stories. 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. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer. Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S. and can become harder to treat if left undetected.
That's why sun protection and timely detection matter. Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs. Learn more and take the pledge to see a dermatologist annually at let's get real about skincancer.com. Yeah. You've watched racing.
Now get behind the wheel. At Kaizen Autosport Racing School at VIR, professional race drivers teach you how to drive faster, safer, and with more confidence on one of America's legendary racetracks. Never driven on track? We'll get you started. Already experienced, we'll take you to the next level.
Ready to race? Earn your competition license and learn real wheel-to-wheel racecraft. Stop watching, start driving. Go to racevir.com. That's racevir.com.
Upgrade to elite checking from America's Christian Credit Union and earn up to 3.5% APY. Plus everyday perks and access to your paycheck up to two days early with early pay. Don't settle. Choose checking that rewards you and aligns with your values. Visit America's ChristianCU.com forward slash iHeart.
Minimum balance of one cent required to earn advertised APY. Early pay not guaranteed. APY equals annual percentage yield. Membership eligibility required. And CUA insured.
You're grinding, putting tracks on Spotify, making TikToks, and watching fractions of a cent roll in. Exposure doesn't pay rent. It's time for real stakes. Welcome to The Beam, the new music competition app. Real fans vote.
Brands buy your music before it breaks. You win money and exposure. No more chasing algorithms. Just compete and get paid. Download The Beam at TheBeam.com or on the App Store.
Submit your track. Earn what your music deserves on The Beam, the only chart that writes checks. Mm-hmm.
