On six-part series “History is US,” Glaude and guests explore critical moments in American history that shaped the nation–from Reconstruction to Jim Crow to the Civil Rights Movement to the election of Barack Obama to January 6 to Buffalo–and how this history informs present day crises

New York, NY (June 14, 2022)—Shining City Audio, a history-focused podcast studio joint venture between Audacy’s C13Originals and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham, today announced History is US, a six-part audio documentary written and narrated by Dr. Eddie S. Glaude, James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University and New York Times bestselling author. History is US will explore how American history–so indelibly shaped by race–haunts us, and how our past failures and refusals to admit them continue to shape the way we live our lives today.

History is US is directed and produced by C13Original Studios, and executive produced by Glaude, Meacham, and Chris Corcoran, Chief Content Officer and Founding Partner, Cadence13.

Over the course of six episodes, Glaude and guests, including Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie Bunch, Senator Cory Booker, Black Votes Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown and other distinguished historians and scholars, will explore critical moments in American history that set the trajectory of the nation with regards to race. From Reconstruction to Jim Crow to the Civil Rights movement to the election of Barack Obama to the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol to the recent racially-motivated shooting in Buffalo,  History is US will examine what those events say about who we are as a nation and what race might reveal about our current crisis, while giving listeners the background and education to understand how we got here and how we can use history to clarify the choices before us.

History is US will launch with Episodes One and Two on June 15, 2022, Episodes Three and Four will be released on June 22, 2022, and Episodes Five and Six will be released on June 29, 2022, on the Audacy app and everywhere podcasts are available. Listen to the trailer and follow the series here. History is US video assets: trailer  and prologue.

Key moments in history Glaude and guests will explore include: the collapse of Reconstruction and its aftermath; the emergence of Jim Crow laws and the extralegal violence that made them the law of the land; the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama; the Selma march in 1965 and the ideological debates that followed; the black freedom struggle of the mid-twentieth century and how it led to the emergence of white backlash; debates around voting rights, immigration, and police reform; and more.

Glaude will be joined by guests including Senator Cory Booker; LaTosha Brown, co-founder, Black Voters Matter; Kevin Kruse, historian and Professor of History at Princeton University; Imani Perry, Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University; Carol Anderson, historian, educator, author; Lonnie G. Bunch III, educator, historian, and the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; Douglas R. Egerton, Professor for the History Department at Le Moyne College; David Blight, Sterling Professor of History, African American Studies and American Studies and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University; Richard Rothstein, senior fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

“So much of what we are experiencing today has its roots in our past and in the choices we have made to avoid the ugliness of who we are and what we have done,” said Eddie S. Glaude. “If we are going to survive this current crisis, if we are going to finally fulfill the promise of American democracy, we must confront that past, tell a better story, and imagine the nation anew, and I’m glad to join forces with C13Originals and Jon Meacham to do so with this series.”

“Eddie has a unique command of the interlocked histories of race and the United States and, in this series, offers a stirring and unvarnished portrait of critical events and the throughline from the past to present day,” said Jon Meacham, Co-Executive Producer, Shining City Audio. “‘History is US’ is a wonderful addition to the Shining City Audio family.”

“Eddie is a singular voice whose insight and expertise on race and American history will offer a lens to help us put both the past and present into context, and who will provide much needed perspective on the hard truths we need to face as a nation,” said Chris Corcoran, Chief Content Officer and Founding Partner, Cadence13. “We’re thrilled to expand the Shining City Audio slate with this powerful and important series.”

C13Originals and Meacham have also collaborated on It Was Said, a documentary podcast series produced in association with The HISTORY Channel and winner of the 2021 Webby Award for Best Podcast Series; It Was Said: Sports with Doc Rivers; Hope, Through History; and Reflections of History.

Dr. Eddie S. Glaude is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. Glaude Jr. is the author of numerous books, including Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, and Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul.

Download the cover art for History is US here. 

Follow Dr. Eddie S. Glaude on Twitter @ESGlaude.  Follow C13Originals on Twitter @C13Originals and Instagram @C13Originals. For more information, visit www.cadence13.com.