America's 250th Anniversary: Highlights and Our Future Plans

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Welcome to Talk With History.

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I'm your host Scott here with my wife and historian Jen.

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Hello.

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On this podcast, we give you insights to our history inspired world travels

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YouTube channel journey, and examine history through deeper conversations

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with the curious, the explorers, and the history lovers out there.

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All right, Jen.

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So the title of this podcast episode is probably pretty obvious about what we're

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gonna talk about, 2026 in advance, the 250th anniversary of this great nation.

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before we get into 2026, we want to briefly recap 2025.

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it was a big year for us.

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we finally hit 50,000.

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So that was the year that we hit 50 K, almost crossed at 55.

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I think by the time this comes out we may be there, but that

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was a big milestone for us.

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I think kind of halfway to that, that a hundred K mark man, maybe

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we'll get lucky this year, and this will be the year that we hit that.

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So 2025, we did a whole bunch of stuff.

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You started working for American Cruise Lines, so you got a lot of opportunities

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that kind of came out because of that.

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For some interesting content.

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and we had some, we started building some plans for the upcoming,

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I'd say like next year or two.

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Yes.

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So we wanna say thank you to those 50,000.

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Everyone who follows us supports us.

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We are so appreciative.

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We are one of these slower growing channels.

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But it's really grassroots and we appreciate all of you because I

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feel like it's very authentic and we just appreciate everyone has

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come along this journey with us.

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working for American Cruise Line has been fantastic.

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I am the historian on the cruise, so I do a history talk every night about

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where we're going, and then the next day we spend the day in that area.

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I've been able to make content.

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In those areas and some places that would be a little bit harder to travel to.

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this year, looking forward, I have all new places to go and it

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coincides with a lot of this 250th anniversary of America stuff.

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So it's gonna be really great.

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one of the things we started This year was the lifetime

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membership option to support us.

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I've toyed with different things over the past couple years about

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subscriptions and newsletters

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I decided to consolidate it all, make it easy on you.

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the listener and the watcher and have one lifetime membership.

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you don't have to pay for a lifetime membership.

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you can just, you know, tip us a couple bucks if you wanna

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just buy us a cup of coffee.

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but if you go to the history road trip.com, because that's really

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what we are inspired to do is, is get out there, see the history for

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ourselves, go to the locations and we want you to do the same thing.

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So if you go to the history roadtrip.com, you can see a way

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to buy us a cup of coffee, tank of gas, pay for a lifetime membership.

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And we may even have some higher tiers in the future.

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But that is one place that we've really started support and we got our

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first few lifetime members on there.

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we really want to say thank you to those lifetime members who joined us.

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it's a one time thing.

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I was kind of tired of the subscription model.

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I'm not wild about that.

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And so we wanna do a one-time fee.

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Now that fee may go up in the future, Now is the time where

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it's ever gonna be the lowest?

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it's probably only gonna go up.

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'cause as we grow, there's bigger things that we wanna do.

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but it is one time thing.

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You pay for it once the folks who've already paid.

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That's it as long as we're doing this, they'll get that behind the scenes access.

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we have a private Facebook group just for the lifetime members.

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I've started posting some things there, on some future long-term plans.

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Our lifetime members will have access to that as well as any other

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kind of exclusive future content.

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whenever we can make it and fit it in.

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sometimes it'll be live from a historic location or Something that doesn't

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quite fit in a structured video.

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Or a structured podcast.

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Yeah, and think about our whole mission is to get you out into history.

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Our whole mission is to get people outside into the history

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that's in your own backyard.

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Get active, get off the screen, connect with your family, connect with

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friends, connect with other history lovers like you The whole point of

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us doing this is not just explore locations, which is great, but as a

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historian, as a credited historian, I tell you why this matters to you.

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how does this impact you?

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Why should you care about this?

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I give you the facts behind the places you're visiting, you could be like, I

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always wondered about this location.

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I always wondered why this was so important.

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Well, I explained to you why that is so important and it just coincides

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with the really great year of American history, the 250th birthday.

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we plan to kick off the 4th of July in St. Louis at the gateway arches, the gateway

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to the West because we are starting this amazing road trip of Route 66.

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it's the hundredth year anniversary of Route 66.

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these anniversaries just coincide.

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So this is the gateway to the west.

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This is the road that took Americans Across America.

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And so we're gonna do the history of that and take you to those locations.

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Again, why should you care?

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Why does this matter to you?

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What impact did Route 66 actually have on America?

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And what was it born from?

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We're gonna be doing all of that in this coming year.

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if you wanna support us just know that everything you give to

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the channel goes to the channel.

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And, and, you know, this is the labor of love and we really, really

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appreciate all the support we get.

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So, what else are we doing, Scott?

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yeah.

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So the road trip is the big one, right?

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That's the big project.

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I'm gonna take a couple weeks off work.

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I try to do that every.

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Five years if I can.

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I would love to do that more often, but the Navy doesn't, always allow that.

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so the road trip is the big one.

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if you're not following us, if you're watching, if you're

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listening, definitely follow along.

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we're gonna start that in July, film it for a couple weeks and,

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and then obviously the content will start coming out after that.

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Some of the other things that we're doing in the, within the local

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area, I'd say the mid south, type area is we're expanding our radius

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around the Memphis, Tennessee area.

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So we're going up to Arkansas.

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I'm excited to do some Johnny Cash history.

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Yes.

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I think you said Tennessee Williams.

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you had a whole list of things that you wanted to do.

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We're gonna be hitting this radius, so we're gonna be doing

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some Mark Twain Little Rock nine.

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We're gonna do, Johnny Cash, we're gonna do some Meridian Mississippi.

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So Mississippi burning.

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So a lot of the civil rights stuff, 'cause in Memphis there's

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a lot of civil rights influences.

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Here, Ida B. Wells, she's from Holly Springs.

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people love to talk about Ida B. Wells for Women's History Month,

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but not know a lot about her, so I wanted to get more into her life.

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Helen Keller is from close by here.

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We're gonna do Harper Lee.

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And so just gonna be a lot of stuff with the radius here of, the Memphis area.

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But, with the American cruise line, I hope to expand on some Lewis and Clark.

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Yeah, so that'll be really great.

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Maine.

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It'd be my first time going into Maine.

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if you have any suggestions about Maine or what you're interested in seeing

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in the state of Maine, let me know.

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we're gonna do Ohio River, so it'll be Kentucky Derby, some Pittsburgh,

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which we have some Pittsburgh videos, but more and of course, long Island

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I visited Long Island when we did Michael Murphy and when we talked about he's the

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only Penn Stater to receive the Medal of Honor from the movie Lone Survivor.

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I drove out to Long Island.

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it was my first time ever doing that as an adult, and I realized how much

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Revolutionary War history is out there.

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Yeah.

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In the Long Island

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area.

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It was amazing.

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And so I asked for one of those cruises.

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So I will be doing one of those cruises, doing some 250th Revolutionary War

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history out there, and just know that that's where, Washington's greatest

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defeat was during the Revolutionary War.

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We'll talk about that, I'm also doing the Chesapeake Bay,

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If you're a fan of the channel, you know the Chesapeake Bay, like the back

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of our hand, So it'll be Jamestown, Yorktown, Williamsburg, Annapolis,

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all those things we know so well.

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But really center them more on the 250th anniversary of, America.

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I was on a podcast with John Kiriaku and if you know anything

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about him, he's a former CIA agent.

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The podcast is called Deep Focus

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and he was actually on Joe Rogan's podcast talking about his time in the CIA and he

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has suggested we do a video together of CIA agents who are buried in Arlington.

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So when I'm up there, we're actually gonna make a video together.

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if you're interested in some of those stars.

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In Langley, we're gonna be talking about some of those people who are

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buried in Arlington and some of their career that we can actually talk about.

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And, and I'm gonna do it with an actual CIA agent.

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So if you, if you are interested in that, that's coming this year as well.

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So you've been on a few podcasts this past year.

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You've started doing more speaking engagements, so

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that's something that we hope.

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we can continue.

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I know we have one coming up in March.

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I think both you and I like a museum association type thing,

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so that's, that's fun stuff.

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And if you guys, watching or listening ever.

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Work in that industry or interested in, in having one of us out, or having us

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speak You can reach out to us if you, you can contact us through the show

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notes if you're watching or listening and want to provide input on things

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you want to see us do on the channel.

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I was able to snag a pretty cool URLA pretty cool website

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called i ask history.com.

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and right now we have a survey that's live over there.

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It's very short.

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It's like two minutes.

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And it's a freeway to support us, go to iask history.com and you just

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kinda tell us what history you like.

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Seven questions takes less than two minutes.

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When you finish it, there's actually a, like a link to a never before

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scenes video of Jen's, quick Tour.

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It's a very short tour of London's Tower Bridge.

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And so that was actually pretty neat because we never published that one.

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It it was always been unlisted, but if you go and do that.

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survey over@iaskhistory.com.

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you can finish it in about two minutes.

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You can watch this other, quick video.

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It's like a two minute tour and within five minutes you'll have helped us

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out and you got to see a free video.

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So, I ask history.com.

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And we always do those things 'cause we're always surprised by what

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videos really resonate with you guys.

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I had done Dick Winter's grave and I happened to be in Gettysburg.

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I wanted to pay my respects to, major Dick Winters.

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And that video was very popular.

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And so we just wanna understand more what content you'd like to see.

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And so.

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That's important to us, right?

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because history is important to you, it's important to us.

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It's the 250th anniversary of America.

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We wanna make sure that we're giving you the content that you actually

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want to be a part of and, engage with.

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thank you for everything.

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We're looking forward to 2026.

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Happy Birthday America.

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we're gonna celebrate all year long, and we just thank you for

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coming on this journey with us.

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Yeah.

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thank you so much to our lifetime members who are supporting us financially.

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If you want to, help us out and either way, and take a look at the

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links that we mentioned earlier.

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Look in the podcast show notes or the video description down below,

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happy Birthday America in advance and we'll talk to you guys next time.

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Yeah.

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On to our Next Walk with history.

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This has been a Walk with History, production Talk with History is

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created and hosted by me, Scott Benny episode Researched by Jennifer Benny.

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Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode.

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Talk With History is supported by our community at the history road trip.com.

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Our eternal thanks go out to our lifetime members to help keep us going.

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Thank you to Doug Liberty, Larry Meyers.

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Patrick Benny, Gail Cooper, Christie Coates, Calvin Gifford, corny Sini, Jean

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Noah, Larry Mitchell, Tommy Anderson, Susan Selis, Bruce Lynch, William

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Garner, Mark Barrett, and Don Kennedy.

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Make sure you hit that follow button in that podcast player

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and we'll talk to you next time.