Special Independence Day Programs

Join NHPR for special Independence Day themed programming on Friday, July 3.

9 am (and again at 8 pm)

Back Story: Independence Daze

Everybody knows that July Fourth celebrates our nation’s beginnings. But for the first 94 years of our existence, the Fourth wasn’t an official holiday at all. The Declaration of Independence itself sat untended in a dusty archive for 150 years. In this hour, the History Guys explore the origins and curiosities of July Fourth. They reveal the holiday’s radical roots, and look how the Declaration’s meaning has changed over time. They also consider how the Declaration’s messages about liberty and equality have been embraced by the descendants of slaves. In this program, Historian Pauline Maier discusses the sections of the Declaration of Independence that mattered to the Founders with the sections that matter today and July 4th chronicler James Heintz, author of “The Fourth of July Encyclopedia”, recounts the early days of celebrating independence, with a special focus on explosives.

Noon

Hearing Voices: Travelers’ Tales

Host Larry Massett spends a "Long Day on the Road" with ex-KGB in the Republic of Georgia. Scott Carrier starts in Salt Lake and ends on the Atlantic in this cross-country "Hitchhike." Lemon Jelly adds beats to the life of a "Ramblin' Man." The band Richmond Fontaine sends musical postcards from the flight of "Walter On the Lam." And Mark Allen tells a tale of a tryst with a "Kinko's Crackhead."