The America Your Textbook Left Out

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One Story a Week, No Homework

Every issue answers a question about America you never thought to ask, like:

  • Why doesn't America use the metric system? (Blame pirates.)
  • Did Ben Franklin really want a turkey on the Great Seal?
  • Which congressman shot his wife's lover, invented the temporary insanity defense, then donated his amputated leg to a museum?
  • How did an exploding cannon on a Navy warship end up creating a First Lady?
  • Who mailed himself out of slavery in a three-foot wooden crate?
  • Why did San Francisco salute a bankrupt man who declared himself Emperor of the United States?
  • How did one farmer's property host both the first battle of the Civil War and the surrender that ended it?
  • When did a New York newspaper convince America the moon was full of bat-people?
  • How did an original copy of the Bill of Rights get stolen for five dollars?
  • Which 300 New Hampshire farmers seceded from the United States and Canada, and ran their own republic for three years?
  • What was on the bar tab the night the delegates took George Washington out to celebrate the Constitution?
  • And much more…

Stories Worth Repeating

Every issue has to pass one test: would you tell someone about it at dinner? If a story can't clear that bar, it doesn't go out. No lectures, no dates to memorize, no textbook voice.

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