The fourth season of Overheard at National Geographic podcast may have wrapped in December and the fifth season hasn’t started yet, but Peter Gwin and Amy Briggs returned today with a special bonus episode. “Bicycles, Better Angels and Biden” explores how history will remember the 2021 presidential inauguration of President Joseph R. Biden. National Geographic’s headquarters is in Washington D.C., just a few blocks from the White House, so not only did Peter Gwin and Amy Briggs have a window-side seat to the action in the nation’s capital that has unfolded this month, but they also had a team of photographers on hand to cover it.
Photo Source: National Geographic
Watching the parade pass from the windows at Nat Geo HQ, a knock on the door from the Secret Service asked that all windows remain closed as the new President passed by as part of the strict security measures in place following the January 6th attack on the capital. The episode also uses audio of Peter Gwin traveling through the area on a bicycle, which is where the first part of the episode’s title comes from.
The second part of the title, “Better Angels,” is a quote from Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural speech. Narrators read quotes from both George Washington’s original inaugural speech, which set the tone for all others that followed, in addition to Lincoln’s, paire with Biden’s most recent speech. It allows listeners to hear how our 46th President’s speech borrows aspects from both. From Washington’s talk of a “Threat to unity” to the “Baltimore Plot” to assassinate Lincoln that required him to be snuck into Washington D.C. to give his speech, there are interesting parallels. All three excerpts from the episode are quoted below:
George Washington’s 1789 Inaugural Speech Excerpt:
“The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness.”
Abraham Lincoln’s 1861 Inaugural Speech Excerpt:
“In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it.” We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Joseph Biden’s 2021 Inaugural Speech Excerpt:
“But the answer is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don't look like you or worship the way you do, or don't get their news from the same sources you do. We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this, if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts. If we show a little tolerance and humility, and if we're willing to stand in the other person's shoes, as my mom would say, just for a moment, stand in their shoes. Because here's the thing about life. There's no accounting for what fate will deal you. Some days, when you need a hand. There are other days when we're called to lend a hand. That's how it has to be. That's what we do for one another. And if we are this way, our country will be stronger, more prosperous, more ready for the future.”
The hosts also interview three Nat Geo photographers on the scene to get their thoughts on “The most surreal presidential inauguration in recent memory.” Nina Berman talked about the “Ghostlike” Green Zone, a depopulated area around the White House where only security and those participating in the inauguration were allowed to enter. Nina also talked about how the swearing in of Kamala Harris felt cheated. As the first Black person, first Asian American and first woman to become vice president, historically there would be parties and celebrations all over D.C. and due to the pandemic, it was a relatively quiet affair.
Louie Palu has been on the frontlines in Afghanistan and covered Mexico drug wars. He talks about how the January 6th storming of the capital was unlike anything he’s ever covered before, U.S. citizens threatening the elected officials who make decisions on behalf of the entire country.
David Guttenfelder had been covering the pandemic and the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement from the Midwest and took a road trip to D.C. from his home in Minneapolis. He shares the story of how he first drove to the site of George Floyd’s murder where protesters have been occupying the intersection in an effort to have it transformed into a memorial. He talks about talking to the protestors before departing and driving through small towns in Wisconsin where he saw the leftover remnants of the 2020 election.
Putting the entire event in perspective, Amy Briggs talked about all of the political parties that have come and gone throughout our nation’s history. At the end of the day, our country has always united behind our President. In Biden’s well-received inauguration speech, he drew inspiration from great Presidents of the past like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Towards the end of this bonus episode, a montage of recent inauguration speeches includes audio from Barack Obama and Donald Trump, ending with Joe Biden.
You can listen to this full episode and others at the official Overheard at National Geographic website.