Mother of Thanksgiving

Guest: Denise Kiernan, journalist, producer, and author of "We Gather Together: A Nation Divided, a President in Turmoil, and a Historic Campaign to Embrace Gratitude and Grace”

Sarah Josepha Hale was the mother of Thanksgiving. She campaigned for decades with various presidents, local leaders, and the readers of her incredibly popular journal "Godey’s Lady’s Book" to establish a national holiday of gratitude. She was a social influencer in her time, and she impacted fashion, the literary scene, and public opinion, especially about the need for this holiday. 

 

Wives of POWs Brought their Husbands Home from Vietnam

Guest: Heath Hardage Lee, author of “The League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home from Vietnam”

In 1967, the wives of POW/MIA soldiers in Vietnam revealed years of coded letters they had sent to their husbands, proving that their captors were violating the Geneva Convention’s rules for treating prisoners of war. The League of Wives helped change public perception of the war.