There’s currently a debate in America about what students should be learning about U.S. history. Some say we don’t revere American exceptionalism enough. Others say we're giving ourselves an A+ by excluding the tests we failed.

Humorist Alexandra Petri says both sides are wrong. We just don’t know enough about the things we need to know, such as how inventor Nikola Tesla fell in love with his pigeon or about the secret tapes of Nixon yelling at his dog Checkers.

This hour, an irreverent look at how we teach, learn and remember U.S. history.

GUESTS: 

• Alexandra Petri is a humorist, a columnist for the Washington Post and the author of Nothing Is Wrong and Here is Why, which was a Thurber Prize finalist. Her new book is Alexandra Petri’s US History: Important American Documents
• Mike Pesca is host of the podcast The Gist, author of the Substack column Pesca Profundities, and the editor of Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs In Sports History

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Colin McEnroe, Cat Pastor, Lily Tyson, and Jonathan McNicol contributed to this show. 

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