The US Explained

No state in the country has seen, or even come close to, the shockingly high population explosion Nevada experienced over the past half century. Las Vegas, a small roadside stop, has become the engine of its rise, a city unmatched in America in its extravagance and opulence. A place that could barely have been described as a city in 1960 is today the twentieth largest urban area in the country. Ou...

West Virginia is an anomaly. Given its own statehood long after any of its neighbors, indeed even after most of the West Coast, the Mountain State born in the fires of the Civil War had long existed in isolation from the rest of Virginia, indeed from anywhere else around it. Here lies some of the most beautiful scenery in the eastern half of the country, home to America’s newest national park. Sce...

Kansas is peaceful, rural, an epitome of the American Heartland, sitting in fact, at the exact center of the country’s Lower 48 states. Its most famous export, The Wizard of Oz, made its very name synonymous with familiarity, comfort, home. It's hard to believe that this was a state born in bloodshed, forged in fire, its very creation deemed a dress rehearsal for the Civil War. This was frontier c...

Within the massive borders of this West Coast state, sit one major city and several smaller ones, towered over by the lonesome, snowcapped peaks of the Cascades. Here too are a remarkably rural coast, thundering waterfalls, lush forests of the Pacific Northwest home to rich logging country, and one of the most sparsely populated places in the nation, a vast high desert of salt pans, ranchland, and...

At the beginning of the journey of one of the world’s greatest rivers, sits Minnesota. In the country’s icy north, it’s charted an impressive journey of its own, today consistently ranking among the most livable states in the nation. A land of lakes great and small, of farms and forests, prairies and ports, here sit massive mines essential to the industrialization of America, the leafy neighborhoo...

The most populous state by far in the nation. One of the largest economies on the planet. Home to an incredibly diversity of both cultures and regions, some of the largest cities in the country, and more national parks than any other state. California is iconic and influential, a place dreamed about, sought out for centuries. Its is an incredible American story. The California episode is out in tw...

The most populous state by far in the nation. One of the largest economies on the planet. Home to an incredibly diversity of both cultures and regions, some of the largest cities in the country, and more national parks than any other state. California is iconic and influential, a place dreamed about, sought out for centuries. Its is an incredible American story. The California episode will be rele...

Wisconsin feels different. America’s Dairyland is, of course, part of the agricultural Midwest, but in this tree-covered state, lake houses and woodland cabins abound. Here are mining and manufacturing towns, major cities and sparsely populated wilderness alike. In a state largely skipped over by the glaciers, sharp hills, gullies and ravines look more Appalachian than Midwestern. This is a state...

In the heart of America, between the country’s two greatest rivers, stretches a vast expanse of flat farmland and picturesque rolling hills. This is a land of small towns and small cities, yet one key to feeding and fueling the United States. A humble, rural state, often overlooked, yet it picks presidents. Iowa is, in a sense, quintessential Middle America - to experience it is to understand what...

Where the American South meets the American West, this is a land of cattle ranchers, cowboys, and oilmen, of Cajuns, of border towns where Spanish has been spoken long before this place was ever called Texas, of wide-open starlit skies and of skyscraper-studded cities where people have come from across the country and the world seeking the opportunity that it promises. An independent country that...

Florida - It's a land of swamps and islands, beautiful yet for much of its history remote, a backwater jutting into the Gulf of Mexico. Today though, it's the third most populous state in the country, a global tourist destination, a diverse meeting point of cultures from across the hemisphere, and a state that year after year, decade after decade, has been one of the fastest growing places in Amer...

Michigan - mountains and mines, wild forests, islands, and lakes sit together with one of the largest cities in the country, a heavily urbanized hive of industry home to millions of people. This is a fascinating state - one that tells the story of America - both its failures and its promise. I hope you'll join me to hear it. Episode 27 - Michigan.

Here in Arkansas the swamps and bayous of the fertile Mississippi Delta meet the country’s largest cluster of mountains between the Rockies and Appalachians. A mostly rural state, it’s home to a number of small cities, some of which have become economically vibrant boomtowns. The Natural State is an all too often overlooked corner of the country, packing a beautiful landscape, important history, k...

Missouri sits in the middle. For the last forty years, it’s been the average center of the country’s population, and today, more than any other, it can claim to be the state where the north meets the south, and the east meets the west. Roughly halfway between the Rockies and the Appalachians, the Canadian border and the Gulf of Mexico, home to flat expanses of farmland, the forested mountains, hil...

Maine - The state at the northeastern tip of the United States is an outlier. In the heavily urbanized East Coast, it’s predominantly rural. It takes up half of New England’s land area yet has one of the smallest populations in the country, much of it wilderness that’s far removed from any city or town. Thousands of moose roam wild in the forests that surround beautiful mountains and lakes, while...

The story of Alabama is in large part the story of America, one that has much to be proud of, with progress and innovation, kind people and a strong regional culture, yet at the same time one that has also been marked by violence, prejudice, poverty, and conflict. Above all it’s a story that is essential to understand. Home to forests and farmland, mountains and beaches, small towns and a number o...

The river winds through a canyon, at times more than a thousand feet from top to bottom. But unlike the canyons of the west, its walls are made not of earth and rock, but of glass and steel, a man made wonder showcasing some of the most famous buildings in the world, the birthplace of the skyscraper itself. It’s a town that, sitting in one of the most strategically-placed locations in the country,...

Famed author William Faulkner said of his home state, “to understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi.” As I take you on this journey through every part of the United States, it would be a mistake to ignore the story of the Magnolia State. The challenges it deals with, such as high poverty, low development and quality of life, and an economy that’s struggled to diversi...

It’s spanned by vast fields of corn and soybeans, making it one of the most agriculturally productive states in the country. Stunning sand dunes, one of the only national parks in the Midwest, stand hundreds of feet tall over the shore of Lake Michigan, and beautiful forests, hills, and river valleys cover much of the state’s southern half. A former industrial powerhouse, whose limestone and steel...

Among the swamps and bayous, marshes and forests, that sit at the mouth of one of the largest river systems on earth, sits a state unlike any other. It’s a cultural melting pot, sitting in the Deep South, home to one of the largest Black populations in the country, and more culturally connected to and shaped by France than any other state in the US. Its culture, history, geography, and society is...

Ohio. It sits between the Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley, where the Midwest, with its flat expanses of farmland meets Appalachia, home to rolling hills, forests, and valleys. One of the largest Amish populations in the country sits in a state famed for its industrial prowess, manufacturing, and business. Major cities sit not far from farms, forests, lakes, and islands. It's home to a huge populat...

Tennessee. There, black bears roam in the high peaks of the Great Smoky Mountains, paddle wheel steamboats chug up the wide, muddy, winding Mississippi, and in between sit small southern towns and a number of major cities, some growing incredibly quickly, that have had a major influence on American music. It's home to beautiful natural scenery, exciting cities, and played an important role in the...

It’s part Appalachian, part Southern, and has Midwestern influences. Farms and pastures where some of the world’s top racehorses are trained sit in the same state as bustling port cities on the Ohio River and Appalachian coal mining towns that are among the most impoverished parts of the country. It’s the birthplace of bluegrass and bourbon, and stretches for hundreds of miles from the mountains t...

It’s one of the most rural and least populated parts of the country. Covered in forests and mountains, filled with lakes and islands, Vermont is renowned for its scenery and splendor. It’s a land of small farms and towns, tucked into tiny valleys and along the shores of Lake Champlain, a place where covered bridges cross small creeks and rivers, and syrup is harvested from maple trees. Its history...

Within this small chunk of the United States, a piece of land that could fit inside Rhode Island 17 times over, live nearly 700,000 people, more than the entire populations of Vermont or Wyoming. The history of the country has been shaped inside its halls and buildings, and on its streets and parks, and from this tiny district, decisions have been made that have impacted people across the globe. T...