E4 - The Mayflower Complex: Truth, Tradition, and the First Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving mini-episode untangles the myths around Plymouth Rock, the Pilgrims, and that famous 1621 feast—spoiler, it was way less magical than the storybook version—and shows how the real meaning of the holiday actually comes from Lincoln using Thanksgiving to help reunite the country during the Civil War. By zooming out and telling the whole messy, fascinating truth, we can still celebrate gratitude, connection, and the good in our lives… just without the sugar-coated mythology. 

Please excuse the mic bumps in the background, I had to record in the tiny closet of a hotel room while vacationing for the holiday!

Explore more by following @thecuriousalexjones on Instagram.

The 2 major sources used for this episode series are:

• Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War by Nathaniel Philbrick, published in 2007 by Penguin Books
• This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving by David J. Silverman, published in 2019 by Bloomsbury Publishing