The Sum of Us

The wealthy beachfront community of Manhattan Beach, California—known for its surf culture—has a Black population of less than 1%. You’d never know that a black couple was one of its founding families. In the early 1900s, the city government seized a thriving Black-owned beach resort after pressure from white residents and the Ku Klux Klan. Today, activists have won the return of the beach to the Bruce family in the first-...

A primary care physician and former Baptist preacher, Dr. Curtis Boyd hadn’t planned on being an abortion provider— until the late 1960s, when ministers and rabbis from Texas reached out and asked him to be their trusted doctor. At 86, he is still at it. Heather visits his clinic in a story that uncovers the hidden history of how faith leaders were a linchpin of abortion access before Roe v. Wade, and how attacks on aborti...

In 1921, the small town of Minden, Nevada began sounding a “sundown siren” that warned Indigenous people to leave the city limits or face violent consequences. Over a hundred years later, the alarm still blares daily. Why? It depends on who you ask. In a town full of historic markers, there’s nothing about the Indigenous history; local officials now say the siren is a tribute to first responders. Marty Meeden, a descendent...

Third generation dairy farmer Charlie Hilliard spent his life working the land that had been in his family since the 1930s. But with retirement looming, it seemed impossible to find a buyer who would be willing to preserve the land that he grew up with. Then he met Muhidin Libah, a refugee from the local Somali Bantu community, who, along with nearly 200 Somali farmers and supportive Mainers, are betting it all on a new mo...

Terrence Wise was a Black man flipping burgers at a McDonald’s in Kansas City, Missouri. Bridget Hughes was a white woman punching the clock at a local Burger King. Neither saw a way out of their dead-end jobs until they teamed up to join the movement for a living wage. These improbable modern-day labor leaders share the story of their friendship and how they came to see racism as the common enemy in the battle against pov...

Republican Congressional aide Neil Volz was convicted for conspiring to bribe members of Congress. Desmond Meade was a Black military veteran who fell into addiction, homelessness and prison. As people with a felony record, they were both stripped of their vote in the state of Florida. A chance encounter led to Desmond recruiting Neil, a white conservative, to join his audacious campaign to overturn the Jim Crow era felony...

In 2020, Memphis residents began to hear rumors that a company called Plains All American was set to build a 49-mile oil pipeline through the city. At first, the pipeline appeared inevitable, planned to run through a “sacrifice zone” of all-Black neighborhoods that had already been poisoned by nearby heavy industry. But when local environmentalists discovered the pipeline would threaten Memphis’ prized drinking water, they...

As president of a national think tank, Heather McGhee thought that the most important change came out of Washington. But as the years passed and she saw the limitations of the law to make real change, she started wondering: Why can’t we all have nice things in this country? Like good schools, jobs and healthcare?

In the first episode of the season, we’ll meet Heather as she takes to the road to try and find answers. And she...

On the heels of her bestselling book, Heather McGhee embarks on a road trip across Covid-era America, unearthing stories of American hope and solidarity in a time of great division and peril for our democracy. Join Heather on her journey—from rural Maine to the coast of California and everywhere in between—as she meets extraordinary Americans who are crossing demographic, cultural and political lines to build a better futu...