Telling America's story at the National Archives

Colleen Shogan, archivist of the United States, joins us for a conversation about democratizing access to national records and running a non-partisan organization in an increasingly polarized country. Shogan was appointed by President Biden and has been criticized by both sides of the political spectrum for trying to use the National Archives to tell a partisan story about America's history.  Shogan is a political scientist by training and talks about making the transition from academia to government and how her background as a scholar of the presidency informs the work she does now. We also discuss the National Archives and Records Administration's efforts to digitize billions of records housed in facilities across the country. We recorded this episode before the 2024 election, but as you'll hear, it takes on new significance in the face of a second Trump administration. Mentioned in this episode: National Archives Citizen Archivist program Wall Street Journal article about Shogan Shogan's response to the Wall Street Journal article