# What Does it Mean to Be an American?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/pod-save-america-7044366/what-does-it-mean-to-be-an-american
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/pod-save-america-7044366/what-does-it-mean-to-be-an-american.md
Podcast: [Pod Save America](https://stenobird.com/podcast/pod-save-america-7044366)
Published: 2026-05-31T09:55:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/what-does-it-mean-to-be-an-american--72260924
Audio file: https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72260924/8909657.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/pod-save-america-7044366/episodes/what-does-it-mean-to-be-an-american
Duration seconds: 4801

## Resource

Jon sits down with our own Ben Rhodes to talk about how American leaders tell the story of who we are — and who they think we should be — through the speeches they give. The two go through the seminal speeches Ben selected for his new book "All We Say," discussing their power for good (Frederic Douglass on human rights) and evil (Alexander Stephenson on the "moral truth" of white supremacy), and their own memories of writing presidential addresses for Barack Obama when the stakes were highest.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/pod-save-america-7044366/episodes/what-does-it-mean-to-be-an-american/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/pod-save-america-7044366/what-does-it-mean-to-be-an-american.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.