Welcome to The Story of the United States in 100 Objects. Before we get into the objects, artifacts, and arguments, Tim and Andrea sit down to introduce the show: what it is, why they're doing it, and what you can expect from the next 100 episodes.

In this episode:

• Who Tim and Andrea are (married, competitive, self-described "non-historians")
• The idea behind the show: telling the story of America through 250 years of objects, from a rushed printer's broadside to a rock from another world
• How episodes will work, one object per episode, plus the running debate between two people who don't always agree on what it means
• What's coming up first: Episode 1 will be a birth certificate. You'll have to subscribe to find out whose birth certificate it is.

Thanks for being here for the introductory episode. Subscribe now so you don't miss Object #1.

Before the famous signed parchment existed, there was a rushed overnight print job that actually told America independence had been declared.

Tim and Andrea open the series with the Dunlap Broadside, the first printed copy of the Declaration of Independence, run off overnight by a 29 year old Irish immigrant printer working against a deadline set by men who had just committed treason.

No signatures except two printed names. Ink smudges from being folded before it dried. A print run that historians still can't nail down to an exact number. And two of the best true stories in the whole 100 object list riding along with it: a $4 flea market frame that turned out to be worth 8.14 million dollars, and a spy's copy that sat quietly in British archives for 250 years before a researcher found it in 2026, catalogued as evidence against the very rebellion it now helps commemorate.

It's history, plus marriage, plus an honest look at what "all men are created equal" didn't quite mean yet in 1776. Imperfect people. Extraordinary things. That's the whole show, starting right here.