What is the longest running war in U.S. history? The answer might surprise you. For over 125 years, the U.S. has been in a state of war with the Hawaiian Kingdom. We continue our conversation with Dr. Keanu Sai discussing how Hawaii became America’s so-called 50th state. The U.S. backed overthrow of Hawaii's government on January 12, 1893 triggered a state of war between the United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom, a state that continues to this day as a peace treaty has never been...

There is a phrase with a double meaning in Hawaiian, "ka wa ma hope,” which means to look to the future is to look at the past. When you invite a Hawaiian to look to the future, they will instinctively turn to the past. This episode is a deep dive into Hawaii’s past to answer this age-old question that has reverberated since the late 1800’s on the eight small islands in the middle of the Pacific. What is our future? We continue our journey of how Hawaii became America’s so-called 50th...

Is Hawaii our 50th state? Join us for part 2 of our series, “Strangling Hands Upon a Nation’s Throat,” as we discuss how our understanding of this question underwent a total transformation while spending time in Hawaii with our guest, Lynette Cruz. We arrived assuming the Aloha state was our 50th, only to spend an evening with Lynette to learn that what we’ve believed all our lives about the state of Hawaii could not be further from the truth. We took part that evening in a reenactment of an...

A new multi-part series from Undivided Nation titled, "Strangling Hands Upon a Nation's Throat," takes a look into how Hawaii became America's 50th state. The title for our series comes from an 1897 newspaper article that told the vivid, firsthand account of the Hawaiian people's opposition to annexation by the United States of America. The story of the 1893 coup d'état of the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii and Queen Liliʻuokalani by a group of local businessmen backed by the U.S....

Meet Mimi Martinez, a beautiful young Tulsan by way of Honduras, who was gracious enough to join us for dinner during our time in our first stop of Oklahoma on a 50-state road trip. Mimi’s story, which she shares with us in vivid detail on this episode, will shake you to your core, as we relive her perilous journey at the tender age of ten from the small town in Honduras where she grew up, through Guatemala and the streets of Chiapas, Mexico on to arrive in her mother’s arms in Oklahoma. This...

At what point did America lose its sense of humanity and interconnectedness as human beings, regardless of what country we belong to? As our nation wrestles with the complex issue of immigration, we wanted to introduce you to Jordan, a bright and talented individual who was brought to America when he was just two years old. As he shares his immigration story and what life was like growing up as an undocumented immigrant in America, he experienced a great shift when President Obama announced...

What was the underlying belief in America that led to the theft of land from its indigenous people, the enslavement of Africans, the Trail of Tears, Jim Crow, redlining, urban renewal, and gentrification? The foundational belief throughout much of our history is this misguided idea that some people are either superior or inferior because of their external physical characteristics. As our guest Dr. Gail Christopher calls it, the fallacy of a hierarchy of human value. Although there have been...

Erin and David welcome you into their closet in this first installment of Closet Conversations, for an intimate discussion on the highly sensitive information covered in the first nine episodes of HELLO MY NAME IS AMERICA. Sharing from the most vulnerable, painful and beautiful moments of their own journey, Erin and David walk listeners through their 50-state learning process, highlighting how the stories on this podcast have marked their lives. They also discuss the outright infuriating...

“Do we really want to be a nation where ‘We the People,’ for the very first time, actually means all the people?” This is the challenging question Mark Charles, Navajo speaker, writer, and historian, poses to us as we continue our conversation with him in this thought-provoking two-part series, Rediscovering America. In light of our upcoming celebration of our American independence, we wrestle with this idea of American greatness. Is America great? Has America always been great? Has...

“There is a history beyond what my history books tell me,” says Mark Charles, Navajo speaker, writer and historian. This narrative missing from the “told” American story is one that Mark embodies. It is a fresh perspective that we desperately need in America, but it is a hard reality to face. Can we challenge ourselves to hear this perspective and find a shared American truth? Join us as we discuss the foundations upon which America was built, including the Doctrine of Discovery, Manifest...

Get ready for a mind shift this week as we chat with our friend J.D. Colbert, a member of the Muskogee Creek Nation, as he brings some vital and necessary truths to address the root causes of our deep divisions. On this episode, we cover the dark and disturbing history between our federal government and the native peoples of this land, touching on topics like the guardianship program, boarding schools, the grand theft scheme of federal land allotments, and even the ways in which our founding...

Ever wondered how our democracy will survive if we continue on this path of self-destruction? If so, you won’t want to miss this discussion with Mark Gerzon, author and President of Mediators Foundation, as he shares with us why the engine of democracy is breaking down, and what he believes we could do to fix it. In a powerful conversation, Mark sheds light on the splendor of our complexity, highlighting that no American can be summed up as simply red or blue. He explains our desperate need...

David takes us into his own personal discovery of what unity is NOT in America as he dives deeper into the real reasons we are so deeply divided as a nation. In this solo episode, David shares his heart for why we need to catch a vision for a pathway forward, but to do so, we must be willing to go back and find out how the trust was broken, walking through America’s foundations to understand how we got here. He recounts his own difficult journey of disappointment as he discovered that America...

How well do you know the story of the Little Rock Nine? Take a journey with us back to 1957 as we speak to Randy Dotson, a Park Ranger at Little Rock Central High School, the place where nine African-American children stood against the separate but equal doctrine. This week marks the 65th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education case, which found that school segregation was unconstitutional. “Our being there was a direct affront to white supremacy,” said Elizabeth Eckford, one of the...