Welcome to Ping and Echo, a daily newsletter that shares one amazing podcast episode guaranteed to be a great listen for kids and their families. Each newsletter includes links to articles, videos, and activities related to the podcast so you can turn every episode into an adventure.
Today’s episode is from Backstory, “a weekly podcast that uses current events in America to take a deep dive into our past.” In 2013 the podcast did a multi-part series on the 1963 March on Washington, one piece of which was a deep dive into Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. We are linking just to that section but we will share the longer episode below. That section on MLK’s speech explores all the important messages before he got to the part about the dream. The historians talk about how the march coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, and how America had yet to live up to the promises of that moment. For kids who have really only heard clips and quotes from MLK’s speech that day, this episode helps put “I have a dream” in context.
Podcast: Backstory
Episode: Let Freedom Ring
Length: 12 minutes
🧐 You Should Know
I’ll always give you a heads up if there is anything in the podcast that might surprise or worry kids. Nothing to worry about here.
💡 Try This
After you listen to the episode you can build on this story with the links and activities below:
🔎 Explore More
Read up on history behind this episode with these links:
Listen to the entire Backstory episode on the 1963 march here.
There's Infinitely More to Martin Luther King Jr. Than 'I Have a Dream' - Zinn Education Project
The name Ping and Echo comes from sonar technology which relies on sending out “pings” and receiving back “echos” to discover the world around you. You can send us pictures of the art and activities created by your kids. Email them to pingandecho@gmail.com and we’ll post all your echos on our Instagram and our Twitter page.
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Toby, Ruby, and Josh