Two Years: Diaries of a Divided Nation is a people’s history of the forty-fifth presidency, recorded in real time, over the first two years of the Trump presidency. It follows a group of Americans who differ widely in their politics, personal identities, locations, and ages
In his inauguration speech in January 2017, President Donald Trump called for an end to “this American carnage” and the unification of a divided nation. That same month, our team of audio journalists began a project documenting the lives of ordinary people to see how this new political era would unfold on the ground.
Our team of producers worked with six people, helping them record audio “diaries,” conducting remote or in-person interviews, and capturing scenes in the field. We’ve listened to their fears, hopes, concerns, and witnessed the direct and indirect impact of politics on their lives.
Produced with KCRW and designed to fit into an hour-long programming slot, Two Years follows three progressive-leaning and three conservative-leaning people: a Texan whose marriage almost ends due to political differences; a young female DACA-recipient trying to start a family; an evangelical pastor struggling to reconcile his family’s history with the Trump administration’s immigration policy; a public school teacher who decides to run for office; and an older woman wrestling with a memory sparked by the #MeToo movement.
When we began this project, trust in the mainstream media was close to an all-time low, and polls showed a majority of Americans — conservative and liberal, urban and rural, Black, white, and Latino—shared a sense of not being listened to. We listened to our participants with the belief that we have to pay attention to lives too-often ignored by the media.