Rund Abdelfatah

speaker

598 appearances 3 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 19 Jul

Rund Abdelfatah’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 3.

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Throughline · How wheelchairs, a river, and a spaceship challenged the status quo · 14 Jul 2026 podcast

This is America in Pursuit, a limited-run series from NPR and ThruLine.

I'm Randa Abdel-Fattah.

Each week, we bring you stories about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the U.S.

that began 250 years ago.

Today, civil disobedience.

Starting with those peaceful boycotts in the 1700s, escalating into the overthrow of the British tyranny.

It's been a catalyst for change ever since.

Being able to question, to stand up to the powers that be, is one of the most American ideals.

Henry David Thoreau famously wrote in his 1849 essay, Civil Disobedience,

At the time, Thoreau was railing against poll taxes, slavery, and the Mexican-American War.

The big message underneath it all was that Americans have a moral duty to question the government and to fight injustice.

On this episode, we're going to shine a spotlight on work from our colleagues in the NPR newsroom who bring us stories of resistance from Denver, Colorado, to Montgomery, Alabama, and from a 1966 primetime TV show.

That's coming up after a quick break.

I recently learned this surprising fact about one of the founding fathers.

To write his signature on the Declaration of Independence, Stephen Hopkins used his left hand to steady his right.

Historians say the delegate from Rhode Island had a disability, what we now call cerebral palsy, or maybe Parkinson's.

And as he signed the document, he noted, My hand trembles, but my heart does not.

It wasn't until the 20th century that people with disabilities began demanding their rights to the Declaration's promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

NPR correspondent Joseph Shapiro and Stephanie Wolf of Colorado Public Radio tell the forgotten story of one group of Americans with disabilities that helped launch a movement.

Now to Montgomery, Alabama, a city where in 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat.

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