On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… sailing the ocean blue.

Most of us just had Monday off for the holiday formerly known as Columbus Day — and technically, still known as Columbus Day, on the federal level.

Indigenous People’s Day, or Native Americans’ Day, was christened as a rebuttal to what Columbus actually meant for many: colonialism, violence, death, and destruction. But there are those who believe that Columbus, the man, is a different beast than Columbus, the event. Spanish ships landing in the Caribbean was a monumental moment in global history… so could that still be worth commemorating, even in a world that’s no longer kind to Columbus? 

Prof. William Connell, chair of Italian Studies at Seton Hall University and organizer/co-editor of the definitive Routledge History of Italian-Americans, joins us. 

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com

Podcast production by Maura Currie

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