National Liberty Museum Awarded $100,000 NEH Grant to Launch New Podcast in 2026
The National Liberty Museum is proud to announce it has been awarded $100,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to launch a new podcast focused on liberty, civic dialogue, and public humanities. The podcast will debut in 2026 as part of the Museum’s programming aligned with the nation’s 250th anniversary.
The award is part of a $75.1 million national investment by NEH supporting 84 humanities projects across the country, with a significant share of funding going to institutions preparing for the Semiquincentennial through public interpretation, education, and dialogue. Locally, the grant places the National Liberty Museum among Philadelphia-area organizations collectively receiving approximately $3 million in new NEH funding—an affirmation of the region’s leadership in humanities-based public engagement.
An Opportunity to Expand the Reach of Liberty
Public interpretation of the humanities is embedded in the founding, mission, and vision of the National Liberty Museum. As a museum of ideas, NLM is fundamentally designed to offer visitors opportunities to engage with complex themes through humanities-driven exhibitions and public programs.
Tha
nks to this NEH grant, the new podcast series is able to build on this foundation by expanding humanities interpretation beyond the gallery walls. By pairing historical scholarship with lived experience, the podcast will make liberty an accessible, evolving idea for new and broader audiences.
A Platform for Diverse Voices and Civic Dialogue
The podcast will elevate voices from across disciplines and communities, including scholars, museum professionals, politicians, artists, comedians, and community members. Each participant will explore what liberty means in their lives and work, creating a multidimensional portrait of freedom at a pivotal moment in American history.
In its first phase, the podcast will function as both a standalone digital production and an extension of the museum’s successful speaker series. Episodes will feature individual interviews, public panel discussions recorded before live audiences, and “man-on-the-street” interviews—personal reflections from everyday people whose experiences add emotional resonance and immediacy.
This hybrid format blends traditional scholarly dialogue with participatory civic engagement—allowing audiences to access content through live events, audio platforms, and video formats. This juxtaposition of scholarship and storytelling ensures that the podcast remains both intellectually rigorous and emotionally accessible, reinforcing the humanities as a vital tool for understanding ourselves and our shared civic life.
A Digital Time Capsule for the Semiquincentennial
Launching during the nation’s 250th anniversary and the Museum’s exploration of freedom of assembly in The Forgotten Freedom: American Assembly at 250, the podcast will serve as a digital time capsule capturing how Americans understand liberty at this pivotal moment. Podcast content will center on liberty as articulated in 1776 and reconsidered in the present day. The signing of the Declaration of Independence will be treated with the seriousness it deserves, while also serving as a starting point for critical conversations about its contemporary implications.
An Investment in Dialogue, Democracy, and the Humanities
The National Liberty Museum is deeply grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities for this investment in public dialogue and humanities access. At a time when thoughtful, inclusive conversations about liberty are more essential than ever, this grant affirms the enduring relevance of the humanities in shaping a more informed and engaged public.
The museum looks forward to sharing more details about the NEH grant-funded podcast series as production begins and invites the public to join the conversation in 2026.
Read the press release from the National Endowment for the Humanities
