Touring History Podcast Script - June 22nd, 2025
Opening
LANE: Welcome back to Touring History, the podcast where we prove that any random date can make you question everything you thought you knew about linear time. I'm Lane—
DAVE: And I'm Dave, and today we're trying something new. This is our first episode of Touring History "X, Y, and Z"—a shorter format designed to entertain and educate across the three largest generations.
LANE: Instead of our usual deep dive into everything that happened on a date, we're focusing on three events that specifically resonate with Gen X, Gen Y, and Gen Z. Same irreverent historical analysis, but more targeted and digestible.
DAVE: Think of it as history's greatest hits, but organized by who's most likely to care about each story. And before we dive into a day that gave us everything from educational opportunities to voting rights to legendary soccer controversies, we need to talk about Ike's Love & Sandwiches.
LANE: Are we really segueing from generational targeting to sandwich shops?
DAVE: Lane, when you're about to discuss educational policy, civil rights victories, and Diego Maradona's most controversial goal all in one condensed episode, you need sustenance that understands complexity. Ike's Love & Sandwiches doesn't just make sandwiches—they craft edible narratives.
LANE: Since 2007, they've been turning simple ingredients into something extraordinary. Over 600 sandwich combinations, each one named after someone who matters—from "The Tony Soprano" to "The Menage a Trois."
DAVE: Check them out at ikessandwich.com, because when history gets this focused, you deserve food that's equally intentional.
LANE: And today's history is definitely intentional. June 22nd—the day America opened college to veterans, lowered the voting age, and watched a soccer player literally hand his way into immortality. Three events, three generations, one surprisingly coherent narrative about opportunity and authenticity.
Birthdays
DAVE: Let's start with birthdays, because June 22nd produced some serious generational icons. Meryl Streep turns 76 today—arguably the greatest actress of our time, definitely the person who made award show speeches into performance art.
LANE: Plus we've got Cyndi Lauper at 73, who didn't just want to have fun—she wanted girls to have fun, specifically, which was apparently a revolutionary concept in 1983.
DAVE: Lindsay Wagner's 77—the Bionic Woman herself, proving that strong female characters existed long before the term "strong female character" became a marketing buzzword.
LANE: And Graham Greene at 74, one of Canada's most respected Indigenous actors, bringing depth and authenticity to roles that too often went to... well, not Indigenous actors.
DAVE: Oh, and some TikTok creators are celebrating today too—Zach Clayton, the Moody Unicorn Twin, and someone called Chex. I don't know what any of those names mean, but I assume they're very important to people under 25.
LANE: Sometimes the birthday list is a perfect snapshot of how entertainment evolved. From bionic women to viral dances in fifty years.
1944 - FDR Signs the GI Bill
DAVE: June 22nd, 1944, FDR signs the GI Bill into law, and honestly? This might be the most Gen X relevant thing we could possibly discuss.
LANE: Oh, here we go. Dave's got theories about generational impact again.
DAVE: No, seriously! Think about it—the GI Bill sent millions of World War II veterans to college who never would have gone otherwise. Working-class guys suddenly getting engineering degrees, business degrees, becoming doctors and lawyers.
LANE: And those veterans became the parents of the Baby Boomers, who became the most college-educated generation in history up to that point. Which meant they had very specific expectations for their kids.
DAVE: Exactly! So when Gen X comes along in the '70s and '80s, their Boomer parents are like, "Obviously you're going to college. Obviously you're going to get a degree. This is just what people do now."
LANE: Except by the time Gen X hit college age, student loans had replaced government funding, tuition was skyrocketing, and suddenly that guaranteed path to middle-class success wasn't so guaranteed anymore.
DAVE: The GI Bill created this expectation of higher education as the normal path to prosperity, but then the economics changed completely. Gen X got stuck with the expectations but not the support system.
LANE: You know what's wild? The original GI Bill cost about $14.5 billion and sent 7.8 million veterans to college. Today's student loan debt is over $1.7 trillion.
DAVE: See? The GI Bill accidentally created the conditions that made Gen X the first generation to be worse off financially than their parents, despite being more educated.
LANE: Although to be fair, it also created the American middle class as we know it. So... mixed legacy?
1970 - Voting Age Lowered to 18
LANE: June 22nd, 1970, President Nixon signs the Voting Rights Act amendment lowering the voting age to 18, which is peak Gen Y relevance right here.
DAVE: Wait, how is this specifically Gen Y?
LANE: Because Gen Y—Millennials—were the first generation to grow up with the expectation that young people's political opinions actually mattered! Before 1970, you could be drafted to fight in Vietnam at 18 but couldn't vote until 21.
DAVE: "Old enough to fight, old enough to vote." That was the slogan, right?
LANE: Exactly. But here's the thing—by the time Millennials turned 18, youth political engagement was just... assumed. The idea that 18-year-olds should vote wasn't radical anymore, it was just normal.
DAVE: So Millennials inherited this political system where their voices were supposed to matter from day one, but then they hit 2008 and realized the economy was completely broken.
LANE: Right! They were raised to believe in civic engagement, then entered adulthood during the worst economic crisis since the Depression. Student loans, housing crisis, stagnant wages—but hey, at least you can vote about it!
DAVE: This explains so much about Millennial political behavior. They're not apathetic—they're frustrated that voting doesn't seem to fix the structural problems they inherited.
LANE: Plus they're the first generation to organize politically through social media. The 18-year-old vote became the 18-year-old tweet, which became the 18-year-old viral movement.
DAVE: From "old enough to fight, old enough to vote" to "old enough to tweet, old enough to completely reorganize how political movements work."
1986 - Maradona's "Hand of God" Goal
DAVE: June 22nd, 1986, Diego Maradona scores the most controversial goal in World Cup history against England, and this is absolutely peak Gen Z content.
LANE: Okay, I'll bite. How is a soccer goal from 1986 relevant to people born after 2000?
DAVE: Because this is the original viral moment! Maradona literally cheats—punches the ball into the goal with his hand—then claims it was "the hand of God" when asked about it.
LANE: And the referee missed it completely. No video replay, no instant analysis, just one guy's word against slow-motion footage that wouldn't be widely seen until hours later.
DAVE: But here's the Gen Z part—Maradona didn't just cheat, he turned the cheating into part of his legend. He owned it, made it poetic, turned a clear violation into this mythical moment about divine intervention.
LANE: That's... actually brilliant marketing? Like, instead of denying it or apologizing, he reframed it as cosmic destiny.
DAVE: Gen Z grew up in a world where everything is recorded, everything is analyzed, and authenticity is supposedly the highest value. But Maradona shows that sometimes the most authentic thing you can do is completely own your inauthenticity.
LANE: Plus he scored another goal in the same game that's considered one of the greatest goals ever—ran through half the English team like they were traffic cones. So he proved he could win legitimately right after proving he'd win illegitimately if necessary.
DAVE: It's the perfect Gen Z lesson: be incredibly talented, but also be willing to break the rules, and definitely make sure your rule-breaking becomes part of your personal brand.
LANE: Although let's be honest—if this happened today, there would be a thousand TikToks analyzing the hand angle within five minutes.
DAVE: "POV: You're explaining why the Hand of God was actually feminist praxis."
Mid-Episode Ad Break
LANE: Speaking of things that deserve legendary status, let's talk about Ike's Love & Sandwiches—the most ambitious sandwich operation on the West Coast.
DAVE: While other places offer "turkey and swiss," Ike's offers over 600 different combinations, each one named after someone who matters. That's not a menu, that's a cultural statement.
LANE: "The Menage a Trois"—chicken, halal chicken, and turkey with Swiss and cheddar. "The Elvis Kieth"—halal chicken with ranch and hot sauce. These aren't just sandwiches, they're edible stories.
DAVE: Founded in 2007 with a simple philosophy: great ingredients, creative combinations, and enough personality to make ordering lunch feel like joining a community.
LANE: Check them out at ikessandwich.com, where every sandwich is proof that taking simple concepts and adding genuine creativity can change everything.
Closing
LANE: So there you have it—our first Touring History "X, Y, and Z" episode. June 22nd gave us three perfect generational touchstones: educational expectations, voting rights, and the art of owning your controversies.
DAVE: What strikes me is how these three events actually tell one story—about expanding access, whether that's college through the GI Bill, democracy through the 18-year-old vote, or soccer immortality through sheer audacity.
LANE: Although some expansions work out better than others. The GI Bill created the middle class, the voting age change empowered young people, and Maradona... well, Maradona became Maradona.
DAVE: Speaking of consistently good choices, Ike's Love & Sandwiches has been proving that creativity and quality never go out of style—check them out at ikessandwich.com.
LANE: Thanks for joining us for this new format! Let us know what you think—should we keep doing these focused generational episodes, or do you prefer our usual historical chaos?
DAVE: Until then, I'm Dave—
LANE: And I'm Lane, reminding you that history is just people making decisions about education, voting ages, and whether cheating at soccer makes you a legend or a criminal.
[END OF EPISODE]
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