From the country’s first lunch counter to the first Olympic games on U.S. soil, hosts Margaret Talev and Ghael Fobes explore America’s 250th anniversary through a series of unexpected firsts that shaped the country in ways nobody saw coming. Some are famous. Some should be. All of them tell us something about who we were — and who we’re becoming.
This podcast was produced by Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism, and Citizenship in Washington, D.C. with the generous support of the Hearst Foundations.
Ep. 1 – The Lunch Counter That Welcomes Everyone: Inside Ben's Chili Bowl
Before it was a stop on every politician’s D.C. itinerary, Ben’s Chili Bowl was a family restaurant on U Street with a half-smoke, a chili dog, and a jukebox. Nizam Ali — son of founders Ben and Virginia Ali — grew up snapping frozen sausage links for $2 a day, years before he understood what his parents’ restaurant meant to Washington.
Opened in 1958 in the heart of “Black Broadway,” Ben’s was integrated from day one, at a time when most lunch counters in America were battlegrounds over who got to sit down and eat. Nizam talks with hosts Margaret Talev and Ghael Fobes about serving Dr. King and Barack Obama alongside neighborhood regulars, staying open during the 1968 riots and the pandemic, and what a 65-year-old lunch counter needs to survive a 2025 renovation.
Show Notes and Links
- History of sit-ins (Stanford/King Institute)
- The last operating Woolworth’s lunch counter (Smithsonian Magazine)