Just in time for the holiday, History for Cocktail Parties hosts James Ottley and Thornton Kennedy carve into the real story behind Thanksgiving — and it’s far more complicated (and interesting) than the version most of us learned in school. From the Pilgrims’ voyage on the Mayflower to the American Indian communities they encountered, the hosts discuss how disease, timing, geography, and mythology shaped one of America’s most enduring narratives.

Ottley and Kennedy explore why the Pilgrims weren’t the first settlers, how a devastating pandemic reshaped the New England coast before they arrived, and why many passengers aboard the Mayflower weren’t separatists at all — just everyday people looking for a better life. They dig into the debated intent of their landing site, the exaggerations around the “brutal first winter,” and the role Native Americans had already played in cultivating the land long before the famous feast.