The National Archives might seem like a distant trove of documents and arcane laws for Americans far from Washington. But many of these national treasures are actually relevant to our lives. Author Sarah Vowell found the people inside the Archives who are making sure everybody can access these documents and find their stories.

Read Sarah Vowell’s full story here: The Equalizer

And check out the rest of the “Who is government?” series.

The Canary, by Michael Lewis

The Sentinel, by Casey Cep

The Searchers, by Dave Eggers

The Number, by John Lanchester

The Cyber Sleuth, by Geraldine Brooks

The original version of this audio mistakenly referred to one of the Citizen Archivists as Bernard Weintraub, but his name is Joel Weintraub. We regret the error.

‘I exist because of this piece of paper’

Reasonably Optimistic

‘I exist because of this piece of paper’