At a time when information continues to come at us faster and faster, sometimes you need to hit pause.

And rewind.

NPR's Thuleine takes you back in time to the source of the news stories filling your

feed. Find NPR's Thuleine wherever you get your podcasts.

A note for listeners.

On and across this season, there are repeated mentions of guns, gun violence,

and their collective toll on our society and our psyche.

Please take care while you listen.

The state bird of Florida has been the same since 1927, the northern mockingbird, the bird you're hearing right now.

For seven decades, the mocking bird sat peacefully on its Florida throne, but it's also the

state bird of Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas. So in the 1990s, the Florida Audubon Society started drumming up support for a new candidate.

The Florida Scrub Jay.

The Scrub Jay was teetering close to extinction and the Audubon Society thought a

publicity boost could help increase its chances of survival. Plus the Scrub J was endemic to Florida, a uniquely Floridian bird to represent a unique state.

A high school teacher who had heard about the Audubon Society campaign brought it to his students as a project and

civic engagement, and the kids took up the cause with a passion.

They wrote letters to their legislators and traveled to other schools in the county.

They convinced thousands of fellow students to ask legislators to put forward a bill

on the scrub jays behalf.

And the legislators did. And kids came down to the legislature to testify in support of the new bird

and to petition the government to make the change.

This is Mike Spies, senior writer for The Trace, a

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