Coffee With Jim, August 24, 2025

Navajo code talkers. Route 66 as the quintessential American road trip. Small town America and big cities. The international fascination with Route 66, that highways future, and the endangered small business.

Our conversation with Jonathan Bullington, a Chicago Tribune senior reporter, on this episode of Coffee With Jim, the weekly podcast from Jim Hinckley's America, provides a different perspective on the Route 66 experience. Bullington recently wrote the first articles in a series about his odyssey along Route 66, and the people met along the way.  

Jonathan Bullington is no stanger to the sharing of adventures, to finding people with fascinating stories, or to providing inspiration through the telling of a good story. He previously worked at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans and at The Courier Journal in Louisville where he was part of a team that won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news. Those experiences provided him with an ability to find stories often overlooked during his first Route 66 odyssey. 

Today's program is sponsored in part by supporters of Jim Hinckley's America through Patreon. It is also sponsored by the Cactus Inn Motel, McLean, Texas, RouteTrip USA, iconic Wagon Wheel Motel, Roadrunner Lodge Motel in Tucumcari, Gilligan's Route 66 Tours, Enchanted Trails Trading Post and RV Park in Albuquerque, Deana Nelson - State Farm Insurance Agent, and Two Lane America.