In his speech today, President Obama took the long view — of where we are in this country and where he’d like to see us go.

Inauguration Days are natural pivot points in American history. For some Americans though, they’re a bit more special.

A few months ago, we teamed up with a group of journalism students at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School. We used social media to track down people who were born on past Inauguration Days, to find out how they think America has changed in their lifetimes, how we’re doing now and where we go from here.

Listen to hear what they have to say by clicking on the audio player above.

We’ve got more coverage on the inauguration — including profiles of people born on Inauguration Day, a timeline of notable firsts in inauguration history, and a series of essays from writers like Jeffrey Eugenides.