The federal government has always had debt. How much is too much, and how do politicians exploit it? This episode originally dropped in August 2022, but since the subject is in the news, we've been getting lots of questions about it! SUPPORT OUR WORK - DONATE TO CIVICS 101 TODAY! Since our nation's founding, the federal government has borrowed money from other governments, private investors, and businesses in order to operate. Over the last century, the debt ceiling, a Congressional cap on how m...
May 30, 2023•27 min
What can we do with these invisible magnetic waves in the sky? Today we explore what we can say on the air. Are radio and television stations allowed to air their opinions in addition to the news? From 1949-1987 all broadcast media was beholden to the Fairness Doctrine; a law that enforced impartiality and civil discourse. So why did we have this law? How did it work? Why did it end? And finally, what are the arguments for and against bringing it back? Our guest is Larry Irving, who was counsel ...
May 23, 2023•26 min
Ryan Willard is the co-host of The Ten News, a news podcast created for 8-12 year-olds. He shared some of the ways his team frames complex and controversial topics so that they're appropriate and comprehensible to younger ears. You can hear their show wherever you get your podcasts, or at their website. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A ...
May 19, 2023•12 min
While Black citizens fought for their civil and human rights in the Reconstruction era, state and federal governments alike passed law and policy pertaining to them. Courts ruled. Legislatures made law. These are the legal shifts that both supported the Black freedom struggle and actively worked against it. Our guides to the last part of our Reconstruction series are Gilbert Paul Carrasco , Kate Masur and Kidada Williams . CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the p...
May 16, 2023•57 min
Reconstruction has long been taught as a lost cause narrative. The true story is one of great force. The great force of a powerful activist Black community that strived to establish a multiracial democracy and achieved great successes and political power. The great force of a violent white community that exploited, abused and murdered those of that Black community who would assert their civil and human rights. The great force of a federal government that was there and then wasn't. This episode i...
May 08, 2023•57 min
The Reconstruction Era, a period in American history at the end of and immediately following the Civil War, is one of the single-most important and instructive periods in American history. It has also, historically, been one of the least taught. Why is that, and what are we missing when we don't learn about it? A lot. In this, the first in a three-part series on Reconstruction, we speak to Mimi Eisen of the Zinn Education Project about America’s first Civil Rights Era and why most of us don’t kn...
May 02, 2023•42 min
What is defamation? Libel? Pre-trial discovery? Actual malice? Today we go into everything tied to the recently settled Dominion Voting Systems vs Fox News Network defamation lawsuit; including slander, libel, discovery, settlement, and the "whackadoodle email." Our guide through the world of defamation legalities is Jane Kirtley , Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. We talk about why these lies were p...
Apr 23, 2023•32 min
How free are we? Are some countries more free than we are? What does freedom even mean? In this episode in our "US vs" series, we talk with the co-author of the Human Freedom Index , Ian Vasquez, about how we rank in our measure of liberty. Then we do a deep dive into Freedom of the Press with Jenifer Whitten-Woodring, co-author of the Historical Guide to World Media Freedom: A Country-by-Country Analysis . Here are some links to other episodes we've done that explore our ever-changing tally of ...
Apr 18, 2023•29 min
A social media app with 150 million American users is under intense scrutiny by the U.S. government. The threat is "sell or be banned," but how and why can the government do that? What does this kind of business restriction look like? We talked to Steven Balla of George Washington University to get the low down on regulations and bans in the United States. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, ...
Apr 11, 2023•21 min
What are grand juries? Who gets picked for one? What does an indictment mean? What's next? Why does it seem like this process is taking so long?? Today we explain all the legal processes surrounding the recent indictment of former president Donald Trump, as well as what the Constitution has to say about all of this. With us is Albert "Buzz" Scherr, professor of Criminal Law and Justice at UNH Law. Sign up here for our newsletter, Extra Credit. It's fun, we promise. CLICK HERE: Visit our website ...
Apr 02, 2023•26 min
On this episode, you've been summoned to learn about jury duty. Do the reasons some people want to avoid jury duty have merit? How do you even get on a list to get summoned to begin with? What should you expect with you get summoned to serve? And should you embrace this particular opportunity to participate in the democratic process? (Spoiler alert: We really think you should!) Our guest is Sonali Chakravarti , professor of government at Wesleyan University and author of Radical Enfranchisement ...
Mar 28, 2023•46 min
If you've learned about things like Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances, you know the tried and true notion that Congress makes the laws, the executive branch enforces them, and the judicial branch interprets them. But would it surprise you to hear that's not how it goes most of the time? Today we explore who really writes the majority of legislation in the US, and how it got to be that way. We talk with Dan Cassino of Fairleigh Dickinson University, who breaks down that first step of t...
Mar 21, 2023•27 min
The idea that the more you have, the more you’re expected to contribute in taxes, is a foundation of our income tax system. And there is one government agency that oversees it all: the Internal Revenue Service. However, the tax code itself, and the IRS, are subject to the will of politicians - who might have special interests of their own. We talk about how politics, wealth, and power influence how people file for their taxes in the first place, how some of the wealthiest Americans have the lowe...
Mar 14, 2023•41 min
For decades, one state has had the privilege of going first in the presidential primary process. But New Hampshire’s “stranglehold” on the way we pick presidents could be losing its grip. The Democratic Party changed its presidential nominating calendar to give voters of color more sway. But New Hampshire isn’t backing down, setting up a major test of the stranglehold and its power. Today, we present that story from our colleagues in NHPR's newsroom, from the podcast "Stranglehold" Donate to sup...
Mar 07, 2023•46 min
If you own land in the United States, do you own the air above it, too? Justine Paradis, Senior Producer at Outside/In from NHPR brings us the airy truth of property rights in air and space in this special collaboration. The answer will take us from Ancient Rome (as it occasionally does) to the United States courts, from a world when air travel was science fiction to the world where we know there are valuable resources on the moon... and we all want them. Guests for this episode are Colin Jerolm...
Feb 28, 2023•40 min
In this episode, we ask how the actions of various American financial institutions caused a global recession and destroyed the livelihoods and homeownership of millions of American people. Then we figure out what the federal government decided to do about it. This is the 2008 financial crisis as told by Amy Friend , Chief Counsel to the Senate Banking Committee as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was written. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, ...
Feb 21, 2023•59 min
Most Americans need help to file our tax return each year - about 90% of people use technology like Turbo Tax, or hire a human tax preparer. Why does it feel like it takes degree in accounting, or the money to pay someone with a degree, or computer software, just to comply with the law? We talk about why our income tax system is the way it is: full of complexity, difficult to navigate, and extremely personal. It's a system where things like who you work for, what kind of resources you have, and ...
Feb 14, 2023•42 min
Many Americans were taken by surprise when a whole new branch of the military - the U.S. Space Force - was launched during the Trump administration. But this branch of the military wasn't created on a whim, and its mission is more complicated than you might expect. On this episode, we unpack the history of the militarization of space, the creation of the Space Force, and ask the question: is it here to stay? Our guest is Dr. Wendy Whitman Cobb, Associate Professor of Strategy and Security Studie...
Feb 07, 2023•43 min
Atlanta was the first city to erect public housing in the United States. It started with Techwood Homes, an all-white development that went up in 1936. Sixty years later it would be torn down, along with others of the now-neglected developments that were the promise of FDR's New Deal. Akira Drake Rodriguez leads us through the story of how residents of public housing in Atlanta worked with, against and despite housing policy in their city. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes...
Jan 31, 2023•37 min
"Public housing" did not exist prior to the Great Depression. So it wasn't until Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal that the government had the chance to impose segregation at the highest level. The effects of segregation policy in housing continue to this day in the United States. Akira Drake Rodriguez and Richard Rothstein are our guides to how and why the government did it. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free ...
Jan 31, 2023•28 min
This episode is the culmination of our series on famous federal court trials in US history. In April of 1967, Muhammad Ali (formerly Cassius Clay) refused to step forward at a draft induction ceremony in Texas. His opposition to serving in Vietnam launched a sequence of trials and appeals that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It's a case about conscientious objection, protest, America's shifting views of the war, and how athletes have the unique role of "soldiers without a weapon." This ep...
Jan 24, 2023•43 min
Today Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is publicly revered across the nation, a symbol of civil and human rights worthy of a memorial holiday. Federal and state legislatures have agreed to honor this man. That agreement took awhile. The final state to acquiesce, New Hampshire, resisted the holiday until 1999. The story of that resistance reveals a public sentiment about King and the Black Freedom Struggle that is far from the reverence of today. This is the story of how a man becomes a national symbol...
Jan 16, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Ever wonder what life is really like for those who work to support a politician’s career? In September 2022, Hannah McCarthy sat down with Huma Abedin for a show called Writers on a New England Stage. This is an excerpt from their conversation. Huma discusses her memoir, Both/And, and describes what it's like to work alongside and advise a former First Lady, Secretary of State and presidential nominee. You can catch the whole conversation at nhpr.org . CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of...
Jan 10, 2023•33 min
You've probably heard about The Red Scare - the panic around the perceived threat of communism during the Cold War. But The Lavender Scare is lesser known. This was a time when the federal government investigated, persecuted and fired thousands of LGBTQ+ employees, calling them security risks and threats to the country. In this episode of Civics 101, we'll dive into the origin and timeline of the Lavender Scare, meet the man who pushed back and started a movement, and learn about the ripple effe...
Jan 03, 2023•45 min
How does something go from an annual tradition to a mandated day off? Who decides to make a holiday official? Today we're taking a look at everything from Christmas to National Walk Around Things Day, from our twelve official federal holidays to some day made up by a sock company. Our guides to the holiday season are Jeff Bensch, author of History of American Holidays, and JerriAnne Boggis, Executive Director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all ...
Dec 27, 2022•29 min
Today we answer this question from a listener, "Is Santa a criminal?" We get to the bottom of the myriad actions of the jolly old elf, and whether he could reasonably be tried for civil and criminal violations, including but not limited to trespassing, breaking and entering, voyeurism, stalking, surveillance, burglary, tax evasion, bad labor practices, emotional distress, and (in one instance) involuntary manslaughter. Taking us through this complex web of charges is Colin Miller , professor at ...
Dec 20, 2022•27 min
When a monarch dies, power stays in the family. But what about a president? It was a tricky question that the founders left mostly to Congress to figure out later. Lana Ulrich , of the National Constitution Center, and Linda Monk , constitutional scholar and author of The Bill of Rights: A User's Guide, explain the informal rules that long governed the transition of presidential power, and the 25th Amendment, which outlines what should happen if a sitting president dies, resigns, or becomes unab...
Dec 13, 2022•29 min
What does the Constitution say about who is allowed to be president? And why is the answer to that question still a little unclear? Brady Carlson , host of All Things Considered at Wisconsin Public Radio and author of Dead Presidents. explains the formal and informal rules that govern who is allowed to become Commander-in-Chief. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 ...
Dec 06, 2022•24 min
Propaganda is a piece of information designed to make you think or do something specific. So how does it work? Today on Civics 101, John Maxwell Hamilton (professor and author of Manipulating the Masses: Woodrow Wilson and the Birth of American Propaganda ) and Jennifer Mercieca (professor and author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump ) take us through the Federalist Papers, the Committee on Public Intelligence, the Four Minute Men, amygdala highjacking, and the my...
Nov 29, 2022•32 min
What does a person get after the U.S. presidency’s over and done with? We answer a question from listener Patrick, who asks if former presidents get anything special. Do they ever, and we lay out the perks of having once held the highest office in the land. Please note: an earlier version of this episode stated that Harry Truman was the only living president at the passage of the 1958 Former Presidents Act. Former President Herbert Hoover was also still living at the time of the passage of this ...
Nov 22, 2022•34 min
