It came after decades of discrimination, violence and disenfranchisement -- President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, "an Act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States." That Act worked. In the decades since, though, states and the Supreme Court have changed what that Act means and can do. Our guides to this sweeping legislation are Sonni Waknin of the UCLA Voting Rights Project and Gary May , author of Bending Towards Justice: The Voting...
Jul 12, 2022•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, after one of the busiest civics-related news weeks in history, we take a break to talk about some of the history and ephemera tied to Independence Day. We talk about dates, names, songs, food, and explosions in the sky. Here are some links to episodes tied to the 4th: Declaration of Independence Declaration Revisited IRL2: The Flag and the Pledge Throughline's episode on Becoming America Want our new "Civics is my cup of tea" mug? CLICK HERE TO DONATE AND GET YOURS! CLICK HERE: Visit our ...
Jul 04, 2022•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast The National Park Service has changed immensely since its days of keeping poachers out of Yellowstone. So has its approach to telling the story of America. Kirsten Talken-Spaulding of the NPS and Will Shafroth of the National Parks Foundation help us understand how this colossal system actually works and what it's doing to tell the true story of the United States. Want our new "Civics is my cup of tea" mug? CLICK HERE TO DONATE AND GET YOURS! CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episo...
Jun 28, 2022•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast The government issues IDs so we can prove who we say we are, and since the start, that’s included an expression of binary (male or female) gender. Now, some states - and even the federal government - are starting to change that. LGBTQ+ reporter Kate Sosin is our guide. Want our new "Civics is my cup of tea" mug? CLICK HERE TO DONATE AND GET YOURS! 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!...
Jun 21, 2022•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast 27 words which have been interpreted and reinterpreted by historians, activists, judges, and philosophers. What did the 2nd Amendment mean when it was written? What does it mean right now? And what happened in between? Today's episode features Saul Cornell, professor of history at Fordham University and author of A Well Regulated Militia , Alexandra Filindra, professor of political science at University of Illinois Chicago and author of the upcoming Race, Rights, and Rifles, and Jake Charles, le...
Jun 14, 2022•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast A leaked draft opinion in a Supreme Court case about abortion reveals that a majority of the justices were, at the time of this draft's release, in favor of overturning the precedent set in Roe v Wade that protected abortion access. In our recent episode on judicial precedent, we talked about how the Supreme Court interprets the law, and how precedent gives that interpretation power, ensuring the law is applied equally to everyone. We also talked about how and why the Supreme Court might reconsi...
Jun 10, 2022•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast When the Supreme Court decides how the law, and the Constitution, should be interpreted in a case, that interpretation becomes a precedent. Once that judicial precedent has been set, it's understood that the interpretation and its reasoning should be applied to similar cases in the future. So why might the Supreme Court reconsider its own precedent? And what happens when a precedent is modified, or overruled? We talk to Nina Varsava , a law professor at University of Wisconsin, Madison who studi...
Jun 07, 2022•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Civics 101 teamed up with the Outside/In podcast to bring you the story of Happy, an Asian elephant living in the Bronx Zoo. Lawyers had petitioned the New York State Court of Appeals for a writ of Habeas Corpus; a legal maneuver that could have freed Happy and set a new precedent for animal rights. But in a ruling out mid-June 2022, the court decided: Happy isn’t going anywhere. In this quick update to our previous episode (listen here if you haven’t already) Hannah debriefs with Outside/In hos...
Jun 03, 2022•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Happy has lived in New York City’s Bronx Zoo for years. To visitors, she’s a lone Asian elephant. But to a team of animal rights lawyers, she’s a prisoner. They’ve petitioned state courts for a writ of Habeas Corpus; a legal maneuver that, if granted, would declare Happy a legal person who deserves to be freed. It’s the latest case in an ongoing fight to extend basic human rights to animals – one that could have big repercussions in the natural world. Because this is a case that deals with anima...
Jun 02, 2022•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our episodes come out on Tuesday, but this week is different. Special crossover Civics 101 and Outside/In episode coming out on Thursday, take your trunk and mark your calendar! Support our mission to explain how the government works here . Want our new "Civics is my cup of tea" mug? CLICK HERE TO DONATE AND GET YOURS! 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 b...
May 31, 2022•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast The federal judiciary system has three steps: district court, circuit court, and the Supreme Court, and despite what you see on screen, many cases do not end with that first courtroom verdict. This is how the federal judiciary system works, what makes a case worthy of consideration by the Supreme Court, and what happens when case lands in front of SCOTUS. We talked with Erin Corcoran , Executive Director for the Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies, and Behzad Mirhashem , Assistant Fede...
May 24, 2022•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast A free press, ideally, learns what is happening in our democracy and passes that information on to us. How, then, do we learn the truth about this country when there’s so much misinformation, so many opinions, claims of fake news and widespread mistrust of the truth? Joining us again for part 2 are Melissa Wasser and Erin Coyle . This episode first aired in October of 2020. Want our new "Civics is my cup of tea" mug? CLICK HERE TO DONATE AND GET YOURS! CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of...
May 17, 2022•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast The only working-class job enshrined in the Bill of Rights, a free press is essential to the health of the democracy. The citizens deserve to know what’s going on, so the framers made sure that news could be printed and information disseminated. But how does the press actually do that? Are they upholding their end of the bargain? What does the best version of the press and the news look like? Helping us report this one out are Melissa Wasser , Michael Luo and Erin Coyle . This episode originally...
May 17, 2022•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast The blocking of a majority-Black congressional district in Alabama. OSHA regulations requiring vaccinations or a negative COVID test result. A law in Texas banning abortions after six weeks. All of these controversial issues were decided not through the tried-and-true method of a hearing in the Supreme Court, but rather through a system called "the shadow docket," orders from the court that are (often) unsigned, inscrutable, and handed down in the middle of the night. Professor Stephen Vladeck t...
May 10, 2022•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is an episode about a case, a couple of cases in fact, that no longer carry the force of Constitutional law. This episode was made when the essential holding of Roe v Wade still stood. That is no longer the case. It’s a rare occurrence for the Supreme Court to overturn a decision outright, especially a landmark decision, but that is indeed what happened on Friday, June 24th shortly after 10 AM, 2022. Listen to this episode to get an understanding of why Roe and Casey happened in the first p...
May 03, 2022•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast The land had been cultivated and lived on for millennia when geologist Ferdinand Hayden came upon the astounding Yellowstone "wilderness." It wasn't long before the federal government declared it a national park, to be preserved in perpetuity for the enjoyment of all. Ostensibly. How did Yellowstone go from being an important home, hunting ground, thoroughfare and meeting place to being a park? Megan Kate Nelson , author of Saving Yellowstone, Mark David Spence , author of Dispossessing the Wild...
Apr 26, 2022•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the years after World War II, twelve countries in North America and Europe got together to form an alliance. This alliance, known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, would build up the collective military and security strength of every country involved - so an attack on one country would mean an attack on them all. How does a security alliance between dozens of countries with different governments, interests, and military power, even work? What role does NATO play in international war ...
Apr 19, 2022•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we explain one of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions in modern history; the case that defined campaign donations as speech and therefore protected under the First Amendment, regardless of who made them. This episode explains the history of the case, PACs, Super PACs, the ruling, the effect of the decision on our campaign system, as well as some common misconceptions. Our guides through the case are Professor Jeff Bone from Saint Joseph's University, Maggie Severns from Grid, an...
Apr 12, 2022•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast The United States Constitution gets a lot of credit for being the first of its kind. The progenitor of democratic constitution making. The spark that started a global fire. Is that the long and short of it, or is there more to the story? Linda Colley, author of The Gun, The Ship and the Pen , weaves a longer, more complex narrative in this episode. We explore why constitutions (governmental limits, citizens rights and all) became necessary and who put pen to paper before 1787. Want our new "Civi...
Apr 05, 2022•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Since 1935, the Senate has had a parliamentarian. Their job is to decide, in a truly nonpartisan way, how things operate in the chamber. Their power to decide what can and cannot be done when it comes to legislation, filibustering, motions, and points of order has grown ever since. Today, learn about this complicated and often-unseen role from Sarah Binder, professor at George Washington University, and a person who spent over thirty years in the office, former Senate Parliamentarian Alan Frumin...
Mar 29, 2022•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Long before we could decide and insist upon what they mean to us, a handful of powerful men had to put pen to paper. We're revisiting two episodes from our Foundational Documents series: The Constitution and The Bill of Rights. This is the story of how these now-indispensable documents came to be during a time when independence and unity was new and highly vulnerable. Our understanding and interpretation of these documents has grown and changed in the hundreds of years since they were ratified a...
Mar 22, 2022•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Be it suspicion of voter fraud, fear of hackers or the general belief that something is amiss, legislators across the country have passed election laws designed to make our elections more secure. Those very same laws are widely criticized for making voting less accessible, especially to certain voting groups. So how insecure are our elections? What do election security laws really do? What is the best way to feel better about the state of elections in this country? Our guests are Jessica Huseman...
Mar 15, 2022•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Look up a definition of the Federal Reserve, and you'll see things like "central bank," "monetary policy," and "regulation and stabilization of the financial system." But what does it mean to have a national bank, and how does this government agency impact your ability to have a job, earn and borrow money, and afford things like groceries, rent, and pet food? In this episode, we'll explain how the Federal Reserve came to be, how it works, and how the actions the Fed takes influence our economy. ...
Mar 08, 2022•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 1846, Dred and Harriet Scott were living in St. Louis, Missouri with their two daughters. They were enslaved and launched a not uncommon petition: a lawsuit for their freedom. Eleven years later Chief Justice Roger B. Taney would issue an opinion on their case that not only refused their freedom but attempted to cement the fate of all Black individuals in the United States. This episode is a broadcast special that aired across the nation on NPR, and is two parts: our episode on how the Suprem...
Mar 01, 2022•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the latest edition of our special series Civics at the Movies , we talk about the National Archives and how they're portrayed in the iconic film National Treasure . Is there really a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence? Is the security at the Archives really so high-tech? (Spoiler alert: no, and no.) Our guest is Jessie Kratz, historian at the National Archives and friend of the show. Sign up for our newsletter - it's free and it's fun! Click here to subscribe . Want our new "C...
Feb 24, 2022•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast 90% of proposed bills die in committee. What happens in there?? Today's episode consists of two parts. First, the Schoolhouse Rock definition of congressional committees (what they do and why we have them) and second, an exploration of money, power, lobbying, and a secret point system for deciding who gets to be on one. This episode features the voices of Dan Cassino , Professor of Political Science at Farleigh Dickinson University and Leah Rosenstiel , Assistant Professor of Political Science a...
Feb 22, 2022•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast The modern presidency includes giving upwards of 400 speeches a year. How does the president find time to do it? They don't. That's where the speechwriters come in. This is how the (ideally) inspiring, comforting, clarifying sausage gets made and former Barack Obama senior speechwriter Sarada Peri is giving us a peek behind the curtain. Want our new "Civics is my cup of tea" mug? CLICK HERE TO DONATE AND GET YOURS! CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, ...
Feb 15, 2022•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast From "top secret," like the names and locations of intelligence agents, to "confidential," like the drinking habits of a prime minister, the federal government has a lot of sensitive information. What are the different levels of security clearance, and how does it all work? Helping us untangle this web is Juliette Kayyem , professor of international security at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and national security analyst for CNN. She formerly served as Assistant Secretary for Intergover...
Feb 08, 2022•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast When this episode was recorded, gasoline prices in the US averaged $3.28 a gallon. Stickers of President Biden saying "I did that" decorated gas pumps across the country. What handles, if any, does a president have to lower the price of gas? How responsible are they for high prices? Today we get to the bottom of the oil barrel with two specialists; Robert Rapier from Proteum Energy and Irina Ivanova from CBS News. They guide us through an economic, scientific, and historical analysis of the powe...
Feb 01, 2022•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Olympics are a global event. They take years of planning, negotiation and convincing -- not to mention billions of dollars -- to stage. This is how the games are used by the United States and others around the world. This is what it takes to host, what the games do for a nation and what it means when you refuse to attend. Welcome to the Olympics. Our guests for this episode are Jules Boykoff , professor of government and politics at Pacific University and author of several books on the polit...
Jan 26, 2022•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
