Civics 101

You've been hearing about it in the news, but what exactly is the Strait of Hormuz? And as for those blockades...how do they work? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We haven't always had a federal income tax, and in the beginning, it only applied to the very richest Americans. So how did we end up with the permanent income tax we have today, with all its complicated rules about everything from pre-tax income to deductions and credits? And what does it actually pay for?   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sometimes, news happens in the real world, and suddenly a political or civics topic becomes very top of mind for members of the public.  And when that happens, we at Civics 101 often say, hey…we have an episode about that. One of those conversations happened this week, after a tweet from President Trump related to the war in Iran had some conservative, traditionally pro-Trump voices evoking a specific part of the Constitution - the 25th Amendment. Back in 2022, we made an episode breaking down the 25th Amendment, and it’s pretty thorough about its history and what it means. So, given that it’s on folks’ minds right now, we’ve decided to drop that episode again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we bring you a story from our sister podcast Outside/In, produced and reported by Marina Henke. In 2009, the state of Maine ordered farmer Dan Brown to stop selling his raw milk. It kicked off a five-year legal battle that stoked the flames of Maine’s dairy wars. But, after Farmer Brown lost his case and hung up his milking hat, things quieted down.  Twenty years later, raw milk has surged back into the zeitgeist. Influencers are saying it tastes like ice cream, RFK Jr. is taking shots of it at the White House, and Gwyneth Paltrow is putting it in her coffee. All of which makes for a pretty obvious question… What’s the appeal? Is raw milk some kind of superfood? Or something to avoid at all costs?  Featuring Dan Brown, Andy Bisson, Danny Bisson, Nicole Martin, Pamela Ruegg, and Mary McGonigle-Martin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this country, the states run elections. Congress is empowered to step in; the president is not. So what does it mean for the president to call on a political party to "take over." Is that allowed? What would that mean? And why is this happening now? We talk with Sarah Cooper from the Carter Center to understand who is in charge and whether anyone else can take charge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Four years ago we made an episode about how the president has very limited powers when it comes to lowering the price of gas. Turns out, we hadn't considered every possibility. Today, we talk about how a president can make gasoline more expensive, by waging conflict in the middle east. Our guest is Robert Rapier, chemical engineer, investment writer, and energy sector expert. He came back on the show to tell us about the logistics of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, and whether there are any ways out of this. Click here for our other episode on the price of gas, and read Robert's article here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we take a field trip to Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where Nick explains why he's like this via an obsession with 1776, the movie based on the musical based on the true events that launched a nation. Our nation. Also, Nick and Hannah get real using Dido as inspiration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why do religious leaders step out from behind the pulpit and take to the streets? What does it mean to practice what you preach? As faith groups across the nation stand alongside protestors and assert their beliefs, we talk to four religious leaders about how and why they take action. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As hosts of a civics podcast, we are not allowed to advocate for policy. But you can. Here are three things you can do to get your elected officials to listen when you're mad about something. By way of example, Nick reveals his pettiest, most apolitical gripe; and methods he would hypothetically use to address it. We talk lobbying, contacting your electeds, and getting (possibly famous) people together to advocate for change. This episode features Emily Gallagher, serving District 50 in the New York State Assembly, and Eric Schwartz, of the National Film Preservation Foundation. Here is Eric's piece on the National Film Preservation Act of 1988. Here is our episode on Who REALLY Writes Bills. Here is a video of Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie complaining about the soap opera effect. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We've used the word "detention" many times when we've talked about immigration laws and ICE. But what does that word actually mean? A listener wanted to know, so we got the answer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

About a week ago, host Hannah McCarthy stumbled on an article by an historian named Dr. Aaron Fountain Jr. What she read kind of blew her mind, so she decided to give him a call. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rules about who could and could not come and live in the United States have changed many times over the last 250 years, but exactly when restrictions were first put on immigration might surprise you. Today, walking us through the myriad qualitative and quantitative systems surrounding immigration policy is Muzaffar Chishti, Senior Fellow and Director of the Migration Policy Institute. Here are some links to our episodes on: The Chinese Exclusion Act, ICE, and Becoming a US Citizen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We examine what the current presidential administration tells us about Immigration and Customs Enforcement and what the numbers, courts and history of the agency have to say. For more information on the data referenced in this episode, you can check out this Politico fact check of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's statements about ICE, this CATO Institute analysis, this CBS report, and this TRAC report and this Deportation Data Project release. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing “Safe to Drink:” A New Hampshire town finds out its water has been contaminated by a chemical. The most basic question — whether the water is safe to drink — doesn’t have a clear answer. Nobody seems to know much about this so-called forever chemical, which is weird because… this has all happened before. From the Document team at New Hampshire Public Radio, "Safe to Drink" is a four-part series about the water contamination story that keeps repeating in town after town — and about the people who fought for answers through a maze of chemistry, regulations, and illnesses. Listen to all the episodes right here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1985, high school teacher Christa McAuliffe was selected to become the first private citizen to travel to space. After the Challenger explosion that killed her and 6 other astronauts, NASA scrapped its Teacher in Space Project; it was still too risky to send private citizens to space.   40 years later, things are looking very different.  Today, celebrities and billionaires are buying trips on commercial rockets. Private companies are designing new, private space stations.  How is safety being regulated for these private space companies? And what happens if – or when – something goes wrong?  Featuring Kim Bleier, Ben Miller, Doug Ligor, Peggy Whitson, and Dana Tulodziecki. Produced by Daniel Ackerman. For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After its inception in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine was largely ignored. But after a while, different administrations saw the value in maintaining control over the western hemisphere. And notably, it is having a renaissance in the Trump presidency. So what IS the Monroe Doctrine? How has it been interpreted in various presidencies? And, most importantly, is it legal under international law? Civics 101 regular Dan Cassino takes us from Monroe to Maduro. Click here to listen to our episode on the history of Venezuela leading up to America's invasion in 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode, we’re talking about the history and evolution of United States’ refugee and asylum policy. We have been a country of exclusion for about as long as we’ve projected the image of a democratic refuge. We talk about what it actually takes to secure refugee or asylum status in the U.S. and how that gargantuan task has been made so much more difficult, if not impossible for some, under the second Trump Administration. This episode features Dr. Georgie Pisano. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sometimes, we just have to make a "101" episode of Civics 101. That is the case this week, in the wake of the arrest of Venezuela's sitting president by the United States. So, what's happening with Venezuela, Maduro, and the Trump administration's plan to "run" that country? 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Nick appears on The Middle, with Jeremy Hobson. The topic is civility in politics, and they're joined by former New Hampshire State Legislator Doug Teschner and Citizens Count Executive Director Anna Brown.   This episode was recorded live at the Bank of NH Stage in Concord, NH and features audience questions and comments.   Write to us at [email protected] to tell us what you think: is there a political middle? 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 University of South Carolina School of Law and co-host of the true crime podcast Undisclosed. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why does it take, in practice, 60 votes for a bill to pass in the Senate? Why doesn't it seem like anyone is up there talking for days anymore? And why do we even have it in the first place? Today is all about the filibuster; from its benign origins to its use and misuse, the arguments for and against it, and what it would take to eliminate it entirely. Our guest is Molly Reynolds from the Brookings Institution. To learn about the tumultuous back and forth between the federal and state government in Little Rock, here's our episode on Federalism. And here is the full, 88-page transcript of Strom Thurmond's day-long filibuster.    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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The lottery generates over $70 billion in revenue each year. Today on Civics 101 we explore how we got here; from failed lotteries in the Revolutionary War to the Golden Octopus to the Numbers Game to a Mega Millions ticket from your neighborhood shop. Where does all of that money GO? And why are states so dependent on them in the first place? Taking us on this madcap journey are two experts on the lottery in the US; Kevin Flynn (author of American Sweepstakes) and Matthew Vaz (author of Running the Numbers). 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, once upon a time called food stamps, helps nearly 42 million Americans every month. While the 2025 government shutdown showed us what happens when SNAP dries up, we have yet to see the effects of major new legislative changes to the program. So what, exactly, is SNAP? How does it work? Who gets it? Why do we have it to begin with, and what does it look like now? Our guide is Sara Bleich, Professor of Public Health Policy at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we talk about the myriad procedures involved in getting the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed in record time. How do discharge petitions work? What did HR 581 do exactly? How did it get through the Senate so quickly? And while we're at it,  why did it take a record seven weeks to swear in a new representative? Here is the discharge petition signed by 218 members of Congress. Here is the full text of HR 581, passed by the House on 11/17. And finally, here is HR 4405, related to HR 185, which was brought to the floor by HR 581.       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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein spent nearly a decade making a twelve-hour documentary on the American Revolution. This is what they learned from the thousands of stories and events that resulted in the United States of America. It's a story of world-changing ideas, contradictory figures, myths that do us no good and what it means to be in pursuit of a more perfect union. You can watch Ken Burns The American Revolution on PBS, PBS.org and the free PBS app.   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In sixty years, we have gone from 2 billionaires in the United States to just under 2,000. How on earth did that happen? Today, Timothy Noah from the New Republic takes us all the way from our framers fearing excessive wealth to the country's first (potential) trillionaire. To learn about their proliferation, their desires, and their outsized effect on American policy, check out his article, How the Billionaires Took Over.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Off-year elections -- as in, not a presidential or a midterm -- have fairly dismal voter turnout. Yet they matter a great deal. Most of our lives are lived at the local, not the national, level. So why do so many skip their state and local elections? We spoke with Luis Lozada, the CEO of Democracy Works, to understand why people don't show and why they should. Democracy Works is a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to helping America vote. Click here to access their free tool, TurboVote, to help you check your registration, find your polling place, get personalized reminders for every election, and more. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has published a Mandate for Leadership since 1981, making policy recommendations to the federal government. The latest edition is part of something much bigger: Project 2025. The newest Mandate is part of a four-pillar project designed to fundamentally change the federal government from the inside. Though President Trump and his team spent his third presidential campaign claiming they had nothing to do with it, Trump is no longer distancing himself from Project 2025. So let's dig in.  Our guide to Project 2025 is the former director of factcheck.org and author of A Guide to Project 2025, Eugene Kiely. For more information on Project 2025, you can access the full policy playbook at the link above or by clicking here. You can watch the fourteen hours of instructional videos obtained by ProPublica here. More information about The Heritage Foundation and its stated values and goals can be found 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is a crossover with our sister NHPR podcast, Outside/In. What do pastries have to do with environmental justice? Cat butts with the climate crisis? And what US president ate a half-chewed piece of salmon leftover from a bear on reality TV? Grab a pencil (and maybe a pint?) and get ready for the inaugural Outside/In trivia episode we’re calling “Natural Selection.” We’ve got a game called “Guess That Animal!” We’re testing our panel’s knowledge on the environment in movies and music. And, maybe, we’ll learn a thing or two along the way about environmental policy, past and present. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we give a brief explanation of what's behind the current government shutdown. The, we explain all the ins and outs of government shutdowns. Have they always been part of our legislative process? How do they happen? And what happens when they happen? Our guest is Charles Tiefer, professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re bringing you an episode of What Could Go Right from our friends at The Progress Network. Each Wednesday on What Could Go Right, hosts Zachary Karabell and Emma Varvaloucas converse with diverse experts to have sharp, honest conversations about what’s going on in the world, even during difficult times. In this episode, Nick spoke with Emma and Zachary about the state of civics education in the US, as well as how we can start to talk to each other civilly in an increasingly polarized political landscape. You can listen to What Could Go Right here or, as they say, wherever you get your everything. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know cartoonists were on Nixon's enemies list? Or that LBJ prevented a cartoonist from getting a medal when he made a cartoon against the Vietnam War? Today we talk about the history of editorial cartoons and political satire, from "Join or Die" to the Obama fist bump, from Thomas Nast to Jimmy Kimmel. Our guide is New Yorker cartoonist Tom Toro, author of And to Think We Started as a Book Club. To see the illustrations we discuss in the episode, click here.    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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Click here to listen to part one of our airing of the grievances if you haven't yet! Today we tackle charges 13-27 against the King, as well as comparisons that have been made between George III and Donald Trump.  Our guide is once again Craig Gallagher from Colby-Sawyer College, who breaks down what exactly got the colonists so darn mad.  Make sure to listen to our episode on the modern-day effects of the declaration on the Native American community. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The American public has long been on the lookout for unsteadiness in the leader of the free world. It's important to us (or, historically, has been) that the president seems, well, well. If not robust. Of course, the president is a human, and as such is not immune to malady.  So why do we care so much about the president's health? Are they under obligation, legal or otherwise, to keep us in the loop? What happens when they don't? Our guide today is clinical ethicist Joel Wu. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"He" has done bad things. Twenty seven of them. And these things were so bad that the colonists used them to demonstrate that they had no choice but to become an independent nation. King George III was, in their eyes, a despot. So what did he do? Today we talk about grievances 1-12 in the Declaration of Independence. We will cover the rest, as well as modern-day parallels, in a few weeks. Our guest is Craig Gallagher, professor at Colby-Sawyer College. To hear about the entire Declaration of Independence, please listen to our episode on it here. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congress appropriates funds, the executive branch ensures those funds are spent and spent wisely. That is how it works. It is not, however, how it is working right now. The Trump Administration has, in recent months, repeatedly and often successfully frozen the funds that Congress assigned to certain departments and agencies. Jobs have been lost, research shelved, life-saving care ended, budgets and plans thrown into disarray. So why and how has this happened? Why were we funding education, science, medicine and foreign aid in the first place? Our guide to this tumult is Samuel Bagenstos, professor of law at the University of Michigan and former Chief Counsel at both the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Health and Human Services.     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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's another edition of Civics 101 Trivia! This time, it's also the swan song for one of our own. Senior Producer Christina Phillips, our mastermind of minutiae and all things related to taxes, joins us to convene a final round of her trademark trivia. Here is the link to the FOIA documents about the government's involvement in Hollywood productions.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2015, the Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of the land. However, for the first time in over five years, Kim Davis (an opponent of same-sex marriage) petitioned for a writ of certiorari to overturn Obergefell. Is there a possibility the court will revisit its finding? How does this decision compare to other recently overturned decisions like Roe v Wade? And is even talking about this a problem in itself?? Talking us through the situation and possible scenarios is Danaya Wright, Professor in Constitutional Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the decision that said the fundamental right to marry is protected under the 14th Amendment. How did it come about? What was the status of marriage before June of 2015? And why is the government so involved in the marriage business anyways? This episode features the voices of Melissa Wasser from the Project on Government Oversight and Jim Obergefell, the named party in Obergefell v Hodges. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our Constitution provides for its own changes -- the framers knew that, while they worked hard, the law of the land was neither perfect nor should it be entirely immutable. So they included Article V, which allows either Congress OR the states to amend the Constitution if enough people agree. We've never had a constitutional convention of the states before, but that doesn't mean we won't. There's currently a movement trying to make it happen -- we dig into the why and how of this totally legal but very difficult path to change. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, August 11th, Trump announced a takeover of Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan police. He also deployed National Guard troops and federal agents to the streets, all in the name of cracking down on crime. We called on political scientist and historian Dan Cassino to help us understand what happened, why it's legal and what could happen next. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s a weird time to be an environmental scientist. The proposed cuts to federal science funding in the United States are profound, and if they come to pass, it’s not clear what American science will look like on the other side. But for many researchers, science is much more than a career: it’s a community, lifestyle, and sometimes even a family business.  This episode was produced by our fellow NHPR podcast Outside/In. You can check out photos and more related to this episode right here.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Mr. Smith Goes to Washington came out in 1939, it infuriated politicians, the press, and fascist nations. At the same time, it delighted audiences and informed them on the legislative process decades before Schoolhouse Rock.  Today we talk about the film, as well as corruption, earnestness, our families, lost causes, and hope. Listen to our episode of Hannah's visit to the Lincoln Memorial here. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"The shadow docket," refers to orders from the Supreme Court that are (often) unsigned, inscrutable, and handed down in the middle of the night. Professor Stephen Vladeck takes us through this increasingly common phenomenon. Note: This episode was originally produced in 2022.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is there a way President Trump (or any president) can serve a third (or fourth) term in office? Maybe there is.  Most people assume the 22nd Amendment limits a president to two terms, period. What happens when the president, or legal scholars, challenge that assumption?  Joining us to talk about that is Bruce Peabody of Fairleigh Dickinson University.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As subjects of the British king, the very idea of criticizing monarchy -- or King George III himself -- was a dangerous one. So how did we become a country where "no kings" is a guiding principle? Something we take for granted?  Holly Brewer is our guide to the resistance, risk and eventual revolution that transformed a British colony into a democratic country that would have no king.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on Civics 101, we answer listener questions about tariffs. And then, we look at how they've affected one American Industry. It's not a game, but these companies do make them, and they've been hit hard by President Trump's ever-changing tariff policies.  NOTE - This episode was republished because of a technical issue .  Click here to check out our 2024 episode on how tariffs work.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The team delves into some of the many civics lessons the public got while watching Karen Read’s retrial, which ended with her acquittal on all major charges in June. Topics include the First Amendment, judicial discretion, courtroom tactics, and more. Our expert for this episode is Colin Miller, blogger, podcaster, and professor at University of South Carolina School of Law.  Read Vanity Fair's extensive reporting on this case. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is there a civics lesson in the 1996 film Independence Day? We think so.  Join the Civics 101 team for a conversation about the film, its politics, and what it says about the United States and its place in the world.  There's even a fire-jumping dog! 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Senate Parliamentarian is many things. A nonpartisan referee, an appointed official, and at some times one of the most powerful people in our government.  This week, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough found several provisions in the currently debated budget appropriations bill violated something called the "Byrd Rule."  Today we explore this complicated and often-unseen role with Sarah Binder, professor at George Washington University, and a person who spent over thirty years in the office, former Senate Parliamentarian Alan Frumin. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We know why we feel the way we do about certain political issues, don't we? Don't we?? It turns out that politicians, political strategists, and the media are working every day to alter what we think about something before we know we're thinking about it. And the way this is done is through "framing." So what is framing? How long have people been doing it? And most importantly, how can we push back against it? Taking us through the Frame Wars is Dr. Jennifer Mercieca, professor of communication and author of Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump. For those who want to know more, check out our episode on Propaganda, as well as Jen's article on Frame Warfare. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Civics 101 team delves into the 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate, a political satire and thriller that is more than relevant in today’s political climate.  Note: this episode contains spoilers for the film. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Now that we have explored what the Alien Enemies Act is, we dive in to how it's being used to shape deportation policy under President Donald Trump.  Note: We recommend listening to the prior episode first! Staying in your podcast feed? It's the episode right before this one, called "What is the Alien Enemies Act."  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Alien Enemies Act is a war power granted to the president that has only been used four times in US history since its creation in 1798. It allows the president to order the detention and deportation of noncitizens from "enemy" nations during war, invasion, or predatory incursion. When it was created, the US had a very different understanding of Constitutional rights, including due process, than we do today. We talk about how the Alien Enemies Act has been used throughout history, and how Constitutional law has evolved since 1798.  Helping us out is Liza Goitein. She is the senior director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In March, President Trump signed an executive order that promises to preserve and protect the integrity of American elections. The data shows the integrity of our election system is intact despite the claims of many politicians and the perception of many voters. So what is the president trying to change about a system that isn't broken? Who will it affect and how much will it cost them? Finally, while Congress and the States are constitutionally-empowered to make election law, the president is not. So... can he? Our guide to this executive order is Jason Carter of the Carter Center.   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The SAVE Act passed the House in April, 2025. As it awaits consideration in Congress, we spoke with Jason Carter from the Carter Center. Yes, like that Carter. Jason is asking why Congress is working on a vanishingly rare problem: noncitizen voting. The SAVE Act, if it becomes law, will require additional proof of citizenship for all Americans seeking to register -- or reregister -- to vote. The goal? To stop all noncitizens from voting -- which rarely happens. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Checks and balances are at the absolute core of our governmental workings.  The framers designed a system that was directly opposed to one person or one group of people having all the power, and we see that through the myriad ways Congress can check the president. So what are those checks? How have they waned over the last few decades? And finally, why would Congress opt to use (or not use) them? Joining us today is Eric Schickler, professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley and author of Investigating the President: Congressional Checks on Presidential Power. Referenced in this episode: Our Starter Kit series.  Our episode on impeachment from 2019.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Public media funding makes up less than 0.001% of the federal budget, and calls to defund it have existed essentially since the creation of the CBP in 1967. However, the history of public media is much longer, and more complicated, than the creation of Sesame Street or NPR.  We revisit our episode from last year about how the government funds public media, through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and how that money is spent. We also talk about free press, and the firewall that prevents politicians and the government from controlling the flow of public information and educational programming.  Since the episode first came out in July, 2024, President Trump has re-entered office, and has taken a number of steps to discredit and disassemble the free press, including public media. Trump has called for the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, to investigate NPR and other public media organizations for their use of corporate support. He also recently announced that he had fired three members of the CPB’s five-member board, something the CPB has said he does not have the authority to do, in a lawsuit they filed against his administration. And finally, alongside calling for Congress to defund the CPB, he issued an executive order telling the CPB to halt all funding to public media, which, as you’ll learn more about in the episode, is the kind of political directive that the CPB was created to prevent in the first place.      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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Generations of Americans were not taught how to live in a democracy. That, ultimately, is what civic education is about. So what happens when we lose that knowledge? Where are we today and why should we care? Where do we go from here? In partnership with iCivics we're bringing you conversations with the people who are paying attention and doing something about it. Civics can have a future in this democracy -- in fact, civics is how this democracy will have a future.   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is the rule of law? It's certainly not the same as the rule of men.  This episode was recorded live at the John J. Moakley Courthouse in Boston. It features the voices of Justice Patricia Alverez and Justice Gustavo A. Gelpí. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we were going to explore how "big tech" has woven itself into the fabric of the Trump administration. But after a conversation with Allison Stanger, professor at Middlebury College, we decided to focus exclusively on Elon Musk and his relationship with Donald Trump.  What is DOGE, the "Department of Governmental Efficiency?" And while we're at it, what is efficiency anyways? Has DOGE saved Americans any money? What information of ours are they trying to access? And is there any chance they've already succeeded? 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most Americans can look down at their phone and see a prediction of the future. How is that even possible? Well, we'll tell you. Today it's all about the weather; from early predictive methods and almanacs to the National Weather Service's modern-day practices of collecting, analyzing, and sharing a staggering amount of data. First we talked with Kris Harper, a professor of history and philosophy at the University of Copenhagen, and then with Felicia Bowser, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, Florida. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we explore the nebulous world of political consultants.  These are the people who run political campaigns. They use a mixture of science and gut-feeling to determine what a candidate should say and do, and in one particular instance, what they should NOT say and do.  How do they do it? How effective are they? What actually moves the needle in a campaign? Talking to us today are two campaign experts; David Karpf from the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, and Rasheida Smith, political consultant at Dunton Consulting.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pranks are a staple of April Fools' Day - even when it comes to politics and the press.  On this special edition of Civics 101, Senior Producer Christina Phillips tests our April Fools knowledge with some surprising trivia, and a whole lot more! 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Taxes on wages make up the bulk of federal revenue every year. Where does that money go, and who decides how much you should pay? The process is extremely complicated - and deeply political - which is why it's important for everyday taxpayers to understand how the people they elected choose to spend the money voters give out of their paychecks every year.  We talk with tax policy expert Beverly Moran, a Paulus fellow at Boston College Law School and professor emerita at Vanderbilt, about how budget reconciliation works: where Congress decides where it will cut taxes, and how it will make up for those cuts. We also talk about how those decisionsaffect the vast majority of taxpayers, who earn most of their wealth from salary or wages... and how it looks different for the wealthiest Americans. Find Beverly's research on the impact of the 2017 TCJA here.    Listen to our episodes on the history of the income tax in the United States, and how the tax return process works.  We used a number of sources in this episode. Here are some, in order of appearance:  How much revenue has the US  government collected this year? from the US Treasury Department.  Reconciliation explainer from the Congressional Budget Office. Budget Reconciliation: Tracking the 2025 Trump Tax Cuts from the Tax Foundation.  What are itemized deductions and who claims them? from the Tax Policy Center.  How did the TCJA change taxes of families with children? from the Tax Policy Center.  The 2017 Tax Law Was Skewed to the Rich, Expensive, and Failed to Deliver on Its Promises from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.  Lifting the SALT Cap: Estimated Budgetary Effects, 2024 and Beyond from Penn Wharton Budget Model at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.  Differences between the traditional CPI and Chained CPI from the Congressional Budget Office.  Republicans say Medicaid cuts won't happen. But does their budget work without them? from NPR.  Republicans want to lower taxes. The hard part is choosing what to cut. from the New York Times.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s the government on your doorstep — the only Executive Branch agency that visits every home in the country on a regular basis. So how does the USPS do it? And what happens when an agency this essential is in trouble? Our guests for this episode are Allison Marsh, history professor at the University of South Carolina and Kevin Kosar, a Vice President at R Street. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two years ago today, we attended Civic Learning Week and produced an episode on the state of civics education in the US. We heard some good things and some frustrating things. Today we're getting an update on civics education with Emma Humphries from iCivics, hearing some student audio submissions from our friends at the Youth Media Challenge, and getting advice on how students can make change with Cheryl Cook-Kallio. Click here to livestream the National Forum for Civics Learning Week. Click here to listen to our episodes on civics education in the US. Click here to read the full State of Young People report published by America's Promise Alliance. And finally, click here to check out the work students are producing (and submit your own!) for KQED's Youth Media Challenge. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meet your president's Cabinet! Who was appointed, by what margin, and a look at the backgrounds of the people filling these critical roles. In other words, who is running our country? Let's find out.  This is the second part of a two-part episode.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meet your president's Cabinet. Who was appointed, by what margin, and a look at the backgrounds of the people filling these critical roles. In other words, who is running our country? Let's find out.  This is the first part of a two-part episode.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ariel Lawhon discusses the real-life early American midwife at the center of her novel The Frozen River.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When it comes to the protection of a free and fair press, there is one landmark Supreme Court case that sits at the top, and it is New York Times Company v Sullivan (1964).  This case redefined libel in the United States and is cited in almost every defamation suit since, but its origin is in the Civil Rights Movement, when newspapers were sued to the brink of collapse for covering protests in the south.  Taking us through libel, defamation, and "actual malice" are Ang Reidell, Director of Outreach and Curriculum at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and Samantha Barbas, professor at the Iowa College of Law and author of Actual Malice: Civil Rights and Freedom of the Press in New York Times v. Sullivan. Click here to watch a fantastic documentary from Annenberg on the case. Quick note to teachers! Our guests are collaborating today! The first fifty teachers who join the Civics Renewal Network will receive a free copy of Samantha Barbas's book, click here to sign up and get yours today! 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wondered with the White House counsel does? Who it is? Whether that person is the president’s personal lawyer…or something else? And what about the Justice Department? Where do all those legal types fit in? Our guest is political science professor Nancy Kassop. She’s an expert on many things, but her extensive experience interviewing White House counsels helped us dig deep on this topic. We also dive into the legal norms and traditions that are being strained under the Trump administration. Civics 101 is hosted by Hannah McCarty and Nick Capodice. Christina Phillips produced and anchored this episode.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a term thrown around quite a bit lately, but what does it actually mean? This is an episode about the basics of the Law of the Land, the three branches of government and what happens when they're don't work the way they're supposed to. Our guide is Aziz Huq, Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. His books include The Rule of Law: A Very Short Introduction, The Collapse of Constitutional Remedies  and How to Save a Constitutional Democracy.  If you want some extra context for this one, check out these other episodes: Checks and Balances So Long, Chevron What is "originalism"? How Should We Govern the Algorithm? The Fourteenth Amendment   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every president (with the exception of William Henry Harrison)  has issued executive orders. Most recently, Donald Trump issued several on his first day in office. Some have been published in the Federal Register, others are facing legal challenges. So what IS an executive order? How do they differ from other executive actions, like proclamations or memoranda? Who writes them? Who reviews them? All that and more with our guest Andy Rudalevidge,  professor of Government at Bowdoin and author of By Executive Order: Bureaucratic Management and the Limits of Presidential Power. Click here for our episode on the Federal Register. Here is a link to every single proclamation issued by a president.   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever since fluoridation became widespread in the 1950s, cavities in kids have fallen drastically. The effort is considered one of the ten greatest public health achievements of the 20th century. But it’s also one of the most controversial. Today, the story of what that's so, from our sister podcast, NHPR's Outside/In.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During his campaign, now-President Trump promised a lot of action (much of it to happen on day one). So what did he actually do once he regained the office? A LOT. This is the first week of Trump's executive orders. For some context, check out our episodes on: Wong Kim Ark and Birthright Citizenship Dred Scott The Fourteenth Amendment An earlier version of this episode incorrectly identified several Presidential memoranda and proclamations as executive orders. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most of us know about birthright citizenship, but not many people have ever heard of Wong Kim Ark and the landmark Supreme Court decision that decided both his fate and the fate of a U.S. immigration policy that endures to this day. This is the case that solidified the Fourteenth Amendment as we understand it today.      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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

During his campaign, Donald Trump promised several times that he would dismantle the US Department of Education. So today we wanted to explore what such a dismantling would look like, as well as what the DoED does in the first place.  Turns out, while the Department does an awful lot of things, there is much for which it is criticized that it does not do. Taking us through its creation, its history, and its powers is Adam Laats, professor of Education at Binghamton University.  Link to our episodes on School Lunch here and here. And here are some good resources for anyone who wants to know a little more about Jonestown. My 8th grade report is, sadly, unavailable. https://www.npr.org/2017/04/11/523348069/nearly-40-years-later-jonestown-offers-a-lesson-in-demagoguery https://www.nytimes.com/1979/11/18/archives/jonestown-the-survivors-story-jonestown.html     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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What has Donald Trump claimed he would do when it comes to environmental policy in the U.S.? What happened during his last administration?  And what are the limits on executive powers when it comes to treaties and global agreements? Elizabeth Bomberg, Professor of Politics at the University of Edinburgh, tells us what we can expect when it comes to emissions regulations, drilling, climate research, the Paris Agreement, and so much more.       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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transportation and infrastructure are massive (literally) undertakings here in the United States. So what does it mean to oversee it all? What is the Secretary of Transportation actually in charge of and what's going on with our roads, bridges, airports, etc.? We spoke with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to find out. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do we mourn our presidents and former presidents? Where did all those very public rituals come from? And how much input does a president have in their own post-death ceremonies? We break down the history and mystery of presidential funerals with Lindsay Chervinsky and Matthew Costello.  This episode of Civics 101 was produced by senior producer Christina Phillps and mixed by Rebecca Lavoie. It was hosted by Nick Capodice and Hannah McCarthy. Special thanks to Jacqui Fulton.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our latest edition of Holiday Trivia, a rundown of some of the quirky food, drinks, and celebratory ephemera at the White House during the most wonderful time of the year.  Have an opinion on the pronunciation of "praline?" Send us an email!   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President-elect Donald Trump has said, "the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff, and it’s my favorite word." So what are they? Why might the United States raise or lower a tariff on goods from another country? How has America used tariffs throughout our history? And how might Donald Trump's proposed tariffs affect the cost of goods in the US? Taking us through tariffs is Dr. Shannon O'Neil, senior vice president and director of studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Authoritarianism and autocracies take many forms. So how do you know it when you see it? Our guide to the erosion of choice, rights, truth and power is Anne Applebaum, author of several books including, most recently, Autocracy, Inc..   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius talks about the powers - and limits - of the role in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump's pick of RFK Jr. for the role. This episode was brought to us by the podcast Tradeoffs, hosted by former NHPR health reporter Dan Gorenstein. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1906, the Supreme Court stayed a man's execution. That same day, his town murdered him. Then SCOTUS held it's first and only criminal trial for those who had allowed it to happen. This is the story of a wrongful conviction that was only the beginning of injustice and the students who learned that story in June of 2024. It's also the story of what happens when you realize your government is closer than you think. Click here learn more about the Supreme Court Historical Society's Hometown program. Learn more about Ed Johnson. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whenever there's an incoming administration, there's a big to-do about Cabinet nominations. So what does The Cabinet DO? How has it evolved since  Washington's administration? What is the process for appointing someone to the cabinet? And finally, how could a president appoint someone without approval from the Senate? Taking us through all the cabinetry is Dan Cassino, professor of government and politics at Farleigh Dickinson University.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Elect Donald Trump has said he won't be a dictator "except for day one." We take a look at all of the "day one" promises he's made over the course of his campaign and explain how he might get them done. Or not. For a sense of how many times Donald Trump made these promises, check out the Washington Post's data here. Click HERE to buy tickets for NHPR's Holiday Raffle!  NHPR’s Holiday Raffle is open to any United States resident 18 years or older in any state where the Raffle is not prohibited by state, local or other laws. (States where raffles are not permitted: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, North Carolina, and Utah.) (edited)    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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2018, we did an episode on Presidential Transitions. Now that we have had an election, we decided to revisit it. There are nearly 4,000 positions that a president appoints after their inauguration. How do they do it? How long does it take? And why has Donald Trump repeatedly refused to sign the "memoranda of understanding" regarding the transition from the U.S. General Services Administration? Our guest is Max Stier, President and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, which runs the Center for Presidential Transition. Our show started as an explainer of governmental systems in a transition such as the one we're in now. Send us an email at [email protected] if you want us to explain any facet of how our democracy works.   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You voted for president. So what happens to your ballot next?  This episode covers EVERYTHING that happens to ensure your vote is verified, all the way up to the official counting of electoral votes in Congress.  Our guests are journalist Jessica Huseman and Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A story about a former Capitol Police officer who's life has been shaped by the events of January 6th. Emilia's Thing was produced by the Document team at NHPR. Click here for more.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The United States spends more than any other country on healthcare. And, unfortunately, that's just about the only place we come in first. Today we learn about the creation and maintenance of our unique public/private system with Sue Tolleson-Rinehart, Professor Emeritus at UNC, and Amélie Quesnel-Vallée, Canada Research Chair in Policies and Health Inequalities at McGill University. They break down how our system measures up to other wealthy nations; in cost to its citizens, efficacy, taxation, reproductive rights, and so much more. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Smithsonian is the world's largest research institution, but much of it is out of public sight. And one particular kind of collection is part of a growing debate over where ethical lines and scientific discovery should be drawn. This week, we present the first part of a special series from our colleagues at Outside/In. You can listen to the rest of the series here, or get Outside/In wherever listen to podcasts.  You can support our journalism by making a donation to our show! Thanks so much.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Corruption in politics is a trope that's been around ever since we had politics. And it can feel inevitable. Regardless of anticorruption legislation and executive orders, it seems like it will never go away. David Sirota, editor in chief of The Lever and host of the podcast Master Plan, argues the opposite.   Today on Civics 101 we learn about what corruption is, how it influences (or doesn't influence) policy, and what needs to be done to eradicate it from our political system. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whenever there's a big strike in the news, someone inevitably invokes the phrase "Taft-Hartely Act" when talking about whether or not the president should intervene. But what is Taft-Hartley? How did it come about? And what can it actually do? Nick chats with Erik Loomis, a professor at the University of Rhode Island and expert on all things labor-related.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why don't people "civically engage?" Because they're too busy! Politicians are busy! Or maybe...they don't care? In this special episode of Civics 101 recorded in front of a live audience, we hear from experts who break down what it means to participate in our democracy, how to break down barriers to participation, and how to be who you already are and make a VERY big difference.  This episode was recorded at NHPR's Civics 101 Summit at Southern New Hampshire University. Learn more about that event right here.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it mean if a SCOTUS justice is a self-proclaimed "originalist?" When was the word first used in that context? And what are we missing about the framers when we look only upon the recent interpretation of their words in the court? Today our guide is Mackenzie Joy Brennan;  lawyer, media commentator, and author of the upcoming book The Original ‘Original Intent,’ Recovering the Lost Constitution of the Founders. Click here for more of Mackenzie's research on originalism, including Terry Brennan's essay in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. Click here for our episode on the Second Amendment.   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For more than two hundred years Americans have tried to tame the Mississippi River. And, for that entire time, the river has fought back.  This week we present an episode of our sister podcast Outside/In.  Journalist and author Boyce Upholt has spent dozens of nights camping along the Lower Mississippi and knows the river for what it is: both a water-moving machine and a supremely wild place. His recent book, “The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi River” tells the story of how engineers have made the Mississippi into one of the most engineered waterways in the world, and in turn have transformed it into a bit of a cyborg — half mechanical, half natural.  In this episode, host Nate Hegyi and Upholt take us from the flood ravaged town of Greenville, Mississippi, to the small office of a group of army engineers, in a tale of faulty science, big egos and a river that will ultimately do what it wants.  Featuring Boyce Upholt 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we bring you a special bonus - a SMACKDOWN episode of NPR's It's Been a Minute featuring our own hosts Nick and Hannah!  IBAM host Brittany Luse has been taking this smackdown on the road  to cities all across the country.  Hear the other debates on the It's Been a Minute podcast. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we discuss what a president is, what a president does, and what a president "should be."  To quote Professor Amar, it can be hard to find someone to fill those shoes because they were designed for Washington's feet. Our guests are Akhil Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, and Andy Lipka, president of EverScholar. Akhil and Andy co-host Amarica's Constitution, a podcast that explores the constitutional issues of our day. It is a perfect companion show to Civics 101, and one we endorse wholeheartedly.  Here is where you can listen to our episode on the Executive Branch, here is a link to our episode on the Presidential Veto, and here is where you can learn about the President and the Price of Gas. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For most of our nation's history, the voting age was 21. So how'd we get it down to 18? In one sense, it was the fastest ratified amendment in history. In another, it took three decades. Our guide to the hard-won fight for youth enfranchisement is Jennifer Frost, author of "Let Us Vote!" Youth Voting Rights and the 26th Amendment. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why do very different political candidates say the same things over and over? Things like "middle class," "coastal elites" and "middle America?" What do those things even mean? That's what this episode is all about.  Also...some civics and history trivia that's VERY much on-topic. Sort of.   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Chevron Doctrine, or Chevron Deference, was an established judicial principle. When the law was ambiguous, the courts would let the agency experts interpret it. After a Supreme Court case called Loper Bright v Raimondo, that is no longer the case. So what does that mean? What exactly has gone away? What happens next? Our guides to the wonkiest of  the wonk are Robin Kundis Craig and Mustafa Santiago Ali. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick and Hannah both love board games. There I said it. So what are they doing in a Civics 101 episode?  Well, from Student Council and Model UN to CIA intelligence acquisition scenarios, there is a fine line between games and simulation. We learn more about things when we pretend to do them.  Today we talk to three designers about their civic-centric games; Tory Brown of Fort Circle Games discusses Votes for Women, Cole Wehrle of Wehrlegig Games breaks down John Company, and Non-Breaking Space explains Cross Bronx Expressway, an upcoming game from GMT. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Choosing to blow the whistle on the U.S. government is a big deal. It's a huge risk and, despite legal protections, can result in major negative repercussions. So why do people do it? What happens to them when they do? What protections do they have, and do those protections work? Our guides to the process are Kathleen McClella, Deputy Director at WHISPeR, Danielle Brian, Executive Director and President of the Project on Government Oversight and Chris Appy, Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

America's first congress debated it in the 1790s, and it's been debated about ever since. Who should step into the president's shoes if the offices of President and Vice President are simultaneously vacant? Today we talk about the many different Presidential Acts of Succession that we've had in the US, as well as designated survivors, the "football," and the recurring question of the constitutionality of such acts. Click here to listen to our episode on the Executive Branch, should you want to learn the mnemonic "See That Dog Jump In A Circle, Leave Her House To Entertain Educated Veteran's Homes." 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 politics of the Olympics, and Nancy Qian, Professor of Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences at Northwestern University. Want more Olympics coverage from NHPR? Check out our sister podcast Outside/In's episode "Hot Olympic Summer: Is Paris Greenwashing the Games?".  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You have questions about the future of the democratic ticket, and Civics 101's favorite explainer, Dan Cassino, has the answers. What happens to Biden's fundraising money? What will the delegates at the DNC do? Will there be any legal challenges? And finally, what does it mean for a party when they nominate a candidate different than the one that won the primary? 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You may have been surprised (or maybe not) when judge Aileen Cannon abruptly dismissed the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump. We dig into how and why that happened.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doris Kearns Goodwin is one of the country’s most beloved presidential historians and authors, having written books about the Roosevelts, the Kennedys, and Lincoln, among many others.  Her latest book is An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s. The book is part memoir, part in-depth journey through the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and part love letter to her husband Dick Goodwin, a presidential speechwriter and policy advisor who played a vital role in shaping the very history Goodwin recounts. Today on the podcast, we’ll hear a conversation between our executive producer Rebecca Lavoie and Doris Kearns Goodwin recorded at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  One note - this event took place just a few days after a New York jury found former president Donald Trump guilty on 34 charges related to an illegal hush money payment scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, says certain hospitals have to provide stabilizing care to patients. Until the Dobbs decision in 2022, that care included abortion if necessary. After Dobbs, though, states with strict abortion laws make it difficult if not impossible to abide by EMTALA. Idaho is one such state, the United States sued, and that case made its way to the Supreme Court. In June of 2024, however, the Court said it made a mistake. It never should have taken the case. So what happened? Hannah is inside the courtroom, Nick's waiting outside. Listen to our episodes on federalism, Roe v Wade and precedent for some extra context on what we talk about here. Finally, listen to Hannah's episode on what it was like to spend a day in the Supreme Court.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or the CPB? How does it all work? And why is it SO political? In this episode, senior producer Christina Phillips explains it all. She first spoke with the CPB's Anne Brachman, and then did a deep dive to learn more.  In the episode, Christina mentions 2024 legislation called the Defund NPR Act. You can read that bill right here. Since we taped the episode, there's a new effort afoot to defund the CPB. More on that here.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this special bonus episode of Civics 101, we talk about the Supreme Court’s decision on July 1st in the case of Trump v United States. The court ruled along ideological lines; it was a 6-3 decision that granted former president Donald Trump - and any president - some degree of immunity.  But it's a long opinion, and a  complicated one.  To explain all of it, we reached out to Dr. Claire Wofford, an Associate Professor of Political Science at College of Charleston. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Smithsonian is a heck of a lot more than its 21 museums. Today on Civics 101 Richard Kurin tells us all about about an institution that interacts with all three branches of government,  has a budget of over a billion dollars, and is dedicated to "the increase and diffusion of knowledge" among all.   So how did it start? How does it run? What does the Chief Justice have to do with all this? And, finally, why do we collect items in the first place? 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On June 14 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that bump stocks are no longer illegal, reversing an order from Donald Trump and the ATF that was passed in the wake of the Las Vegas shootings. The words "Second Amendment" do not appear in the opinion, concurring opinion, or dissent. And yet, within minutes of the ruling, every news agency was calling it a Second Amendment case. So what is the Second Amendment? It's short. 27 words. Words which have been interpreted and reinterpreted by historians, activists, judges, and philosophers. What did it 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 Race, Rights, and Rifles, and Jake Charles, lecturing fellow and executive director of the Center for Firearms Law at Duke Law.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we break down flags that have been in the news; from variations on the American flag to revolutionary flags like the Gadsden Flag and the "Appeal to Heaven" pine tree flag.  These flags do not change in their design, but the meaning of these flags certainly does change. For more flaggery, click here to hear our show about the history of the American flag and SCOTUS cases surrounding it, and click here to learn about why Nick thinks the NH flag is so terrible.  BONUS: Check out Hannah and Nick on NPR’s It’s Been a Minute - Conservatives want to burn flags too! 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the story of what happens (and what's happening) when the American workforce tries to get a seat at the table.  Our guides to strikes, unions and the labor movement are Kim Kelly, journalist and author of Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor, Eric Loomis professor of History at the University of Rhode Island and author of A History of America in Ten Strikes and our friend Andrew Swan, an 8th Grade Social Studies teacher in Newton, MA among many other things. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, DC is sometimes called “the people’s zoo.” That’s because it’s the only zoo in the country to be created by an act of US Congress, and admission is free. But why did our federal government create a national zoo in the first place? Outside/In producer Felix Poon has the scoop – from its surprising origins in the near-extinction of bison, to a look at its modern-day mission of conservation, we’re going on a field trip to learn all about the National Zoo. Support our public radio show today and you can get our new misinformation/disinformation tote bag! Click here to take a peek at it. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on Civics 101 we talk about truth, bias, and objectivity in reporting. I visited with Barbara Sprunt, reporter at the Washington desk at NPR, who told me what it's like to cover Capitol Hill.  Barbara told me about her schedule, what to listen for when interviewing members of Congress, and what she says to accusations of political bias. Support our public radio show today and you can get our new misinformation/disinformation tote bag! Click here to take a peek at it. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We started out by lining up on different sides of the street, then by saying our vote out loud. We've used many methods to vote, but most of them were corruptible by the party in power. But have we reached the pinnacle? Have we finally achieved the "perfect ballot?"  Today, Dan Cassino of Farleigh Dickinson University and Josh Pasek of the University of Michigan walk us through the history of ballot design, the ballot fiasco in 2000, and how some ballots continue to favor one candidate (or party) over the other. Wanna look like the hippest Civics 101 fan in town? Click here to check out our new Misinformation/Disinformation/Propaganda tote bag! 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we explore coins, shells, greenbacks, the Mint, all things tied to American currency. Our guides are Stephen Mihm, professor at the University of Georgia and author of A Nation of Counterfeiters: Capitalists, Con Men, and the Making of the United States, Ellen Feingold, curator at the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian, and Todd Martin from the U.S. Mint.  Hey, check out our snazzy new tote bag! Make a $5 a month or $60 one time gift to the show and it's 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 book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We often tell you that YOUR local government is the one you have to pay really close attention to. So today we’re bringing you an episode from our colleagues over at Outside/In that proves exactly this. It’s about one city - Juneau, Alaska - and what happens when climate change concerns meet municipal resources – or lack thereof. What does a city do when the bottom line doesn’t jibe with reality and federal funds are out of reach?  Especially when a predictable natural disaster is looming on the horizon? Outside/In host Nate Hegyi visits Juneau to see one example of why some Americans - and their civil leaders -  are rejecting tough truths about climate change when it comes knocking at their own back door. To see photos and learn more about Nate's reporting in Juneau, click here.  Check out Outside/In at Outsideinradio.org - and follow or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts! 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Nick Capodice talks to co-host Hannah McCarthy about what it's like having real access to the Supreme Court. (Spoiler alert: those chairs lean WAY back!) And then the pair pays a very emotional visit to the Lincoln Memorial.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why do we need so much paper money? Why does the National Zoo have bison?  How did Thomas Edison record sound? How big is the Hope Diamond? What does the CPB do? And what is it ike seeing a Supreme Court oral argument in person? What about all those protests outside? These are all questions the Civics 101 team sought to answer on their second and third days field-tripping in Washington D.C. And now they've been joined by Outside/In producer Felix Poon! Listen in as the team shares their experiences and some interesting facts they picked up during their reporting and down time. And don't forget to stay tuned for all the episodes the team will produce after this trip to our nation's capital! 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week our team has hit the road to - where else - our nation’s capital, Washington D.C. While we’re here, we’ll be conducting interviews and gathering tape for future episodes, but we’re also doing something else: immersing ourselves in the sights and sounds of the seat of our federal government. That’s right, it’s a Civics 101 field trip! You can follow along on Instagram and on our brand-new TikTok channel. In this episode, listen to what it was like as we explored the city during our first full day in D.C. - where we walked, what we saw, and what made us curious. And one of those facts...yeah, it was about the Constitution. BUCKLE UP.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You might think you know why Marbury v Madison is important: it set the precedent whereby the Supreme Court decides whether laws are constitutional or not, a power known as judicial review. But what else does this landmark decision say? And why is this case from more than two hundred years ago cited so prominently in former president Donald Trump's current Supreme Court brief?  In this episode, host Hannah McCarthy "Hansplains" the connection between this famous case and current events, with the help of Quinnipiac University's Wayne Unger.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're talking RNC and DNC. The committees, not the conventions. What do they do? Who decides who chairs them? And what does it mean to a national committee when someone can post a message on social media that has more impact than thousands of mailbox flyers? Today's guests are Boris Heersink and Marjorie Hershey, who take us from a few folks setting up a convention to a massive organization that tries (and sometimes fails) to wrangle a party's identity. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 revisit our explainers on why our tax system is the way it is, and how to comply with it, just in time for tax day.   We talk about everything that goes into filing taxes, how some people game the system, why it's so complicated, and how to successfully file your taxes (and avoid paying more than you should to do it).    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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We revisit our explainers on why our tax system is the way it is, and how to comply with it, just in time for tax day.     We haven't always had a federal income tax, and in the beginning, it only applied to the very richest Americans. So how did we end up with the permanent income tax we have today, with all its complicated rules about everything from pre-tax income to deductions and credits? And what does it actually pay for?     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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forget the rhetoric and hysterical political ads! Host Hannah McCarthy did the research, and she runs down all of the *actual* campaign promises being made by President Joe Biden and Donald Trump as they both make a second run for the White House.  The economy. Healthcare. Gun violence.  Policing. Education. And...firing lots of people.  In this edition of Civics 101, find out what the two presumptive nominees for President of the United States are telling voters they will do if elected.   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lochner v New York, a 1905 Supreme Court case about working hours and contracts, is considered anti-canon. Right up there with Dred Scott, Plessy and Korematsu. The question is, how did it get there? Why do people think it's so bad? And what does this decision, and the era that followed, say about politics and the Supreme Court? Our guides to this case and what came after are Rebecca Brown, Rader Family Trustee Chair in Law at USC Gould School of Law and Matthew Lindsay, Associate Professor of Law at University of Baltimore School of Law. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TikTok - an app with around 170 Million American users - is under intense scrutiny by the U.S. government, including a bill passed by the House of Representatives which issues a threat: "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. TLDR:  This episode goes beyond the current legislation, but it's updated from an earlier version which dropped in April, 2023. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the Supreme Court says something is or isn't constitutional, what does that really mean? What are the effects, or lack thereof, of their decisions? And what do we do if we don't agree with what they say? Today Linda Monk, author of The Bill of Rights: A User's Guide, walks us through four times in US History that the Supreme Court was not the be-all-end-all decision maker. Here are some links to shows we reference in the episode: Dred Scott v Sandford Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The process is pretty straightforward. Plenty of people want to make some change. And yet? We've only done it 27 times. So what does it take to amend the U.S. Constitution and why does it barely ever happen? Robinson Woodward Burns, Associate Professor of Political Science at Howard University, is our guide. Want more Civics 101? Sign up for our newsletter and enjoy the pure delight of an extra dose of (genuinely fun) civics musing twice a month. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to our full, two-part series from 2023 on the history of civics education, and the current legal and ideological debates around social studies happening in across the country today.    Walking us through the past, present, and future of social studies and civic education are Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Adam Laats, Historian and Professor of Teaching, Learning and Educational Leadership at Binghamton University.  We also hear from Louise Dube, Executive Director of iCivics and member of the Implementation Consortium at Educating for American Democracy, Justin Reich, Director at MIT Teaching Systems Lab and host of the TeachLab podcast, and CherylAnne Amendola,  Department Chair and teacher at Montclair Kimberly Academy and host of the podcast Teaching History Her Way. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the cats are away...well...you know.  In this special episode, Executive Producer Rebecca Lavoie and Senior Producer Christina Phillips follow up on some recent discussions sparked by our newsletter Extra Credit. How do you have a legitimate discussion with someone who has the facts wrong? And what's going on with all of these different trials involving former President Donald Trump? Click here to read Nick's essay on responding to someone who's wrong.  Click here to subscribe to our newsletter! Click here to make a donation to Civics 101. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The president has the power to release someone from prison, restore their voting rights, or stop a federal criminal investigation with little more than the wave of a hand. How did the president get this power, and are there any limitations? What would it mean for a president to pardon themselves?  Brian Kalt, constitutional law professor at Michigan State University, helps answer these questions. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Machine learning is being used in police precincts, schools, courts and elsewhere across the country to help us make decisions. Using data about us, algorithms can do almost instantly what it would take human beings both time and money to do.  Cheaper, faster, more efficient and potentially more accurate -- but should we be doing it? How should we be using it? And what about our privacy and our rights? Aziz Huq,  Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, is our guide to the new world order. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federalist 10 was one of the Federalist Papers, a collection of 85 essays that were published in New York to encourage ratification of the newly drafted Constitution. This essay is taught in classrooms across the country and often referred to as the most important. So what's it about? Taking us through the ideas of faction, republicanism, and Madison's inability to predict Facebook are Jeffrey Rosen, President of the National Constitution Center,  Alison LaCroix, Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, and our dear friend Ryan Werenka, AP Government and Politics teacher at Troy High School in Michigan.  Click here to listen to our episode on the Federalist and Antifederalist Papers. And click here to support our show and get yourself some wool socks and a hat! 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Primaries, caucuses, conventions, court cases -- oh, it's a lot. Hannah and Nick have the most important dates and some crucial context for your calendar this election year. Buckle up, 2024 is already underway. Check out our recommended listening for more helpful info! Primaries and Caucuses Conventions Stranglehold: Make Room (for context on New Hampshire and its hold on the first in the nation Primary) By the way, it isn't too late to snag a Civics 101 baseball hat! Donate now and show the world you know what's going on. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Government salaries vary an awful lot; from $100 a year to $11.5 million. So who makes what?  Today we divide the issue of taxpayer-funded salaries in two. How much officials make, and then how much they really make. Why do so many politicians make money once they leave office? How much can you get from speaking at events? And how do lobbyists affect not only policy, but their career trajectory?  Our guest is Anna Massoglia from Open Secrets, the "nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics." Click here to get a hat and/or socks during our podcast fund drive! 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this double feature of two of our favorite episodes we cover misinformation, disinformation and propaganda -- three tricky truth-benders that come at you from every angle in American life. Our guides include Samantha Lai of the Brookings Institute, Peter Adams of the News Literacy Project, 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. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Expulsion from Congress is extremely rare. Nevertheless, NY Congressman George Santos was expelled on December 1, 2023. So how did that happen? Today on Civics 101 we are guided by Carlos Algara, who lays out the history of expulsion in both chambers, the process, the Ethics Committee, censure, and how Congress fills an empty seat after somebody is expelled.   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Between the corporate interests, the politics, the infrastructure and the shaming, what can the grown ups in the room actually do to make the school cafeteria a safer, healthier place where kids want to be? Ross Wilson of the Shah Foundation, Jessica Terrell of the Left Overs podcast and Crystal FitzSimons of the Food Research and Action Center try to answer that. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal and state dollars pay for so much of what goes into the American public school education of our kids, but it isn't so straight forward when it comes to keeping them fed on school grounds. What movements and laws lead to American school kids accessing lunch? What does it cost, and who has to pay? Jessica Terrell, journalist and host of Left Over podcast and Crystal FitzSimons, Director of School and Out-of-School Time Programs at the Food Research and Action Center are our guides to the first part of our two-parter on school meals in America.   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 University of South Carolina School of Law.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How does something go from an annual tradition to a mandated day off? Who decides to make a holiday official?  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 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 Term limits for legislators, both in Congress and at the state level, are extremely popular among voters, and have been, since their heyday in the 1990s. And while we don't currently have term limits on members of Congress, they do exist in 16 states. What can we learn from the state legislatures that already have them? Do they deliver on their promises?  We talk with Carlos Algara, assistant professor of political science at Claremont Graduate University, where he studies political parties, electoral accountability, and legislative behavior, and Jordan Butcher, assistant professor of political science at Arkansas State University, where she studies state legislatures. She is the author of the forthcoming book Navigating Term Limits.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

America's first congress debated it in the 1790s, and it's been debated about ever since. Who should step into the president's shoes if the offices of President and Vice President are simultaneously vacant? Today we talk about the many different Presidential Acts of Succession that we've had in the US, as well as designated survivors, the "football," and the recurring question of the constitutionality of such acts. Click here to listen to our episode on the Executive Branch, should you want to learn the mnemonic "See That Dog Jump In A Circle, Leave Her House To Entertain Educated Veteran's Homes." 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Supreme Court chooses what it wants to offer opinions on, and those opinions redefine the way law works in this nation, trickling down to your world works for you. So what did they pick this time around? This is our watchlist for the most significant cases before the court this year. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In light of the recent kerfuffle regarding the many elections for a new Speaker of the House, we decided it was time to break down the powers and history of the second-most powerful job in DC.  Dan Cassino of Farleigh Dickinson University tells us all about the Speaker; from fundraising to the rules committee to the steering committee to a self-proclaimed Beelzebub to what the repeated failed elections for a Speaker portends for Congress. Click here to listen to our episode on How A Bill (Really) Becomes a Law and click here to learn more about committees. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The tale of what happens when The Satanic Temple comes to Hellertown, PA.  From dear teacher friend Jason Stern comes this lesson in First Amendment rights. It all started when the Saucon Valley School District got word that the After School Satan Club was coming to town. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Heather Cox Richardson became a household name with her daily newsletter,  Letters from an American, in which she does something simple and essential: provide her readers with the historical context for today's politics. She recently wrote a book called Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America. Hannah sat down with Heather as part of the live series Writers on a New England Stage at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH, to talk about the book and everything else Heather is thinking about right now. This is that conversation.     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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most Americans can look down at their phone and see a prediction of the future. How is that even possible? Well, we'll tell you. Today it's all about the weather; from early predictive methods and almanacs to the National Weather Service's modern-day practices of collecting, analyzing, and sharing a staggering amount of data. First we talked with Kris Harper, a professor of history and philosophy at the University of Copenhagen, and then with Felicia Bowser, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, Florida. Rain or Shine, we at Civics 101 will be here to guide you through the dark and stormy world of government. Support our show today with a $60 donation and we'll send you our brand new baseball cap. Click here to take a look.   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What did Jefferson mean when he wrote about a "wall of separation" between the church and the state? How have we interpreted the pair of clauses in the 1st Amendment regarding religion? And finally, what is the current relationship between church and state when it comes to the Supreme Court, religious schools, taxes, and growing religious nationalism? Today we talk to Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism and Morgan Marietta, Chair of Political Science at the University of Texas, Arlington and founding editor of the SCOTUS Decisions Series.   Support our mission to explore how our government works. Donate $60 to our show today and receive a vintage Civics 101 hat. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is there such a thing as too much American Girl Doll on a podcast about civics? No, say we! This will, however, be the last of it. After publishing our first two episodes we heard from SO many people about what American Girl means to them. These dolls and their stories really meant something, and continue to, to a lot of our listeners. So today, we'll hear from some of you AND from one very funny, very good social media creator who is keeping her American Girls in rotation. If you want to check out and follow Nicole Daniels (and uh... you should) you can do that on Instagram or Tiktok @nicoleolive 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we share a quick recap of what happened on Saturday, 9/30/23 when the government almost shut down, and then explain all the ins and outs of government shutdowns. Have they always been part of our legislative process? How do they happen? And what happens when they happen? Our guest is Charles Tiefer, professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Support our show today with a gift of $60 or more to get yourself a vintage Civics 101 baseball cap. You'll look great in it, we promise. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yeah, this is us having a good time playing trivia. Rounds include "which thing is larger," historic LinkedIn pages, and "things that are falling." We love making this show, but we can only do it with listener support. Click here to make a donation; a one-time gift of $60 gets you a swanky new Civics 101 hat.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode of Civics 101 is the second chapter of a story about American Girl dolls, and what this beloved brand got right – and wrong – about the American experience. If you haven't heard part one yet, make sure to go back and take a listen! DONATE TO CIVICS 101 NOW AND GET OUR NEW STICKER!  CLICK RIGHT HERE TO SUPPORT OUR WORK. (YOU CAN ALSO GET A VERY COOL BASEBALL CAP!) Guests include Marcia Chatelain Pulitzer Prize-winning author and the Penn Presidential Company Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania; Spencer Crew, former president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and professor of history at George Mason University; Emily Zaslow, author of Playing with America’s Doll: A Cultural Analysis of the American Girl Collection; and Molly Rosner, author of Playing with History: American Identities and Children’s Consumer Culture. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For so many of us, American Girl dolls were more than just toys, they’re how we learned about the past. But is American Girl’s version historically accurate? Believe it or not, there's no shortage of scholars who have a lot to say about that.  DONATE TO CIVICS 101 NOW AND GET OUR NEW STICKER!  CLICK RIGHT HERE TO SUPPORT OUR WORK. (YOU CAN ALSO GET A VERY COOL BASEBALL CAP!) This episode of Civics 101 is the first chapter of a story about dolls, and what one beloved brand got right – and wrong – about the American experience.  Guests include Marcia Chatelain Pulitzer Prize-winning author and the Penn Presidential Company Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania; Spencer Crew, former president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and professor of history at George Mason University; Emily Zaslow, author of Playing with America’s Doll: A Cultural Analysis of the American Girl Collection; and Molly Rosner, author of Playing with History: American Identities and Children’s Consumer Culture.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The government classifies millions of documents every year - secrets that can only be seen by certain people, and under certain conditions. Who decides what is secret, and what isn't? How well is the classification system working? And can a president declassify any secret, at any time, just by thinking it?  We talk with Margaret Kwoka, law professor at Ohio State University, where she focuses on laws around government documents and access to government information. And if you want to learn more, check out our episode about security clearance.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In August, 2023 Donald Trump and 18 others were indicted for violating Georgia's RICO law. Today we break down RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act from 1970, and learn the origins and purpose of RICO as well as how RICO cases differ from others.  Our guest is Myles Ranier, civil litigator and former federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of Louisiana.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we look at the creation and evolution of the two major parties in the US; the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. How did they come about? How did their ideals shift over the last 200+ years? And where might they go next? These episodes originally aired in 2020, and feature Keneshia Grant, George Will, Kathryn DePalo-Gould, Heather Wagner, Paddy Riley, and William Adler. Listen to all our episodes and support our show at our website, civics101podcast.org.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today is the second part in our series about the state of civic education in the US. We talk about how teachers choose what to teach, so-called "divisive concepts laws," and how we can approach disagreements without falling prey to "division actors." This episode features  Louise Dube, Executive Director of iCivics and member of the Implementation Consortium at Educating for American Democracy Justin Reich, Director at MIT Teaching Systems Lab and host of the TeachLab podcast CherylAnne Amendola,  Department Chair and teacher at Montclair Kimberly Academy and host of the podcast Teaching History Her Way   Click here to see a map of all the states that have passed legislation limiting what teachers can say regarding race, sex, gender, etc.  Click here to see the Interactive Roadmap by Educating for American Democracy. And while we're throwing out links, click here to support our show, it means the world to us.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In June of 2023 the Supreme Court determined that affirmative action -- a practice that had been common in some colleges and universities since the 1960s -- was a violation of the Equal Protections clause of the 14th Amendment. So what, exactly, are these schools not allowed to do anymore? What does it have to do with race and diversity? How was it supposed to work... and did it? Margaret M. Chin, professor of sociology at Hunter College, is our guide to this week's episode.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In June of 2023, Donald Trump was charged with 37 counts of alleged mishandling of classified documents, as well as obstruction of justice. Of those 37 counts, 31 are alleged violations of the Espionage Act. Now, since its passage after World War I, thousands of people have been investigated for violating the Espionage Act, including Julian Assange, Daniel Ellsberg, and Donald Trump. However, only two people have been executed for violating it during peacetime; Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.  This episode features Anne Sebba, author of Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy, and Jake Kobrick, Associate Historian at the Federal Judicial Center. It explains the Espionage Act of 1917, the accusations against the Rosenbergs, the twists and turns of their trial, and their execution in 1953.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every president generates millions of records in the course of leading the country: memos, emails, speeches, notes, tweets... There are rules for how those records should be treated, both as historical documents, and as public property, enshrined in the Presidential Records Act. What does the Act say,  and what does it have to do with how former-President Donald Trump handled government documents after leaving office?  We talk with Trudy Huskamp Peterson, who worked as an archivist for the National Archives for 24 years, including  serving as Acting Archivist of the United States from 1993-1995.  We also talk with Margaret Kwoka, Professor of Law at Ohio State University and legal expert on information law, government secrecy, and transparency.    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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In June 2023, the Supreme Court determined that states do not have independent and exclusive authority when it comes to federal election rules. By the time they issued the majority opinion, it no longer mattered in the state that started it all.  So what happened in Moore v Harper? What is (or was) the Independent State Legislature Theory, and what other powers did the court vest in itself in this opinion? Carolyn Shapiro, founder and co-director of Chicago-Kent's Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States, is our guide. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today is the first part in a series about the state of civic education in the US. In this episode, we gauge how we're doing civics-wise and then delve into the perpetually controversial history of history; have we ever agreed upon a narrative for our nation that we can teach students? Walking us through the past, present, and future of social studies and civic education are Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Adam Laats, Historian and Professor of Teaching, Learning and Educational Leadership at Binghamton University.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You probably associate the so-called "War on Drugs" with the Reagans. Or maybe, more correctly, with the Nixon administration. But the government's anti-drug policies started decades before that. And, as we discuss in this week's episode, those policies were often motivated by things other than public health and safety. Instead, they targeted - and continue to target - immigrants and communities of color.  This episode digs into the history of America's War on Drugs, featuring guests Jason Ruiz and Yasser Arafat Payne.  MAKE A DONATION TO SUPPORT OUR WORK! 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A law in Texas banning abortions after six weeks. The blocking of a majority-Black congressional district in Alabama. OSHA regulations requiring vaccinations or a negative COVID test result.  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 takes us through this increasingly common phenomenon. IF YOU LOVE OUR WORK, MAKE A DONATION TO SUPPORT CIVICS 101! This episode originally dropped in May, 2022.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oral arguments at the Supreme Court are a window into the personalities, beliefs, and behavior of justices. They allow advocates to engage directly with the highest court in the land about how the law should work in practice. And over the last two decades, as country has become increasingly partisan, they've started to sound very different. We talk about how, why, and what's up with all the interrupting.  Helping us break it down is Tonja Jacobi, professor of law and the Sam Nunn Chair of Ethics and Professionalism at Emory School of Law. We talk about several of Jacobi's studies on oral arguments, check them out:  Justice, Interrupted: The Effect of Gender, Ideology and Seniority at Supreme Court Oral Arguments The New Oral Argument: Justices as Advocates Supreme Court Interruptions and Interventions: The Changing Role of the Chief Justice   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it really mean when we call someone a socialist, communist, or fascist? Where did these ideologies come from, and why do we have ideologies in the first place? Today we speak with Patrick McGovern, professor of political science at Buffalo State University, and Susan Kang, professor of political science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and host of Left On Red.   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States. It also granted them equal protection under the laws and guaranteed due process of law. Those are considered its most important provisions today. That wasn't always the case, however. Why did it take so long for the Supreme Court to affirm these provisions of this significant Amendment, and what does that say about politics at the highest court in the land? Our guide to the 14th Amendment is Aziz Huq, professor of law at the University of Chicago School of Law. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recently, news about Justice Clarence Thomas's decades-long friendship with a wealthy Republican megadonor, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts and generosity he's received from that friendship, has led to increased scrutiny into whether Supreme Court justices are as unbiased and uninfluenced as they claim. It's also revealed how, unlike most other federal officials, we rely on the good faith of the justices to hold themselves accountable.  Helping us untangle this is Tonja Jacobi, professor of law and the Sam Nunn chair in  Ethics and Professionalism at Emory University School of Law.  Don't miss the reporting from ProPublica on Justice Thomas's relationship with Harlan Crow, called "Friends of the Court."      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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 much debt we can have, keeps getting higher and higher. We talk about how the national debt works, how it's been used as political leverage, and how that impacts the health of our economy.  Louise Sheiner, senior economics fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Michael Dorf, Constitutional law professor at Cornell Law, help us make sense of trillions of dollars in debt.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 to the Telecommunications subcommittee when the doctrine was codified into law (and subsequently vetoed) in 1987.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 is your introduction to that true story. Our guides to this era are Dr. Kidada Williams, author of I Saw Death Coming and Dr. Kate Masur, author of Until Justice Be Done. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 know enough - or anything at all - about it. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 presented to the public, and the possible reasons why Dominion chose to settle instead of continue with the trial. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 who gets those freedoms in the first place: Declaration Revisited The Bill of Rights The 19th Amendment 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 in the Jury Room and Public Life. Love the podcast? Make a donation to support it! Click here to chip in - we can't do what we do without listeners like you!  Check out Outside/In presents: The Underdogs right here! Links: Here's that survey about why Americans lie to get out of jury duty Links related to the O.J. Simpson case:  A consultant helped select the jury that acquitted O.J. Simpson... - The Seattle Times O.J.: Made In America (ESPN documentary) Radio - The lasting impact of the O.J. Simpson trial (WBUR) 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 the legislative process. Here are links to our related episodes; How a Bill (Really) Becomes a Law and Citizens United. Click here to sign up for our newsletter, Extra Credit! 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 lowest income tax rate, and who is held accountable for paying their "fair share." Curious about the history of the income tax? Check out our companion episode, Why Do We Have An Income Tax? Also, check out The Secret IRS Files, ProPublica’s investigation into the tax records of the .001%. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 support Civics 101 and NHPR's journalism right here.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Jerolmack, Michael Heller, George Anthony Long, and Deondre Smiles. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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, 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 how you spend your money, are directly connected to how much you owe the government each year, and what the government provides for you in return. So how did we get here?  Helping us untangle this history is Eric Toder, Institute fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute, Beverly Moran, Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University, where she focuses on federal income taxation, including individuals, partnerships, tax-exempt organizations and corporate, and Joe Thorndike, Director of the Tax History Project at Tax Analysts.   Stay tuned for our follow up episode on how to do your taxes successfully, and correctly - we'll talk about the IRS, enforcement and compliance, and the rise of tax preparation software.  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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Studies at US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO CIVICS 101 - WE CAN'T MAKE THE SHOW WITHOUT LISTENERS LIKE YOU! 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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, 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"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 educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 episode features Winston Bowman from the Federal Judicial Center, and Jeffrey Sammons from the NYU History Department.  Support our show and our mission with a gift to Civics 101 today, it means the world to us. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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, and the fight to make that so. 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 effects we're still seeing today. Guests: Historian Dr. Lillian Faderman,  author of Woman: The American History of an Idea Professor David K. Johnson. His book, The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government, became the basis for a documentary film that was broadcast nationwide on PBS. Support our work! Click here to make a donation to Civics 101 today.   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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 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 User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices