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NHPR

How do landmark Supreme Court decisions affect our lives? What does the 2nd Amendment really say? Why does the Senate have so much power? Civics 101 is the podcast about how our democracy works…or is supposed to work, anyway.

Civics 101

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!

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Can the president legally hide their health status?

"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!

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Grievances in the Declaration (part 1)

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!

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why does the government fund things, and what happens when it stops?

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!

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Civics Trivia: Taxes, terrifying birds, and The West Wing

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!

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is same-sex marriage in legal peril?

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!

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Obergefell v Hodges, 2015

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!

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What happens when enough states want to change the Constitution?

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!

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

How can the president take over a city's police department?

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!

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What's it like being a scientist facing federal funding cuts?

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!

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cinema Civics: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

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!

 
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Fixing a problem that doesn't exist

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