Civics 101

Latest Episodes:

How Can The Government Ban TikTok? Mar 18, 2024

Show notes

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

Can the Supreme Court save us from ourselves? Mar 12, 2024

Show notes

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

Amending the Constitution Mar 05, 2024

Show notes

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

What's Going On With Civics Education? Feb 27, 2024

Show notes

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

Extra Credit: How to Argue Against Disinformation; Trump Trials Update Feb 20, 2024

Show notes

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

What Are Presidential Pardons? Feb 13, 2024

Show notes

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

How Should We Govern the Algorithm? Feb 06, 2024

Show notes

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

What is Federalist 10? Jan 30, 2024

Show notes

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

Election 2024: What Is Happening? Jan 23, 2024

Show notes

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

How much do government employees get paid? Jan 16, 2024

Show notes

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

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected