We the People

Latest Episodes:

The Lost Founder: James Wilson Jan 22, 2026

Show notes

This week, we explore the life of an influential and yet, often overlooked founder, James Wilson. Whose ideas and influence continue to shape current debates about popular sovereignty, constitutional structure, and democratic self-government.

Legal scholar William Ewald of the University of Pennsylvania and Jesse Wegman of the Brennan Center for Justice join to discuss Wegman’s new book, The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People’s Constitution, which explores the life and legacy of this founder and Supreme Court justice. Julie Silverbrook, vice president of civic education of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

Resources

Jesse Wegman, The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution

Jesse Wegman, Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College

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Explore ⁠⁠⁠Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness⁠⁠⁠
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The Story of the U.S. Constitution: Past and Present Jan 15, 2026

Show notes

After more than 12 years of distinguished service as President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Rosen has transitioned to the role of CEO Emeritus, enabling him to devote his full time and energy to his scholarship and public dialogue.

The Center’s Board of Trustees appointed Vince Stango to serve as Interim President and CEO.

From all of us at the National Constitution Center, we express our gratitude to Jeff for his leadership and vision, including his role as the long-time host of the Center’s We the People podcast, where he brought constitutional debate to life for millions of listeners.

For the full announcement, visit the website. While you’re there, check out the many exciting things, including the Interactive Declaration, and all of our resources for America’s 250th!

As we work to bring you the next chapter of We the People, we will continue to share recent programs and episodes from the archive.

In this episode, we're sharing an America's Town Hall program with historians, Akhil Reed Amar, David Blight, and Annette Gordon-Reed, who joined for a sweeping conversation about the Constitution and the debates that have shaped America—from the founding era to today. They examine transformative moments in American history and landmark Supreme Court decisions.

This program is presented in partnership with the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute and the Organization of American Historians.

Resources

National Constitution Center Announces Leadership Transition

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Questions or comments about the show? Email us at ⁠⁠podcast@constitutioncenter.org ⁠⁠
Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr
Explore the ⁠⁠America at 250 Civic Toolkit⁠⁠
Explore ⁠⁠Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness⁠⁠
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Kathleen DuVal on Native Nations Jan 08, 2026

Show notes

In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, award-winning historian Kathleen DuVal discusses her new book, Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, which traces a thousand years of Native history—from the rise of ancient cities and the arrival of Europeans to today’s ongoing fights for sovereignty. Thomas Donnelly, chief scholar of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

This conversation was originally streamed live on November 4, 2025, as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall program series.

Resources

Kathleen DuVal, Native Nations: A Millenium in North America (2025)

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Questions or comments about the show? Email us at ⁠podcast@constitutioncenter.org ⁠
Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr
Explore the ⁠America at 250 Civic Toolkit⁠
Explore ⁠Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness⁠
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William F. Buckley and the Intellectual History of American Conservatism Jan 01, 2026

Show notes

Matthew Continetti, author of The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism, joins prize-winning biographer Sam Tanenhaus to discuss Tanenhaus’s new book, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America, and to trace American conservatism’s evolution from the Progressive Era, through the rise of William F. Buckley Jr., to today. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

This conversation was originally streamed live as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall program series on December 11th, 2025.

Resources

Sam Tanenhaus, Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America (2025)
Matthew Continetti, The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism (2022)

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Questions or comments about the show? Email us at ⁠⁠⁠podcast@constitutioncenter.org⁠⁠⁠
Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr
Explore the ⁠⁠⁠America at 250 Civic Toolkit⁠⁠⁠
Explore ⁠⁠Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness⁠⁠
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The Constitutional Legacy of Justice Robert Jackson Dec 25, 2025

Show notes

John Q. Barrett, discoverer and editor of Robert H. Jackson's acclaimed book That Man: An Insider's Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt and writer of the popular blog The Jackson List, joins author and constitutional scholar Gerard Magliocca, author of The Actual Art of Governing: Justice Robert H. Jackson's Concurring Opinion in the Steel Seizure Case, and G. Edward White, author of Robert H. Jackson: A Life in Judgment, to discuss the Jackson’s legacy in debates over presidential power, constitutional interpretation, and the prosecution of war crimes at Nuremberg. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

This program is presented in partnership with the Robert H. Jackson Center. This conversation was originally streamed live as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall program series on December 8th, 2025.

Resources

John Q. Barrett, The Jackson List
Robert H. Jackson and John Q. Barrett (editor), That Man: An Insider’s Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt (2004)
Gerard Magliocca, The Actual Art of Governing: Justice Robert H. Jackson’s Concurring Opinion in the Steel Seizure Case (2025)
G. Edward White, Robert H. Jackson: A Life in Judgment (2025)
G. Edward White, The American Judicial Tradition: Profile of Leading American Judges (2007)

Stay Connected and Learn More  

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at ⁠⁠podcast@constitutioncenter.org⁠⁠
Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr
Explore the ⁠⁠America at 250 Civic Toolkit⁠⁠
Explore ⁠Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness⁠
⁠⁠Sign up⁠⁠ to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate
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Ed Larson on Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters Dec 19, 2025

Show notes

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward Larson discusses his newest book, Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Still Matters, which traces the idea of American independence in one pivotal year—1776—and its continued significance today. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.
This conversation was originally streamed live as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall program series on November 24, 2025.

Resources

Ed Larson, Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters (2025)
Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)
John Adams, Thoughts on Government (1776)
George Mason, First Draft of the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)

Stay Connected and Learn More  

Questions or comments about the show? Email us at ⁠podcast@constitutioncenter.org⁠
Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr
Explore the ⁠America at 250 Civic Toolkit⁠
Explore Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness
⁠Sign up⁠ to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate
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Join us for an upcoming ⁠live program⁠ or watch recordings on ⁠YouTube⁠
Support our important work

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Can President Trump Fire a Federal Trade Commissioner Without Cause? Dec 11, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Thomas Berry of the Cato Institute and Jed Shugerman of the Boston University School of Law join the recap the oral arguments from Trump v. Slaughter and debate whether the statutory removal protections for members of the Federal Trade Commission violate the separation of powers. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

Resources

Thomas Berry, Brief of the Cato Institute as Amicus Curiae in Support of Petitioners(10/17/2025)
Jed Shugerman, Brief Amicus Curiae of Professor Jed Handelsman Shugerman in Support of Respondents(11/14/2025)
Jed Shugerman, “The Indecisions of 1789: Inconstant Originalism and Strategic Ambiguity” (2023)
Jane Manners and Lev Menand, “The Three Permissions: Presidential Removal and the Statutory Limits of Agency Independence” (2021)
Marbury v. Madison (1803)
Myers v. United States(1926)
Humphrey’s Executor v. United States(1935)
Morrison v. Olson(1988)
Seila Law LLC v. CFPB(2020)

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Questions or comments about the show? Email us at ⁠podcast@constitutioncenter.org⁠
Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr
Explore the ⁠America at 250 Civic Toolkit⁠
Explore ⁠Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness⁠
⁠Sign up⁠ to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate
Follow, rate, and review wherever you listen
Join us for an upcoming ⁠live program⁠ or watch recordings on ⁠YouTube⁠
Support our important work:

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Amending the Constitution and the Article V Project Dec 04, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, the National Constitution Center launches our Article V Project, a new initiative examining the founders’ vision for Article V and an historical look at the use of the Article V process from 1789 to the present. Project contributors and constitutional law scholars Gerard Magliocca, Sanford Levinson, Michael Rappaport, and Stephen Sachs explore the origins, debates, and ongoing challenges surrounding Article V, as presented in their essays.  Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates. This conversation was originally streamed live as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall program series on December 3, 2025. The Article V Project was made possible with the support of Democracy Restated.

Resources

Article V: Amending the Constitution
Gerard Magliocca, Report: Article V Constitutional Conventions
Sanford Levinson, Reflections on the Possibility of a New Constitutional Convention
Michael B. Rappaport, The Convention Method for Proposing Amendments: Essential, Misunderstood, and Broken
Stephen E. Sachs, Restoring Conventions, One Amendment at a Time

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Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org
Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr
Explore the America at 250 Civic Toolkit
Explore Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness
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From Pursuit: Silence in Order to Listen Nov 27, 2025

Show notes

In our 12-part podcast series, Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness, Jeffrey Rosen explores the founders’ lives with the historians who know them best and filmmaker Ken Burns shares his daily practice of self-reflection.

The “pursuit of happiness” is one of the most famous phrases in American history. When America’s founders wrote it in the Declaration of Independence, they intended it to mean happiness through lifelong learning and self-improvement.

In the last episode of the series, listeners share some big and small changes that they have made. Plus, Jeffrey Rosen, filmmaker Ken Burns, and scholar Robert P. George explore Benjamin Franklin’s virtue of silence, which he defines as “speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.”

Listen to Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness on Apple Podcast and Spotify.

Watch the full performance of the Pursuit of Happiness: Song Cycles by Jeffrey Rosen.

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Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org
Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr
Explore the America at 250 Civic Toolkit
Learn more about the NCC’s and Arizona State University's new online course on civic virtue, 'What the Founders Meant by “Happiness”: A Journey Through Virtue and Character’ and sign up for email updates
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Eric Foner on Our Fragile Freedoms Nov 20, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Eric Foner joins to discuss his book, Our Fragile Freedoms, a new collection of essays exploring a range of topics, including debates over slavery and antislavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the battle to dismantle it, and modern debates over the Constitution and how to teach American history. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates. This conversation was originally streamed live on September 24, 2025, as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall program series.

Resources

Eric Foner, Our Fragile Freedoms (2025)
Eric Foner, The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (2019)
Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (2010)
Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877(1988)
Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963)

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Questions or comments about the show? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org
Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr
Explore the America at 250 Civic Toolkit
Explore Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness
Sign up to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate
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Support our important work:

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