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PODCAST

Civics 101

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.

government

All Episodes

00:22:30

What Moore v Harper Means for Elections

Civics 101 ·

2023/07/25

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

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00:28:07

Civics Education 1: What Do We Teach?

Civics 101 ·

2023/07/18

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

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00:40:03

America's "War on Drugs"

Civics 101 ·

2023/07/11

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

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00:22:46

What Is "The Shadow Docket?"

Civics 101 ·

2023/07/04

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

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00:39:48

How Have Supreme Court Arguments Changed?

Civics 101 ·

2023/06/27

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

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00:28:25

Socialism, Communism, Fascism

Civics 101 ·

2023/06/20

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.

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00:37:54

The 14th Amendment

Civics 101 ·

2023/06/12

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,

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00:32:00

Supreme Court Ethics

Civics 101 ·

2023/06/06

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

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00:23:26

What's the Debt Ceiling and the National Debt?

Civics 101 ·

2023/05/30

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

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00:22:42

The Fairness Doctrine

Civics 101 ·

2023/05/23

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

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00:09:54

BONUS: Talking to Kids About the News

Civics 101 ·

2023/05/19

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.

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00:53:52

Reconstruction: The Laws of the Land

Civics 101 ·

2023/05/16

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.

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00:53:31

Reconstruction: The Big Lie

Civics 101 ·

2023/05/08

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

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00:38:40

Reconstruction: Why We Didn't Learn About It

Civics 101 ·

2023/05/02

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

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00:28:18

Defamation, Libel, and Dominion, Oh My!

Civics 101 ·

2023/04/23

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

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00:25:18

US vs: Freedom

Civics 101 ·

2023/04/18

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

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00:17:43

How Can The Government Ban An App?

Civics 101 ·

2023/04/11

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.

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00:22:26

How Do Indictments and Grand Juries Work?

Civics 101 ·

2023/04/02

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.

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00:42:54

Jury Duty: What To Expect When You Get That Summons

Civics 101 ·

2023/03/28

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

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00:23:36

Who Writes Bills?

Civics 101 ·

2023/03/21

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

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