x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Civics In A Year

The Center for American Civics

What do you really know about American government, the Constitution, and your rights as a citizen?Civics in a Year is a fast-paced podcast series that delivers essential civic knowledge in just 10 minutes per episode. Over the course of a year, we’ll explore 250 key questions—from the founding documents and branches of government to civil liberties, elections, and public participation.Rooted in the Civic Literacy Curriculum from the Center for American Civics at Arizona State University, this series

education courses

All Episodes

10:47

Gibbons v. Ogden: How The Commerce Clause Shapes...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/03

A steamboat monopoly, a federal license, and a constitutional power that still shapes our economy—this is the story of Gibbons v. Ogden told through clear facts and sharp reasoning. We dig into how a seemingly straightforward dispute over navigation between New York and New Jersey became a landmark on the meaning of the Commerce Clause and the reach of federal supremacy. We walk through the clash of dueling licenses and explain why navigation counts as commerce when routes cross state lines....

en-us

11:47

Why McCulloch v. Maryland Cemented Federal Supremacy...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/02

A state tax, a national bank, and a constitutional reckoning—this is the moment McCulloch v. Maryland turned a revenue measure into a blueprint for federal power. We bring Dr. Beienberg back to trace the story from the first bank fight of the 1790s through the War of 1812 and into Chief Justice John Marshall’s opinion, showing how a practical question about taxing a federal institution became a lasting lesson on supremacy and implied powers. We dig into the core debate that split Jefferson a...

en-us

15:50

Why Marbury v. Madison Still Shapes Constitutional Power

Civics In A Year ·

2025/12/01

A delivered commission goes missing, a new Chief Justice takes the bench, and a dry jurisdictional dispute turns into a lodestar for American constitutional law. We dive into Marbury v. Madison to unpack what John Marshall actually did: not conjure judicial review out of thin air, but clarify why a written Constitution demands an independent check when statutes collide with higher law. We walk through the case’s colorful backstory to set the stage, then focus on the heart of the opinion—cons...

en-us

9:43

How FDR’s Date Change Rewrote A Holiday And Tested...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/26

A holiday felt so fixed that few imagined it could move—until the president did exactly that. We dive into the surprising civic journey of Thanksgiving, from Sarah Josepha Hale’s decades-long campaign that convinced Abraham Lincoln to set a national day, to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1939 decision to shift the date for economic recovery—and the two-year “Franksgiving” saga that followed. What started as editorials and proclamations became a national debate over presidential power, state autonomy...

en-us

25:38

How Presidential Proclamations Made Thanksgiving A...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/25

Gratitude didn’t just arrive with pumpkin pie; it was engineered through careful words and bold timing. We sit down with Dr. Paris Careese to explore how presidential proclamations by George Washington in 1789 and Abraham Lincoln in 1863 shaped Thanksgiving into a unifying civic ritual—and why those choices still influence how we gather, pray, and reflect today. From early congressional requests to wartime appeals for humility, the story of Thanksgiving doubles as a masterclass in statesmansh...

en-us

19:02

How Judges Read The Constitution: Text, History, And...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/24

The loudest fights about the Supreme Court are usually about outcomes. We pull back the curtain on the methods that shape those outcomes—text, history, precedent, and values—and explain how different approaches to constitutional interpretation drive very different answers to the same question. We start with textualism as the shared baseline: everyone claims fidelity to the words. From there, we dive into originalism’s focus on public meaning at the time of adoption, walking through the evide...

en-us

13:23

Remember The Ladies

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/21

A century of episodes calls for a wider lens, and we open it fully: the founding wasn’t just hammered out in halls and pamphlets by famous men—it was argued, nurtured, and lived by women whose ideas changed the course of American liberty. We pull threads from homes and letters into the political tapestry, showing how civic virtue took shape through family, education, economic agency, and public authorship. We explore Abigail Adams’s push for legal and economic recognition within marriage and...

en-us

11:44

How A Territorial Delegate Shapes National Policy...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/20

Ever wondered how a member of Congress can shape national policy without casting a floor vote? We sit down with Representative Kimberlyn King Hines, the delegate from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, to explore the real power centers in Washington: committees, markups, and the relationships that decide which ideas move and which ones stall. From drafting legislation to negotiating amendments, she shows how influence is built long before a bill reaches the House floor—and why ...

en-us

12:59

Kids Edition: Founding Women

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/20

What if the founding of the United States could be heard not only in speeches and volleys but in quilts mended by firelight, farm ledgers balanced in winter, and poems that dared to test the nation’s conscience? We open the door to the women who made those sounds and shaped the structure beneath the stories most of us learned in school. First, we trace Martha Washington’s steady presence at icy encampments, where morale could make or break a campaign. Then we turn to Abigail Adams, whose let...

en-us

17:41

Phillis Wheatley, First Poet Of A New Nation

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/19

We trace Phillis Wheatley’s journey from captivity to literary force, exploring how her poems speak to faith, freedom, and belonging during the American founding. We highlight her craft, the battle to be believed, and why her voice reframes the Revolution. • capture in Africa and arrival in Boston • education in the Wheatley home and early brilliance • eulogy poems, public readings, and patronage • the publication controversy and authorship “trial” • patriotism and Br...

en-us

11:26

Judith Sargent Murray and the Roots of American Feminism

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/18

A forgotten voice sharpened the edge of American liberty—she did it with clarity, courage, and a printing press that didn’t always want her words. We sit down with Dr. Kirstin Burkhaugto explore the life and legacy of Judith Sargent Murray, the self-taught Boston writer whose 1790 essay On the Equality of the Sexes argued that women possess the same moral and intellectual capacities as men. Years before Mary Wollstonecraft’s landmark work, Murray was already building a distinctly American cas...

en-us

15:09

Mercy Otis Warren: The Pen That Pressed for the Bill...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/17

We trace the life and ideas of Mercy Otis Warren, the writer who helped secure a culture of liberty—and a Bill of Rights—without a seat at the Convention. From a rare classical education to salons with the Sons of Liberty, her pen shaped policy and public virtue. • Mercy Otis Warren’s early education and family background • Hosting and influencing the Sons of Liberty network • Friendship with John Adams and first published poem • Plays, poems, essays, and a pioneering Revolution history • An...

en-us

13:39

Martha Washington And Deborah Sampson: Two Paths Of...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/14

We explore how Martha Washington and Deborah Sampson advanced the Revolution through very different forms of leadership. One shaped morale and public life; the other broke barriers to fight and spy under a borrowed name. • Pairing Martha Washington and Deborah Sampson through military connection • Deborah Sampson’s enlistment as Robert Shirtliff and covert missions • Self-treatment of wounds to protect her identity • Discovery, honorable discharge, and veteran legacy • Martha Washington’s de...

en-us

16:20

Incorporation: From Congress To The States

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/13

Start with a single word—Congress—and watch the ground shift beneath your feet. We pull back the curtain on how rights that began as limits on the federal government became limits on states, tracing the winding path from Reconstruction’s ambitions to today’s near-universal incorporation of the Bill of Rights. With constitutional law scholar Dr. Beienberg, we revisit Madison’s failed bid to bind states, the post–Civil War demand for a national floor of fundamental rights, and the strange turn...

en-us

14:40

Abigail and John: How a Marriage Shaped American...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/13

Power changes when it meets a clear-eyed partner. That’s the thread that runs through our conversation with Dr. Kirsten Birkhaug as we trace the political and personal partnership of John and Abigail Adams—two sharp minds who treated marriage like a working lab for ideas that would shape the early republic. We open with why their story is the right entry point for Women of the Founding, then follow the through line from courtship candor to presidential counsel, guided by the letters that map ...

en-us

20:18

Federalism In Practice

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/12

Power doesn’t just shift in Washington; it moves along a carefully drawn map between the federal government and the states. We dive into that map by tracing the Tenth Amendment through two centuries of clashes, from the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions to modern fights over immigration, marijuana, sports betting, and healthcare funding. With Dr. Beienberg, we unpack why nullification burned out, how anti-commandeering took hold, and what the courts mean by a real choice versus a gun to the h...

en-us

11:56

What The Tenth Amendment Really Does

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/12

Power flows from a simple premise: if the Constitution doesn’t grant it to Congress and it isn’t taken from the states, it stays with the states or the people. We dig into that promise, unpacking the Tenth Amendment as more than a slogan and showing how it shapes real law, real policy, and real tradeoffs between national goals and local control. We start with why ratifying conventions demanded the Tenth and how its logic is already embedded in Article I and the Necessary and Proper Clause. F...

en-us

12:35

Why The Ninth Amendment Protects Federal Limits, Not...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/11

A single sentence in the Bill of Rights has fueled decades of confusion, debate, and hot takes—so we went back to the source to make sense of it. We trace the Ninth Amendment from the founding-era fight over a federal Bill of Rights to James Madison’s original, clearer draft, and show how its real job is to keep the federal government within its enumerated lane rather than serve as a grab bag of unlisted rights. Along the way, we unpack why the Amendment made perfect sense to early readers st...

en-us

28:38

Why The Eighth Amendment Still Shapes Who We Are As A...

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/11

Fairness is one of the first ideas we learn as kids, and it never stops shaping how we see justice. We sit down with Dr. Kerry Sautner, president and CEO of Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, to unpack the Eighth Amendment’s compact promise: no excessive bail or fines, and no cruel and unusual punishment. From there, the conversation opens into the human questions that text demands we face—what counts as cruel, who decides, and how do standards change as society and science evolve. We...

en-us

21:49

Service, Citizenship, And Veterans Day

Civics In A Year ·

2025/11/11

The quiet that fell on November 11, 1918 did more than end a war—it sparked a living promise we renew every time we show up for one another. We start with the origin of Armistice Day and trace how America reshaped it into Veterans Day, a commitment that honors every veteran’s service while challenging the rest of us to carry freedom forward through daily civic action. I sit down with Representative Stacy Travers, a U.S. Army veteran and Arizona lawmaker, to unpack how the mission-first minds...

en-us

150 results

Similar Podcasts

Science Talk

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

五分钟心理学

柠檬心理

Daily Facts

Amalia Dupray and Montgomery Jones.

Les dents et dodo

BFMTV

Veterinary Clinical Podcasts

The Royal Veterinary College