The Constitution and the Bill of Rights

<p><a href="https://kenburns.com/principals/ken-burns/">Ken Burns</a> and <a href="https://kenburns.com/staff/sarah-botstein/">Sarah Botstein</a> spent nearly a decade making a twelve-hour documentary on the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/show/the-american-revolution/?gad_source=1& ... Show More

<p>In sixty years, we have gone from 2 billionaires in the United States to just under 2,000. How on earth did that happen?</p><p>Today, Timothy Noah from the New Republic takes us all the way from our framers fearing excessive wealth to the country's first (potential) trillionai ... Show More

<p>Off-year elections -- as in, not a presidential or a midterm -- have fairly dismal voter turnout. Yet they matter a great deal. Most of our lives are lived at the local, not the national, level. So why do so many skip their state and local elections?</p><p>We spoke with <a hre ... Show More

The 25th amendment. A few years before JFK was shot, an idealistic young lawyer set out on a mission to convince people something essential was missing from the Constitution: clear instructions for what should happen if a U.S. president was no longer able to serve. On this episod ... Show More

On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War had ended and that the enslaved were now free. President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had been issued over two years earlier, and the South had ... Show More

<p>The first eight amendments to the U.S. Constitution are literal, straightforward, and direct. But when we get to Amendments Nine, 10, and 11, things get hazy. These are some of the <em>least</em> literal amendments in the Constitution: they mean more than they say, and what th ... Show More

Join us as we discuss the history of the Magna Carta, how it changed English governance, and its influence on all democracies and constitutional federal republics that came after. 

<p>On first read the 16th and 22nd Amendments are at best sleepers and at worst, stinkers. In a list of Constitutional hits like the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, and birthright citizenship, the amendments covering taxes and term limits tend to fall by the wayside ... Show More

<p>Let's get started. If we're talking about the Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, it only feels right to start at the beginning. The First and Second Amendments are arguably the most ferociously contentious amendments of them all, and the Third Amendment is the underdog that ... Show More

Episode Description:In this episode, we talk about the Declaration of Independence and why it’s so important. We’ll learn how it was written, who helped create it, and why America wanted to be free from Britain. We’ll also explore the big ideas about freedom and fairness that mad ... Show More

We Americans are defined by our Constitution and we cherish especially the First and Second Amendments. But like all texts, the Constitution can be read to empower and protect our individual rights, but it can also be used selectively, self-servingly, and in bad faith. And the Co ... Show More

<p>The Cold War, Prohibition, the Gold Rush, the Space Race. Every part of your life - the words you speak, the ideas you share - can be traced to our history, but how well do you really know the stories that made America? We'll take you to the events, the times and the people th ... Show More