logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2025
47m 31s

We the People: Succession of Power

NPR
About this episode
tail spinning
Up next
Oct 15
Is the death penalty cruel and unusual?
The Eighth Amendment. What is cruel and unusual punishment? Who gets to define and decide the amendment's boundaries? And how did the Constitution's authors imagine it might change? In this hour, the shifting definition of cruel and unusual punishment. This episode was originally ... Show More
47m 51s
Oct 13
Why does everything get a standing ovation now?
Call it standing ovation inflation: these days, it feels like it's mandatory to stand and clap for live performances. Has our please clap era gone too far? That's what one Throughline listener wanted to know. So we traced the winding road from Shakespeare’s epilogues to Broadway ... Show More
16m 22s
Oct 8
Four Seasons of Ceasefire in Gaza
NPR’s Anas Baba is one of the last remaining journalists in Gaza working full-time for an American news organization. A year into the ceasefire, more than 1400 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, nearly 5,000 injured. And those numbers rise nearly every day. What has the ... Show More
43m 17s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2021
Ask Civics 101: The 25th Amendment
Members of Congress from both parties have requested that the Vice President invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office. Today we explore all four parts of this relatively new amendment with constitutional scholar and author of The Bill of Rights: A Users Gui ... Show More
9m 53s
Nov 2018
The Power Player Amendments with Devendra Banhart
<p>The 25th and 26th Amendments — ratified in 1967 and 1971, respectively — are some of the newest additions to our founding document. However, they tackle some pretty basic questions: who gets to rule, and who gets to vote? If a president dies or is incapacitated, who takes over ... Show More
41m 41s
Jul 2024
Season 3, Episode 9: Monika Wiesak, America's Last President: What the World Lost When It Lost John F. Kennedy
Send us Fan MailJoin Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Monika Wiesak as they discuss one of America's most iconic leaders in, America's Last President: What the World Lost When It Lost John F. Kennedy. Listen in as they delve into the thrilling saga of a young, audacious visionary who ... Show More
40m 22s
Mar 2024
Amending the Constitution
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 How ... Show More
21m 40s
Mar 2022
EP225: Finding My Mission: Life After the Military and Fighting Founders: The Alien and Sedition Acts
On this episode of Our American Stories, Bran Sanpietro spent a decade-plus in government service... but what happens when all that comes to an end? Brett and Team RWB have an answer. Dr. Adam Carrington of Hillsdale College tells the story of the Alien and Sedition Acts and how ... Show More
38m 16s
Aug 2024
Thomas Mundy Peterson: The Story of the 1st Black Voter in the United States
On this episode of Our American Stories, this is the story of what happened shortly after the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibiting a citizen’s right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Here to tell a ... Show More
9m 29s
Jan 2025
Congress Shall Make No Law Yada Yada Yada...
On this special Friday January 24, 2025 edition of The Armstrong & Getty One More Thing Podcast... The topic of birthright citizenship inspires our in-house constitutional scholar to take a look at the amendments!  Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/See omnystu ... Show More
10m 43s
Jun 2022
Democracy Imperiled
What happened at the Capitol on January 6 begs us to look to our past to help us understand our present, and to imagine a better future. From debates around voting rights to immigration to police reform, we find ourselves at a crossroads in American Democracy. 
51m 35s
Mar 2022
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights
Long before we could decide and insist upon what they mean to us, a handful of powerful men had to put pen to paper. We're revisiting two episodes from our Foundational Documents series: The Constitution and The Bill of Rights. This is the story of how these now-indispensable doc ... Show More
1h 3m
Jul 2025
ENCORE Watergate | The Smoking Gun | 5
President Nixon fights the release of his secret tapes. But with the country thrust into a constitutional crisis, Nixon has to make a gut-wrenching decision.Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/ ... Show More
43m 59s