In this episode, best-selling biographer Walter Isaacson joins to discuss his new book, The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, with Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding, Isaacson explores the intellectual inspirations and drafting history of the Declaration’s famous ... Show More
Nov 20
Eric Foner on Our Fragile Freedoms
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 disma ... Show More
44m 28s
Oct 30
Alexander Hamilton: Closet Monarchist or Visionary Nationalist?
This episode is a two-part show on Alexander Hamilton. First, in a new episode of the podcast Pursuit: The Founders’ Guide to Happiness, Jeffrey Rosen, historian Stephen Knott, and filmmaker Ken Burns unpack Hamilton’s life and legacy to see what lessons he can teach us about res ... Show More
1h 9m
Nov 2023
Rep. Andy Biggs, AZ (R) : Hey, Mike Johnson, It’s the Constitution You’re Trashing!
<p>Imagine a world where Fourth Amendment protections are compromised. Well, the expiration of Section 702 of the FISA Act has the potential to make it a reality. With Congressman Andy Biggs by our side, we tackle this pressing issue and challenge the slippery slope of suspending ... Show More
21m 26s
Nov 2019
Mary Anne Franks, “The Cult of the Constitution” (Stanford UP, 2019)
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
58m 16s
Sep 2024
09/22/24: Scourge of Our Time, The Trustbuster, Inside the Archives
On Sunday night, 60 Minutes looks into the synthetic opioid fentanyl crisis, exploring its devastating impact on American communities. Bill Whitaker investigates the root causes, from prescription opioids to the Mexican cartels’ involvement in the illicit fentanyl market. Norah O ... Show More
48m 11s
Sep 2024
Anthony Michael Kreis, "Rot and Revival: The History of Constitutional Law in American Political Development" (U California Press, 2024)
One of the great divides in American judicial scholarship is between legal scholars who take the justices at their word and assume that those words define the law and political scientists who dismiss all judicial arguments as smokescreens for partisan bias or wider political forc ... Show More
1h 3m
Oct 2024
Jon Michaels and David Noll, "Vigilante Nation: How State-Sponsored Terror Threatens Our Democracy" (Atria/One Signal, 2024)
Law professors Jon Michaels and David Noll use their expertise to expose how state-supported forms of vigilantism are being deployed by MAGA Republicans and Christian nationalists to roll back civil, political, and privacy rights and subvert American democracy. Beyond identifying ... Show More
1h 19m
Jul 2024
The Rise of Presidential Power
<p>Right from independence, a question has hovered over the government of the United States. How much power should the President have? Not too much, lest they become a monarch. But not too little, they are elected to do a job and that job must be done.</p><br><p>In this episode o ... Show More
36m 28s