Civics In A Year

The Declaration At 250

The Declaration of Independence is 250 years old, but it refuses to sit quietly on a shelf. We end Civics in a Year by asking one question that cuts through politics and

Jefferson And Madison and the University of Virginia

Jefferson wrote his own epitaph, and the choice still startles: “Father of the University of Virginia” makes the cut, while “President of the United States” does not. Tha

Washington’s Final Act of Statesmanship: Confronting Slavery

George Washington sits at the center of American civic memory, but the hardest truths about him often sit at the edges of what we’re taught. We talk with Dr. Paul Carrese

Hamilton’s Moral Reckoning

Hamilton is easy to caricature: the brilliant operator, the relentless Federalist, the guy who never stops pushing. But the closer you look, the more the story bends towa

Roger Sherman, The Founder We Missed

He signed all four major American revolutionary documents, helped craft the constitutional structure we still argue about, and yet most people can’t tell you a single det

How The Massachusetts Constitution Shaped American Government

John Adams has a branding problem. If your mental picture comes from a musical, a miniseries, or the vague sense that he “wanted to be king,” we put that claim on trial b

Benjamin Franklin And The Bold Experiment Of Pennsylvania’s 1776 Constitution

Pennsylvania tried something in 1776 that still tempts us today: push democracy to the front of the line and assume the people will keep government honest. With Dr. Beien

Lore of the Founding: Cicero And The Duty To Serve

A republic doesn’t collapse all at once. It frays in public, and it frays in private, through shortcuts that feel justified, norms that stop being enforced, and citizens

Lore of the Founding: Cato And Give Me Liberty, Give Me Death

One Roman name keeps popping up wherever people argue about freedom, tyranny, and what a citizen owes a republic: Cato. We follow Cato the Younger from the final days of

Lore of the Founding- Julius Caesar

A republic can look stable right up until the moment it isn’t. We sit down with Joanna Kenti to trace how Julius Caesar rises through Roman politics, builds personal loya

Lore of the Founding- Founding of the Roman Republic

A king gets exiled, a republic gets born, and the story is so brutal it still shapes how people talk about tyranny today. We dig into Rome’s founding legend with Joanna K

The Lore of the Founding: Checks And Balances in Rome

A republic doesn’t fail only because of enemies at the gates. It can fail because someone inside decides the rules are for other people. That’s the tension we wrestle wit

What is Juneteenth and Why Do We Celebrate?

Juneteenth isn’t just a date; it’s a lesson about how freedom can be promised on paper and still withheld in practice. I’m joined by Clint Smith, the New York Times bests

Lore of the Founding- An Introduction

America’s founding didn’t spring from a blank page. It grew out of a loud, messy argument that had been running for centuries about how people should govern themselves, a

The War Powers Act Explained

The Constitution draws a bright line that most of us never hear clearly: Congress declares war, and the President commands the military. So why does modern American confl

How Primaries Pick Candidates And Reshape Elections

Primaries decide far more than most voters think and the process that was supposed to make politics cleaner may be one reason it feels uglier. We sit down with Dr. Sean B

The Senate Filibuster Explained

The filibuster gets treated like an ancient feature of the U.S. Senate, but the version that drives today’s gridlock is surprisingly modern. We sit down with Dr. Sean Bei

Mary Todd Lincoln Unmasked

Mary Todd Lincoln gets talked about like a stereotype: the spender, the problem, the punchline. That story falls apart the moment you place her where she actually lived,

How Lorraine Waxman Pearce Turned The White House Into A Museum

The White House looks permanent on TV, but its history has to be protected one object at a time. We’re joined by Leslie Calderone, Director of the White House History Dig

How The U.S. Capitol Historical Society Keeps Democracy Real

The U.S. Capitol is one of the most recognizable buildings in the world, but many Americans don’t realize there’s an organization dedicated to preserving its story and tu