Today is the second part in our series about the state of civic education in the US. We talk about how teachers choose what to teach, so-called "divisive concepts laws," and how we can approach disagreements without falling prey to "division actors."

This episode features 

• Louise Dube, Executive Director of iCivics and member of the Implementation Consortium at Educating for American Democracy
• Justin Reich, Director at MIT Teaching Systems Lab and host of the TeachLab podcast
• CherylAnne Amendola,  Department Chair and teacher at Montclair Kimberly Academy and host of the podcast Teaching History Her Way

Click here to see a map of all the states that have passed legislation limiting what teachers can say regarding race, sex, gender, etc. 

Click here to see the Interactive Roadmap by Educating for American Democracy.

And while we're throwing out links, click here to support our show, it means the world to us. 

• CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more!
• To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.
• Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In June of 2023 the Supreme Court determined that affirmative action -- a practice that had been common in some colleges and universities since the 1960s -- was a violation of the Equal Protections clause of the 14th Amendment. So what, exactly, are these schools not allowed to do anymore? What does it have to do with race and diversity? How was it supposed to work... and did it?

Margaret M. Chin, professor of sociology at Hunter College, is our guide to this week's episode. 

• CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more!
• To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.
• Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In June of 2023, Donald Trump was charged with 37 counts of alleged mishandling of classified documents, as well as obstruction of justice. Of those 37 counts, 31 are alleged violations of the Espionage Act. Now, since its passage after World War I, thousands of people have been investigated for violating the Espionage Act, including Julian Assange, Daniel Ellsberg, and Donald Trump. However, only two people have been executed for violating it during peacetime; Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. 

This episode features Anne Sebba, author of Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy, and Jake Kobrick, Associate Historian at the Federal Judicial Center. It explains the Espionage Act of 1917, the accusations against the Rosenbergs, the twists and turns of their trial, and their execution in 1953. 

• CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more!
• To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.
• Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Every president generates millions of records in the course of leading the country: memos, emails, speeches, notes, tweets... There are rules for how those records should be treated, both as historical documents, and as public property, enshrined in the Presidential Records Act. What does the Act say,  and what does it have to do with how former-President Donald Trump handled government documents after leaving office? 

We talk with Trudy Huskamp Peterson, who worked as an archivist for the National Archives for 24 years, including  serving as Acting Archivist of the United States from 1993-1995.  We also talk with Margaret Kwoka, Professor of Law at Ohio State University and legal expert on information law, government secrecy, and transparency. 

• CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more!
• To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.
• Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In June 2023, the Supreme Court determined that states do not have independent and exclusive authority when it comes to federal election rules. By the time they issued the majority opinion, it no longer mattered in the state that started it all. 

So what happened in Moore v Harper? What is (or was) the Independent State Legislature Theory, and what other powers did the court vest in itself in this opinion?

Carolyn Shapiro, founder and co-director of Chicago-Kent's Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States, is our guide.

• CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more!
• To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.
• Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today is the first part in a series about the state of civic education in the US. In this episode, we gauge how we're doing civics-wise and then delve into the perpetually controversial history of history; have we ever agreed upon a narrative for our nation that we can teach students?

Walking us through the past, present, and future of social studies and civic education are Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Adam Laats, Historian and Professor of Teaching, Learning and Educational Leadership at Binghamton University. 

• CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more!
• To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.
• Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You probably associate the so-called "War on Drugs" with the Reagans. Or maybe, more correctly, with the Nixon administration. But the government's anti-drug policies started decades before that.

And, as we discuss in this week's episode, those policies were often motivated by things other than public health and safety. Instead, they targeted - and continue to target - immigrants and communities of color. 

This episode digs into the history of America's War on Drugs, featuring guests Jason Ruiz and Yasser Arafat Payne. 

MAKE A DONATION TO SUPPORT OUR WORK!

• CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more!
• To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.
• Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A law in Texas banning abortions after six weeks. The blocking of a majority-Black congressional district in Alabama. OSHA regulations requiring vaccinations or a negative COVID test result. 

All of these controversial issues were decided not through the tried-and-true method of a hearing in the Supreme Court, but rather through a system called "the shadow docket," orders from the court that are (often) unsigned, inscrutable, and handed down in the middle of the night. Professor Stephen Vladeck takes us through this increasingly common phenomenon.

IF YOU LOVE OUR WORK, MAKE A DONATION TO SUPPORT CIVICS 101!

This episode originally dropped in May, 2022. 

• CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more!
• To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.
• Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Oral arguments at the Supreme Court are a window into the personalities, beliefs, and behavior of justices. They allow advocates to engage directly with the highest court in the land about how the law should work in practice. And over the last two decades, as country has become increasingly partisan, they've started to sound very different. We talk about how, why, and what's up with all the interrupting. 

Helping us break it down is Tonja Jacobi, professor of law and the Sam Nunn Chair of Ethics and Professionalism at Emory School of Law. We talk about several of Jacobi's studies on oral arguments, check them out: 

Justice, Interrupted: The Effect of Gender, Ideology and Seniority at Supreme Court Oral Arguments

The New Oral Argument: Justices as Advocates

Supreme Court Interruptions and Interventions: The Changing Role of the Chief Justice

• CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more!
• To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.
• Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What does it really mean when we call someone a socialist, communist, or fascist? Where did these ideologies come from, and why do we have ideologies in the first place?

Today we speak with Patrick McGovern, professor of political science at Buffalo State University, and Susan Kang, professor of political science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and host of Left On Red.

• CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more!
• To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.
• Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it!

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.