This special episode from our original Constitution Series returns in honor of Black History Month, spotlighting the life and ideas of Thomas Sowell, one of America’s most influential and thought-provoking thinkers. Drawing from Jason L. Riley’s landmark biography Maverick, the program traces Sowell’s journey from a Black orphan growing up in the Jim Crow South to a leading voice in economics, race, and political thought. Featuring insights from Sowell himself, along with interviews from colleagues and those he inspired, this episode explores why he is so often called “the smartest person in the room.”

Listen to this podcast on your favorite platform, or watch the conversation on our YouTube channel.

This podcast is created by the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. We offer a platform of civil discourse to allow for disparate views to be discussed and explored.

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How does today’s polarized climate shape what—and how—civics is taught in America’s classrooms?

This Public Square virtual conversation was inspired by the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute’s latest policy brief, “Why Are Teachers Uncomfortable Teaching Civics?” The research offers an urgent look at the challenges many civics educators face when teaching the very subject they were hired to lead.

The findings are striking: K–12 civics teachers across the country report feeling underprepared, unsupported, and increasingly hesitant to teach essential civic knowledge in an environment marked by heightened scrutiny and division.

To explore these realities, the O’Connor Institute convened educators, experts, and engaged citizens from 36 states for a thoughtful Public Square online discussion examining what this means for classrooms—and for our democracy.

Learn more about the research at oconnorinstitute.org/research.

Listen to the conversation on your favorite podcast platform, or watch the full discussion on our YouTube channel.

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Perhaps no extant product of the U.S. Constitution has received more bipartisan animus than the Electoral College. Since 1800 there have been more than 700 proposals introduced in Congress to amend or eliminate the way in which America chooses its presidents. Yet the Electoral College lives on.

Why do we have this system? Why does it inspire such cross-party antipathy? Can it be changed -- should it be changed? -- and if so how?

The Sandra Day O'Connor Institute welcomed participants from 36 states to our Public Square online discussion on the topic. 

This podcast is created by the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. We offer a platform of civil discourse to allow for disparate views to be discussed and explored.

You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/

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In his book The Quest for Character, Massimo Pigliucci asks: can good character be taught?

Through an exploration of Greek and Roman philosophy, and especially the interaction of Socrates and Alcibiades, Pigliucci helps us understand what makes a good leader, and how we can educate others, and ourselves, to be better people and citizens.

This podcast is created by the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. We offer a platform of civil discourse to allow for disparate views to be discussed and explored.

You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/

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Do open primaries and ranked-choice voting have the potential to improve American elections, or will they create more problems than they solve? Kevin Meyer, former lieutenant governor of Alaska; Steve Goldstein, executive director of Save Democracy AZ; and Jaime Molera, former Arizona superintendent of public instruction join the O'Connor Institute and Civics for Life to discuss the issue.

This podcast is created by the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. We offer a platform of civil discourse to allow for disparate views to be discussed and explored.

You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/

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Civics for Life and the O'Connor Institute welcome Jed Perl as he joins Liam Julian, director of Public Policy, for a discussion on the relationship between art and society, the artist’s role in society, and whether art and artists have definite social and political responsibilities.

Perl is the author of nine books, including a two-volume biography of the American sculptor Alexander Calder; a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship; an art critic for the New Republic for twenty years and a contributing editor to Vogue for a decade. He now writes regularly for the New York Review of Books.

In his book Authority and Freedom: A Defense of the Arts, Jed Perl argues that “authority and freedom are the lifeblood of the arts.” Are they also the lifeblood of civil society—and especially democratic society?

This podcast is created by the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. We offer a platform of civil discourse to allow for disparate views to be discussed and explored.

You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/

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Americans today are more politically polarized than in the past. We are more likely to align our political identities with specific ideological stances, and we are more likely to view the opposition with hostility (according to data from, among other sources, Pew Research Center and Rice and Stanford Universities). Can this political polarization be overcome? 

This podcast is created by the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. We offer a platform of civil discourse to allow for disparate views to be discussed and explored.

You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/

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Emancipation in America is often presented as a single and singular undertaking. But Professor Kris Manjapra's new book, Black Ghost of Empire, complicates that story by situating America's national emancipation in a long line of global emancipations--including the first emancipations, which occurred in America's North in the late 18th century--that were in many ways structured to benefit former enslavers and ensure that the formerly enslaved remained repressed.

Were these compromised emancipations necessary concessions to the powers that existed at the time? Or did they suffer from an impoverished conception of "the possible"? Professor Manjapra joined Liam Julian, director of Public Policy at the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute, to discuss these and other questions; to examine the words and deeds of great Americans like Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass; to consider the unique beauty of facts; and to ask what it would mean to live in a truly reciprocal society.

This podcast is created by the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. We offer a platform of civil discourse to allow for disparate views to be discussed and explored.

You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/

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Civics for Life and the O'Connor Institute welcome Professor Cristina Rodríguez and Mr. Adam White as they join host Liam Julian, director of Public Policy, for an online conversation and share diverse perspectives on the Future of the Court. Rodríguez and White both served as members of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, formed by President Joe Biden's Executive Order 14023 in April 2021.
 
The Commission’s purpose was to provide an analysis of the principal arguments in the contemporary public debate for and against Supreme Court reform, including an appraisal of the merits and legality of particular reform proposals. The topics examined by the Commission included the genesis of the reform debate; the Court’s role in the constitutional system; the length of service and turnover of justices on the Court; the membership and size of the Court; and the Court’s case selection, rules, and practices. At its public meeting on December 7, 2021, the 34-member Commission voted unanimously to approve the submission of the final report, concluding that it had met its charge to provide an account of the current debate over the “role and operation of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system."

This podcast is created by the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. We offer a platform of civil discourse to allow for disparate views to be discussed and explored.

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On Thursday, Oct. 17, we welcomed participants from 36 states to our Public Square online discussion on the decline of civics education being taught today. The research is clear: study after study shows that we Americans don't know civics. 

This is especially the case for younger Americans, who data reveal to be less informed about civics than their older counterparts. Obviously there is a need for more and better civic education in schools, a proposition that consistently receives strong bipartisan support. Yet American public schools are not as a rule prioritizing civic education. Why is this so? 

Read our latest research at OConnorInstitute/research. 

This podcast is created by the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. We offer a platform of civil discourse to allow for disparate views to be discussed and explored.

You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/

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