Civics In A Year

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Civics In A Year

The Center for American Civics

107 episodes

1 day ago

A holiday felt so fixed that few imagined it could move—until the president did exactly that. We dive into the surprising civic journey of Thanksgiving, from Sarah Josepha Hale’s decades-long campaign that convinced Abraham Lincoln to set a national day, to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1939 decision to shift the date for economic recovery—and the two-year “Franksgiving” saga that followed. What started as editorials and proclamations became a national debate over presidential power, state autonomy...

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A holiday felt so fixed that few imagined it could move—until the president did exactly that. We dive into the surprising civic journey of Thanksgiving, from Sarah Josepha Hale’s decades-long campaign that convinced Abraham Lincoln to set a national day, to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1939 decision to shift the date for economic recovery—and the two-year “Franksgiving” saga that followed. What started as editorials and proclamations became a national debate over presidential power, state autonomy...

Show more...

Episodes (20/107)

Civics In A Year

How FDR’s Date Change Rewrote A Holiday And Tested Presidential Power

A holiday felt so fixed that few imagined it could move—until the president did exactly that. We dive into the surprising civic journey of Thanksgiving, from Sarah Josepha Hale’s decades-long campaign that convinced Abraham Lincoln to set a national day, to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1939 decision to shift the date for economic recovery—and the two-year “Franksgiving” saga that followed. What started as editorials and proclamations became a national debate over presidential power, state autonomy...

1 day ago

9 minutes

Civics In A Year

How Presidential Proclamations Made Thanksgiving A Civic Tradition

Gratitude didn’t just arrive with pumpkin pie; it was engineered through careful words and bold timing. We sit down with Dr. Paris Careese to explore how presidential proclamations by George Washington in 1789 and Abraham Lincoln in 1863 shaped Thanksgiving into a unifying civic ritual—and why those choices still influence how we gather, pray, and reflect today. From early congressional requests to wartime appeals for humility, the story of Thanksgiving doubles as a masterclass in statesmansh...

2 days ago

25 minutes

Civics In A Year

How Judges Read The Constitution: Text, History, And Precedent

The loudest fights about the Supreme Court are usually about outcomes. We pull back the curtain on the methods that shape those outcomes—text, history, precedent, and values—and explain how different approaches to constitutional interpretation drive very different answers to the same question. We start with textualism as the shared baseline: everyone claims fidelity to the words. From there, we dive into originalism’s focus on public meaning at the time of adoption, walking through the evide...

3 days ago

19 minutes

Civics In A Year

Remember The Ladies

A century of episodes calls for a wider lens, and we open it fully: the founding wasn’t just hammered out in halls and pamphlets by famous men—it was argued, nurtured, and lived by women whose ideas changed the course of American liberty. We pull threads from homes and letters into the political tapestry, showing how civic virtue took shape through family, education, economic agency, and public authorship. We explore Abigail Adams’s push for legal and economic recognition within marriage and...

6 days ago

13 minutes

Civics In A Year

Kids Edition: Founding Women

What if the founding of the United States could be heard not only in speeches and volleys but in quilts mended by firelight, farm ledgers balanced in winter, and poems that dared to test the nation’s conscience? We open the door to the women who made those sounds and shaped the structure beneath the stories most of us learned in school. First, we trace Martha Washington’s steady presence at icy encampments, where morale could make or break a campaign. Then we turn to Abigail Adams, whose let...

1 week ago

12 minutes

Civics In A Year

How A Territorial Delegate Shapes National Policy From The Northern Mariana Islands

Ever wondered how a member of Congress can shape national policy without casting a floor vote? We sit down with Representative Kimberlyn King Hines, the delegate from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, to explore the real power centers in Washington: committees, markups, and the relationships that decide which ideas move and which ones stall. From drafting legislation to negotiating amendments, she shows how influence is built long before a bill reaches the House floor—and why ...

1 week ago

11 minutes

Civics In A Year

Phillis Wheatley, First Poet Of A New Nation

We trace Phillis Wheatley’s journey from captivity to literary force, exploring how her poems speak to faith, freedom, and belonging during the American founding. We highlight her craft, the battle to be believed, and why her voice reframes the Revolution. • capture in Africa and arrival in Boston • education in the Wheatley home and early brilliance • eulogy poems, public readings, and patronage • the publication controversy and authorship “trial” • patriotism and Br...

1 week ago

17 minutes

Civics In A Year

Judith Sargent Murray and the Roots of American Feminism

A forgotten voice sharpened the edge of American liberty—she did it with clarity, courage, and a printing press that didn’t always want her words. We sit down with Dr. Kirstin Burkhaugto explore the life and legacy of Judith Sargent Murray, the self-taught Boston writer whose 1790 essay On the Equality of the Sexes argued that women possess the same moral and intellectual capacities as men. Years before Mary Wollstonecraft’s landmark work, Murray was already building a distinctly American cas...

1 week ago

11 minutes

Civics In A Year

Mercy Otis Warren: The Pen That Pressed for the Bill of Rights

We trace the life and ideas of Mercy Otis Warren, the writer who helped secure a culture of liberty—and a Bill of Rights—without a seat at the Convention. From a rare classical education to salons with the Sons of Liberty, her pen shaped policy and public virtue. • Mercy Otis Warren’s early education and family background • Hosting and influencing the Sons of Liberty network • Friendship with John Adams and first published poem • Plays, poems, essays, and a pioneering Revolution history • An...

1 week ago

15 minutes

Civics In A Year

Martha Washington And Deborah Sampson: Two Paths Of Courage

We explore how Martha Washington and Deborah Sampson advanced the Revolution through very different forms of leadership. One shaped morale and public life; the other broke barriers to fight and spy under a borrowed name. • Pairing Martha Washington and Deborah Sampson through military connection • Deborah Sampson’s enlistment as Robert Shirtliff and covert missions • Self-treatment of wounds to protect her identity • Discovery, honorable discharge, and veteran legacy • Martha Washington’s de...

1 week ago

13 minutes

Civics In A Year

Abigail and John: How a Marriage Shaped American Politics

Power changes when it meets a clear-eyed partner. That’s the thread that runs through our conversation with Dr. Kirsten Birkhaug as we trace the political and personal partnership of John and Abigail Adams—two sharp minds who treated marriage like a working lab for ideas that would shape the early republic. We open with why their story is the right entry point for Women of the Founding, then follow the through line from courtship candor to presidential counsel, guided by the letters that map ...

2 weeks ago

14 minutes

Civics In A Year

Incorporation: From Congress To The States

Start with a single word—Congress—and watch the ground shift beneath your feet. We pull back the curtain on how rights that began as limits on the federal government became limits on states, tracing the winding path from Reconstruction’s ambitions to today’s near-universal incorporation of the Bill of Rights. With constitutional law scholar Dr. Beienberg, we revisit Madison’s failed bid to bind states, the post–Civil War demand for a national floor of fundamental rights, and the strange turn...

2 weeks ago

16 minutes

Civics In A Year

Federalism In Practice

Power doesn’t just shift in Washington; it moves along a carefully drawn map between the federal government and the states. We dive into that map by tracing the Tenth Amendment through two centuries of clashes, from the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions to modern fights over immigration, marijuana, sports betting, and healthcare funding. With Dr. Beienberg, we unpack why nullification burned out, how anti-commandeering took hold, and what the courts mean by a real choice versus a gun to the h...

2 weeks ago

20 minutes

Civics In A Year

What The Tenth Amendment Really Does

Power flows from a simple premise: if the Constitution doesn’t grant it to Congress and it isn’t taken from the states, it stays with the states or the people. We dig into that promise, unpacking the Tenth Amendment as more than a slogan and showing how it shapes real law, real policy, and real tradeoffs between national goals and local control. We start with why ratifying conventions demanded the Tenth and how its logic is already embedded in Article I and the Necessary and Proper Clause. F...

2 weeks ago

11 minutes

Civics In A Year

Why The Eighth Amendment Still Shapes Who We Are As A Society

Fairness is one of the first ideas we learn as kids, and it never stops shaping how we see justice. We sit down with Dr. Kerry Sautner, president and CEO of Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, to unpack the Eighth Amendment’s compact promise: no excessive bail or fines, and no cruel and unusual punishment. From there, the conversation opens into the human questions that text demands we face—what counts as cruel, who decides, and how do standards change as society and science evolve. We...

2 weeks ago

28 minutes

Civics In A Year

Why The Ninth Amendment Protects Federal Limits, Not Hidden Rights

A single sentence in the Bill of Rights has fueled decades of confusion, debate, and hot takes—so we went back to the source to make sense of it. We trace the Ninth Amendment from the founding-era fight over a federal Bill of Rights to James Madison’s original, clearer draft, and show how its real job is to keep the federal government within its enumerated lane rather than serve as a grab bag of unlisted rights. Along the way, we unpack why the Amendment made perfect sense to early readers st...

2 weeks ago

12 minutes

Civics In A Year

Service, Citizenship, And Veterans Day

The quiet that fell on November 11, 1918 did more than end a war—it sparked a living promise we renew every time we show up for one another. We start with the origin of Armistice Day and trace how America reshaped it into Veterans Day, a commitment that honors every veteran’s service while challenging the rest of us to carry freedom forward through daily civic action. I sit down with Representative Stacy Travers, a U.S. Army veteran and Arizona lawmaker, to unpack how the mission-first minds...

2 weeks ago

21 minutes

Civics In A Year

How The Fifth, Sixth, And Seventh Amendments Protect Us

Want to know why a room full of ordinary people may be the strongest shield for your freedom? We sit down with Dr. James Stoner to unpack how the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Amendments built a citizen‑powered brake on state power—and why those guardrails still shape trials, property, and civil justice today. We start with the founding clash over juries, where Anti‑Federalists demanded more than Article III’s broad promise. You’ll hear how vicinage, grand juries, and the fear of “the process as...

2 weeks ago

27 minutes

Civics In A Year

The Fourth Amendment: From General Warrants To Probable Cause

We trace the Fourth Amendment from colonial protests against general warrants to modern rules for warrants, cars, phones, and digital surveillance. We explain probable cause, reasonableness, and how courts adapt old principles to new technology without watering them down. • roots in English common law and colonial resistance to general warrants • James Otis’s protest and John Adams’s influence on state constitutions • probable cause, sworn affidavits, and particularity in warrants • the auto...

2 weeks ago

14 minutes

Civics In A Year

Understanding The Second Amendment Through History And Natural Law

What if the fiercest argument about the Second Amendment is solved by going back to grammar, history, and first principles? We bring on Professor Nelson Lund—constitutional scholar and author of Rousseau’s Rejuvenation of Political Philosophy—to cut through the noise with a clear reading of the text, a tour of English militia traditions, and a deep dive into the natural rights foundation that powered the founding era. We start where the framers started: with England’s uneasy balance between ...

3 weeks ago

17 minutes