Civics 101

Pulitzer-prize winning historian and author Jill Lepore has spent her career uncovering the stories we often do not tell, particularly about American history and democracy. In her most recent books, These Truths and We, the People, she asks what really made and makes the United States and what role citizens have in arching toward a more perfect Union. Listen in as she talks about her work for Writers on a New England Stage, recorded at the Seacoast Litfest in Portsmouth New Hampshire.

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This is part two of our story about the original story of America we don't talk about...and how it ties to where we are today.
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This episode is being recorded just a couple of days before the 4th of July, and as so many are calling it, America's 250th birthday. And we here at Civics 101 have spent a lot of this year trying to understand when and how America, as we know it was really born. What is our origin story? Why are we like this? And why don't we talk about the empire that was here before the United States?

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Today in our continued exploration of why the US is the way it is, we get to Article I. Why did the framers design Congress the way they did? Why did the small states come out so far ahead? And what, potentially, would James Madison think if he saw its operation in 2026?

To help us navigate the thoughts of men long-dead, we talk to Madison scholar Jack Rakove. He shares his insights on representation, the electoral college, and much more.

Click here to listen to our episode on the Articles of Confederation, our shaggy dog of a first draft of government!
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In recent years, flag restriction rules, policies and laws have been cropping up across the country. Whether the government is telling you what you can fly or what you cannot, there's always something behind the flag.

We dig into how, why and when it's legal for the government to decide what you can or cannot fly and hear from Halifax, Massachusetts, about what a flag controversy revealed about that town.
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