Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchYou Compromise on Politics, Not on Principles
Season 3 Episode 18
We know James Madison the thinker. The architect of the Constitution. The author of the Bill of Rights. But Madison was also a working politician — a…
2 days, 2 hours ago
The Chapter Between the Revolution and the Constitution
Season 3 Episode 17
We tend to jump straight from the Revolution to the Constitutional Convention — from a young James Madison to the Father of the Constitution. But the…
2 weeks, 2 days ago
More Than Decoration: What Montpelier's Objects Reveal About Power and Slavery
Season 3 Episode 16
What can a bird's nest, a set of porcelain ice cream vases, and a portrait of Confucius tell us about the early American republic? In this episode, h…
4 weeks, 2 days ago
The Man Behind "We the People": Recovering James Wilson
Season 3 Episode 15
The three most famous words in American government — We the People — were written by a founder most Americans have never heard of.
Host Dr. Katie Craw…
1 month, 1 week ago
Sacred Words: Jefferson, Madison, and the Language of Religious Freedom
Season 3 Episode 14
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison agreed on almost everything when it came to religious freedom. But they talked about it in completely different wa…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
Becoming Madison
Season 3 Episode 13
We know James Madison as the Father of the Constitution. But who was he before that? In this special episode, Dr. Katie Crawford Lackey takes the gue…
2 months, 1 week ago
Making the Constitution Readable: PBS' Ben Sheehan on Civics, Comedy, and Closing the Knowledge Gap
Season 3 Episode 12
What does the Constitution actually say — and why haven't most of us read it? Ben Sheehan, bestselling author and award-winning digital creator, join…
2 months, 3 weeks ago
250 Years Later: The Philosopher Who Made It Possible
Episode 11
The words are familiar — life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness — but do we really know what they meant to the men who wrote them? As America marks …
3 months, 1 week ago
The Constitution Before the Constitution with Dr. Zachary Deibel
Season 3 Episode 10
Before the Declaration of Independence, before the Constitutional Convention, colonists were already debating the meaning of a constitution — and it …
3 months, 3 weeks ago
The Temple and the Republic: Architecture, Liberty, and Madison's Legacy
Season 3 Episode 9
This episode is part of a special five-part miniseries examining James Madison's role in the American Revolution and the founding of the United State…
4 months ago