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The series makes learning about the US Constitution entertaining
Summary
8 January 2025
Over four years ago, after I had finished listening to the “Presidential” podcast series, I wrote a review for this website.
Over the next few months after that, I listened to the successor podcast published by the Washington Post called “Constitutional” and found it equally absorbing. It has the same presenter, Lillian Cunningham, who has a wonderful voice and presentation style.
Only extreme procrastination has delayed my writing a review until now.
The series is about exactly what its name suggests, namely the constitution of the United States of America.
That statement probably leads to two reactions:
The USA is the most important country in the world and its politics matter to every country. We can see that with the amount of news in Britain about the impending second inauguration of Donald Trump as president.
It is impossible to understand American politics without a good understanding of the American constitution.
There is another more subtle reason. The Founding Fathers who drafted the US constitution did a remarkably good job. It has stood the test of time since it was ratified in 1788, which is 237 years ago. I am not aware of any country’s written constitution which has endured so successfully.
It has endured because the Founding Fathers thought so hard about the nature of democracy and government. See my pages "Read the Constitution of the United States of America" and "Review of "The Federalist Papers" by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay."
The writers of the podcast obviously thought very hard about how to make the subject interesting. Every single episode succeeds in bringing the articles of the constitution and the amendments to life by telling you about the stories behind it.
As just one example, the episode “Congress and citizens” tells you the history of the 27th Amendment. It was originally proposed in 1789 but only six states had ratified it by 1792. Then it got forgotten.
In 1982 a university student Gregory Watson learned that it was still “on the shelf” and made it his personal mission to get the amendment ratified. He succeeded and the amendment was ratified in 1992, 203 years after it was first proposed.
You can read Gregory Watson's story on the Constitution Centre page “How a college term paper led to a constitutional amendment.”
The episode vividly brings this to life. All of the other episodes are just as illuminating.
The podcast series is of course finished because it has covered all of the constitution and the amendments but is still there on all podcast providers and I strongly recommend listening to it.
