Scott here with another episode of the History Unplugged Podcast.

The Constitution of the United States is 235 years old and the oldest continually active constitution of the world.

As such, many debates in American political life centered around how much a document over two

centuries old should govern daily life.

How literally should it be taken? Did the framers intend for

Americans to follow their instructions is written for eternity or do they want to

offer a set of guidelines that would evolve as time marched on? Does the Second

Amendment apply to anyone being able to use any weapon that would provide personal security or did it more generally mean that you shouldn't have a weapon unless you're part of a militia?

These are the questions that today's guest A.J. Jacob set out to answer in his new book The Year of Living Constitutionally.

For one year he committed to live as the original originalist.

Using his constitutional rights exactly the way they would have been lived out in the year 1787. He bore muskets and walked around New York carrying one.

He wrote pamphlets with a goose quill by Bewex candlelight. He quartered soldiers.

He gave gifts that George Washington personally gave to others, which is a lock of his own hair.

In this episode, we get deep into the meaning of the Constitution, how it's interpreted

by originalists, how it's interpreted by people who believe in a living Constitution, we make sense of laws that seem a little

bit strange today, like the Third Amendment that prohibits the quartering of

soldiers. We also look at laws that are still allowed that aren't practiced, like receiving

a letter of Mark from Congress that allows you to engage in

legalize piracy and how AJ Jacobs petition Congress to do such a thing and they

rightfully declined him. We also look at how the founding fathers believed that

the Constitution and the American

Republic was an ongoing experiment, which gave Lee way for new amendments to be added, and how

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