Can the president legally hide their health status?

Civics 101

NHPR

Society & Culture, Government, History

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The American public has long been on the lookout for unsteadiness in the leader of the free world. It's important to us (or, historically, has been) that the president seems, well, well. If not robust. Of course, the president is a human, and as such is not immune to malady. So why do we care so much about the president's health? Are they under obligation, legal or otherwise, to keep us in the loop? What happens when they don't? Our guide today is clinical ethicist Joel Wu. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	40 years ago, two bodies were discovered inside a barrel near New Hampshire's Bear Brook State Park.
0:10.3	Fifteen years after that, another barrel was found with two more bodies inside.
0:16.4	The Bear Brook murders baffled detectives and internet sleuths for decades.
0:21.6	We are at the final line of what science can do to help us.
0:25.7	So at this point, it really is the public's help that we're looking for.
0:29.8	What grandmother let this happen, or what neighbor or what bus driver, or, you know,
0:34.8	I mean, where were all of you?
0:37.0	But now, there's been a new discovery, bringing the cold case that changed how murders are
0:42.8	investigated to a close.
0:44.7	Oh my God, this is it.
0:46.2	This is it.
0:46.9	This is her.
0:47.7	This is the baby that we have been looking to name.
0:54.4	And revealing a new mystery.
0:56.8	We want to be very clear.
0:58.3	This investigation is not over.
1:01.1	I'm Jason Moon.
1:02.5	From New Hampshire Public Radio,
1:04.4	a new episode of the first season of Bear Brook is out now.
1:09.0	Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
1:17.0	This is Civics 101. I'm Hannah McCarthy.
1:19.3	I'm Nick Capadice.
	...

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