This is the 99% Invisible Breakdown of the Constitution. I'm Roman Mars.

So last year on the breakdown, we tackled the power broker, a book so long we needed an entire year to get through it.

But it also happens to be the best book of all time, so, you know, we spent our time well.

If you haven't listened to it, you definitely should check it out.

The series won tons of awards, including three webbies. I'm really proud of it.

And when I was thinking about what to do for our book club breakdown this year,

I considered some similar books like biographies of fascinating people, explorations of urban planning history,

of American history, world history. But when I thought about

what I really wanted to talk about right now in this moment, it was something totally different

from the power broker or any sort of big weighty masterpiece of a tome. I wanted to talk about

the Constitution. At just 7,591 words, including all 27 amendments, it's about 1% of the length of the

power broker. But each of those words carries so much weight and history and meaning and has so much

impact on our lives. And it has so many interpretations. So in many ways, breaking down the Constitution is even more daunting than any 1,200-page book.

But lucky for me, I happen to already have a show about constitutional law. It's called What Trump Can't Teach Us About Con Law, and I produce it with my neighbor, the law professor, Elizabeth Joe, and she's going to lead us

through the Constitution. So for people who are unfamiliar with the other show, Elizabeth,

can you introduce yourself? I'm so excited to do this with you. I'm a law professor at the

University of California, Davis. I teach courses on criminal procedure, privacy, but most important

for our show, the introductory class to

constitutional law. I also spend way too much time online and worrying about what I see there.

So you're the perfect person to do this with, and honestly the only person I would want to do this

with. And we're going to go through the Constitution, article by article, maybe even breaking

up an article over a couple of months if it's especially complicated or condensing some amendments as needed.

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