Historian Jill Lepore on Amending the Constitution And Rep. Peter Aguilar on the Shutdown

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KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

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Summary

Why is it so hard to change the U.S. Constitution? Harvard historian Jill Lepore says the Constitution was intended to be amended but that we’ve all but abandoned the practice. That’s had profound consequences, leaving us with vestigial antidemocratic provisions like the Electoral College, a malapportioned Senate and life tenure for Supreme Court justices. We talk to Lepore about why amendments are so rare and whether the Constitution can survive without them. Her new book is “We the People.” We also hear from Southern California congressman Pete Aguilar about President Trump’s threats to cut “democrat” programs as the government shutdown continues, and how his caucus is responding. Guests: Jill Lepore, professor of American history, Harvard University; staff writer, The New Yorker - her new book is "We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution" Pete Aguilar, democratic representative for the 33rd Congressional District of California; chair of the U.S. House Democratic Caucus Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for KQBD podcasts comes from Landmark College, offering a fully online graduate-level
0:06.1	certificate in learning differences in neurodiversity program. Visit landmark.edu slash certificate to learn more.
0:14.8	From KQED.
0:17.8	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. In her new history of the U.S. Constitution, Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore quotes Thomas Jefferson in 1816, lamenting how some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them like the Ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. But the Constitution, Lepore says, was intended to be amended.
0:40.3	It was a founding principle, and yet we've all but abandoned the practice.
0:44.3	That's had profound consequences, including leaving us with what Lepore calls aristocratic provisions,
0:50.3	like the Electoral College or Life Tenure for Supreme Court justices.
0:53.3	Listeners, how would you amend the Constitution if you could? Tell us, by college like the Electoral College or Life Tenure for Supreme Court justices.
0:57.2	Listeners, how would you amend the Constitution if you could?
1:05.6	Tell us by calling 866-736-7-86 emailing forum at KQED.org or posting at KQED forum on our social channels.
1:07.9	Jill Lepoor's new book is called We the People.
1:11.9	Welcome to Forum, Jill.
1:18.0	Thanks so much for having me. So talk about why amendment is so core to the U.S. Constitution.
1:28.0	Well, the U.S. Constitution and the state constitutions that preceded it were ingenious late 18th century inventions.
1:31.9	It was a new thing at the time to write down a constitution.
1:35.0	Of course, England's constitution is an unwritten constitution.
1:37.2	It remains unwritten today.
1:44.0	And so it was a founding principle of independence that these new states and the new government that united them would have written
1:46.3	constitutions for the sake of transparency. People could look at the Constitution and see the government
1:51.4	has this power but not that power. I have these rights and that was really important, but it also
1:58.0	presented a problem. If you're going to write down a constitution,
2:02.1	you have to have some mechanism to alter it,
	...

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