Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

In this time of declining civility, Twitter trolls, shattered norms, and shouting cable TV talking heads on both sides,

let us pause for a moment to consider a story about how rearranging furniture, yes furniture,

can make the world a more cordial,

neighborly place. Well, at least the Supreme Court.

We begin our story in 1969 with a man named Warren Berger. He had recently been appointed

Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Berger was one of the most influential and brilliant legal minds of his time.

He was also a gifted interior designer.

And upon his appointment to the Supreme Court, Berger embarked on a tour of the court,

not unlike a buyer on an HGTV house hunting show.

In their book, The Brethren, Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong described the tour, writing, quote,

beginning in his own small office, Berger remarked that it was smaller than his old one at the Court of Appeals.

Surely that would not do.

In fact, the entire place needed an extreme court makeover.

The walls needed a paint job.

The lighting was tragic.

And when he got to the courtroom itself, uh-oh.

Uh-oh.

Woodward and Armstrong described one issue this way.

Quote, Berger pointed to the justices nine high-backed leather chairs.

Each justice chose his own, and the styles and sizes vary.

...