I'm Julie Lungoria.

This is the experiment.

And this week, we're handing it over to producer Alvin Mellon.

I want to introduce you to Dr. Carl Hart.

So maybe we'll just start by you telling me who you are.

I'm Carl Hart.

I'm a professor at Columbia University.

I am also a research scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Carl's a neuroscientist, but he's recently become really interested in one of our founding documents.

It's really important for us to think about the Declaration of Independence because I was ignorant like most Americans.

And I hadn't read it as an adult.

And so when you read it as an adult, you realize this is profound.

This is the original promise to American citizens.

This is what it means to be an American.

Carl is a big fan of the Declaration of Independence.

And he's been on a crusade to get other people to read it too.

I feel like whenever I have these conversations, particularly when I vote to Declaration of Independence, people say,

yeah, yeah, yeah, as if they know what's in the Declaration, when in fact, I know they don't.

Because there's no reason for you to read it because nobody requires you to read it.

And the reason he wants people to read it is that he thinks there's this one big part of American life

where we aren't allowing people to do the basic stuff that the document declares

to exercise the rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

...