The Shadows of the Constitution (2020)

Throughline

NPR

Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 16.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2022

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Constitution is like America's secular Bible, our sacred founding document. As the Supreme Court debates the future of Roe v. Wade, many of us are looking more closely at the Constitution, trying to discern how it protects us. In her play, "What the Constitution Means to Me," Heidi Schreck goes through her own process of discovering what the Constitution is really about: who wrote it, who it was for, who it protected and who it didn't. Through Heidi's personal story, we learn how both the document itself and the way it's been interpreted have affected generations of Americans — and how those effects are far from ended.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:15.4	A quick warning on what you're about to hear.
0:17.9	This episode contains adult language and has several references to sexual violence and abuse.
0:23.6	It originally ran in 2020.
0:30.6	Close your eyes.
0:41.3	Imagine everything you are doing right now floats away.
0:52.3	All the things that stress you out, like money or being on time or the fight you had with
0:56.5	your partner. Imagine all that is gone and you are in a completely empty room, sitting
1:05.6	on a chair. Directly in front of you, maybe 10 feet away, is a singular dark orb floating.
1:22.6	It is small, completely devoid of light.
1:30.3	But from behind that orb, a faint, flickering light begins to emerge.
1:40.3	Slowly, bit by bit, the light surrounds the dark like a mini eclipse happening just for you in that room.
1:51.0	A space of partial illumination as in an eclipse between the perfect shadow on all sides and the full light.
2:06.2	But closely at the space, between complete darkness and full light,
2:11.8	see the shadowy gradients between something and nothing.
2:18.4	A surrounding or adjoining region in which something exists in the lesser degree.
2:25.3	That zone of partial illumination is like the space between us.
2:41.0	It is a panumbra.
2:50.1	And for some of us, it may feel like freedom, where many things are possible. And for others, it can feel like an where many things are possible and for others it can feel like an unstable
2:53.6	rumbling and shaking earth Back before the panes.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.