We the People: Succession of Power

Throughline

NPR

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The 25th amendment. A few years before JFK was shot, an idealistic young lawyer set out on a mission to convince people something essential was missing from the Constitution: clear instructions for what should happen if a U.S. president was no longer able to serve. On this episode of our ongoing series We the People, the story behind one of the last amendments to the Constitution, and the man who got it done. This story originally published in March 2025.

Guest:
John Feerick, Norris Professor of Law at Fordham Law School and author of The Twenty-Fifth Amendment - Its Complete History and Applications.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	There's a lot of news happening.
0:02.3	You want to understand it better, but let's be honest, you don't want it to be your entire life either.
0:06.9	Well, that's sort of like our show, here and now anytime.
0:09.8	Every weekday on our podcast, we talk to people all over the country about everything from political analysis to climate resilience, video games.
0:17.2	We even talk about dumpster diving on this show.
0:19.7	Check out Here and now anytime, a daily
0:21.6	podcast from NPR and WBUR.
0:25.9	Well, it depends on where they're placed. They can be wherever you want them.
0:31.1	Uh-huh.
0:31.8	For the pockets.
0:34.1	On a warm day in November 1963,
0:43.9	local Dallas TV station WFAA was broadcasting a show about women's fashion.
0:48.9	Then there's zippers up the side so that the jacket will fit tightly around the hips,
0:53.0	keeping that straight, sleek look that it should have in the arm.
0:54.3	The show was stopped.
1:02.7	Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. You'll excuse the fact that I'm out of breath, but about 10 or 15 minutes ago, a tragic thing from all indications at this point has happened
1:08.2	in the city of Dallas. Let me quote to you this.
1:17.7	When the broadcast came back on air, a man appeared on screen looking pale and in shock.
1:23.9	He says, President Kennedy and Governor John Colony have been cut down by assassins' bullets in downtown Dallas. The American president, John F. Kennedy, along with the governor of Texas, were shot.
1:29.3	Newsrooms were in chaos trying to figure out what happened.
1:32.3	Mr. Kennedy was struck in the head.
1:34.3	The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting.
	...

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