What are the rules for making fun of politicians?

Civics 101

NHPR

Society & Culture, Government, History

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2025

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Did you know cartoonists were on Nixon's enemies list? Or that LBJ prevented a cartoonist from getting a medal when he made a cartoon against the Vietnam War? Today we talk about the history of editorial cartoons and political satire, from "Join or Die" to the Obama fist bump, from Thomas Nast to Jimmy Kimmel. Our guide is New Yorker cartoonist Tom Toro, author of And to Think We Started as a Book Club. To see the illustrations we discuss in the episode, click here. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	40 years ago, two bodies were discovered inside a barrel near New Hampshire's Bear Brook State Park.
0:10.3	Fifteen years after that, another barrel was found with two more bodies inside.
0:16.4	The Bear Brook murders baffled detectives and internet sleuths for decades.
0:21.6	We are at the final line of what science can do to help us.
0:25.7	So at this point, it really is the public's help that we're looking for.
0:29.8	What grandmother let this happen, or what neighbor or what bus driver, or, you know,
0:34.8	I mean, where were all of you?
0:37.0	But now, there's been a new discovery, bringing the cold case that changed how murders are
0:42.8	investigated to a close.
0:44.7	Oh my God, this is it.
0:46.2	This is it.
0:46.9	This is her.
0:47.7	This is the baby that we have been looking to name.
0:54.4	And revealing a new mystery.
0:56.8	We want to be very clear.
0:58.3	This investigation is not over.
1:01.1	I'm Jason Moon.
1:02.5	From New Hampshire Public Radio,
1:04.4	a new episode of the first season of Bear Brook is out now.
1:09.0	Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
1:14.6	It borders on being prejudicial religiously. I don't see the satire in it. I don't think
1:19.6	that the rest of the country that looks at it will see any sort of satire. I don't think there's
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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