What happens when we don't trust democracy?

Civics 101

NHPR

Society & Culture, Government, History

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Generations of Americans were not taught how to live in a democracy. That, ultimately, is what civic education is about. So what happens when we lose that knowledge? Where are we today and why should we care? Where do we go from here? In partnership with iCivics we're bringing you conversations with the people who are paying attention and doing something about it. Civics can have a future in this democracy -- in fact, civics is how this democracy will have a future. 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

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0:00.0	Nick, I have a confession to make.
0:04.7	I knew you ate those plums, Hannah.
0:07.2	No.
0:08.2	I was saving them for breakfast, you know.
0:10.4	It's not the plums.
0:12.2	It is worse than the plums.
0:14.7	Worse than the plums.
0:16.2	All right, here we go.
0:30.7	Before I was a journalist, I never, and I mean never, did any research before I voted.
0:34.1	All right, grand scheme of things, Hannah.
0:35.0	There's more.
0:35.8	Uh-oh.
0:42.7	The chances of my knowing who my congressional representatives were at any given time was quite slim.
0:46.7	I could not have told you the real difference between the House and the Senate.
0:50.9	If the president was writing executive orders, I wouldn't have known.
0:57.6	Nick, I probably could have told you two out of the 27 amendments.
1:06.0	The amendments, Nick. It's a grim picture, Hannah. I'm not going to lie. But we, as in, you know,
1:12.9	you and I, we do have an outsized investment in these things. You're a different person now. I am.
1:19.6	And Nick, the reason I call this a confession, it's not just because I'm the host of a civics podcast. I feel genuinely vulnerable, admitting how vulnerable I once was. Because now I've got my armor.
1:30.0	I know what is going on around here.
1:31.9	I know when something goes wrong around here.
1:35.1	I know what I can do about it.
	...

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