Hello from Washington. I'm Chuck Todd, and this is the Chuck Todd cast. We are back with our holiday series, the what-if series, alternative history. And today we're diving into some constitutional alternative historical scenarios. And we're going to start with this one.

What if George Washington didn't step down after two terms?

And then as a secondary topic, because my guest is an expert on a couple of these things,

what if the House of Representatives kept growing along with the population?

We stopped doing this in 1930.

And there's a, there was a, it was as usual,

political gridlock created the situation back then, and we will discuss that. And then what would American elections look like without the electoral college or with a different electoral college?

So you might ask, can one person handle all of this?

Well, I'm sitting down now with Dr. Lindsay Shervinsky.

She's a presidential historian and now is the executive director of the George Washington

Presidential Library.

And she has, I thought I was nerding out on stuff like this.

And she is so far ahead of me in going down rabbit

holes and creative ideas about the Constitution that I promise you for all of particularly

our listeners here, you guys will enjoy Lindsay's brain and how she works. Before we get started,

I want to thank our listeners for sending in the ideas that got us going today, including

Micah, Jason John, and so many others who asked a version of these questions.

So with that, Dr. Chivinsky, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having me.

I'm excited to be here.

This is a lot of fun.

Let's give me, before we get into the topic itself, give the elevator resume pitch to the listeners.

...