What is the filibuster?

Civics 101

NHPR

History, Government, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why does it take, in practice, 60 votes for a bill to pass in the Senate? Why doesn't it seem like anyone is up there talking for days anymore? And why do we even have it in the first place? Today is all about the filibuster; from its benign origins to its use and misuse, the arguments for and against it, and what it would take to eliminate it entirely. Our guest is Molly Reynolds from the Brookings Institution. To learn about the tumultuous back and forth between the federal and state government in Little Rock, here's our episode on Federalism. And here is the full, 88-page transcript of Strom Thurmond's day-long filibuster. 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	Um, how long, how long do you think you could do it if you had to do it? Well, if I were super, super dehydrated and had like a million blow pops, maybe 10 hours, because I've gone three hours straight talking at conferences and stuff, right?
0:22.3	Yeah.
0:22.5	So what would you talk about if you had to just fill those hours?
0:26.3	Oh, I have so many monologues and poems memorized.
0:30.9	I would just go through them all.
0:33.7	And then I would do that pilot trick where like I would say uh in between I think that
0:41.4	after I got through Kubla Khan and the cremation of Sam McGee I think it'd be kind of fun just sort
0:46.8	of speak on any subject whatsoever just talking and talking in one long, credibly unbroken sentence.
0:56.0	Moving from topic to topic so that no one had the chance to be into proud.
1:01.0	It was really quite igniting.
1:03.0	Nodding.
1:04.0	Would you like them in a house?
1:06.0	Would you like them with a mouse?
1:07.0	I am a knot on China.
1:09.0	Gee.
1:10.0	I do not like them in a house. I do not like them with a mouse. I am a nut on China. Gee. I do not like them in a house. I do not like
1:12.6	them with a mouse. China, China, China, China, China, China. Five Chinese. I would go for another 12
1:18.4	hours to try to break Strom Thurman's record, but I've discovered that there are some limits
1:24.0	to filibustering, and I'm going to have to go take care of one of those in a few minutes here.
1:30.4	You're listening to Civics 101. I'm to Capadice. I'm Hannah McCarthy. And today we are talking
1:35.2	about a uniquely American institution, the filibuster. What it is, it's history, how it has changed over
1:42.8	the last 200 years, and finally, arguments for
	...

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