Nick, now there are times when even we so-called adults wonder when we will finally be all grown up. But in the United States, that age is pretty much 18.

Yeah, that's the age you're allowed to finally say, I'm a legal adult, I can make my own choices,

unless that choice is to, you know, drink alcohol legally, or rent a car. You can buy one though, right? Which seems a little funny.

It does. Social constructs are a little funny, Nick, and adulthood is one of those and so is pretty much everything else.

Here in the US, we set an age at which you acquire the rights and responsibilities of what we call

adulthood. This is known as the age of majority. Now that age varies

somewhat from state to state and from responsibility to liability, especially when it comes to juvenile versus adult courts of law, a little less so

when it comes to marriage, finances, tattoos, and cigarettes. But you know what doesn't vary,

Nick? The age at which you can vote. Well that is because it is the law of the land, Hannah. It is a constitutional amendment.

It sure is, Nick. It is the 26th Amendment, to be precise, and that is what we are talking about here today. This is Civics

101 I'm Hannah McCarthy. I'm Nikapadiche and the 26th amendment is a special one. You want

to know why? It had the fastest ratification in history, took a little over three months in 1971.

But actually getting to that point took a little less than three decades.

This is a story about federalism, taking something

that used to be left up to the states and making it a national law. It's a story of

grassroots organizing, coalition building, and that Horacean aphorism canonized by English poetry

teachers in that one movie every substitute teacher had on VHS in the 90s, Carpe diem.

Seize the day. Gather you goes but while ye may.

Three decades?

Oh yeah, three decades that included the civil rights movement, one very unpopular war, and a Supreme Court decision.

So without further ado, let a do. A do. All right, my first question is about what the voting age was before the 26th Amendment

was ratified.

...