Civics 101
How do landmark Supreme Court decisions affect our lives? What does the 2nd Amendment really say? Why does the Senate have so much power? Civics 101 is the podcast about how our democracy works…or is supposed to work, anyway.
Episodes
April 28, 2026 • 24 mins
What is the process when a person wishes to represent themselves in court? How common is it? Is it true that a person who represents themselves "has a fool for a client?"
Today in our "Ask a Judge" series, attorney and magistrate Amy Lin Meyerson and "small town lawyer" Ray Williams give tips for those who have no choice but to address the court on their own behalf.
Here is the American Bar Association's virtual legal advice...
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April 21, 2026 • 23 mins
You've been hearing about it in the news, but what exactly is the Strait of Hormuz? And as for those blockades...how do they work?
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April 14, 2026 • 39 mins
We haven't always had a federal income tax, and in the beginning, it only applied to the very richest Americans. So how did we end up with the permanent income tax we have today, with all its complicated rules about everything from pre-tax income to deductions and credits? And what does it actually pay for?
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April 9, 2026 • 29 mins
Sometimes, news happens in the real world, and suddenly a political or civics topic becomes very top of mind for members of the public.
And when that happens, we at Civics 101 often say, hey…we have an episode about that.
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One of those conversations happened this week, after a tweet from President Trump related to the war in Iran had some conservative, traditionally pro-Trump voices evoking a specific part of...
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April 7, 2026 • 36 mins
Today we bring you a story from our sister podcast Outside/In, produced and reported by Marina Henke.
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In 2009, the state of Maine ordered farmer Dan Brown to stop selling his raw milk. It kicked off a five-year legal battle that stoked the flames of Maine’s dairy wars. But, after Farmer Brown lost his case and hung up his milking hat, things quieted down.
Twenty years later, raw milk has surged back into...
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March 31, 2026 • 34 mins
In this country, the states run elections. Congress is empowered to step in; the president is not. So what does it mean for the president to call on a political party to "take over." Is that allowed? What would that mean? And why is this happening now?
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We talk with Sarah Cooper from the Carter Center to understand who is in charge and whether anyone else can take charge.
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March 24, 2026 • 22 mins
Four years ago we made an episode about how the president has very limited powers when it comes to lowering the price of gas. Turns out, we hadn't considered every possibility.
Today, we talk about how a president can make gasoline more expensive, by waging conflict in the middle east. Our guest is Robert Rapier, chemical engineer, investment writer, and energy sector expert. He came back on the show to tell us about the logistics...
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March 17, 2026 • 30 mins
Today we take a field trip to Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where Nick explains why he's like this via an obsession with 1776, the movie based on the musical based on the true events that launched a nation. Our nation. Also, Nick and Hannah get real using Dido as inspiration.
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March 11, 2026 • 30 mins
Why do religious leaders step out from behind the pulpit and take to the streets? What does it mean to practice what you preach? As faith groups across the nation stand alongside protestors and assert their beliefs, we talk to four religious leaders about how and why they take action.
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March 3, 2026 • 48 mins
As hosts of a civics podcast, we are not allowed to advocate for policy. But you can. Here are three things you can do to get your elected officials to listen when you're mad about something.
By way of example, Nick reveals his pettiest, most apolitical gripe; and methods he would hypothetically use to address it. We talk lobbying, contacting your electeds, and getting (possibly famous) people together to advocate for change.
Thi...
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February 24, 2026 • 35 mins
We've used the word "detention" many times when we've talked about immigration laws and ICE. But what does that word actually mean? A listener wanted to know, so we got the answer.
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February 17, 2026 • 38 mins
About a week ago, host Hannah McCarthy stumbled on an article by an historian named Dr. Aaron Fountain Jr. What she read kind of blew her mind, so she decided to give him a call.
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February 10, 2026 • 31 mins
The rules about who could and could not come and live in the United States have changed many times over the last 250 years, but exactly when restrictions were first put on immigration might surprise you.
Today, walking us through the myriad qualitative and quantitative systems surrounding immigration policy is Muzaffar Chishti, Senior Fellow and Director of the Migration Policy Institute.
Here are some links to our episodes ...
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February 3, 2026 • 38 mins
We examine what the current presidential administration tells us about Immigration and Customs Enforcement and what the numbers, courts and history of the agency have to say.
For more information on the data referenced in this episode, you can check out this Politico fact check of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's statements about ICE, this CATO Institute analysis, this CBS report, and this TRAC report and this Deportation Data Proje...
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January 30, 2026 • 33 mins
Introducing “Safe to Drink:” A New Hampshire town finds out its water has been contaminated by a chemical. The most basic question — whether the water is safe to drink — doesn’t have a clear answer. Nobody seems to know much about this so-called forever chemical, which is weird because… this has all happened before.
From the Document team at New Hampshire Public Radio, "Safe to Drink" is a four-part series about the water contamin...
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January 27, 2026 • 32 mins
In 1985, high school teacher Christa McAuliffe was selected to become the first private citizen to travel to space. After the Challenger explosion that killed her and 6 other astronauts, NASA scrapped its Teacher in Space Project; it was still too risky to send private citizens to space.
40 years later, things are looking very different.
Today, celebrities and billionaires are buying trips on commercial rockets. Private compan...
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January 20, 2026 • 27 mins
After its inception in 1823, the Monroe Doctrine was largely ignored. But after a while, different administrations saw the value in maintaining control over the western hemisphere. And notably, it is having a renaissance in the Trump presidency.
So what IS the Monroe Doctrine? How has it been interpreted in various presidencies? And, most importantly, is it legal under international law? Civics 101 regular Dan Cassino takes u...
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January 13, 2026 • 42 mins
On this episode, we’re talking about the history and evolution of United States’ refugee and asylum policy. We have been a country of exclusion for about as long as we’ve projected the image of a democratic refuge. We talk about what it actually takes to secure refugee or asylum status in the U.S. and how that gargantuan task has been made so much more difficult, if not impossible for some, under the second Trump Administration.
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January 5, 2026 • 21 mins
Sometimes, we just have to make a "101" episode of Civics 101. That is the case this week, in the wake of the arrest of Venezuela's sitting president by the United States. So, what's happening with Venezuela, Maduro, and the Trump administration's plan to "run" that country?
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December 30, 2025 • 56 mins
This week Nick appears on The Middle, with Jeremy Hobson. The topic is civility in politics, and they're joined by former New Hampshire State Legislator Doug Teschner and Citizens Count Executive Director Anna Brown.
This episode was recorded live at the Bank of NH Stage in Concord, NH and features audience questions and comments.
Write to us at civics101@nhpr.org to tell us what you think: is there a political middle?
CLIC...
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