Knit to This
The Constitution Breakdown
Last year, Roman Mars, whose design-focused podcast 99% Invisible is one of my must-listens, took on The Power Broker for his inaugural book club.
It was a bold choice.
The Power Broker is about Robert Moses, a man most people born after 1980 are unaware of. His is a New York City-centric story, all about the wheeling and dealing needed to remold a metropolis to your own whims, which isn’t exactly a laugh riot. And while the story is expertly told by Robert Caro, the story also takes up 1200 pages, which is hardly a breezy read.
Without Roman Mars, the odds of my ever picking up Caro’s opus approached zero. I would have been a much poorer person for that choice because the book is a stunner.
So how could Mars possibly follow up one of the greatest works of the 20th century for 2025’s Breakdown? Take on one of the shorter written documents out there: the U.S. Constitution.
In the Constitution Breakdown, Mars and constitutional law professor Elizabeth Joh discuss a new section of our founding document every month. They look at the words themselves and current cases to understand where we are now.
Why now? As Joh says “we the people must act as the warm blanket to the Constitution, lending it support and affirming our belief in its importance. And in order to do that, we must understand it.”
But theirs aren’t the only voices we hear.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of the 1619 Project, joins Mars and Joh to discuss the Preamble, which definitely did not have Hannah-Jones in mind with its “We the People.”
U.S. House Representative Sharice Davids, one of two Native American women in Congress, walks Mars and Joh through Article One—and what it looks like to operate within it on a daily basis.
What this year’s Breakdown lacks in narrative and storytelling, it makes up for with immediately vital instructions about how this country should work—and how it has changed over time.
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I remember having to memorize and recite the preamble of the constitution when I went to school. I think it might behave all our lawmakers to recite it as part of their oath.
I learned it as a song on Schoolhouse Rock when I was a child!
Given the current propensity for so many of our elected officials to blithely take that oath of office and then immediately turn their backs & ignore the words to which they swore oath, I suspect your 2nd post is potentially the more effective… until or unless we find a way to begin enforcing that oath of office.
From your lips to God’s ears
Thank you 🙂
I remember having to learn and recite the preamble to the constitution when I was in school. Perhaps this should be required when lawmakers are sworn in.
Thanks for this post!
I think we need to return to having our young citizens study & memorize our foundational documents, or portions thereof, as Sandi had to do (se her posts). While I do understand the reactionary movements away from memorization as “education” in general, there is something to be said for the process of repeating a set of words, especially very improtant words, over & over & over until they are engrained and imprinted. For most children this means getting help (and sometimes strongly enforced supervision) to make that memorization happen. The kids get the very clear message that these words are important… VERY important… and the parents get the refresher emphasis too.
At least, I HOPE it’s a refresher for the parents…
At any rate, it affords parents & kids a chance to talk about WHY it’s important. Whether they take that opportunity or not it’s still important to make that opportunity happen.
Thank you, Adrienne, for bringing this podcast to my attention. I haven’t listened to the Constitution series yet but I will, soon. It’s so important. But I have also poked around the very long list of episodes and see many that interest me. This will lead to many happy hours of knitting while I listen to 99% invisible.
I have always been fascinated by Robert Moses. Not willing to read the book I stumbled upon the podcast that was much easier to digest. Thanks for the suggestion of this current subject.
I am a retired teacher. You know how older people sometimes like to point the finger and lay some blame? This is my take on education in our current political climate. We have fallen more than woefully short in helping our younger citizens and voters understand the marvel of the country in which they reside. History instruction, in my experience as a student, was bland and boring. However, I still left those classes with a feeling of patriotism for our country. We learned songs in elementary school that celebrated our nation. My own children at ages 30 and 34 have no recollection of those lyrics. So, now we find ourselves at this juncture with a completely fractured political system. We all would benefit from a wake-up call in understanding the balance of power in government and the role of elected officials. It seems to this oldster that so many feel they do not have a “stake in the game” and unless directly impacted find it far too easy to look the other way. Right now, silence and looking the other way is a response.
I’ve read “The Power Broker” (yes, ALL of it!), and immediately thought, “those currently in power have read this book!” I’ve read “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis, and immediately thought the same. Same goes for “Elmer Gantry” also by Sinclair Lewis. Notice that I’ve read all these books in the last year or so and have not sought power or riches. I’ve been mostly horrified.