Government

The United States government spreads power across three branches of government: the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Why three branches? What does each branch do that the others cannot? And how do they work together? 

Today’s Civics Short, designed for middle schoolers but fun for all, takes a closer look at the who, what, where, and whys of the Census.

The CDC, or the Centers for Disease Control, have been in the news a lot lately. But what is the CDC? And what does it do? Today’s Civics Short, designed for middle schoolers but fun for all, takes a closer look at the who, what, where, and whys of the CDC.

When you think about civics and government, you probably think about voting and politicians, but the government touches every part of your life from birth to death. Today, we look at birth. What does it take to be born an American citizen? And then, once you are, how do you prove it?

Then, the story of how tourism on Mount Washington became a model for mountain tourism nationally.

Counties are the "forgotten" part of government, but why do they matter?

Town meetings are a New Hampshire institution. It’s where all the year’s business is voted on by citizens in town halls, gyms, and community centers around the state. But for the uninitiated, town meeting can be confusing. Civics 101: New Hampshire helps break it down.

Then, Sam Evans-Brown introduces us to pirate trails.

Civics 101: New Hampshire, our local look at how state government works, brings us a look at the governor. Not our current governor specifically, but the office of the governor itself. What does the NH state governor do? And what makes our governor position different than in other states?

Then, a thought experiment: How fast could people go before the combustion engine and other technologies drastically increased the speed of the human race? And how did they pull it off?

Nashua is the most diverse city in New Hampshire, with the state’s largest population of foreign-born residents.  Today on Word of Mouth, we’re exploring how immigrants decide to build a life in Nashua… and what that has meant for them and for the city.

Then, we’re going way back in time to look at how Magna Carta shaped the American democratic project.

There's only one place in the world that you can find the axolotl—the Mexican salamander—in the wild. This creature is the living embodiment of the Aztec god of heavenly fire, of lightning and the underworld.But the wild axolotl’s fate might be bound to the Aztecs by more than myth in a story from Outside/In.

Then, the Executive Council. What is it? Why do we have it? And what does it do?

There’s a duplex in the town of Hudson, set back from the road, surrounded by trees. One half is vacant; Mandy Whitaker lives in the other half. She admits it’s not much to look at.

On today's show:

• Civics 101: Emoluments
• Threshold: Episode 3. You can listen to this full episode and read more about it here. 
• "Haunting" from The Memory Palace and Nate DiMeo. You can listen to this story again at PRX.org. 

On today's show:

• Threshold: Episode 2. You can listen to this full episode and read more about it here. 
• Civics 101: National Debt and The Deficit 
• "When Romance Turns to Dread" from producer Ashley Eady. You can listen to this story again at PRX.org. 

On today's show:

• Civics 101 - Declaring War
• "'Please Call Stella': Capturing English, from Afrikaans to Zulu." Producer Rebecca Sheir taks a look -- and listen -- inside the world's largest online database of English accents. Listen again at prx.org.
• All this week we're playing episodes from the first season of the podcast Threshold. Today we talk to the host of the podcast, Amy Martin and share Episode 1. Listen to this Episode 1 here. To learn more, see photos, and listen to bonus interviews, head to thresholdpodcast.org.

On today's show:

• Civics 101: Budget and Appropriations
• "Viva La Arquitectura!" from 99% Invisible. You can listen to this story again at PRX.org. 
• Curtis Wilkie is co-author of The Road to Camelot: Inside JFK's Five-Year Campaign along with Thomas Oliphant. 
• "Artist Matt Patterson Goes in Search of a Turtle Muse"

On today's show:

• Civics 101: Overturning a Supreme Court Ruling
• "Back to the Middle East" from Radio Rookie Alexis Gordon. You can listen to this story again PRX.org.
• Annalee Newitz is Tech Culture Editor at Ars Technica, the site where the AI-written short  films Sunspring and It's No Game debuted. She wrote about them here: "Movie Written By Algorithm Turns Out to be Hilarious and Intense."
• Scott McCloud is the author of Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. First published in 1993, it is one of the seminal volumes for comic book writers and a fascinating guide for anyone interested in the creative process. 

On today's show:

• Civics 101: Veto
• "Crazy Bet" from producer Nate DiMeo and The Memory Palace. Listen again at PRX.org. 
• Clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh was born in Damascus, but now lives in New York, where he wakes up to bad news each day. He’s going to be performing with the Kinan Azmeh CityBand at Phillips Academy Exeter tonight at 7:00pm and at the West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts tomorrow, April 19th at 6:30pm to celebrate the band's 10th season together. This is our previous conversation with Kinan and composer Kareem Roustom, recorded in 2013.

• "The Gift of Music" from Masumi Hayashi-Smith and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Listen again at PRX.org. 

On today's show:

• Civics 101: Gerrymandering
• "George Jones: He Stopped Loving Her Today" from producers Ben Manilla and Devon Strolovitch. Listen again at PRX.org.
• Sushma Subramanian wrote about the legacy left behind in Guatemala, 70 years after American researchers infected locals with syphilis and gonorrhea in her article "Worse Than Tuskegee". 
• "AKA Leo" from Nate DiMeo and The Memory Palace. Listen again at PRX.org.

On today's show:

• Civics 101: The Congressional Budget Office
• 10-Minute Writer's Workshop: Ben Winters
• A Winter/Mud Season Meal with Keith Sarasin
• Overheard this week features The Dead Pilots Society, Jackie Robinson's thoughts on racial taunts, and the time Barbara Frum spoke on live radio with a man holding hostages in a Toronto bank. 

On today's show:

• Civics 101: Office of Scheduling & Advance
• We spoke with Derek Thompson about his book Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction. 
• "The Staten Island Ferry Disaster" from producer Ryan Sweikert. Listen to this story again at PRX.org. 
• 10-Minute Writer's Workshop: Mario Batali

On today's show:

• Civics 101: The Office of Presidential Correspondence 
• "The First 'Boss' of Ashbury Park" from producer Amber Edwards. Listen to this story again at PRX.org.
• We spoke with Derek Thompson about his book Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction. 

On today's show:

• Civics 101: Filibuster
• "Gimme Shelter" from producer Sarah Jessee. Listen to this story again at PRX.org. 
• The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel explores the story of Maine's last true hermit. 
• "India's Shifting Gender Roles: One Girl's Tale" from producer Rhitu Chatterjee. Listen to this story again at PRX.org. 

On today's show:

• The Science of Measuring Crowds with Sean Captain
• Making Room for Shenandoah National Park - Listen to this story again at PRX.org
• Civics 101: Understanding the Public Comment Period
• What's the Deal with Coydogs? from Angela Evancie at VPR.net

In the first 100 days of his presidency, FDR passed a staggering seventy six pieces of legislation. Barack Obama, passed just 11. On today’s show we’ll look into partisan politics and the changing presidential mandate, and why the first 100 days is a metric worth looking at.

And, while most ski mountains in New England are facing the effects of a warming climate, another problem is slowly developing: aging chairlifts.

Plus we’ll check in with chamber pop band San Fermin before they play House of Blues in Boston this Saturday.

In Australia, there is a small marsupial called the antechinus. It looks a lot like an ordinary mouse, but has an extraordinary life-cycle. Today, we discover a host of incredible organisms that illustrate the absurdity and elegance of evolution.

Plus, a regulatory conundrum over catfish. At a moment when the political divide is as wide as it's ever been, some republicans and democrats are actually coming together - over a bottom-feeder.

When you’re on vacation or in an unfamiliar part of town looking for something to eat, you might look up restaurant reviews on Yelp to help narrow your choices. But now, prisoners across the country are also gravitating toward the platform and describing their experiences in jail. Review platforms like Yelp have become an unexpected online space for people to make the prison system more transparent while simultaneously fulfilling a personal and therapeutic void.

USA Today recently published the U.S. Senate handbook, a 380 page document of rules intended to keep Senate offices running smoothly. On today’s show, from carpet color to telephone hold music, we reveal the handbook’s most confounding regulations.

Plus, ‘tis the season of ghosts, witches, and vampires. We’ll explore how cultures around the world interpret the supernatural.

Listen to the full show and click Read more for individual segments.