Jeff and BYU law professor Bradley Rebeiro discuss Frederick Douglass’s understanding of the Constitution, and how he came to view it as an anti-slavery document, using it to promote abolition.

Host: Jeff Sikkenga

Executive Producer: Jeremy Gypton

Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/theamericanidea

14 August 1945: VJ Day, and with the end of fighting in the Pacific and Japan's surrender, World War 2 finally comes to an end. Dr. John Moser is joined today by author and historian Walter Borneman to discuss how and why the war ended when it did, and how that ending shaped the decades to come, and, indeed, our world today in political and strategic terms.

Read Walt's book, The Admirals, and learn more about WW2 in the Pacific - you can find his books on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/393nme37

#ww2 #pacificwar #halsey #nimitz #macarthur

Host: Jeff Sikkenga

Executive Producer: Jeremy Gypton

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What is the national debt? To whom or what does the U.S. government owe all this money? What does it mean to you today, your children and grandchildren tomorrow, and for the continued health of American political and economics institutions and norms?

Jeff discusses all these issues and more with Dr. Rob Wyllie, Professor of Political Economy.

Host: Jeff Sikkenga

Executive Producer: Jeremy Gypton

Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/theamericanidea

Mercy Otis Warren not only wrote one of the first comprehensive histories of the American Revolution, she was also a leading Antifederalist thinker - and yet she is overlooked in most conventional histories of the era today. What makes her important and memorable? What can we learn from her today?

Join Dr. Cara Rogers Stevens this week as she discusses this important American Founder with Brenda Hafera, Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

Host: Jeff Sikkenga

Executive Producer: Jeremy Gypton

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American press freedom has never followed a straight path. The Founding Fathers envisioned newspapers as partisan political weapons, not neutral truth-tellers. This "messy" approach let citizens decide truth for themselves rather than accepting government-approved narratives.

Today's concerns about partisan media miss the point—embracing partisanship may produce healthier discourse than enforcing artificial neutrality. The real danger lies in government attempts to regulate speech through "disinformation boards," which risk transforming oversight into censorship tools.

History reveals a pattern: wartime consistently triggers press restrictions, from the 1798 Sedition Acts that imprisoned journalists to Civil War censorship and World War I prosecutions. The choice remains between messy, chaotic free speech that challenges all perspectives, or organized, controlled information that serves those in power.

Host: Jeff Sikkenga

Executive Producer: Jeremy Gypton

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Jeff discusses the inner workings of the Reagan White House with former AMB Frank Lavin, who had a front-row seat to many of Reagan’s key decisions and actions while president. Get to know Reagan as both a person and a leader; and read Frank’s book on the topic, linked below.

Amazon link: https://a.co/d/fRQPTsh

Host: Jeff Sikkenga

Executive Producer: Jeremy Gypton

Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/theamericanidea

Jeff is joined by constitutional law scholar Dr. Joshua Dunn to discuss the recently ended 2025 US Supreme Court term and some of the more interesting and potentially important decisions, as well as what seem like some friction between some of the justices.

Get a free copy of Josh’s primary documents reader about the Judiciary: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/product/the-judiciary/

Get a free copy of Jeff’s primary documents reader about the Supreme Court: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/product/the-supreme-court/

Host: Jeff Sikkenga

Executive Producer: Jeremy Gypton

Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/theamericanidea

In celebration of the 249th anniversary of America's independence, we look back not so much on the history of the Declaration of Independence, but on its meaning. And not just its meaning then, but its enduring meaning and what we can and should take from it now.

This special episode contains the content of the first of three classes within our free, self-paced online course, "The American Idea." If you enroll, you can listen to thoughtful discussions of the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and Martin Luther King jr's "I Have a Dream" speech. You'll also be able to download a free PDF course reader so you can read these documents, and others, and discover their meaning yourself.

Register here: https://courses.ashbrook.org/register/

Host: Jeff Sikkenga

Executive Producer: Jeremy Gypton

Subscribe: https://linktr.ee/theamericanidea