#@throughlinenpr

(via When was the electoral college created? : Throughline : NPR)

What is it, why do we have it, and why hasn't it changed? Born from a rushed, fraught, imperfect process, the origins and evolution of the Electoral College might surprise you and make you think differently about not only this upcoming presidential election, but our democracy as a whole.

If you would like to read more on the topic, here's a list:

The Law of the Land: A Grand Tour of Our Constitutional Republic by Akhil Reed Amar

Source: http://twitter.com/throughlineNPR/status/1175021286759776261

Puerto Rico became a territory of the U.S. more than a century ago. And in the first 50 years, the island fiercely debated whether to be independent or have a closer relationship with the U.S. Full story here: https://t.co/XULFo9N7AA

— Throughline (@throughlineNPR) September 20, 2019

Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory in 1898 and for much of the next fifty years Puerto Ricans fought fiercely about this status. Should they struggle for independence, or to be a U.S. state, or something in between? In this episode, we look at Puerto Rico's relationship with the mainland U.S. and the key figures who shaped the island's fate.

If you would like to learn more about the topic:

We Are Left without a Father Here: Masculinity, Domesticity, and Migration in Postwar Puerto Rico by Eileen Findlay

Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico by Laura Briggs

Soldiers of the Nation: Military Service and Modern Puerto Rico by Harry Franqui-Rivera

How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr

(via War Of The Worlds : NPR)

The Sunni-Shia divide is a conflict that most people have heard about - two sects with Sunni Islam being in the majority and Shia Islam the minority. Exactly how did this conflict originate and when? We go through 1400 years of history to find the moment this divide first turned deadly and how it has evolved since.

If you would like to read more on the topic, here's a list:

After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam by Lesley Hazleton

The Shia Revival by Vali Nasr

Occupying Syria Under the French Mandate by Daniel Neep

Ghost Wars by Steve Coll

(via Resistance Is Futile : NPR)

(via Franz Boas, social construct : Throughline : NPR)

The idea that race is a social construct comes from the pioneering work of anthropologist Franz Boas. During a time when race-based science and the eugenics movement were becoming mainstream, anthropologist Franz Boas actively sought to prove that race was a social construct, not a biological fact.

If you would like to read more on the topic, here's a list:

Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century by Charles King

(via The right to vote and the voting process in the USA : Throughline : NPR)

Drunken brawls, coercion, and lace curtains. Believe it or not, how regular people vote was not something the founding fathers thought much about, or planned for. Americans went from casting votes at drunken parties in the town square to private booths behind a drawn curtain. In this episode, the process of voting; how it was originally designed, who it was intended for, moments in our country's history when we reimagined it altogether, and what we're left with today.

If you would like to read more on the topic, here's a list:

One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy by Carol Anderson

Rock, Paper Scissors: How We Used To Vote by Jill Lepore (The New Yorker)

Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power by Richard J. Carwardine

(via America's Caste System : Throughline : NPR)