Radiolab | Cruel and Unusual | Radiolab Presents: More Perfect Podcast | Season 1 Episode 1 @Radiolabpod | Uploaded April 2022 | Updated October 2024, 13 hours ago.
From the producers of Radiolab, a spin-off series about how the Supreme Court got so supreme.
In the inaugural episode of More Perfect, we explore three little words embedded in the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: “cruel and unusual.” America has long wrestled with this concept in the context of our strongest punishment, the death penalty. A majority of “we the people” (61%, to be exact) are in favor of having it, but inside the Supreme Court, opinions have evolved over time in surprising ways.
And outside of the court, the debate drove one woman in the UK to take on the U.S. death penalty system from Europe. It also caused states to resuscitate old methods used for executing prisoners on death row. And perhaps more than anything, it forced a conversation on what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
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Supreme Court archival audio comes from Oyez®, a free law project in collaboration with the Legal Information Institute at Cornell.
Illustration by Mitch Boyer of Maya Foa, director of Reprieve’s Death Penalty team.
Video by Michael Snyder, Kim Nowacki and Andrea Latimer.
From the producers of Radiolab, a spin-off series about how the Supreme Court got so supreme.
In the inaugural episode of More Perfect, we explore three little words embedded in the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: “cruel and unusual.” America has long wrestled with this concept in the context of our strongest punishment, the death penalty. A majority of “we the people” (61%, to be exact) are in favor of having it, but inside the Supreme Court, opinions have evolved over time in surprising ways.
And outside of the court, the debate drove one woman in the UK to take on the U.S. death penalty system from Europe. It also caused states to resuscitate old methods used for executing prisoners on death row. And perhaps more than anything, it forced a conversation on what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
🎧 Subscribe to Radiolab wherever you listen to podcasts: bit.ly/3trXDLe
🔎 Subscribe to Radiolab on YouTube: bit.ly/3I9KI53
🌱 Check out Radiolab's Starter Kit Playlist: bit.ly/3sX8f4P
👍 Like this video ✏️ and leave us a comment!
Follow Radiolab:
Instagram — instagram.com/radiolab
Twitter — twitter.com/Radiolab
Facebook — facebook.com/Radiolab
Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab today: wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/membership
Supreme Court archival audio comes from Oyez®, a free law project in collaboration with the Legal Information Institute at Cornell.
Illustration by Mitch Boyer of Maya Foa, director of Reprieve’s Death Penalty team.
Video by Michael Snyder, Kim Nowacki and Andrea Latimer.
