America from Scratch

How long until people are permanently living on Mars, and how will we convince them to go there? In this episode of "America From Scratch" we explore the ways the government could motivate people to move to Mars and we draw comparisons to when settlers were incentivized to move out West. NASA tells us about their Moon to Mars mission, and why its important for us to become a multi-planet species.

1 in 5 Americans have participated in a protest since 2016. Protests have dominated national news headlines for the last few years, but what if these protests were illegal? Toussaint talks to Alicia Garza the cofounder of Black Lives Matter on whether or not protesting can go too far. He also meets with local lawmakers of a bill that would increase penalties for protesting on highways.

In Maslow's hierarchy of needs he lists shelter at the base of the pyramid making it one of the few things most essential for survival. Today over half a million people live without permanent shelter across the United States. If we were founding our country today, would we ensure life, liberty, and shelter for all citizens? Toussaint visits a Minneapolis shelter to find out more.

A study finds that politicians score higher than other professionals on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, with a spike in characteristics like superiority, arrogance, and entitlement. Do we reward these characteristics with the way we vote? What would happen if we selected our leaders randomly, like we select our jurors for jury duty?