Savannah Eccles Johnston & Matthew Brogdon

This Constitution

This Constitution is an every-two-weeks podcast ordained and established by the Center for Constitutional Studies at Utah Valley University, the home of Utah’s Civic Thought & Leadership Initiative.

Co-hosted by Savannah Eccles Johnston and Matthew Brogdon, This Constitution equips listeners with the knowledge and insights to engage with the most pressing political questions of our time, starting with Season 1, focusing on the powers and limits of the U.S. presidency.

Website

19 October 2026

Season 4, Episode 13 | "Remember the Ladies: From Political Invisibility to Revolutionary Backlash

Women in colonial America were legally invisible. Married women could not own property, vote, serve on juries, or speak publicly on politics. Yet the American Revolution was a watershed, inviting women into political life as boycotters, writers, and even voters. What opened that window, and why did it close so abruptly?In this episode of This Constitution, Savannah Eccles Johnston sits down with...

05 October 2026

Season 4, Episode 12 | Was the Constitution Anti-Slavery? How Frederick Douglass Changed His Mind

America was born with a promise and a lie. Frederick Douglass lived in the gap. How did a fugitive slave become one of the nation’s most radical constitutional thinkers? Why did he reject the Garrisonian view of the Constitution as a “covenant with death” and come to see it as anti-slavery?In this episode of This Constitution, Matthew Brogdon sits down with Bradley Rebeiro, law professor at...

21 September 2026

Season 4, Episode 11 | The Newburgh Conspiracy: When Washington Saved the Republic (Again)

Could the American Revolution have ended not on a battlefield, but in a mutinous meeting at Newburgh? What happens when the army that won independence is told there’s no money to pay it? Can a republic survive when its officers have just grievances and the power to enforce them? And how did George Washington stop a coup without firing a shot, by reaching for his spectacles?In this episode of The...

07 September 2026

Season 4, Episode 7 | Why George Washington's Greatest Victory Wasn't Winning Battles

The American Revolution wasn't won by ideals alone. It required an army. But how do you build a fighting force from scratch when your citizens believe standing armies are the tools of tyrants? And how does that ragtag collection of farmers, apprentices, and adventurers end up creating something far more lasting than military victory: a shared national identity?In this episode, Matthew Brogdon and...

13 July 2026

Season 4, Episode 6 | When Americans Fought Americans: The Southern Campaign of the Revolution

The Southern Campaign is one of the most overlooked turning points of the American Revolution. This episode asks a sharper question: what happened when the fight for independence stopped looking like British regulars against American patriots and started looking like Americans fighting Americans?In this episode of This Constitution, Savannah Eccles Johnston and Matthew Brogdon examine why the...

04 July 2026

Season 4, Episode 5 | The Fourth-of-July Question America Needs to Ask

Are Americans Declaration People or Constitution People?The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are two of America’s most important founding documents, but this episode asks a deeper civic question: which one actually defines who Americans are?In this Fourth of July episode, Savannah Eccles Johnston is joined by Dr. Leah Murray, Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Political...

29 June 2026

Season 4, Episode 4 | Valley Forge: When the Revolution Almost Froze to Death

What Happens When an Army Freezes and a Government Can’t Supply It?Valley Forge is remembered as one of the great symbols of American endurance, but this episode asks a deeper constitutional question: what happens when a revolution depends on a government too weak to supply its own army?In this episode, co-hosts Savannah Eccles Johnston and Matthew Brogdon tell the story of the Continental Army’s...

This Constitution

Episodes