← Going Big! with Kevin Gentry
Going Big! with Kevin Gentry
Making the Constitution Come Alive with Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie (Constituting America)
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- [00:00]
A
We have a real opportunity here over the next 15 years to keep this interest in our country's founding, keep it alive, keep it going, and inspire people to learn more. And that's really the biggest lesson that I think I would take away is that people are interested in learning more. And we have to look forward, obviously, but we can't look forward until we know where we came from, until we know what our principles are, until we know what is grounding us. And this 250th birthday has had a renewed interest for people in our country's history and our founding and the founding principles. And that will hopefully inform us and guide us for the next 250 years.
- [00:38]
B
Welcome to the Going Big Podcast. I'm your host, Kevin Gentry, and this is the place where we celebrate bold moves and big ideas. Each week I sit down with inspiring leaders, entrepreneurs and change makers who are making a significant impact in their careers and in their communities. Whether you're looking to level up your leadership, pursue your passion, or just get inspired to take your next big leap, this is where those stories come to life. Now, if you're listening on iTunes, YouTube or anywhere else you tune into podcasts, be sure to hit that subscribe button so you'll never miss an episode. Now let's dive in to what it means to truly go big. Well, welcome back to another episode of the Going Big Podcast. I'm your host, Kevin Gentry. And and today I have as my guest two amazing women who've decided to make civics education related to an understanding of our Constitution central in their lives and in the lives of others. And I'm talking about my guests Jeanine Turner and Kathy Gillespie of the organization Constituting America. At a moment when we are celebrating America's 250th birthday, you're going to learn about how they have brought the Constitution to life, especially with respect to young people. Jeanine Turner, as you may know, is an acclaimed actress as well as writer, director, producer, and the founder of Constituting America, something she did in 2010. She had a passion for this and since then she's spoken in hundreds and hundreds of school classrooms. And recently she was just appointed by Governor Greg Abbott to the Texas Commission on the Arts. Just noting her lifelong dedication to this sort of effort. And then Kathy Gillespie serves as the CEO of Constituting America. She has spent many years in public service, well known in many regards, and helps ensure that these operations are reaching so many young people. And I think is what you'll see. Constituting America is not just another civics organization. Instead, it is an effort to take the ideas of our founding, the ideas of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, through various forms of media and entertainment to bring it alive in a way that just helps young people in particular understand the power of these important founding ideas. Well, it's a great pleasure to have you. Jeanine Turner, Kathy Gillespie, thanks for joining us today on the Going Big podcast.
- [03:24]
A
Well, Kevin, it's great to be with you and I'm one of the biggest Kevin Gentry fans there is and love your podcast. Going Big. Love it. So it's real honor for Jeanine and me to be with you today. We're very excited.
- [03:37]
C
It's great to be here. And I want to say Kathy is a commissioner herself. You know, she was appointed by the Senate to be a commissioner on America250. So I want to brag on her a little bit and all of her years as a chief of staff on the Hill. And she has the most beautiful, dedicated heart to public service and constituting America just wouldn't have sprung to life without her. So she's amazing.
- [03:59]
B
Well, I'm so glad you jumped in on that because I'm a big Kathy Gillespie fan. And you're right, her years of service on Capitol Hill and leadership positions, very, very effective in her work in many regards. And you're right, she's been one of what, 16 private citizens who served on the semi sesquintennial commission to celebrate America's 250. So we appreciate your service in many ways, Kathy. So I want to take it to the founding of this and start with you, Janine. What did you see that you the problem you wanted to address, the opportunity you saw, what did you want to do and founding constituting America to bring these important issues to life? What were you trying to accomplish?
- [04:42]
C
Well, what I was trying to accomplish and what I believe we are accomplishing is just a way to present the United States Constitution in a way that it's relevant because I think so many people think it's an old antiquated document. We don't need it anymore. It was, you know, it was a long time ago. And also there's just a dearth, you know, a kind of huge vacancy of knowledge about the United States Constitution. Teachers now are too, too busy with STEM or whatever testing to really think that history matters. And if we don't have an educated populace moving forward with the rising generations that understand the true American exceptionalism, you know, if we want to talk about American exceptionalism, we've done an entire Study on this with one of our multi tiered programs, our academic study annually. But the true American exceptionalism of, you know, the Declaration of Independence, our Revolutionary War, the United States Constitution, the Federalist Papers. That's what makes us great. This ability to amend the Constitution so everybody. People don't even know. They don't know. They don't know that if a president goes abroad, it's supposed to be ratified by the Senate. And they're not supposed to be changing the name of the document. They don't know that the Constitution could be amended if not by Congress. The states can do it. This is all the people's power. That's wonderfully where we keep tyranny at bay through the checks and balances. And the checks and balances are something. Aren't really talked about that often, but that's what preserves and prevents tyranny. In our study we talked about it prevents fascism, communism, socialism, we hope, you know what I mean. The World War II, World War I, the rise of Napoleon, the failures of Greece and Rome, all of these things we can attribute to these documents and how exceptional they were. And I think that I read the Constitution with my daughter. I was homeschooling her for one year. And as I, I thought, oh my gosh, this is so fascinating because I was raised by my father who was a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and he was a war medaled pilot with the United States Air Force. He didn't talk about it that much, but when I was in eighth grade, I looked up to him and said, dad, if our founding fathers were to come back today, what would they be most disappointed about? So in conclusion, I will say that we're all, I think God gives us, implants us with little missions and purposes and like a Build a bear. Have you ever built a bear with your child? At Build a Bear with our daughter?
- [07:08]
B
Yeah, but he has to.
- [07:09]
C
You have to put the heart in there, you know, And I think I was just born with this. Supposedly I'm related to George Washington through his grandfather. I don't know. But I've had this love of our founding fathers forever. And I want to use the arts to combine with academics and the way my fifth grade teacher did, which I'll talk about later, to just educate students about why this matters. Cause people want to. People want to get rid of it, these documents. And in my opinion, it's the only way we're going to keep our republican form of government and our freedom are with these documents.
- [07:42]
B
Indeed. All right, well, Kathy, what made you decide 15 years ago that this was such a worthy effort that you devote so much of your life to?
- [07:52]
A
Well, first of all, I love working with Jeanine. We first met in 2004 and worked on some different projects along the way until the day that she called me up, I think it was in 2009, and said she wanted to start this foundation and promote the US Constitution. But it was in the innovative way. It was the vision that she had that was really not being met by any other civics organizations. As you said in the introduction, that we're not just your run of the mill civics organization because we actually use the arts. We impact the culture with the Constitution. And one of the best practices when you first start a foundation is you look and you say, okay, who else is doing this? And we, we took this vision that Jeanine had for constituting America and we looked at the other civics organizations. We thought, you know, there's really room here. This is something that's not being done anywhere else. And so Jeanine has very creatively designed all of our programs to every one of them has an element of impacting the culture, and that's really what drives our primary mission at constituting America.
- [09:03]
B
Well, as you all know, this is the Going Big podcast. One of the reasons I wanted to do this is to inspire others to cast a big, bold vision as you all have, and to take action. And this is designed for people in all walks of life, but especially also in the nonprofit sector, where people are trying to get to the root causes of a particular problem or really achieve something big. All right, Jeanine, back to you. You talked about the influence of your father. What about his influence prompted you to actually take action? Because that's the key. People can talk about these ideas, talk about what they like to do, but you got to do something. What prompted you to decide to take action and found this nonprofit?
- [09:49]
C
Well, you know how Ronald Reagan talked about that. It's in the air. It's something that's around the kitchen table, and that it's our responsibility as parents imbue the service of country to our children. And I think to think about. All of us should think about that. What kind of legacy are we leaving with our children? Forget schools, you know what I mean? Just in the own. In our home. And I think my father did that with his quiet stoicism, his bravery, his dedication to West Point, which he was a football player, played football for west point from 50, you know, 50, 53, 57. And just his. He, you know, he didn't really want to stay at West Point, but he did it. And he did it for his love of country, and he did it for his children. He told his mother when he wanted to leave was, I don't want to stay here. It was a shock to him, you know what I mean? From a small town to square meals. And it was very, very tough. And my dad's a tough cookie, but my dad had this sense of bravery, and he would tell me often about his mission during the Cold War was to take the B58 Hustler to Russia. And that his mission, he probably wouldn't have returned alive. And I think that that permeated my soul, the thought that my father was willing to give his life for his country, like so many of our heroes in our country, through the armed forces, men and women have done from centuries, that willingness to give your life for it. And so I think I have to say that that was a big part of it. And also I do wanted to say that my fifth grade teacher, for all the educators out there, it's one of the reasons we're so focused on going into the schools with our George Washington speaking initiative. My fifth grade teacher in a very small school in North Fort Worth, it was my first year there. It was his first year there. And the cows were in the playground. Right there was like a tetherball and a cow. It was like nuts. But I loved that little school, and it was falling apart and it was old, and I didn't care, because in this room was this teacher and who used the arts and academia to embed a love of our Founding Fathers in our country, in us. And the way he did that was that we were learning about the Declaration of Independence that year. But also he cast all of us in roles in the musical 1776. And this is right before the bicentennial. And so I played Martha Jefferson, and he ended up. And he just passed away recently. He's still influencing. I met my new new assistant director for my musical at his funeral. You know, Mr. Andrew Ingram is still having an impact. He's been a part of my life for decades. But he really started my love of country through the academia aspect and my love of the arts. I can credit him for both of those big achievements in my life. So I think every educator out there, the power that you have to influence children's lives and to be great patriots and to go on and do things for the country is monumental.
- [12:52]
B
Yeah. Hear, hear. Well, you know, it's amazing how you learn in this podcast I learned from how people are influenced. And so often it is a teacher that just creates that spark. And so that's awesome. And by the way, we've had a lot of people talking about how they were influenced 50 years ago in the bicentennial to do something that is now being repeated in a way, 50 years later for the 250th. Well, Cathy, how did you help bring it to life? I think it seems to me you all have a really strong partnership. And I've always been taught that a good partnership is two people who have shared values, shared principles, and a shared vision and shared objectives, but complementary capabilities. So what was it that you were bringing to the table and what did you see that needed to be built?
- [13:46]
A
Well, I think my experience just in government and campaigns and politics and fundraising, that's so much my background. And I like to say that now I'm using all those things for good to teach the Constitution, the founding principles to kids. But that's one strength that I brought. Janine just brings a wonderful on screen presence. And Jeanine has a lot of business sense in her own right. Her family comes from a very strong real estate business. Her mother was one of the most successful Realtors in Tarrant County. Her mother's on our board. And Jeanine has got great business sense herself. And so I do think that we have brought a great partnership together. And just to build on something that you asked about a second ago, Kevin, Just on the, you know, on the model and why we settled on that model, it's really, at the time, I think Back to in 2010, when we started this, American Idol was just sort of the really hot show. And kids were just starting to make videos of themselves out on YouTube. They were just starting to want to be that next. I don't think TikTok even was a thing back then. I know Instagram wasn't Snapchat. I don't even think we had Facebook. I think Facebook was very new, at least when we first started. But kids wanted to be the next star, basically. And so Jeanine had said, if kids are going to be making these videos and trying to be the next big star, they ought to be making videos about the Constitution. And so we took that and really ran with it. And I do think it's just been a great partnership.
- [15:44]
B
Well, Jeanine, given your experience in the entertainment field and as an actress, but also as a writer, as a producer, what was the problem that you all were trying to solve that you chose to utilize things like popular culture, media, film, music, all of these things. What were you trying to address in this manner?
- [16:10]
C
Yeah, I'll just say, first of all, I think Kathy is modest because without Kathy, I mean, we wouldn't even, you know, Kathy is what brings everything to life. I may have all these ideas, but it's Kathy there, that, that and all her wealth of knowledge about foundations and fundraising. I mean, where would I be? Where would we be without Kathy? But, you know, I think that to build off what, you know, you're asking and what Kathy was saying is that, look, it's really easy if you believe in a, let me just say, in a different genre, to become hip and popular on MTV or those type of things. How. And so the culture is very crowded with a certain bias and how do you integrate into that? And that's what Kathy and I felt was really important. And by the way, I think you're talking about how people can be inspired. I mean, this is not to segue for just a second. This is what democracy in America is all about, right? It's about how we help our country through our own visions and our own communities to help others and inspire others and not rely on the government to do it. So I think that this is what keeps America great. And certainly Alexis de Tocqueville thought the same thing in his. We did a study on that too, by the way, one of our academic studies. But to be able to be thought, how do we get students inspired to direct a 32nd minute commercial, to create it and direct it, to direct a short film, to create a song that's toe tapping. I said, kathy, wouldn't it be so great? You know, they're toe tapping a song that's one country or this or that, and people can't. And they're listening to on the radio and they don't even realize, you know, it's subvert. You know, everything, they don't hit you over the head. Other biases, they're subtle. So to have a great song that people are like, oh, this is so good. Wait, what are they talking about? Oh, Bill writes. What's that? Oh, freedom of. So it's just to be able to infiltrate the culture. And we didn't even know if that could be accomplished. But Kevin, we have had the most amazing contest entries through our we the Future contest, which is all these things we launched in our first year. We even did a road trip, you know, all the way across the country in a bus that was falling down and did a documentary all in our first like seven months and got it into schools. By September and wrote 85 essays on the 85 Federalist Papers. Kathy and I and the Scholar, we were really motivated. But that these students have created the most beautifully inspiring, hip, cool short films, public service announcements, commercials, songs, and then we go on, which we don't think any other foundation really does this. It's why kids love our foundation. Many of them come back to work with us from various political parties, by the way. We don't. We're not just one genre ourselves. We want to include the Constitution to everybody because it's a nonpartisan document. But these students have created these songs. We then go hire companies to promote their works. So we don't go to Madison Avenue and do a great little kind of adult psa. Our students do them and they have won awards. They've had millions of impressions on the radio. These songs have actually been on the radio. Millions and millions of impressions. Kathy knows all those stats by heart. But also the PSAs have been played on television. One of our winners our first year was like, mom, mom, oh my gosh, come look. Our PSA's on television. So it's kind of a one through five step inspire the kids, get them inspired to enter and then they do their works. And then they, with their works, we promote them. We sometimes re record them for them, we put them on the radio. Then they get national exposure for their choice of career. And they get. Then they go on a trip and on that trip in D.C. which is phenomenal because of Kathy, you know, these kids are sitting down with Supreme Court justices. They actually get to meet a mentor on the Constitution and a mentor in their own career. So we're really putting those two together because we know that these little young inspired patriots will take that into their professional field.
- [20:16]
B
Well, here's a follow up. You know, I've had Doug Bradburn from Mount Vernon ON, and Dr. Jane Kaminsky from Monticello on, and I mentioned John Irwin who produced Young Washington. And they understand that to grab the attention of middle school students and high school students, other young people, you've got to embrace the culture and you've got to engage them and you've got to engage them through these multimedia efforts. But it sounds like you're doing something else and you're also on the creative space. You're putting them in the space to actually do the creation. Why is that important?
- [20:56]
A
It's important for a number of reasons. First of all, there are future leaders in entertainment. We've got our future singer songwriters, our future film directors, our future for the essay winners Our future writers, or even our STEM winners, because we have so many different categories to the contest, our future scientists. So we want these future leaders to all have a heart for the Constitution, a knowledge of our country's founding principles, but also to impact and influence students across the country. There's no better influencer than their peers, I think. Jeanine, I remember you making that point the other day when we were talking. It's just, it's that peer to peer influence. If a Student goes on YouTube, and we do ask all of our students that enter our song contest film psa, we have them go ahead and upload their entries to YouTube. So even if they don't win, their entries are even influencing their peers. And if someone is on YouTube and they happen to see, hey, there's a student like me who cares about the Constitution, maybe I should learn more, maybe I should get involved. So it's really a peer to peer type thing.
- [22:00]
B
Well, you know, I really applaud this, by the way, because so many approaches, I think, tend to be kind of top down. You know, it's a national organization. We're going to provide this educational material, we're going to tell them these stories, etc. But you're really much more bottom up. You're essentially empowering these young people to be a part of the process. And when they do, they get the experience, but it also really helps it bring it to life for them.
- [22:25]
C
Well, and when we go into the classrooms, which we've done all over the nation, thousands and thousands and thousands of students being reached, it's funny because we can reach students through the classroom, but we can also reach millions through the Internet and social media and things of this nature. But when we go into the classroom, which can't be negated, the importance of that, this quiz that we have is not just we're gonna tell you what we make it Socratic like, okay, we want you to be a part of this process now. And what I thought, how can we get them to understand this? They need to understand how it works. So I'll go in, Kathy will go in and we'll say, okay, what would you like to change in your neighborhood? Cause a lot of times they can't think nationally, you know what I mean? Or what do you wanna keep? And we'll have them raise their hands and students will say all kinds of things like save the platypuses, better breaks for small. I want a key for the community pool. That's for free. We have too many drugs in our neighborhood and we need More lights. We need more stop signs. And of course those things would be on a region, you know, like on a local level. But we use that. And some kids will go, will say national things as well. But we say, you have the. See, it's we the people. It's not we the government. And those bills that are getting created in D.C. are not just. They're not supposed to be saying, you know, hocus pocus, I want to create a bill. It's coming from you, you know, your voice. So we get them to start thinking about things that they want to keep. And it's really fun to watch their wheels turn. Like, I want to keep a park. We need a better recreation center. I don't want these trees to be whatever it might be. We don't judge what they want. We just say, okay, but this is why checks and balances matter in the Constitution. Cause those checks and balances are gonna protect you from a king or a tyrant or even a congress, any branch of government from becoming too powerful. And then you have your voice where you can actually influence through a petition, through your speech, through the press, through your assembly. And we talk about the fact that billions of people across the planet, you know, take China, you know, can't do that. So it's building an awareness of this unique exceptionalism we have here, that we don't always say that word, you know, cause it freaks people out. But, you know, it's just that we, these tools that our founding fathers left us, and we can use this to maintain our freedoms. And what does that mean? It means you can speak. And I talk about my experiences in China. You weren't allowed to talk. I mean, those kids. And so it's just teaching them that. Not to take these things for granted.
- [24:56]
B
All right, well, I got a couple of follow up questions now because you all are in the arena, you're out there, you know what's going on. You're seeing things firsthand. First, you, Jeanine, you've spoken in hundreds and hundreds of high schools or schools. Are you pessimistic or optimistic about the future? I mean, we hear that there's not enough attention on civics education, not enough on American history. Kids, values are changing. Give us a sense of how you see the world today.
- [25:29]
C
Well, I think it's twofold. I think I could be pessimistic if. If we don't continue to step up. We have to step up because we are against a tidal wave. And, and at any moment, if we put our guard down, it's going to engulf us. So I, I think that pessim, my pessimism would be that, that we kind of sit back and say, you know, it is what it is. You know, all of us, whether it's one person, two, two people, 10 people, anybody can make a difference. If you inspire a love of all these things that we are discussing today, you know, checks and balances, the government, the documents to just your grandchild or your child, you know, you're making a big difference. So I could be pessimistic if I didn't know that we still have a great sense of responsibility in our country, many of us, and that we're stepping up for it. And then when I go into these schools or we meet these winners, oh my gosh, these winners of our contest, I just, I definitely want to talk about the short film that we just did and all these young actors and actors that came in to portray George Washington and Sybil Ludington and Abigail Adams and everything, they are incredibly inspirational. And so it's not as negative as one would think out there, but it is going to take that. We don't step back. We have to step forward. Kathy, I'm sure you have a lot to say about that as well.
- [26:49]
B
Yeah. Kathy, what is your perspective on this?
- [26:52]
A
Well, I think kids are hungry for this information. They get very excited when we go into the classroom. Cause so often these days, teachers, they don't have enough time to really go into it. It may not be specifically depending on what school district or state they're in. Depends on how much of it is even in their curriculum. And the students are as Janine described our presentation. It's very interactive. We make it really fun. We teach off a 10 question quiz. We hand out prizes for kids that participate, get the right answer. And kids get excited about being involved. They get excited about the empowered feeling that Janine talked about with teaching them how to create a petition, telling them they're important, telling them their voice is important, their member of Congress wants to hear from them. And so, you know, we get testimonials from teachers all the time that tell us that they have kids participating in our presentation that have never once raised their hand or participated in their classroom. Teachers tell us, I see kids writing things down during your presentation and I've never seen them open a notebook or take a note before. So the fact that these kids are hungry for this, to me is encouraging and it makes me very optimistic.
- [28:08]
B
Well, on another front, similar though, we just celebrated the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The celebrations will be ongoing for years and it will be a while before we celebrate the 250th of the Constitution. You served on the commission, the U.S. commission around the 250th. Kathy, we've talked about we were alive 50 years ago during the celebration of America's bicentennial. And there was a lot written about at the time that it was a bad time in the country. It was just after the Vietnam War, after Watergate. But the bicentennial brought people together. But it doesn't seem quite that that's happening as much right now. Maybe I'm wrong, but are you optimistic or pessimistic about where we are in terms of being able to truly celebrate the Founders vision for this country?
- [29:00]
A
Well, I'm optimistic. You know, on the America 250 Commission, one of our guiding premises was that we want to involve all 350 million Americans in the celebration of our country's 250th birthday. And we worked to have programs that would involve just a variety of Americans. And, and from the events that I was at, I really saw people coming together. I mean, in December 31st, when the ball dropped then and there was a red, white and blue ball, and I think they dropped several tons of red, white and blue confetti, there was a wide variety and diversity of people gathered down in Times Square that just erupted in cheers. And we handed out 20,000 flags in California at the Rose bowl parade the next day in January, and that's in California. No one refused a flag. So I think people have come together around this. And I think that one of the most important things that we can remember and one of the biggest accomplishments, as you said, in the 70s and 1976, it was a rough time for our country. And politically people are divided. But Benjamin Franklin, if we remember back after the drafting the Constitution in 1787, walked out of Independence hall and someone asked him, Dr. Franklin, what form of government have you given us? And he said, a republic if you can keep it. And the fact is we've kept it. We've kept it for the past 250 years. We've kept it from 1976 to 2026. And I'm optimistic we're going to keep it for another 250 years.
- [30:44]
B
Yeah. A number of the people I've interviewed about America's 250th, when asked about what do you think the Founders would think, many of them said they would be shocked that it lasted for 250 years. Many didn't think it would last more than 10 or 15 years, even though they were willing to sacrifice their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for this bold experiment. Well, let me just ask a couple of other related questions. What lessons should we take away from the celebration of America's 250th? But also lessons taken away from what you're doing and how we should think about this kind of stuff for the future? I mean, you're dealing in real world data all the time. You're seeing things firsthand all the time. What should we learn and apply to make this stronger for the future?
- [31:34]
C
Well, the first thing I want to kind of build on this really fabulous discussion that we're having, which is I think that we need to learn from what we hear on television, you know, but not be psyched out by it. Because I think that usually we need to learn when we hear about this radicalism that, okay, we need to step forward. We can't sit back and let this happen. But we can't be psyched out to think that this small group over here, you know, is what really is reflected in the communities. And yes, we can't be naive either, that it's not permeating. But as Kathy says, when you get into those. I love Northern Exposure too, for all the town halls. They did, you know, in Northern Exposure. But when you get out into the community, like Kathy said, all the flags they passed out and whatnot. So I think I wanted to just chat about that too. It's just be aware, make a step to be of service, but don't be psyched out. Cause then you get depressed. And one of the things that I found that when you were in these classrooms, you see a lot of kids with their heads on their desk, kids that feel there's no hope. And, you know, that's how they feel in some of these other countries where they can't speak. So many of them with tyrants or dictators or whether it's. And they all know about North Korea for some reason, you know what I mean? They're very aware about North Korea, but those people have no hope. And what we teach our students and everybody that's involved with our. You have hope and you have hope because of this document. And then when we have them write their own petition, they understand how that works. Oh, here are the tools in my toolbox. Oh. If I want a kids recreation center, I have the power to do that. So it's a lot of fun. But I just want us all to remain hopeful, but to be aware, but to remain Hopeful. The other thing I'll say is I. When you say now the 250 is over, you know what I'm hearing? I'm hearing all these people texting me in the past couple of weeks saying, I just watched your short film. It's so amazing. We just went to see George Washington. It's like everybody was so busy with America 250. Now they're having time for the rest of the summer to sit back and say, oh, I wanna watch these things, I wanna see them now. And that is the everlasting permanence of the arts. You know, especially in the culture where we live today. You can go on YouTube or TikTok or, or go to see a movie and these things are ever present. So they talk a lot. I've learned through Kathy about America 215. Continuing on. And we did our series of 1790 second vertical series episodes at this tavern where everybody walked in Patrick Henry and then John Adams and then Thomas Jefferson and then Benjamin Franklin. But we also had Molly Pitcher and Sybil Ludington and Phillis Wheatley. And they all arrive at this tavern. And so we released those for three or four months, 90 seconds at a time. Cause that's the attention span of the kids. So I had the pleasure of writing it and you know, with our donors who funded it and blessed them all and then co directing, co editing, creating all the costumes and whatnot. So it was my dream come true. But all these founding fathers and mothers came into this tavern and now we connected all of them at the end into a short film. So it's there, it's there on social media, it's there on YouTube, TikTok, wherever you may, you can go watch it. Each founding father, because in 90 seconds our goal was how do we teach a little lesson in 90 seconds? And because that's really the attention span of kids on social media, they're gonna. And we were able, in our stats, we can see that people landed on that video and stayed with it and watched it. We consider that to be. We've had millions and millions of views, a wonderful success. And so it's out there to. And also those clips can now go into the classroom. So if they don't have 30, 21 minutes, our shortest 21 minutes, they can show 90 seconds here, 90 seconds there. Let's watch it. It's a great educational tool for the classrooms that we created for the media. And now we want to go forward next. We want to have all these founding fathers come into the tavern and talk about the Articles Confederation. And they come into the tavern and they talk about the Constitution and they come in the tavern later and talk about communism. I mean, they can just. That was only season one for us. We're excited about it.
- [35:39]
B
Kathy, what lesson should we take away?
- [35:42]
A
Well, and just to build on something that Jeanine said. This is not the end of America 250 at all. This is really just the beginning. For the next 15 years, we have got a series of 250th anniversaries, as you mentioned, Kevin, the signing of the Constitution, the ratification, the implementation of the Constitution, the victory at Yorktown before all that, but then also going all the way up to 2041, the 250th of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, which took place in 1791. So we have real opportunity here over the next 15 years to keep this interest that Jeanine's talking about in our country's founding. Keep it alive, keep it going, and inspire people to learn more. And that's really the biggest lesson that I think that I would take away is that people are interested in learning more and we have to look forward, obviously, but we can't look forward forward until we know where we came from, until we know what our principles are, until we know what is grounding us and people. This 250th birthday has had a renewed interest for people in our country's history and our founding and the founding principles. And that will hopefully inform us and guide us for the next 250 years.
- [37:01]
B
Wow. All right, Well, a few questions to wrap us up. One is a little different. You all in 2010, a little more than 15 years ago, just went out with this big, bold idea to start this effort constituting America for somebody listening that may have a really great idea to solve some big problem in society and they want to start a group, an organization that can address that. Given what you've gone through, what either encouragement would you offer or even advice? I mean, I'm sure it was not a straight line to success. I'm sure you face many challenges and setbacks at times, as we all do. What would you offer to somebody listening in that regard?
- [37:46]
C
Well, I think that the first thing is the passion of your idea and how beautiful that we live in a country where we can take that idea and manifest it into something great. And that's whether it's a 501C3 or free enterprise, whatever it may be. I mean, you can look at the Hallow app. I mean, the Hallow app is. And I'M not even Catholic. I'm Protestant. You know what I mean? But I mean, the Hallow app is not even a 501C3, but it's having a great influence of people on people out there in that genre. But I think, look, free enterprise and the ability to copyright your genius, or what you may want to invent has been the reason we've just blossomed. I mean, in the past, the kings and queens, dictators owned all the rights to anything. And the fact that people can have an idea that they can create and take forward is one of the beautiful promises in the exceptionalism of America. So I think your idea and your passion is first and foremost. The secondly, it's to call your best friend, like Kathy Gillespie. Hopefully everyone has a Kathy Gillespie that has been. She's been the greatest partner and it hasn't been easy. And we are two very passionate people. We're both really driven. We're exactly the same age. Basically, we come from the same generation. We're still that good old workhorse type. You know, I joke, I say, you know, Kathy, when we die and go to heaven, I'm going to be on a cloud and I'm going to go up to you and go bump into you on another cloud. I'm going to go, I have an idea. And then Kathy's going to follow me on, around a cloud and go, but you have to sign this document. We got to get this going. And did you read this? So it's just like, it's the partnership that you create and the people with whom you navigate to help you build that is also really important. But the passion is going to be the first and foremost element of it, I believe. And Kathy, I'm sure you'd like to build on that.
- [39:36]
B
Well, y' all obviously have a very strong and effective partnership, Kathy.
- [39:40]
A
Well, I think finding a need that's not being already met and building some strong programs from the beginning that people are going to want to give to. And that was one thing that Jeanine was really just instrumental in, just her creativity and coming up with these programs. And, you know, our first program was the contest, and we got kids excited. Jeanine went out on Fox also building the audience. And I remember one of Jeanine's first appearances was back when Glenn Beck was still at Fox and it almost crashed our website because people were so excited about it. And we were. We just didn't know that we need to do something to the website in order to accommodate all these people that were gonna go on. But the website held and these donations started pouring in. And we have so many donations that came in when Jeanine did that round at Fox in June of 2010. And I'd say 80% of those people are still with us, still donating 16 years later. And it's just, it's continuing to add the programs that really fit with the mission and trying to stay true to the mission and not going off, you know, maybe in directions that are not part of the mission. And I think that's something that's important to the donors to know that they can trust Constituent America as an organization and that they understand our mission and they understand that all of our programs support that mission.
- [41:13]
C
One of our programs, our academic study, it builds off something you were saying earlier, Kevin, is entitled history holds the key to the Future. And I always joke when I read these because I'm the co editor of this academic study and I read them online for people. But I always say, and as Shakespeare said, what's past is prologue. So history really, really is important. And another thing I'll say is just don't give up before the miracle. Just if you, if you. And build a bear, if God's implanted a heart for you to do something, just don't give up for the miracle. Just that's the beauty of America. If we, if we just, if we just show up. And it hasn't been easy. I mean, I think what Kathy and I, we've been through a lot together, but the dream and accomplishing it and seeing the impact numbers and, and just knowing that we're trying to do something with our lives that leaves a legacy to make our country a better place. I've had an extraordinary acting career, but sometimes I think this is the most important thing I've ever done because it's for country.
- [42:16]
B
Nice. All right, if somebody listening wants to get more involved in constituting America, what should they do? Kathy?
- [42:24]
A
Well, they can go on our website@constitutingamerica.org, they can sign up for our newsletter. If they're a teacher and they would like us to come speak in their classroom, they can click our Book a Speech button. Or even if they're a parent and they would like us to come speak at their child's school, click the book of Speech and we can reach out and they can help connect us to the schools. But if you're a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, neighbor, and you have a relationship with any students that are ages kindergarten, all the way up through college, grad school, we even have categories for adults and for Teachers, enter our contest. Get all the young people you know to enter our contest. That's a great way to get involved because I believe it's something like 85% of the kids who enter our contest say they learn something new, they learn something they didn't learn about the contest, institution and school. So just entering our contest, kids are learning. And follow our Pursuit project, go on YouTube, watch our videos, and sign up for our 90 day study that we have going on right now on the Declaration of Independence and its impact on important moments in our country's history. How the concept of consent of the governed helped move our country forward in so many different ways. So there's a lot of different ways to get involved. I would say it all. Follow us on Instagram, follow us on all of our socials, on X on Facebook, but most of all, just go on our website and explore what you're most interested in.
- [43:57]
C
And our short film is there. I never actually said the title of it. It's called the Pursuit. Like the pursuit of happiness and industry and whatnot, but it's called the pursuit. So 21 minutes. You can watch the short film or you can watch 90 second episodes, but it's, it's really fun. A lot of people don't know about Sybil Luddington, who rode her, you know, went on a journey longer in the middle of the night to make everybody aware that the redcoats were coming than Paul Revere. And she was a teenager. So she comes into the tavern. It's really fun to see. And Phillis Wheatley, who had been a slave at the time and then was freed, wrote, met with George Washington and adored him and wrote this beautiful poem about George Washington. So our last minute is when Phillis Wheatley comes in the room and reads this sort of ode to George Washington. So it's a lot of unsung heroes, but a lot of people that we do know. But it's a fun, entertaining way to continue to educate because as we say, you know, love of country doesn't stop after the America 250 celebration.
- [44:56]
B
Nice.
- [44:56]
A
And Kevin, I would not be the good reader of your weekly newsletter that I am, your weekly fundraising tips newsletter, if I didn't mention that another way to get involved with constituting America is to become a donor and help fund some of our projects. Become a monthly donor. You can become a monthly donor for as little as $17.76 a month. We currently have a matching grant going on of $250,000 from the Pine Rock Foundation. So every gift right now is matched and we are always raising funds so that we can reach more students, more adults, and have more of an impact on our country.
- [45:35]
B
Excellent. All right, well, Janine, close us out because you were the one who had the initial vision, you had the idea you got with Kathy to bring this into reality. What should anybody listening take away from what you would like to have accomplished for the next 15, 25, 50 years? What would you like us to look back on and see that you helped launch? What would you like us to take away from this conversation today?
- [46:05]
C
Well, first of all, Kevin, thank you for all that you do for our country. You're a great patriot, and thank you for your wonderful show and for all your contributions. I just want to give you an accolade as well. Thank you.
- [46:17]
B
Thank you.
- [46:22]
C
So you're asking what would I like to see? What would be the greatest accomplishment of the foundation or what is the vision that I see?
- [46:29]
B
Exactly. What would you like to see as a result of all, all of this work that you all have done?
- [46:34]
C
From my cloud up there with Kathy, as we look down, yes, it would be a rising, a vibrant, rising generation who loves this country, who understands that we've been through a lot in this country, but we have stair stepped the stair step to enlightenment to understand that it's okay to feel that we live in an exceptional country. It's okay to be proud of our country. None of us are black and white, perfect. And then, you know, but we all are human beings that are striving to do our best to understand that our founding fathers weren't perfect, but they left a legacy of a foundation on which we could build our futures and be free, whether it was religion or to dream the impossible dream, whatever it may be. And to really understand that these documents aren't something that should be tossed over the shoulder. The Declaration of Independence, talking about the life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. But as Kathy was mentioning earlier, my favorite part is the consent of the governed. When we create a government that governs by the consent of the governed, and we often these days, I think it's we the government, not we the people. So if we have these rising generations that then raise their children, raise their children, raise their children, America will survive. And to understand that this Constitution really checks and balances and to really understand what they are, so that when we elect people and vote for people to go take our ideas to D.C. and to become bills that they are obeying the rules. It's a rule book. We teach these kids, like soccer, basketball, gotta have a rule book. So to understand that the Constitution is a really necessary document. So I would love to see 20, 30, 50, 100 years from now that the Declaration of Independence is still vital. As George Washington said, the Declaration is the golden apple and the Constitution is the frame that protects that apple. So it's really a one, two step. So I would love to see 100 years from now where the Declaration of Independence is still going strong and that the Constitution is still going strong and that amendment process is utilized because today we think, oh, executive orders, which may be too much and, and then the Congress, they can be switched and changed. But if you have an amendment, it's most of the time, except for prohibition, it's long lasting. So to understand that we the people can go in and make a difference and not to give up on that because if we give up on our power, we don't have much of a future in all of these documents.
- [49:07]
B
Well, Jeanine Turner, Kathy Gillespie of Constituting America, thank you for joining us on the Going Big podcast. Thank you for all that you're doing to go big for these important ideals in our country.
- [49:19]
A
Thank you, thank you for having us. It was a really great discussion. And like Janine said, Kevin, thank you for so for all you do for our country and for our commonwealth.
- [49:29]
B
All right, we'll have you back in a few years to give us an update. Thanks a lot you all. Oh, great. Thanks for tuning in to the Going Big Podcast. I hope today's conversation left you feeling energized and ready to tap tackle your biggest goals. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review on iTunes, YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps spread the word and it gets these inspiring stories out to more people. You can also find more content, resources and updates at our website, goingbigpodcast.com Remember, the only limits are the ones you don't challenge, the limits that you impose on yourself. Keep pushing, keep growing and above all, keep going big. See you next time on the Going Big Podcast.