Is It Time to Do Away With America’s Sacred Text?

Coming up on today’s show:

• Sunday is Constitution Day, the 230th anniversary of the ratification of the Constitution. Georgetown Law Professor Louis Michael Seidman argues it’s time to leave the Constitution behind. 

• The first episode of the new 10-part documentary series from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, “The Vietnam War,” premiers on Sunday, and it aims to challenge previous perceptions about the conflict. Thanh Tan, host of the podcast Second Wave, says her family fled Vietnam during the war. She discusses her own understanding of the war, and how it changed after seeing the documentary.

• Today, the Cassini spacecraft ended its mission with a “grand finale” by plunging into Saturn’s atmosphere. The spacecraft spent 13 years zipping around Saturn and its many moons, teaching us much more about the gas giant and its satellites. For a deeper look at Cassini, The Takeaway turns to Emily Rice, an astrophysicist and researcher at the American Museum of Natural History.

• Every Friday, Rafer Guzman, film critic for Newsday and The Takeaway, drops by to review the new films hitting the box office. This week, Rafer discusses the action flick “American Assassin,” the drama “First They Killed My Father,” and the mystery-thriller “Mother!” 

• For those who study birds, the 9/11 Tribute in Light provides an ample laboratory to examine how birds are affected by light pollution. Andrew Farnsworth and his team with the Cornell Ornithology Lab quantified how many birds were on site, what species were there, where they were coming from, and how their behavior changed. It’s all an attempt to understand how birds are adapting to an environment that is increasingly dominated by humans.  

• A week after Hurricane Irma hit Florida, we check in with Florida Keys Reporter Nancy Klingener. She did not evacuate the Keys, and explains how her family is holding up and what her community is facing in order to rebuild.

This episode is hosted by Todd Zwillich.