1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,560 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff 2 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:14,360 Speaker 1: Lauren Volebam Here, politicians often act like children, whether it's 3 00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:17,040 Speaker 1: calling each other names, getting into slap fights on the 4 00:00:17,120 --> 00:00:20,560 Speaker 1: legislative floor, or simply taking their toys and stomping off 5 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:24,560 Speaker 1: to another sandbox. The way lawmakers act, you'd be surprised 6 00:00:24,680 --> 00:00:28,520 Speaker 1: they aren't still in preschool. The truth is that many 7 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:31,680 Speaker 1: countries around the globe require their elected officials to have 8 00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:35,440 Speaker 1: some life experience under their belts. That includes the US 9 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:37,760 Speaker 1: or you have to be at least thirty five years 10 00:00:37,760 --> 00:00:39,920 Speaker 1: old to be eligible to take the keys to the 11 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:44,760 Speaker 1: White House for the article. This episode is based on 12 00:00:44,880 --> 00:00:47,600 Speaker 1: How Stuff Work. Spoke with John Siri, a government and 13 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:52,600 Speaker 1: politics professor at Pomona College. He said, most advanced democracies 14 00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:55,840 Speaker 1: have an age requirement for the top executive office. It's 15 00:00:56,120 --> 00:01:00,360 Speaker 1: just a matter of where they said it. The US 16 00:01:00,480 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 1: Constitution imposes three eligibility requirements on anyone thinking about running 17 00:01:04,920 --> 00:01:08,440 Speaker 1: for president. In order to actually take the office, you 18 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:10,839 Speaker 1: have to be a natural born citizen of the US, 19 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:13,280 Speaker 1: You must have lived in the US for at least 20 00:01:13,360 --> 00:01:16,080 Speaker 1: the last fourteen years, and you have to be no 21 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:20,080 Speaker 1: less than thirty five years old, all of which appear 22 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:22,360 Speaker 1: likely to remain the law of the land for the 23 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:27,520 Speaker 1: foreseeable future, but it has been brought into question. A 24 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:30,080 Speaker 1: Serie is the author of the book Too Young to 25 00:01:30,160 --> 00:01:33,320 Speaker 1: Run a proposal for an age amendment to the US Constitution. 26 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:37,280 Speaker 1: He argues that the age requirement is a remnant from 27 00:01:37,280 --> 00:01:40,920 Speaker 1: the country's early days, in which American patriots were still 28 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:43,759 Speaker 1: just a little wary about finding themselves under the rule 29 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:47,280 Speaker 1: of a king or other dictatorship. That's why we have 30 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:51,360 Speaker 1: term limits and elections every four years. But the age 31 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:54,559 Speaker 1: requirement was one way to safeguard what John Adams called 32 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:59,080 Speaker 1: our natural aristocracy, or one in which leaders rise on merit, 33 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:05,080 Speaker 1: not by right. Siri explained, monarchs often succeed to the 34 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: throne at an early age, so if you make it 35 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:11,440 Speaker 1: old enough, the age minimum is one hedge against monarchs. 36 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:15,760 Speaker 1: In other words, modernly, we might be a bit obsessed 37 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:19,200 Speaker 1: with the British and Targarian royal families, but we're still 38 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:23,720 Speaker 1: not keen to have one of our own. Still, it 39 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:27,880 Speaker 1: remains unclear where the Constitution's drafters pulled thirty five as 40 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:31,840 Speaker 1: the appropriate age to become the country's chief executive. You 41 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:34,520 Speaker 1: might ask, wasn't that a bit old for the era? 42 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:37,560 Speaker 1: Didn't people back then come of age earlier than they 43 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:42,360 Speaker 1: do now and die earlier too. It's true that the 44 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:46,280 Speaker 1: average life expectancy in late seventeen hundreds America was only 45 00:02:46,440 --> 00:02:50,919 Speaker 1: thirty eight years of age, but remember that that's the average. 46 00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:54,600 Speaker 1: It's skewed young because so many infants and children died 47 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:57,720 Speaker 1: before they reached adulthood, affected by diseases that we have 48 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:01,400 Speaker 1: vaccines and antibiotics and other modern medicine to fix. Now, 49 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:04,799 Speaker 1: if you lived past even the age of five, your 50 00:03:04,919 --> 00:03:09,000 Speaker 1: average life expectancy jumped to over fifty, and people regularly 51 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:13,160 Speaker 1: lived into their seventies and beyond. Founding father Benjamin Franklin 52 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:15,880 Speaker 1: turned seventy the same year that he signed the Declaration 53 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:20,920 Speaker 1: of Independence. According to Siri, the founders who set the 54 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:24,440 Speaker 1: age requirement probably looked to the Roman Republic, which has 55 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:28,400 Speaker 1: served as a model for government for centuries. Roman councilors 56 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:32,760 Speaker 1: were required to be at least thirty five years old. 57 00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:37,160 Speaker 1: So yes, the American presidential age minimum stems from a 58 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:40,200 Speaker 1: centuries old concern about kings and queens ruling from an 59 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:44,520 Speaker 1: iron throne and draws inspiration from millennia old bureaucrats who 60 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:48,320 Speaker 1: governed Rome. Maybe that's why some people say the rules 61 00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:50,920 Speaker 1: should be changed and have even tried to officially petition 62 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:56,240 Speaker 1: the government. The arguments against the age limit are pretty straightforward. 63 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:58,880 Speaker 1: You can drive a car, be sent off to war, 64 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:01,600 Speaker 1: and vote an election by the time you reach eighteen. 65 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:04,440 Speaker 1: You can be a state representative at twenty five and 66 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:08,320 Speaker 1: a senator at thirty. So at any of these points, 67 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:10,640 Speaker 1: why shouldn't you be able to sit at the grown 68 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 1: up table and help make the big decisions. On the 69 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:18,080 Speaker 1: other hand, there's the wisdom that comes with experience and 70 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:22,400 Speaker 1: the knowledge that comes with learning over time. Biologically speaking, 71 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:26,240 Speaker 1: that pop science concept that our prefrontal corteses finished developing 72 00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:29,520 Speaker 1: in our mid twenties isn't really true. But our brains 73 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 1: develop at different paces, and research has shown that structural 74 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,600 Speaker 1: growth can continue into our thirties at least. But that's 75 00:04:36,680 --> 00:04:40,039 Speaker 1: possibly even more evidence that the possessor of a slightly 76 00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 1: older brain might be a better choice for high office. 77 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:48,000 Speaker 1: Of course, there's always a stigma that you in our 78 00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 1: generations are dumb and can't be trusted. After all, the 79 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:56,920 Speaker 1: country's youngest president, Theodore Roosevelt was already forty two years 80 00:04:56,960 --> 00:04:59,360 Speaker 1: old when he rose to the office after the assassination 81 00:04:59,480 --> 00:05:04,120 Speaker 1: of William McKinley. But when you look back in history, 82 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:07,760 Speaker 1: think of someone like Alexander the Great, who conquered much 83 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:10,479 Speaker 1: of the known world and managed an empire all before 84 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:13,960 Speaker 1: dying at the age of thirty two. Maybe you were 85 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:17,400 Speaker 1: missing out on some upstart government whiz who could heal 86 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:22,080 Speaker 1: everything ailing Old Uncle Sam, the lebron James of politics 87 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:24,520 Speaker 1: could be sitting out there just waiting for their chance 88 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:27,880 Speaker 1: to wipe out the country's debt and hunger and install 89 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:32,080 Speaker 1: teleporters nationwide. Instead, that person is probably coming up with 90 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:38,040 Speaker 1: a cool new app somewhere in Silicon Valley. Siri thinks 91 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:40,599 Speaker 1: that maybe we have the whole age thing upside down. 92 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:44,000 Speaker 1: He said, if you're going to have age restrictions, they 93 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:48,640 Speaker 1: should probably be against old dodding people, which is a 94 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: strong statement, although it is worth noting that throughout American 95 00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:55,520 Speaker 1: history about three quarters of our presidence have been between 96 00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:59,360 Speaker 1: the ages of fifty and sixty five, and our candidates 97 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:03,240 Speaker 1: are getting old. In nineteen eighty one, Reagan was the 98 00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:06,360 Speaker 1: oldest president to ever come to office, at age sixty nine. 99 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:10,719 Speaker 1: Until Trump and Biden recently followed at ages seventy and 100 00:06:10,839 --> 00:06:15,560 Speaker 1: seventy eight, respectively. It would take an amendment to the 101 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:19,360 Speaker 1: Constitution to change the age limit in either direction, which 102 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:22,640 Speaker 1: itself would require by partisan action, the likes of which 103 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:27,119 Speaker 1: are rare in today's political environment. But as of twenty 104 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:30,280 Speaker 1: twenty three, a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center 105 00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:33,520 Speaker 1: found that a whopping eighty percent of Americans think there 106 00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:37,919 Speaker 1: should be an upper age limit on federal elected officials. So, 107 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:41,880 Speaker 1: however strong series statement is, it seems that a lot 108 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:49,080 Speaker 1: of us agree with him. Today's episode is based on 109 00:06:49,120 --> 00:06:52,160 Speaker 1: the article should the US let people younger than thirty five? Run? 110 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:55,080 Speaker 1: For president? On how stuffworks dot Com, written by Chrisoffer. 111 00:06:55,640 --> 00:06:58,520 Speaker 1: Brainstuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks 112 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:01,200 Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Playing four more 113 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:05,000 Speaker 1: podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 114 00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:06,960 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.