16th Amendment Ratification Explained [Deep Dive] - February 3rd, 2026

[00:00] Jonah Klein: From Neural Newscast, this is Deep Dive. [00:03] Evelyn Hartwell: I'm Evelyn Hartwell. [00:04] Evelyn Hartwell: And I'm Jonah Klein. [00:06] Evelyn Hartwell: Today is February 3rd, and we're going to connect one constitutional sentence to, like, [00:12] Evelyn Hartwell: a century of real-world consequences. [00:15] Jonah Klein: Our anchor story is the ratification of the 16th Amendment in 1913, giving Congress the [00:21] Jonah Klein: power to collect income taxes without apportioning them among the states. [00:25] Jonah Klein: and will also hit three birthdays plus a quick money milestone from 1690. [00:31] Evelyn Hartwell: It sounds like paperwork, but it's basically the origin story for how the federal government reliably pays for what it does. [00:38] Jonah Klein: So what did the 16th Amendment actually do? [00:43] Jonah Klein: It clarified that Congress can tax income directly and that this kind of tax doesn't have to be divided up among states based on population. [00:53] Evelyn Hartwell: Apportionment is the part that makes people's eyes glaze over, but it's the key. [00:58] Evelyn Hartwell: If a tax has to be apportioned, each state owes a share tied to its population, [01:03] Evelyn Hartwell: not to how much income is actually earned there. [01:05] Jonah Klein: Yep. And that constraint makes an income tax hard to administer. [01:10] Jonah Klein: And in a lot of scenarios, kind of mathematically awkward. [01:14] Jonah Klein: The amendment removed the barrier by putting income taxes on solid constitutional footing [01:19] Jonah Klein: without the apportionment requirement. [01:21] Evelyn Hartwell: And that shift matters because income is a moving target. [01:26] Evelyn Hartwell: It grows, shrinks, concentrates, spreads out. [01:29] Evelyn Hartwell: A revenue tool that can track the economy gives the federal government way more flexibility than a rigid state-by-state quota. [01:36] Jonah Klein: The impact is structural. [01:39] Jonah Klein: With the 16th Amendment, federal funding could scale with national economic activity, [01:44] Jonah Klein: which changed the long-term capacity of the government to operate and plan. [01:48] Jonah Klein: And it reshaped public debates, too, because once income tax is firmly established, [01:53] Jonah Klein: the arguments move to rates, definitions, and perceived fairness. [01:58] Evelyn Hartwell: So February 3rd, 1913 is not just a date for constitutional trivia. [02:04] Evelyn Hartwell: It's a pivot toward the modern fiscal state, for better or worse, depending on your politics, but undeniably a turning point. [02:12] Jonah Klein: Let's move from law to legacy with three people born on February 3rd, each of whom changed what society thought was possible in their field. [02:22] Evelyn Hartwell: First up, Felix Mendelssohn, born in 1809. [02:26] Evelyn Hartwell: If your brain instantly goes to something bright and cinematic, there's a reason. [02:31] Evelyn Hartwell: His music sits right in that sweet spot between classical clarity and romantic color. [02:36] Jonah Klein: Mendelssohn was a German composer, pianist, and conductor, widely known for pieces including [02:42] Jonah Klein: a midsummer night's dream and the Italian symphony. [02:46] Jonah Klein: His significance isn't just popularity, it's craftsmanship, a kind of musical architecture that still feels fresh to listeners centuries later. [02:56] Evelyn Hartwell: Mm-hmm. And he's also a reminder that cultural influence is partly about range. [03:01] Evelyn Hartwell: Composer, performer, conductor, he wasn't only writing music, he was shaping how it was heard and valued. [03:08] Jonah Klein: Our second birthday is Elizabeth Blackwell, born in 1821. [03:13] Jonah Klein: She was a British physician who became the first woman to receive a medical degree in the [03:18] Jonah Klein: United States. [03:19] Evelyn Hartwell: That accomplishment sounds like a single headline, but it implies years of closed [03:24] Evelyn Hartwell: doors, skepticism, and institutional friction. [03:28] Evelyn Hartwell: Being first means you're also the test case, and usually the target. [03:32] Jonah Klein: Right. [03:33] Jonah Klein: Blackwell's significance is both personal and systemic. [03:37] Jonah Klein: Her achievement expanded the idea of who could be a physician, and it helped crack open professional pathways for women in medicine that had been treated as off-limits. [03:48] Evelyn Hartwell: Third birthday, Kertrude Stein, born in 1874. [03:52] Evelyn Hartwell: If Mendelssohn is structure and melody, Stein is language as experimentation. [03:58] Evelyn Hartwell: She's the modernist who made people argue about what writing is supposed to do. [04:02] Jonah Klein: Stein was an American novelist, poet, and playwright, and a central figure in Paris' expatriate community. [04:10] Jonah Klein: Her significance comes from both her avant-garde literary style and her role as a connector, [04:17] Jonah Klein: creating a space where modernist ideas could circulate among writers and artists. [04:22] Evelyn Hartwell: That's such a useful reminder for internet culture too, Evelyn. [04:26] Evelyn Hartwell: Sometimes the most powerful job is being the node in the network, [04:30] Evelyn Hartwell: the person who turns individual talent into a scene. [04:33] Jonah Klein: Let's close with our fact of the day because it pairs surprisingly well with the 16th Amendment. [04:40] Jonah Klein: On February 3, 1690, the Massachusetts Bay Colony issued the first paper money in the Americas [04:47] Jonah Klein: to pay soldiers returning from Quebec. [04:50] Evelyn Hartwell: Which is wild when you think about it. [04:52] Evelyn Hartwell: Paper is only money if people believe it is. [04:55] Evelyn Hartwell: So this is an early experiment in trust, [04:58] Evelyn Hartwell: backed by a government trying to solve a real payment problem fast. [05:02] Jonah Klein: And it marks the birth of paper currency in the new world. [05:06] Jonah Klein: The significance is that it shows how institutions and public confidence [05:11] Jonah Klein: can turn a promise into a widely used tool, [05:14] Jonah Klein: long before most people could imagine modern banking or today's financial systems. [05:20] Evelyn Hartwell: Indeed, today's thread is power and legitimacy. [05:24] Evelyn Hartwell: Paper money in 1690 depends on trust. [05:27] Evelyn Hartwell: Income taxes after 1913 depend on constitutional authority, [05:32] Evelyn Hartwell: and all three birthdays show how legitimacy gets rebuilt [05:35] Evelyn Hartwell: when someone does the unprecedented. [05:38] Jonah Klein: That's our February 3rd deep dive. [05:40] Jonah Klein: I'm Evelyn Hartwell. [05:42] Evelyn Hartwell: And I'm Jonah Klein. [05:43] Evelyn Hartwell: Thanks for listening. [05:44] Evelyn Hartwell: If you want more episodes and the archive, head to deepdive.neuralnewscast.com. [05:50] Evelyn Hartwell: Deep dive is AI-assisted, human-reviewed. [05:53] Evelyn Hartwell: Explore history every day on Neural Newscast.