Radiolab

06/11/2026 · 55 min

More Perfect: Cruel and Unusual

This week, we’re replaying the inaugural episode of More Perfect (first aired in 2016) we explore three little words embedded in the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: “cruel and unusual.” America has long wrestled with this concept in the context of our strongest punishment, the death penalty. A majority of “we the people” (61 percent, to be exact) are in favor of having it, but inside the Supreme Court, opinions have evolved over time in surprising ways. And outside of the court, the debate drove one woman in the UK to take on the U.S. death penalty system from Europe. It also caused states to resuscitate old methods used for executing prisoners on death row. And perhaps more than anything, it forced a conversation on what constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. In this episode, we also include a new conversation with Harvard law professor Carol Steiker and former death-row inmate Damien Nichols about the moment the death penalty finds itself in now. After the botched execution of Christa Pike, and with the government considering livestreaming a firing squad execution, how do we understand the death penalty in 2026? Special thanks to Claire Phillips, Nina Perry, Stephanie Jenkins, Ralph Dellapiana, Byrd Pinkerton, Elisabeth Semel, Christina Spaulding, Carol Steiker, Damien Nichols, and The Marshall Project EPISODE CREDITS: Update Reported by - Karen Duffin Update Produced by - Mona Madgavkar, and Matt Kielty with mixing help from - Jeremy Bloom and Arianne Wack Fact-checking by - Hilary Elkins Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org . Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.