Episodes

Building the Public Square: Rich Harwood

Rich Harwood is the president and founder of The Harwood Institute, who just launched a campaign to reclaim the public square from the most divisive voices and build it into a place that can make hope real for all.

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Black Grief/White Grievance: Juliet Hooker

Juliet Hooker is the author of Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss and the Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence in Political Science at Brown University. We talk about how racism has narrowed the political imagination of both black and white citizens.

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Housing is a Moral Issue: Shaun Donovan

Shaun Donovan is the CEO and President of Enterprise Community Partners. We discuss how the deeply entrenched housing crisis has become worse in recent years and the multiple strategies to make home and community places of pride, power, and belonging.

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Building a Black Future: Christopher Paul Harris

Christopher Paul Harris is Assistant Professor of Global and International Studies at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of To Build A Black Future: The Radical Politics of Joy, Pain, and Care. We discuss why addressing our society’s hard-wired prejudices must be a substantial part of our endeavors toward a truly multicultural democracy.

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Have the Conversation: Neal Rickner

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Neal Rickner joins us to talk about the American Values Coalition, a growing community of Americans who are empowered to lead with truth, reject extremism and misinformation, and defend democracy. Get some pointers to dialogue across political divides and across the table.

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Unions and Democracy: Theda Skocpol

Theda Skocpol is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University and co-author of Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working-Class Voters are Turning Away from the Democratic Party. We learn how unions are true laboratories of democracy and why their demise has eroded our democratic culture.

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Cooperation Democracy: Bernard Harcourt

Bernard E. Harcourt is Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Columbia University -- and he was also our very first guest on the podcast! Bernard's most recent book, Cooperation: A Political, Economic, and Social Theory, offers the blueprint for a society based on cooperation.

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Shaping Collective Memory: Hajar Yazdiha

Hajar Yazdiha is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences and the author of The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement. We discuss the role of collective memory in the myth-making of American exceptionalism.

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Everytown for Gun Safety: Nick Suplina

Nick Suplina is Senior Vice President for Law & Policy at Everytown for Gun Safety. He was previously an advisor for New York State’s Attorney General. We discuss how 10 years of grassroots organizing has changed the political calculus on gun safety legislation, starting with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

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Tyranny of the Minority: Steven Levitsky

Steven Levitsky is Professor of Government at Harvard University. Together with Daniel Ziblatt, he is co-author of How Democracies Die and has just published Tyranny of the Minority. They argue that reforming American institutions to become more democratic will help us achieve a multiracial democracy—and in the process save democracy itself.

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Radical Acts of Justice: Jocelyn Simonson

Jocelyn Simonson is Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, a former public defender, and the author of Radical Acts of Justice: How Ordinary People Are Dismantling Mass Incarceration. We discuss how certain radical acts of justice challenge the legitimacy of the criminal system and form the underpinning of a new collective legal thought.

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The Fear of Too Much Justice: Stephen Bright & James Kwak

Stephen Bright and James Kwak are co-authors of The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts. Stephen Bright has been an advocate for death row inmates for four decades and was the long-time director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, where James Kwak is the immediate past chair.

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America Votes: Sara Schreiber

Sara Schreiber is the Executive Director of America Votes, the coordination hub of progressive communities. We discuss expanding access to voting, modernizing elections, and getting out the vote up and down the ballot. The last three election cycles saw a real surge of voters: 46 million people who did not vote in the 2016 election, voted in 2018 or 2020. Unprecedented numbers of voter engagement and pro voter policies have also been implemented since 2016.

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Maximum Impact Volunteering: Yoni Landau

Yoni Landau is the CEO and founder of Movement Labs, the founder of Contest Every Race, and a former White House Office of Management and Budget and Robert Reich staffer. We explore just how technology can empower our practice of democracy and enrich our civic action toolkit.

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Hubert Humphrey and Civil Rights: Samuel G. Freedman

Kurt Andersen is a prolific writer and author of Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History. We discuss the conservative playbook to move our society culturally, economically, and politically to the right, and why continuous civic engagement and investment in Americans can restore basic fairness.

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America’s Raw Deal: Kurt Andersen

Kurt Andersen is a prolific writer and author of Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History. We discuss the conservative playbook to move our society culturally, economically, and politically to the right, and why continuous civic engagement and investment in Americans can restore basic fairness.

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The Right’s Parallel Universe: Anne Nelson

Anne Nelson is an author and lecturer in the fields of international affairs, media, and human rights. Her most recent book is Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right. We discuss the coordination between fundamentalist organizations and oil barons to win elections and pass socially conservative public policies.

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Use Your Footprint for Democracy: David Pepper

David Pepper is a lawyer, writer, political activist, and former elected official. He served as the Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party between 2015 and 2021. He’s the author of several books, including the excellent how-to guide: Saving Democracy: A User’s Manual for Every American. We discuss how every one of us can use our personal footprint to lift democracy.

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Courts for Democracy: Skye Perryman

Skye Perryman is the President and CEO of Democracy Forward, an organization that uses the law to build collective power and advance a bold, vibrant democracy. We discuss successful legal action to protect and advance the rights of all Americans.

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