Episodes
Building Authoritarian Power: Nathan Stoltzfus
Nathan Stoltzfus is the Dorothy and Jonathan Rintels Professor of Holocaust Studies at Florida State University and author of Hitler's Compromises: Coercion and Consensus in Nazi Germany. We discuss how Hitler used popularity, legitimacy, and ideology to build power for himself and the Nazi Party.
Building Power Online: Alice Marwick
Alice Marwick is Associate Professor of Communication and a Principal Researcher at the Center for Information Technology and Public Life at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. We discuss whether social media can build and sustain political movements, help politicians win elections, and how it has changed the way we interact with politics.
Digital Labor Organizing: Jess Kutch
Jess Kutch is co-founder of Coworker.org, a platform that deploys digital tools, data, and strategies to help workers experiment with power-building and win meaningful change in the 21st century economy. We discuss the importance of worker voice, organizing in the digital age, and practicing democracy in the workplace.
Supreme Inequality: Adam Cohen
Adam Cohen, senior writer for Time magazine and prior member of The New York Times editorial board, is the author of Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court's Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America. We discuss the power of the Supreme Court, the far-reaching consequences of the court’s decisions, and the decades-long consistency of rulings against America’s poor.
Decolonizing America: Nick Tilsen
Nick Tilsen is the President and CEO of NDN Collective, an organization led by Indigenous People that builds Indigenous power and restores Indigenous self-determination. We discuss decolonization, revitalizing Indigenous cultures and languages, and creating sustainable solutions on Indigenous terms.
Building Civic Power: K. Sabeel Rahman
K. Sabeel Rahman is an Associate Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, and co-author of Civic Power: Rebuilding American Democracy in an Era of Crisis. We discuss the concept of civic power, putting policy-making decisions in the hands of affected communities, and building an equitable economy for all Americans.
State Capture: Alex Hertel-Fernandez
Alex Hertel-Fernandez is Associate Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and the author of State Capture: How Conservative Activists, Big Businesses, and Wealthy Donors Reshaped the American States – and the Nation. We discuss the efficacy of controlling state legislatures and implementing public policies to reshape the political terrain.
Organizing Power: Theda Skocpol and Caroline Tervo
Theda Skocpol is Professor of Government at Harvard University, where Caroline Tervo is a Research Editor. They edited Upending American Politics: Polarizing Parties, Ideological Elites, and Citizen Activists from the Tea Party to the Anti-Trump Resistance, which looks at organized collective action on the Left and Right and their impact on state, local, and national politics.
Energizing Local Politics: Drew Kromer
Drew Kromer built a Democratic party precinct in Davidson, NC, recently served as the Vice Chair of the National Council of College Democrats, and is currently a PLEO delegate for Vice President Biden. We discuss the importance of local politics, building a deep bench of candidates and volunteers, and the need to show up and be engaged.
Politics is for Power: Eitan D. Hersh
Eitan D. Hersh is associate professor at Tufts University and author of Politics is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change. We discuss how politics is the way we solve our society’s problems and why building political power is the key to making our civic engagement effective.
Sexual Citizens: Jennifer S. Hirsch & Shamus Khan
Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan are Columbia University professors and co-authors of Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus. We discuss the concept of sexual citizenship, the need for comprehensive sex education, and the systemic factors that contribute to sexual assault.
Surveillance Capitalism: Shoshana Zuboff
Shoshana Zuboff is a Harvard Professor emerita and the author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. We discuss the creation of a human futures market by surveillance capitalists and the pursuit to replace democratic governance with computational governance by instrumentarian power.
This episode was recognized by the Asian American Podcasters Association with their Golden Crane Award for Best Interview.
Canvassing with Love: David Fleischer
David Fleischer is the Director of the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Leadership Lab. Through their work in talking to thousands of voters, the Center created “deep canvassing,” a method of exchanging narratives to find common ground and decrease prejudice. We discuss how changing minds begins with the heart.
Deconstructing the Alt-Right: Alexandra Minna Stern
Alexandra Minna Stern is a professor at the University of Michigan and author of Proud Boys and the White Ethnostate: How the Alt-Right Warped the American Imagination. We discuss the meta-political work of the Alt-Right in mainstreaming white supremacy and ways to counter this ideology.
The Roots of Conservative Media: Nicole Hemmer
Nicole Hemmer is a political historian and the author of Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics. We discuss the birth of conservative media activism, the different way conservatives understand truth, and their impact on American society.
Political Communication Ethics: Peter Loge
Peter Loge is the founding Director of the Project on Ethics in Political Communication and an Associate Professor at The George Washington University. We discuss making American civil religion the moral backbone of our body politic through ethical communication, substantive press coverage of politics and policy, and promoting the truth.
Fact-Checking for Truth: Jon Z. Greenberg
Jon Z. Greenberg is a Senior Correspondent at PolitiFact, a not-for-profit news organization that seeks to present the true facts, unaffected by agenda or biases. We discuss who gets fact-checked, how it works, and why speaking truth to power is one of the most important things we can do.
The New Conspiracism: Nancy Rosenblum
Nancy Rosenblum is Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government at Harvard University and co-author of A Lot of People are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy. We discuss why this kind of conspiracism is deeply destructive to our society and how enacting democracy can protect reality and relegimitate our institutions.
The Risks of Fake News: Travis I. Trammell & Elisabeth Paté-Cornell
Lt. Col. Travis I. Trammell worked with Stanford Professor Elisabeth Paté-Cornell to analyze the risks of fake news and create a management decision model to combat disinformation. We discuss the national security risks posed by fake news from other nation states, the kind of influence campaign to expect in 2020, and the most effective countermeasures.
The Truth Sandwich: George Lakoff
George Lakoff is an emeritus professor of cognitive science and linguistics at UC Berkeley whose research includes the language of politics in which we reside. We discuss the importance of framing the truth first, his famous "truth sandwich," and why the press is critical to a functioning democracy.