Democracy in Danger

Let’s face it. Sometimes you can’t stand your neighbor’s guts. Problem is, contempt for people who think differently from you is the death knell of democracy, says writer Anand Giridharadas. He set out in search of the lost art of persuasion, and found it: among activists, cult-deprogrammers, political organizers and deep canvassers. Giridharadas shares what he found and offers some advice on how...

The 75th anniversary of Israel’s founding was met in May with another round of bloodshed. As the Islamic Jihad fired rockets from Gaza, the Israeli military responded with brutal airstrikes, killing civilians. Meanwhile, thousands have taken to the streets in Israel — to little avail — protesting the authoritarian moves of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We revisit our conversation with one Pal...

Manasseh Mathiang was twice exiled from his homeland. Once: as a child fleeing a bloody civil war. A second time: as an activist helping to build a new country before running afoul of the authorities. His crime? Singing for freedom and justice in South Sudan, where the government promised democratic reforms and delivered oppression instead. Still, Mathiang and fellow creators continue their strugg...

The civil rights movement was a huge leap forward for voting rights, yet one big part of the electorate remains largely on the sidelines: the poor. Legal scholar Bertrall Ross points to low turnout among the bottom 20 percent of American earners as an insidious form of voter suppression, all but guaranteeing their interests won’t be served. And he offers some ideas on how to get political campaign...

Early in 2017, millions of women marched in solidarity to oppose Donald Trump’s inauguration. In a small Texas county, meantime, a growing network of like-minded ladies found each other — and began meeting in secret. One scholar followed these women as they became improbable, undercover champions of civic engagement while keeping their activism hidden, from their husbands, families and neighbors....

Catch up this summer on what you’ve missed. Today, legal scholar Jedediah Purdy joins Will and Siva to talk about the people and the law. Can Americans transcend gross inequality, neoliberal ideology, and the “politics of nihilism” taking root among their leaders? Looking to Frederick Douglass for inspiration, Purdy thinks so. His says citizens need to reimagine and rebuild the body politic — to r...

This May, the 75th anniversary of Israel’s founding was met with another round of fighting. As the Islamic Jihad fired rockets from Gaza, the Israeli military responded with brutal airstrikes. Meanwhile, thousands have been taking to the streets in Israel to oppose the authoritarian moves of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Two analysts — one Palestinian, one Israeli — offer some context on thes...

Law enforcement is among the most undemocratic institutions in America, says New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. And the effect this has on communities of color is especially stark. Bouie visits Will and Siva’s class for another live recording with their students, to discuss police brutality, the country’s culture of violence, and the shifting ground of racial oppression in U.S. history. How c...

After Elon Musk bought Twitter and fired most of its staff, the platform seems to be floundering, if not imploding. Traffic is flagging, major news outlets have abandoned their handles, hate speech is on the rise. And yet, Twitter remains one of the easiest ways to speak out in public. Media scholar Meredith Clark doesn’t know if Twitter will survive, but she does know it’s a repository for a rema...

Manasseh Mathiang was twice exiled from his homeland. Once: as a child fleeing a bloody civil war. A second time: as an activist who returned to help build a new country but ran afoul of the authorities. His crime? Singing for freedom and justice in South Sudan, where the government promised democratic reforms and delivered oppression instead. Still, Mathiang and fellow artists of the Anataban mov...

The civil rights movement was a huge leap forward for voting rights, yet one group of the electorate remains largely on the sidelines: the poor. Legal scholar Bertrall Ross calls low turnout among the bottom 20 percent of American earners an insidious form of voter suppression, all but guaranteeing their interests won’t be served. And he offers some ideas on how to get political campaigns to court...

This time on the show, we bring you a tale of two struggles. In Ukraine, a 16-year-old living just miles from the Russian border does what she can in the face of missile strikes, power outages and daily trauma. And in Estonia, an exiled Russian activist works to oppose Putin’s war and help refugees escape the conflict. Where democracy is most in danger, they teach us, joy comes from standing up fo...

The end of federal protection for abortion rights has led to a patchwork of state and local laws banning and even criminalizing healthcare choices that women continue to make every day. Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, visits Will and Siva’s class to discuss the implications of these developments for her work, as she combats a culture of shame and stigma around abortio...

As many as a quarter of U.S. residents are foreign-born or the children of immigrants. Since the country’s founding, newcomers have made and remade the United States every generation. And yet debates about immigration policy are deeply fraught, highly cyclical and often coded in racial animus, says legal scholar Amanda Frost. America’s pathways to citizenship have gotten narrower in recent years,...

America’s Constitution was meant to unify the new nation and help avert a civil war over the thorniest of divisions: slavery. Oops! In retrospect, that charter proved much too ambiguous, lending itself to both proslavery and abolitionist causes. In this season’s premiere, historian Liz Varon discusses the deep roots of polarization in the United States — with Will, Siva and an auditorium full of t...

The high court’s conservatives insist that strict readings of the U.S. Constitution have compelled them to strike down popular policies like abortion rights and campaign finance limits. Well, legal expert Christopher Sprigman has some news for these robed rogues. Buried in the law of the land is the key to reining in the federal judiciary. All Congress has to do is act, he says. And all the people...

We’ve never been a podcast about “Democrats” in danger. But in the United States, one political party epitomizes the antidemocratic moment. Donald Trump’s influence may be waning, but many Republicans remain devoted to his style, intent on suppressing the vote and hostile to racial justice. After last week’s debacle in the House, we bring you an episode (one more time!) that takes a hard look at t...

A consummate G-man, J. Edgar Hoover led the FBI for four decades, becoming one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. Demanding rigor, loyalty and stealth from his subordinates, he worked closely with presidents of both parties, but his own views were steeped in conservative ideas on religion, race and anticommunism. As new details emerge about the present-day investigation of Donald...

Let’s face it. There are times you can’t stand your neighbor’s guts. The problem is, contempt and disgust for people who think differently from you is the death knell of democracy, says writer Anand Giridharadas. Over the last few years, he set out in search of the lost art of persuasion, and found it: among activists, cult-deprogrammers, political organizers and deep canvassers. Giridharadas shar...

Two years ago, on the heels of mass protests, Chileans overwhelmingly agreed: they needed to draft a new constitution. This September, faced with an up-or-down referendum on one of the most progressive governing charters in world history, they balked. What went wrong? Political theorist Camila Vergara breaks down the breakdown in her country’s efforts to scrap a political framework dating back to...

Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry were returning from a field trip with their classmates when their lives were cut short. The gunman who killed them has been identified as another student on the trip. Our hosts and producers sit down together to mourn and make sense of yet another tragedy too close to home. And they ask: Where do we go from here — as a school, as a town, as a societ...

The United States hasn’t overhauled immigration policy since the 1990s, even though most Americans agree the system is failing. And for thousands fleeing violence in Latin America, the consequences of inaction in Washington are treacherous. Will and our colleague Debbie Kang speak this time with a scholar fighting for asylum cases to get a fair shake, especially for women and LGBTQ applicants faci...

A consummate G-man, J. Edgar Hoover led the FBI for close to 40 years, becoming one of the most influential figures of the 20th century. Demanding rigor, loyalty and stealth from his subordinates, he worked closely with presidents of both parties, but his own views were steeped in conservative ideas on religion, race and anticommunism. Historian Beverly Gage considers Hoover’s legacy and helps us...

Pollsters in Brazil had Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the comeback candidate, leading by as many as 14 percentage points in the presidential election. But neither top nominee won a majority this month, sending citizens back to the polls for a historic runoff. And democracy itself is on the line. Incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro has waged war on reality, sowed division on social media and attacked t...

The U.S. Constitution is an 18th-century straitjacket. It’s almost impossible to amend, it gives outsize power to small states, and its meaning is subject to the whims of unelected and increasingly intransigent judges. So what’s new? Well, you might be intrigued to learn on this episode just how America might wrench itself out of that morass, short of trashing the Constitution altogether. With the...