Democracy Nerd

Impacted by a number of crises--ranging from 9/11 to the Great Recession to the COVID outbreak--Generation Z has been impacted like no other previous generation. According to John Della Volpe--Director of Polling at Harvard's Institute of Politics and author of "Fight: How Gen-Z is Channeling Their Fear and Passion to Save America"--this makes Gen-Z voters more like "hardened diamonds" and shouldn...

To honor the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., here is a re-airing of a November interview with Reginal C. Oh, professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, who explains how MLK was one of the first practitioners of critical race theory.

Amanda Marcotte, senior politics writer at Salon, joins the podcast to offer her take on 2021's top political stories--and gives a peek ahead at what's in store for 2022.

How are winning coalitions formed in democracies? Do the same variables apply, or does each democracy have its own unique circumstances that form along political cleavages to create a winning majority? How do these political cleavages worsen or mitigate social inequality? Amory Gethin, manager of the World Political Cleavages and Social Inequality Database and co-author of the exhaustive new volum...

What is Critical Race Theory? And why does Fox News hate it so much? Law professor Reginald C. Oh joins the podcast to explain how Critical Race Theory went from an obscure legal academic theory to the latest tactic exploited by the Republican Party for political gain.

Did you buy a cup of coffee this morning? Congratulations. You paid more than 55 corporations pay in taxes. And what are these corporations doing with these savings? Funding the campaigns of candidates who will continue to keep their status quo zero-tax burden. This is according to "The Price of Zero" report issued by consumer advocate organization Public Citizen. Susan Harley, Managing Director o...

Recorded the day after the 2021 elections, Amy Siskind, founder and author of The Weekly List, joins the podcast to offer her analysis and explains that Trumpism continues to pose a threat and vigilance is needed to protect democracy in the 2022 elections.

1932 saw the election of President Franklin Roosevelt and the ushering in of the New Deal. Eric Rauchway, distinguished professor of history from UC Davis and author of "Why the New Deal Matters" joins the podcast to discuss how this combination of ideology and policies continues to impact American life 90 years later, with a reminder that good policy equals good politics.

Mike Rothschild, the author of "The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, a Cult, and Conspiracy of Everything," joins Democracy Nerd to discuss the core beliefs of QAnon, and what steps to take if a friends and loved ones fall down the QAnon rabbit hole.

Since 1983, the Forbes magazine list of the 50 wealthiest families in the United States have seen their wealth increase by an average of 1000% while the average American household has seen their wealth increase 93% during that same time. What do these wealthy families do with the wealth and power they've amassed during that time? Rig the rules for their own personal benefit. Chuck Collins, Directo...

Does America have "Greek-style democracy" all wrong? Would it be possible to have democracy without holding any elections? Joining the podcast to discuss the idea of sortition--or "democratic lotteries"--are Linn Davis from Healthy Democracy and Madeline McCarren from Democracy Without Elections to explain that not only is sortition is a thing, but it is all ready being used in America and around...

Dr. Lawrence Rosenthal, Founder and Chair of UC Berkeley's Center for Right Wing Studies, joins Democracy Nerd to discuss the history of right-wing populism in American politics, the Jan. 6th domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol, and his recent book "Empire of Resentment: Populism's Toxic Embrace of Nationalism."

Bucking the trend of other states passing restrictive and repressive voter suppression laws in response to Trump's Big Lie, the commonwealth of Virginia is bucking this trend by passing its Voting Rights Act, with the novel idea that all citizens have the right to vote. What led to the first Southern state--and the first state previously covered by "preclearance" in the 1965 Voting Rights Act--to...

Author-journalist David Daley joins the podcast to provide a mid-summer check-in, explaining how New York City's first use of ranked-choice resulted in the most diverse city council in the city's history, attempts to explain Sam Alito's reasoning that "some" disparity in the ability to cast votes n Arizona is okay, and also how--through the magic of gerrymandering--if voters vote the same way in 2...

Laura Edelson, Director of NYU's Cybersecurity for Democracy, joins Democracy Nerd to discuss the organization's Ad Observer project to track and report online political advertising on Facebook & Twitter, research regarding the "platform effect" that helps the spread of false and misleading political ads, and the circumstances that led to Facebook sending a "cease and desist" letter.

The For the People Act offers to be the most consequential bill to expand voting rights protections and preserve American democracy in recent memory. With action on the bill in the Senate imminent, Democracy Nerd is joined by Maryland's Congressman John Sarbanes, one of the bill's co-authors, who explains the necessity for this bill to pass in this moment of time, his optimism that some form of vo...

Tierney Sneed, investigative reporter for Talking Points Memo and creator of The Franchise newsletter, joins Democracy Nerd to discuss recent news and updates regarding the state of democracy and voting rights in America, discussing the inclusion of so many "typos" in the voting suppression bill pushed by Texas Republicans, the announcement by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to use the Depar...

Around the world, electoral autocracies are on the rise. On average, the global citizen enjoys a level of democracy not seen since 1990. These facts are from "Autocratization Turns Viral," the fifth annual report from the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute from Sweden's University of Gothenburg. Sebastian Hellmeier and Jean Lachapelle, two of the report's authors, join the podcast to discuss...

How much money is "too much money?" At what point does amassed wealth no longer go towards buying things, but instead exerting power and shaping society? Just what the heck is a "precariat?" These questions are addressed by Chuck Collins, Director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute of Policy Studies, who joins Democracy Nerd to discuss his new book "Wealth Hoarders:...

David Dayen from the American Prospect joins Democracy Nerd to discuss the first 100 days of the Biden Administration, taking a look at the President's use of executive actions, where hope lies for any meaningful bipartisan legislation, and how it may take mobilization efforts to pass a pro-democracy agenda under President Joe Biden.

It's not hard to imagine that democracy in the United States could be improved. What would a better democracy look like? Would it include a parliamentary system--or a proportional representation system? Should universal automatic voter registration be considered? What role would sortition play? To answer these questions and discuss how America's system of government can be improved, Democracy Nerd...

Joel Bakan, author / producer of "The Corporation," joins Democracy Nerd to discuss his follow-up "The New Corporation: How "Good" Corporations Are Bad For Democracy." Bakan explains how despite adopting efforts to portray themselves as good corporate citizens, corporations continue to operate from a single goal of maximizing shareholder profit. As a result, corporations portray themselves as the...

For this past year, a desire to "return to normal" has been shared by nearly all of us. But the COVID pandemic and Black Lived Matter protests revealed that a "return to normal" may not necessarily be the best option. On this episode of Democracy Nerd, host Jefferson Smith speaks with Philip Clayton, president of the Institute for Ecological Civilization and co-editor of "The New Possible: Visions...

In 2021, Seattle will use its Clean Campaigns Act for the first time, which includes ban on political donations from foreign-owned corporations. To discuss how these reforms will impact local elections, Democracy Nerd is joined by Cindy Black from Fix Democracy First and Ron Fein from Free Speech For People.

Victimhood is a powerful tool in modern politics. Even the perception of victimhood inspires supporters and helps justify attacking opponents. Joining Democracy Nerd to discuss the motivating tool of victimhood is Miles Armaly, Assistant Professor of Political Science at University of Mississippi and co-author of a new study, "Why Me? The Role of Perceived Victimhood in American Politics"