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Robert Springborg is an internationally renowned historian, scholar, and advisor on the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). He is a Research Fellow at the Italian Institute of International Affairs and Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University. He has written extensively on the region, including the recent books  Egypt’s New Authoritarian Republic  (2025) and  Politica...

Robert Springborg is an internationally renowned historian, scholar, and advisor on the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). He is a Research Fellow at the Italian Institute of International Affairs and Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University. He has written extensively on the region, including the recent books Egypt’s New Authoritarian Republic (2025) and Political E...

Robert Springborg is an internationally renowned historian, scholar, and advisor on the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). He is a Research Fellow at the Italian Institute of International Affairs and Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University. He has written extensively on the region, including the recent books Egypt’s New Authoritarian Republic (2025) and Political E...

Part Two, “Keeping Beauty Alive,” explores how Karolina Merska moves from preserving tradition to giving it new life. Through her own contemporary work, Folka, teaching, writing, and travel, she shows how traditional craft can evolve while honoring its origins—and how making can reconnect people with culture, community, and one another. Ultimately, the conversation asks whether traditions survive...

Part One, “Searching for Forgotten Crafts,” traces Karolina Merska’s journey into the nearly forgotten world of Polish folk traditions. Through her discovery of pająki—delicate chandeliers made from rye straw and paper—she seeks out traditional makers, learns their techniques, and discovers the rituals, stories, and sense of community embedded in their work. Her journey becomes not simply about le...

In conversation with Royce Epstein, Senior Director, Design Insights for Mohawk Group, we explore an idea as old as making itself: technology isn't the opposite of craft. It has always been part of it. Returning to the ancient Greek idea of techne—the art, craft and skill of making—Royce explores the enduring relationship between human creativity and the tools we create. As our digital tools becom...

Episode seven concludes by offering up a suggestion for who could lead this campaign, by identifying individuals who, in serving at the nexus of community and commerce, stand at the forefront of change. And it offers specific recommendations as to how you might help.   Episode 7 00:00 Introduction to Dignity by Design Podcast 01:30 A Letter to America: Who Might Lead? 05:14 The Role of Creatives a...

Episode six goes further that most commentators by offering up a plan to achieve the goal of political reform through the eco-cultural community framework. It articulates how Human Dignity Projects could serve both a research and marketing function, developing ideas and promoting actions aligned with human dignity and greater enfranchisement. And it outlines the Campaign for Human Dignity, which i...

Episode five establishes a way forward, grounding the eco-cultural community in moral and ethical arguments, as well as in historical evidence and new economic and environmental studies. It is here the argument is put forward that human dignity and living a dignified human existence needs to underpin the eco-cultural community. Episode five sets the stage for establishing the “Campaign for Human D...

Episode four – released on July 4th, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence – sets forth the means for the populace to take back power, one that grounds its argument in America’s founding, thereby legitimating the cause called for, which is true revolutionary reform. Episode four sets the stage for recommending the eco-cultural community as a framework through whic...

Episode three reveals how this tyrant’s unique character creates a heightened danger as it morphs into a totalitarian personality, defined as that is through a new understanding of totalitarianism being a logocracy. Episode three argues the tyrant as totalitarian is an aberration and sets the stage for America and Americans to reclaim their founding principles and take back their power. Episode 3...

Episode two legitimates the charge set forth in episode one, by explaining the character of this tyrant and how his character differs from those of other tyrants across time. Episode two not only explains how this tyrant differs from other authoritarian leaders – whether they be chieftains, monarchs, dictators, fascists, communist, nazis or state authoritarians – but sets the stage for how such a...

Episode one sets forth a personal case to America: that a tyrant rules over America, one who ignores historical origins and constitutional constraints as he solidifies his personal power and wealth while diminishing if not eliminating the unalienable rights granted to the very people whom he took an oath to protect. Episode one sets forth the charge and explains how this situation came to be, ther...