55 Voices for Democracy – The Podcast

In this episode, Tom Zoellner and fellow journalist Aurora Almendral analyze the political situation in the Philippines: How does President Rodrigo Duterte, who many criticize for his autocratic governance, endanger democratic structures in the country? How does this affect the vibrant press and journalism culture, which is under attack by Duterte? Almendral is a Philippine-born award-winning jour...

In 1935, the Federal Writers' Project was launched by President Roosevelt to create jobs for out-of-work writers during the Great Depression and to provide a vivid literary climate in the U.S. David Kipen, an L.A.-based author, critic, broadcaster, UCLA Writing Faculty member and the founder of the nonprofit bilingual lending library  Libros Schmibros in Boyle Heights, is a driving force behind th...

What can Germany learn from California in terms of Equal Pay? Award-winning journalist Birte Meier explored this question during her Fellowship at the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles. In this episode of 55 Voices for Democracy, she talks about how California's Equal Pay Act effectively protects against discrimination by, for example, allowing workers to speak openly about their salaries. Meier ha...

In this episode, award-winning journalist Sonia Faleiro talks about dangerous developments in Indian democracy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The repression of the Muslim minority and restrictions on the democratic public sphere have taken on dramatic proportions, she says. Faleiro believes that only a democracy movement on the scale of India's freedom struggle can bring real change. Sonia Fa...

In this collaboration with the German American Conference at Harvard, Dr. Daniel Ziblatt talks about the decline of democracies. Ziblatt encourages us not to "be afraid to reform our constitution and our institutions." In conversation with hosts Anne McElvoy and Tom Zoellner, he argues that vibrant civil societies, a robust media, and strong opposition are key to resilient democracies. Daniel Zibl...

How did Thomas Mann use the then still young medium of radio in his fight against fascism? How did he channel repressed energies into political activism? Literary scholar Tobias Boes, author of the book Thomas Mann's War: Literature, Politics, and the World Republic of Letters  (Cornell University Press, 2019), discusses Thomas Mann's role as a political figure in the United States and how he addr...

The  55 Voices for Democracy  podcast celebrates it's first birthday this month! Time to look back on the first 25 episodes and reflect on what happened so far: Hosts Tom Zoellner and Aida Baghernejad discuss the highlights and their favorite moments of the podcast against the backdrop of their own biographies. How do their individual political and professional backgrounds shape the way they appro...

"We have to think of the entire fabric of our society, and we have to be courageous!" French political scientist Emilia Roig talks about the intersection and simultaneity of different categories of discrimination against certain minorities. Underlying societal hierarchies play an important role in maintaining these injustices.  Emilia Roig is the founder of the  Berlin-based organization Center fo...

"The problem is ourselves." Timothy Snyder describes why the challenges of our democracies are not so much political figures like Trump, but ourselves as citizens. Snyder says it's about breaking down social barriers while addressing structural political problems like voter suppression and the manipulation of the electoral college. "A failed coup attempt is a rehearsal for a later coup." Timothy S...

In this episode, legal historian Samuel   Moyn  critically reflects on the pursuit of 'humane wars.' "We fight war crimes, but we have forgotten the crime of war,"  Moyn  says. Thus, he says, the wars of recent decades have led to a fixation on the means of war, rather than a discussion of how to end them sustainably.  Samuel   Moyn is professor of law at Yale Law School and professor of history a...

Professor Stephanie Kelton explains how deficits can strengthen economies and be healthy for democracies. She argues that there are no budgetary constraints on government spending and makes the case for challenging our view of public debt. Stephanie Kelton is a professor of economics and public policy at Stony Brook University and a former Chief Economist on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee. She w...

Susan Bernofsky's new translation of Thomas Mann's novel "The Magic Mountain" is eagerly awaited. In conversation with Tom Zoellner, Bernofsky talks about Thomas Mann's multiculturalism and the challenges of translating between languages and cultures. In this episode, the renowned translator also shares her personal experiences as a Jewish American in Europe and talks about the rise of the global,...

As more and more Americans self-identify as multiracial,  transgressing categories of race still raise questions. Most prominently in the case of Rachel Dolezal, a former college professor and activist who identified as Black despite being born to white parents. Dolezal's story inspired German author, journalist and cultural critic Mithu Sanyal to write Identitti , a novel about the powerful role...

While his government has long been a promise for reconciliation and development, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame is facing increasing international criticism. Human Rights Watch and other institutions accuse his government of mistreating opposition members or making them disappear. At the center of the criticism is, among other things, the kidnapping of Paul Rusesabagina, a central figure in the fi...

Irish novelist, journalist and scholar Colm Toíbín talks about Thomas Mann's formation as a democrat and the historic circumstances that formed his political thinking. Toíbín's highly anticipated upcoming novel "The Magician" (Simon & Schuster, 2021) tells the life of Thomas Mann, an epic family saga set across a half-century spanning World War I, the rise of Hitler, World War II, and the Cold War...

What is a post-Merkel Germany going to look like? How did Germany change in the 16 years of Merkel's administration and should Germans be afraid of a political backlash?  Political scientist Joyce Marie Mushaben discusses ongoing disparities between former East and West Germany, issues of gender equality, and the rise of a new right in Germany. Mushaben is an Affiliated Faculty member in the BMW C...

Poet and writer Max Czollek talks about why German remembrance culture seems staged to him, and what a radically diverse society might look like. Czollek's recent books "Gegenwartsbewältigung" (Coping with the Present) and "Desintigriert Euch!" (De-Integrate Yourselves!) have been widely discussed in Germany. Through his books and daily tweets, Max Czollek has become one of Germany's most importan...

How can societies and states reinvent themselves after the pandemic? Andreas Reckwitz, sociologist, cultural theorist and one of Germany's most eminent contemporary scholars, talks about what the COVID-19 pandemic means for late modern society from a sociological point of view. While the pandemic highlighted structural problems such as inequality, can it also bear hope for societal transformation?...

In this episode, illustrator and author Nora Krug talks about notions of belonging, nationalism, and the power of images. In conversation with our hosts Tom Zoellner and Aida Baghernejad, she reflects on issues of historical memory and responsibility, and how they can be tackled in the form of a graphic novel. Krug's graphic novel "Belonging: A German Reckons With History and Home" was honored wit...

Historian Keisha N. Blain, Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and President of the African American Intellectual History Society, recently co-edited the acclaimed book Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019 with her colleague Ibram X. Kendi. In this episode, Blain talks about how to commemorate the 400 year anniversary of the pivotal moment in 1619, when the fi...

55 Voices for Democracy is modeled after the BBC radio speeches, through which Thomas Mann in the mid 1940s pleaded to thousands of listeners to resist the Nazi regime. In this podcast series, intellectuals, artists, and activists engage in conversations about how to renew democracy today.

The societal state as a crisis of imagination? German climate activist Luisa Neubauer is one of the main organizers of Fridays for Future in Germany, an international student movement demanding political action against climate change. In this episode, Neubauer talks about her activism and the momentum of the movement, climate awareness in the U.S. and Germany, and dreaming as a tool for change. "O...

In this episode, U.S.-German writer Deborah Feldman engages in a conversation with hosts Tom Zoellner and Aida Baghernejad about contemporary Jewish culture in Berlin, political participation by religious communities and the meaning of trust in democracies: "We need to establish the kind of personal trust we have as individuals with each other in the public sphere." Feldman is the author of  Unort...

In this special episode of our podcast, the award-winning investigative and political reporter John S. Adams talks about money, politics and its effect on democracy. While there was always "money in politics," the practice of political donations has become a substantial threat to liberal democracies. "In the last several years, the flood gates have really opened," states Adams in his conversation...

We have to step up and accept our responsibility for all of the implications that technology has created." Brad Smith, President of Microsoft and author of the book T ools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age  (2019), makes a strong argument for the political and moral accountability of big tech companies. Smith discusses "the role of digital technology in the world of politic...