Democracy in Danger

At colleges across America this spring, thousands of students and many faculty called on their institutions to recognize Israel’s war in Palestine as a genocide, and to disclose their interests in arms, oil and violence. Administrators did not take kindly to the students’ demands or their tactics, and called in the police instead. Today on the show — our final episode for now — historian Lauren La...

There were 645 mass shootings in the United States in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Earlier this week, a gunman opened fire at a Detroit water park and injured nine people, including children. Today, we’re bringing you an episode from earlier this season, one we produced after the deadly Kansas City Super Bowl Parade shooting. Historian Andrew McKevitt and sociologist Jennifer Carls...

With EU election results in, it looks like the forces of extreme nationalism will pull the continent’s politics rightward. But in Poland, the center has held after voters booted the far-right Law and Justice Party from power last fall. This week, we revisit our take on that election in Poland and its place on the European landscape, with the feminist scholar and activist Agnieszka Graff. She discu...

Nearly 80 years ago, Juan José Arévalo took office as Guatemala’s first democratically elected head of state. Only a decade later, the CIA engineered his successor’s ouster — and the end of the Guatemalan revolution. A vicious civil war ensued over the rest of the century, killing as many as 200,000 civilians. Today, Guatemalans are hopeful that their newly elected leader, Bernardo Arévalo, son of...

In this second follow-up to “No Good Reason,” we offer Siva’s full interview with Karen Kurotsuchi Inkelas. She was a teenager when she first learned that her parents and their families had been incarcerated during World War II. It was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s dubious policy of confining Japanese Americans on suspicion of disloyalty. Inkelas reflects on her parent’s experience and...

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, is an unabashed autocrat. He has jailed political opponents, gone after Muslims with violence and hateful rhetoric, and dismantled checks on his power. So what explains Modi’s continued popularity? As some 600 million Indians head to the polls, we explore this question with political analyst Radha Kumar. She discusses what it would take for democratic renewal...

In this follow-up to last week’s show, we offer Will’s full interview with Greg Robinson, about Japanese confinement during World War II. Robinson, a historian at the University of Quebec, has studied that tragic chapter and its implications for us today more deeply than just about anyone.

After the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, a racial panic took hold over the United States and its leadership. And President Franklin D. Roosevelt — otherwise known for the progressive policies of his New Deal — approved the mass removal and confinement of Japanese American families, on scant evidence of disloyalty. Our team discusses this shameful chapter in U.S. history, and its legacy, wi...

After a fraudulent election in August 2020, Belarusian riot police cracked down on massive protests. Then demonstrators started vanishing. Many of them would be tortured in custody. But a determined group of activists struck back, outing the names and faces of bad cops. We speak with one of those activists on this “Power of Many” rebroadcast. Plus, Emily explains how Russia’s mercenary Wagner Grou...

Félix Maradiaga spent more than 600 days in a jail in Nicaragua. Held in solitary confinement for most of that time, he faced beatings and constant interrogation. Why? Because he stood up against the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega. Since 2007, Ortega has dismantled checks on his power. In 2018, his police cracked down on mass protests, killing some 300 demonstrators and bystanders. Today, Maradiaga...

In 1829, the abolitionist David Walker published a stunning, poignant appeal to “to the colored citizens of the world.” He urged them to fight against a system of racial slavery and oppression, and to expose that system’s moral bankruptcy. Walker’s plea has since taken shape in the work of some of America’s greatest thinkers, like W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin and Billie Holiday. On this episode r...

Argentina’s new president is a libertarian populist and, by his own account, an anarcho-capitalist. To tackle his county’s deep economic troubles, Javier Milei wants to dismantle state institutions, implement severe austerity measures and strip protections for workers. He also wants to outlaw abortion. But in a country with a strong tradition of organized labor and women’s movements, so far he has...

Last September, Vote.org and other advocacy groups saw a massive spike in new voter registrations on a one-day nationwide drive. The main reason: Taylor Swift, who has been urging fans to get political. But can she — and other celebrities — move the needle on core matters of social justice, and maybe even save democracy? As usual, we turn to the experts. By which we mean three teenage girls. Plus...

Last May, protestors took to the streets in Pakistan to support Imran Khan, the populist prime minister tossed from office and into the slammer. Now, in a rebuke to the military and political establishment, voters put more candidates from Khan’s circle in parliament than from any other party. But they fell short of a majority last month in an election marred by vote-rigging. Siva speaks with an an...

Last year, there were 645 mass shootings in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive. In the latest major tragedy, at the Kansas City Super Bowl parade, one person was killed and 22 others — half of them children — suffered gunshot wounds. But here’s something you may not know: since then, there have been another 26 mass shootings. Historian Andrew McKevitt and sociologist Jennifer...

This season we’ve adopted walls as our loose theme, and architectural historian Louis Nelson joins Will and Siva to help frame the idea. At the University of Virginia, wavy brick walls enclose beautiful gardens. But as Nelson explains those walls once served a more sinister purpose. Drawing on this lesson from the past, our guest and hosts grapple with the meaning and function of walls in a democr...

Before the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists played a key role in fighting the Japanese during World War II. In the decades after, China’s role as an ally to the West was largely erased from its domestic politics — and all but forgotten everywhere else. Lately, Chinese leaders are revisiting “the Good War” and reframing that past to serve new interests....

In 1829, the abolitionist David Walker published a stunning, poignant appeal to “to the colored citizens of the world.” He urged them to fight against a system of racial slavery and oppression, and to expose that system’s moral bankruptcy. The essence of Walker’s plea has since taken shape in the work of some of America’s greatest thinkers, like W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin and Billie Holiday. Po...

Ahead of some key state elections this year, Vote.org and other advocacy groups saw a massive spike in new voter registrations on a one-day nationwide drive. The main reason: Taylor Swift. The pop star has been urging fans to get political. But can she — and other celebrities — move the needle on core matters of social justice, and maybe even save democracy? As usual, we turn to the experts. By wh...

After a fraudulent election in August 2020, Belarusian riot police cracked down on massive protests. Then demonstrators started vanishing. Many of them would be tortured in custody. But a determined group of activists struck back, outing the names and faces of bad cops. We speak with one of those activists for a new segment called “The Power of Many.” Plus, Emily explains how Russia’s mercenary Wa...

Coming at you live from Light House Studio’s Vinegar Hill Theatre in Charlottesville, our fair city: Emily and Siva welcome Jennifer Weiss-Wolf and Samhita Sunya to the stage, as part of the Karsh Institute’s Democracy360 forum. Sunya, a cinema expert, and Weiss-Wolf, a pioneering advocate for women’s rights, discuss the power of film and print media to shape global feminism. From Bollywood to Ms....

For eight years, the nationalist Law and Justice Party has ruled Poland. It set about taking over public media, the courts and cultural institutions, while tightening restrictions on abortion and immigration. But this month Poles said, “Stop.” Voters turned out in record numbers and delivered a rebuke to extremism, electing a centrist coalition to run the government. We welcome feminist scholar an...

In the 1930s, truckers in Minneapolis went on strike to protest their precarious working conditions. When things got violent, FDR stepped in — and the truckers won. New York Times writer David Leonhardt says this story demonstrates the importance of organized labor to the vitality of the American dream. Today, that dream of a “better, richer, happier life” is in doubt, as inequality grows and prog...

Poets, painters, novelists, musicians — it turns out they are as crucial to sustaining self-government as politicians and pundits. In a wide-ranging conversation, our hosts speak with English professor Steve Parks about the likes of Walt Whitman, Woody Guthrie, Sinéad O’Connor and the Malian singer Fatoumata Kouyaté. What does their art have in common? Spoiler: an affective sense of democracy. Plu...

New season, new questions, new people! This fall, UVa historian Emily Burrill joins our team to fill in for Will while he’s away. Emily chats with Siva and Will about what’s coming up in Season Seven. We’ll be delving into the relationship between expressive culture and democratic practice, putting on a couple of live shows and — of course — serving up our bread and butter: the knowledge you need...