How to Save Democracy

How should we understand the moment we're living in? Sarah Wilson is an author, podcaster and philosopher who argues we need to accept that this is a time of profound and inevitable collapse - and that while there is no hope, there is something else happening. Jon hosted Sarah at the Conduit in London for a live conversation that wasn't about elections or citizens' assemblies, but was absolutely a...

In April this year, Jon was invited to help launch a new community-centre-cum-democracy-hub in the city of Stavanger, Norway, with the brilliant name of The House Of Wonder And Disagreement - and of a world-first project to create a standing citizens’ assembly as part of a city’s governance from outside of government… As part of the launch, Jon hosted a conversation with Jan Inge Reilstad of KÅKÅ,...

When the Eaton fire ripped through Altadena, Pasadena, in January 2025, a whole neighbourhood was virtually burned to the ground. One of the many to lose their home was Carola Secada. In this episode, we hear what happened next: the creation of Dena Heals, a mutual aid marketplace and wellness centre that has since supported over 7000 people from 1500 families as they have rebuilt their lives. Cha...

At the end of 2020, a combination of Covid lockdowns and “Black Summer” bushfires across the Australian state of Victoria meant that Melburnians were confined to their homes for weeks on end. But instead of staring into crisis, a group of citizens came together determined to start reimagining and rebuilding their city out of it. Jon sat down with Kaj Lofgren and Charity Mosienyane to hear the stor...

Working with political theorist Jonny Benson, Omezzine has been looking back over her experiences in the politics of her native Tunisia - first as an activist in the Tunisian Revolution, and then as a politician in the aftermath. Their aim? To reflect on the role democratic innovations such as citizens’ assemblies might have played, and draw out lessons that could help the world. Jon takes the rol...

Jon has spent much of the last year based at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, as a Visiting Fellow on the “Reimagining Democracy” programme. As part of this, he published an essay calling for the creation of Departments of Citizen Empowerment at every level of government, everywhere in the world. In this episode, Omezzine interviews Jon about the ideas in the essay, with the...

Jon took the hot seat for this episode of award-winning comedian Robin Clyfan’s new current affairs podcast, Double Take Debate. This discussion pits the politics of deliverism, where politicians try to fix the problems of the world for us, against our vision of a more participatory democracy, where people hold the solutions to our own problems. The politics of England’s new Prime Minister, Andy B...

Our friends Flavio and Stefania have brought together stories of participation and democracy from across four continents. In this episode, they interview the pioneering Portuguese politician Graça Fonseca about her time as Deputy Mayor of Lisbon - and about that city’s participatory budget, which every years sees millions of euros directly allocated to citizen ideas by citizen vote. Chapters (00:0...

Jon found himself in Perth, Western Australia, with the team from the DoingCo. This social enterprise supports a growing movement of “town teams” across the country and beyond: local doers coming together to shape their places, their way. This is a joyful, powerful movement - as you’ll hear from nightclub-promoter-turned-community-organiser Jimmy Murphy, and all-round citizen powerhouse Kendell Te...

We host legendary artist Brian Eno and his co-author Bette Adriaanse to explore the ideas in their book, What Art Does. Feelings are not luxuries, they're powerful forces that can nurture democracy or, in the wrong hands, unmake it entirely. Even at its most intimate and personal level, art invites us to imagine alternatives, experiment, and find grounding, a sense of stability, and forward moment...

Radical architect Indy Johar and renowned community leader Immy Kaur share their understanding of the vital importance of neighbourhood-scale work in the face of the realities of our time. Sometimes brutal in their realism, they force us to stare hard at the challenges and not shy away from painful truths. But they're also insistent about what becomes possible when we work at a human scale: the sc...

For our first live recording, we host Turkish writer and political commentator Ece Temelkuran to discuss her brave and beautiful new book,  Nation Of Strangers . In a world unmaking our sense of safety and belonging, Ece offers something we desperately need: a vision of the future we can create together and requiring all of us. Her most powerful insight? The unhomed among us aren't simply victims...

Trust in government has been collapsing all over the world over the last decade - but one country has bucked the trend. Fewer than 10% of the population trusted government in 2014, but by 2024, that figure had climbed above 70%. Spurred on by a collective of civic hackers calling themselves “Gov Zero”, Taiwan has trusted its people, opened its institutions, and even crowdsourced what was arguably...

In September 2025, Jon hosted a live event in Dublin exploring the past, present and future of one of the most exciting democratic experiments of recent times. Over the last 15 years, Ireland's Citizens' Assembly has brought nearly 600 randomly selected citizens together to deliberate on issues from abortion to marriage equality to biodiversity, before making recommendations to elected officials....

In this episode, co-host Omezzine Khelifa turns the mic on her fellow presenter, Jon Alexander . Before founding the New Citizenship Project and writing Citizens , Jon spent a decade in the world of advertising — helping big brands sell more stuff. So how did he make the leap from marketing to reimagining democracy? Omezzine asks the thoughtful (and tough) questions as we trace Jon’s journey from...

We’re figuring out how to fix democracy. Not by talking about it from a distance, but by meeting the people doing the work. In this episode, you have the chance to get to know co-host, Omezzine Khelifa — someone who’s lived every facet of this fight: reformer, revolutionary, politician, and practitioner. Omezzine proudly calls herself French-Tunisian, and her story begins in the heart of the 2010...

Back in September 2024, as the US election took an unexpected turn, we gathered at the Conduit Club in London with Baratunde Thurston and Elizabeth Stewart — the powerhouse duo behind How To Citizen . Since launching their project in 2020, they’ve been telling the stories of the “next democracy,” spotlighting people who are already reimagining civic life. In this episode, we explore their radical,...

In this episode, we’re not looking away. We’re acknowledging the cracks in our democracies and asking what can still be done. Recorded live at the Conduit Club in early 2024, this powerful conversation brings together two sharp, prescient voices: political strategist and pollster Paul Hilder, and author and journalist Ece Temelkuran . Paul has worked on elections across Europe, uncovering the deep...