RevDem Podcast

Professor Dimitry Kochenov* in conversation with Michał Matlak explains why he believes citizenship is a “perpetuation of the ideas of aristocracy,” sexism, and racism; what can be done to fix this issue; and what motivated him to write “Citizenship” (MIT Press, 2019).

RevDem Editor Oliver Garner sits down with Barbara Grabowska-Moroz , Research Fellow at the CEU Democracy Institute Rule of Law Workgroup , and member of the Horizon 2020 RECONNECT Project . They discuss the current state of the rule of law crisis in Poland, the arduous relationship between the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and the Pol...

In conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Emily Greble discusses what foregrounding Muslims’ agency implies for the writing of European history; what were key legacies of the Ottoman Empire and how Muslims became a distinct legal minority; in what ways they related to the major political movements of the twentieth century; and how focusing on their experiences can help us reconceptualize qu...

Bence Bari interviews Tamás Dombos, from the Hungarian LGBTQI organization ‘Háttér Society’ concerning the recently adopted Hungarian anti-LGBT measures, their transnational and historical background with respect to the global dynamics of acceptance, and homophobia between the Western and Eastern hemisphere.

In this interview, RevDem editor Michal Matlak interviewed Professor Julie Smith*, Baroness of Newnham, who is a Liberal Democrat parliamentarian in the British House of Lords. They discuss referendums, the causes and outcomes of Brexit, how the negotiation strategies of both the EU and UK could have been improved, the likelihood of the UK returning to the EU in the future, and how the COVID-19 pa...

In conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Emily Levine (Stanford University) discusses key ideas in her new book Allies and Rivals: German-American Exchange and the Rise of the Modern Research University . Allies and Rivals is a transatlantic monograph that draws on extensive historical research and applies sociological theory to study how the academic social contract was repeatedly renegot...

In this wide-ranging conversation occasioned by the release of his The Dream of Europe. Travels in the Twenty-First Century , Geert Mak discusses with Ferenc Laczo why he chose to write a sequel to In Europe. Travels Through the Twentieth Century ; how interconnections have led to new tensions; how the European and the democrat in him have quarreled; how he traces undercurrents in society; and how...

In conversation with RevDem editor Robert Nemeth, Dean Starkman, senior editor at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, talks about the Pandora Papers and how tax avoidance and secrecy endangers democracy.

In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Gábor Tóka discusses the recent opposition primaries and ongoing political developments in Hungary. The conversation explores the mobilizatory successes of the opposition forces with a focus on the most surprising elements of the primaries; the unexpected rise of Péter Márki-Zay and his character as a politician; the opportunities and challenge...

Michal Matlak interviews Zsolt Enyedi about the development of Church-State relations in Hungary, Viktor Orban’s vision of Christian Democracy, why the Democracy Institute plays an important symbolic role in Budapest, and about his recently published book, “Party System Closure: Party Alliances, Government Alternatives, and Democracy in Europe”

In this wide-ranging conversation, Lea Ypi discusses her new memoir Free: Coming of Age at the End of History and how the people who populate its pages help her connect historical experiences with philosophical thought; how she experienced and dealt with the rupture of 1990 that forced her to reassess her childhood; how that rupture placed her country, Albania, on a seemingly new trajectory with l...

Our assistant editor, Bence Bari interviews László Kontler, the research affiliate of the CEU Democracy Institute about the DI History Working Group project “History as Democracy”.

As part of a special symposium on the past and present of Christian democracy held on September 24, 2021, just ahead of this year’s German elections, the Review of Democracy has interviewed Kati Marton about her forthcoming book The Chancellor. The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel (Simon & Schuster, 2021). This new book, which will appear in fifteen languages in the near future, draws on ye...

Our editor Kasia Krzyżanowska (EUI, CEU) talks with Samantha Rose Hill, professor at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, about her recently published biography of Hannah Arendt.

Our editor Kasia Krzyżanowska interviews Dr Elise Hugueny-Léger, Senior Lecturer in French at the University of St Andrews about the French writer Annie Ernaux.

Our assistant editor Teodora Miljojković (CEU) talks with András Sajó, Professor in the Law Department of Central European University and former judge of the European Court of Human Rights about his new book, the tactics of illiberal regimes, their relationship to the rule of law, and shortfalls in the EU’s reaction.

Aldo Madariaga discusses his latest book “Neoliberal Resilience: Lessons in Democracy and Development from Latin America and Eastern Europe ”  with our editor, Giancarlo Grignaschi. You can find all our podcasts at: revdem.ceu.edu

Oliver Garner interviews Michael Wilkinson on his latest book "Authoritarian Liberalism and the Transformation of Modern Europe" (Oxford University Press 2021)

Our editor Vilius Kubekas interviews Carlo Invernizzi Accetti,  author of the book "What is Christian Democracy. Politics, Religion, Ideology" (Oxford University Press 2020).

Alexander Lazovic (EUI) interviews Martin Krygier (Professor of Law and Social Theory at the University of New South Wales) on how to understand the rule of law crisis from a teleological perspective

Ferenc Laczo interviews Ireneusz P. Karolewski on the book he co-authored with Claus Leggewie “The Visegrád Connection”on the gradual erosion and steep decline of democracy in the four Visegrád states – Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.

Our editor Ferenc Laczo interviews Jonathan Hoslag (Free University Brussels) on his book "World Politics Since 1989" (Polity Press).

RevDem editor Ferenc Laczo interviews LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the voting rights group Black Voters Matter whose work is credited with significant voter registration and get out the vote efforts in several elections, including the 2020-21 state elections in Georgia. In this podcast conversation, LaTosha Brown discusses her motivation to co-launch Black Voters Matter and some of the key activit...

Laurent Pech (Middlesex University) in conversation with Oliver Garner (RevDem Editor) about conflicts between the Polish government and the European institutions.

Katarzyna Krzyżanowska talks with Robert Talisse, W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at the Vanderbilt University in Nashville, on the epistemology of democracy. The conversation largely draws on Talisse’s recently published book “ Sustaining Democracy ”.