The Democracy Group

Hillary Lehr returns to the Great Battlefield podcast to talk about her time at Higher Ground Labs and then joining Quiller as CEO where they help Democratic campaigns produce fundraising emails and other content through the use of AI. Additional Information The Democracy Group listener survey The Great Battlefield Podcast More shows from The Democracy Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz compan...

Download our free guide on 5 ways to take action ! In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Lee and James talk about Bonnie Tyler, Tina Turner, and Americans’ views of democracy. What is democracy? How do Americans view it? Do they think about democracy differently when it gets in their way? Does that make them “democracy hypocrites?” Why are Americans holding out for a hero in such moment...

Guest host Mara S. Campo, Anchor and Managing Editor at Revolt Black News, looks at the ongoing national mental health crisis and talks to people who are working outside the box to make a difference. Additional Information The Democracy Group listener survey Our Body Politic Podcast More shows from The Democracy Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information ab...

What is the point of a good education? Do we need it to learn a narrow set of skills ro help us get ahead in the workplace, or should knowledge and learning to be used over a lifetime to acquire wisdom that enables us to think more deeply about our place in the world? This question has profound resonance at a time of angry divides over American politics and moral confusion at elite American univer...

In this episode of SquareCast we're joined by the extraordinary Rachel Brown, the Founder of  Over Zero —named in reference to the “zero sum game” that exists in sporting events, but becomes dangerous when it overtakes a society, as it has ours. Over Zero was founded to prevent identity-based violence and other forms of group-targeted harm around the world—and here at home. Rachel is one of the wi...

American politics are often dominated by the loudest voices on the left and right. In this episode, we learn the crucial difference between what Americans get from their elected representatives and what they really want to hear. Professor Sean Westwood of Dartmouth College is our guest. As Director of The Polarization Research Lab, he studies American political behavior and public opinion, examini...

CPF Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy join Spring 2024 CPF Fellows, Douglas Brinkley, Jane Coaston, Ron Galperin, and Tim Miller for a lively discussion on the 2024 primary elections, presidential race, and campaigns. Featuring:  Douglas Brinkley: Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities & Professor of History, Rice University; Spring 2024 Fellow, USC Center for the Political Future Jane C...

In this conversation, we're joined by Greg Lukianoff , the President of FIRE , the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. As illiberal tendencies are on the rise among extreme factions of our democracy, it was refreshing to speak with Greg whose organization is on the front lines of protecting the basic freedoms outlined in the First Amendment. We discussed: Greg's own background and how...

The past few years haven't been easy for election officials and their teams. They had to pivot during the pandemic and face ongoing threats that have resulted in unprecedented staff turnover. This turmoil brings more scrutiny of errors that occur when people make honest mistakes.  Despite these challenges, Tammy Patrick, CEO for programs at the National Association of Election Officials , is confi...

Lala Wu is the co-founder and executive director of Sister District, an organization that works to build enduring progressive power in state legislatures. We discuss how state races will continue to be important during the presidential election cycle and why the battle for redistricting will be center stage. State legislatures are where a lot of impactful policy made, such as abortion laws. They’r...

As we commemorate the third anniversary of the attacks on the U.S. Capitol, we talk with DC Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges. On January 6, 2021, Ofc. Hodges responded with Civil Defense Unit 42 to the attacks on the U.S. Capitol as Capitol Police units were overrun. Ofc. Hodges fought those who assaulted the Capitol on the west lawn, the west terrace, and in the tunnel leading out to the...

This week we bring you a special episode from Sean Schrader, one of our 2023 Podcast Fellows. Sean Schrader is currently a final-year MBA candidate at the University of South Florida, and has been fortunate to work on social impact projects focused on tackling our most significant challenges at the local, state, and national levels. Sean is passionate about civility, and is excited to strengthen h...

This week we bring you a special episode from Kabod Mauwong, one of our 2023 Podcast Fellows. KJ Mauwong is a political science major at Swarthmore College, and he studys political theory, comparative politics, and American foreign policy. He loves talking with people and engaging in conversation. Discussion is what drives democracy, and in this day and age, it's good to be able to do so civilly a...

We continue our Best of 2023 episodes with an  episode from Politics is Everything, hosted by Carah Ong Whaley & Kyle Kondik. Center for Politics Professor of Practice Liz Cheney sat down with Center for Politics Director Larry J. Sabato and other members of our team this week for a discussion about the challenges facing American politics and democracy. She speaks out for the first time about the...

Download our free guide on 5 ways to take action ! Across the country, voters are organizing to protect their right to elect candidates of their choice. In the final episode of Season 3 of Democracy Decoded, host Simone Leeper explores the changing landscape of state and local elections, and some of the initiatives that can help ensure voters can choose candidates who truly represent their interes...

We continue our Best of 2023 episodes with an  episode from The Great Battlefield podcast, with hosts Nathaniel Pearlman. Jahnavi Rao joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about her start in political activism, founding New Voters, which registers high school students to vote and now running New Voters Research Network where they use behavioral science tools to solve challenging problems. Ad...

We continue our Best of 2023 episodes with an  episode from Talkin‘ Politics & Religion Without Killin‘ Each Other, hosted by Corey Nathan. You might recognize David Brooks from his columns in The New York Times or his essays in The Atlantic. Perhaps you’ve seen him on PBS NewsHour or Meet the Press. He’s also a prolific author. In fact, his 2019 book The Second Mountain was a major inspiration fo...

We continue our Best of 2023 episodes with an  episode from the How Do We Fix It? podcast, hosted by Richard Davies and Jim Meigs.  Toxic polarization is "the problem that eats all other problems... It's the sludge at the base of everything else," our guest  Mónica Guzmán  tells us. In this really useful repeat episode from 2022, we learn how to fight back against the confusion and heartbreak of l...

We continue our Best of 2023 episodes with an  episode from the When the People Decide podcast, hosted by Jenna Spinelle. Librarians have spoken for years about “library faith,” the belief that public libraries are central to democracy because they contribute to an informed citizenry. Today, the idea is gaining even more traction, and even conservative crackdowns on what’s permitted in libraries r...

We continue our Best of 2023 episodes with an  episode from the Democracy Matters podcast. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Anthony Fauci about the tensions between expertise and democratic decision-making during the pandemic, and his advice for navigating apathy and misinformation during the next major public health crisis. See the show notes with links mentioned in this episode at Additional In...

We continue our Best of 2022 episodes with an  episode from the Democracy Works podcast, hosted by Jenna Spinelle, Christopher Beem, Michael Berkman.  Chris Beem talks with former Republican political operative Tim Miller about the party's loyalty to Donald Trump and where it might go in 2024 and beyond. Miller is a writer-at-large for The Bulwark and the author of the best-selling book  Why We Di...

We continue our Best of 2023 episodes with an  episode from the Future Hindsight podcast, hosted by Mila Atmos. Jocelyn Simonson is Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, a former public defender, and the author of Radical Acts of Justice: How Ordinary People Are Dismantling Mass Incarceration. We discuss how certain radical acts of justice challenge the legitimacy of the criminal system and for...

We continue our Best of 2023 episodes with an  episode from the Village SquareCast podcast, hosted by the Village Square. This is when you meet a living legend and get the benefit of his thinking on the topic he’s been brilliantly, prophetically  right about  for more than three decades: the deterioration of our connectedness with each other across almost every demographic and every aspect of our...

We continue our Best of 2023 episodes with an  episode from the Let's Find Common Ground podcast, hosted by Richard Davies & Ashley Milne-Tyte. We speak with two women from opposing sides of the bitter and often toxic debate over abortion. Frances Hogan and The Rev. Anne Fowler were involved in a series of years-long intensive, secret talks. Their candid conversations began after a gunman opened f...

We continue our Best of 2023 episodes with an  episode from the The Bully Pulpit podcast, hosted by Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy CPF Director Bob Shrum joins former U.S. Representatives Val Demings and Adam Kinzinger for a conversation on the politics of climate with the goal of finding common ground. They discuss political barriers to enacting climate action, climate legislation passed by Congress,...