The Democracy Group

We continue our Best of 2023 episodes with an  episode from the Democracy in Danger podcast, hosted by Will Hitchcock & Siva Vaidhyanathan. Law enforcement is among the most undemocratic institutions in America, says New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie. And the effect this has on communities of color is especially stark. Bouie visits Will and Siva’s class for another live recording with their s...

On this episode of Our Body Politic, guest host Karen Grigsby Bates talks with Virginia Kase Solomón, CEO of the League of Women Voters, about the threats and issues poll workers face protecting democracy. Karen then speaks with Melissa Murray, NYU law professor and host of the podcast Strict Scrutiny about some of the cases SCOTUS will hear this term. We round out the show with Karen discussing h...

Download our free guide on 5 ways to take action ! 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 me...

The Democracy Group's Jessie Nguyen interviews Jahnavi Rao & Nivea Krishnan about New Voters, an organization that is helping the next generation of our country have their voice heard and a seat at the decision table.  Jahnavi Rao is President & Founder of New Voters,  Government at Harvard University, Formerly White House, DNC, Harvard Kennedy, and UPenn.  Nivea Krishnan is Executive Director of...

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. Additional Information The Democracy Group listener survey The Great Battlefield Podcast More shows from The Democracy Group...

Download our free guide on 5 ways to take action ! At the core of the deep societal divisions we navigate every day is an assumption that we share little with “those people” with whom we share a country—a belief that leaves us on dangerous ground as a nation. But author and entrepreneur Dr. Todd Rose says we’ve got that all wrong. According to Dr. Rose, not only do we agree more often than we thin...

Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan, was an elected politician, served as a senior British government minister, and was a visiting fellow at Yale University. Today he is the host of a highly successful podcast— "The Rest Is Politics"— and outgoing president and advisor of the global anti-poverty charity, GiveDirectly. By any measure, he is a man of many parts.  In our podcast, Stewart raises th...

Download our free guide on 5 ways to take action ! CPF's inaugural discussion of our Combating Antisemitism and Hatred Series features CPF Director Bob Shrum, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bret Stephens, and former Los Angeles elected official Zev Yaroslavksy. The series explores the struggle against antisemitism in the context of countering hate, reducing violence, promoting empathy, and nurt...

Tareq Alani and Aaron Myran join The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about their careers in politics and founding Chorus AI, where they're applying artificial intelligence and news analysis to political communications and organizing. 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 ! When we elect representatives, we expect them to be held accountable to the people they represent and the laws they are subject to. But how can voters be sure that elected officials are acting with their best interests in mind? In this enlightening episode of Democracy Decoded, host Simone Leeper explores the pivotal role that state and local ethi...

We're sharing a special interview of The Democracy Group founder, Jenna Spinelle, & network manager, Brandon Stover from the Continuing Studies podcast . Discover the power of a podcast network; the tremendous value that it brings to it’s member shows, and how it’s fostering democracy and civil discourse from all sides of the political landscape.  Join hosts Neil McPhedran and Jennifer Lee Gunson...

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 form the underpinning of a new collective legal thought. The four pillars of this work comprise of court watching,...

Almost everyone has an opinion about  the impact of social media  on political polarization. Most of us believe that Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube and other sites have made our civic life more angry and divided. But how much of this is true? Are consumers as much to blame as the platforms themselves? 15 years ago, in the very early days of social media, many Americans had  a much more positiv...

Download our free guide on 5 ways to take action ! CPF Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy join Fall 2023 CPF Fellows Arnon Mishkin and Reince Priebus for a conversation on polling and its ability or inability to predict voting outcomes as the 2024 presidential race approaches. Featuring: Arnon Mishkin: Political Analyst and Director of the Fox News Election Decision Team; Fall 2023 Fellow, USC...

Download our free guide on 5 ways to take action ! “A remarkable combination of scientific insight, practical guidance, and grounded hope.” —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of THINK AGAIN Toxic polarization and conflict is  exhausting . Whether it’s in your family, at work or in our perpetually acrimonious civic life, it’s like a suitcase full of big ole rocks we lug around while...

Download our free guide on 5 ways to take action ! In this week’s episode of Politics In Question , Steven Rogers joins Julia and Lee to discuss state legislatures. Rogers is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Saint Louis University, where he teaches and conducts research on elections, state legislatures, and public opinion. How many people can name their state repres...

Download our free guide on 5 ways to take action ! 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 co...

Download our free guide on 5 ways to take action ! Yascha Mounk of Johns Hopkins University joined us for this conversation to discuss his latest book THE IDENTITY TRAP: A STORY OF IDEAS AND POWER IN OUR TIME . What is meant by the term “identity synthesis?” In recent years, terms like “identity politics,” “cancel culture” and being “woke” have been used to refer to the topics that are dealt with...

Download our free guide on 5 ways to take action ! Victor Cha is a professor of government at Georgetown University and holds the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is a former director for Asian Affairs at the White House National Security Council. Ramon Pacheco Pardo is a professor of international relations at King’s College London and the K...

Download our free guide on 5 ways to take action ! Why do local and state elections matter, and how can voters be sure that their voices are being represented in the lawmaking process? We open the third season of Democracy Decoded with an overview of democracy at the state and local level, and how we can ensure that all citizens can have their voices heard. In this episode Simone talks with Jawhar...

Download our free guide on 5 ways to take action ! In this episode, Grace Panetta, a political reporter at The 19th , joins Kyle Kondik, Carah Ong Whaley and Kylie Holzman to discuss several key issues for the 2024 election, including media coverage of women candidates, voter turnout, dramatic shifts in election law landscape, and ongoing threats to democracy posed by election denialism.  Also, in...

Until recently most of us outside of state government didn’t know much about the role of Secretary of State, the state’s top election official. We simply didn’t think about it. But since 2020, election laws and procedures have been in the spotlight – and election officials have come under attack.  In this episode of Let’s Find Common Ground, we meet Democrat Steve Hobbs, Secretary of State for Was...

We're back from summer break and diving into the 2024 election season, Donald Trump's indictments, the spread of election deniers, and more. We also welcome Michael Berkman back from sabbatical and discuss the significance of "Democracy 2024" as the backdrop for the first Republican presidential debate on August 23. For our listeners who teach American politics, we've put together a list of episod...

Evan McMullin joins The Great Battlefield podcast to share his experience as a CIA Officer, running against Trump as an Independent in the 2016 election and how Stand Up Republic is fighting to defend the ideals that our country was founded on. Additional Information The Democracy Group listener survey The Great Battlefield Podcast More shows from The Democracy Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWi...

Fall is on the way, and school is back in session. And THIS year, the summer heat and student loans are making big headlines. On this episode of Our Body Politic, host and creator Farai Chideya speaks with Neel Dhanesha from Heatmap who discusses the underestimated yet deadliest weather crisis - HEAT. We’re also joined by climate activist Dany Sigwalt on how to build a climate movement that includ...