The Democratic Constitution Podcast

“The whole issue of Reconstruction for Douglass… the whole idea of being able to vote was huge. So what if you’re a black person able to vote, but your vote is now so diluted into white majority districts that your vote doesn’t matter? It’s kind of like you are back to some of the issues that people were arguing about in the Reconstruction period.” Robert Levine joins the podcast to talk about his...

“I think the Constitution is fatally flawed. And I think that the kind of reconstruction that’s required needs to get back to the kind of things that the radical Republicans couldn’t finish.” Historian Tad Stoermer returns to the podcast to talk about his new book, A Resistance History of the United States . We talk about the audience Tad had in mind for his book, the conversations he’s had about...

This year is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and its proclamation that all men are created equal; that they have unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and that they have the right to establish governments to secure these rights. Trump and the Republicans have been wrapping themselves in the flag and claiming they are upholding these principles....

"What Would it Mean to Finish Reconstruction?" By Luke Pickrell. Original article here .

“If we want to understand Black people’s demands for the rights that America denied them, we must pay more attention to how they talked about and used the rights that were not denied them—the associational privileges and common-law civil rights they had been exercising for generations in county clerks’ offices and church basements—rights of everyday use.” Dylan Penningroth joins the podcast to tal...

“There’s a tradition of these rights being claimed by groups who were excluded and who they weren’t originally intended for, because they have that possibility inherent to them, which is the idea of universal equality and universal freedom.” Dr. Guy Aitchison joins the Democratic Constitution Podcast to talk about his 2020 article, “ Popular Resistance and the Idea of Rights ,” in which he argues...

“Beard resigned and wrote a very scathing letter of resignation, which is still read today. But he was such a beloved figure at Columbia, he actually provoked several days of protests and riots on the campus, of students demanding that he return and not be subject to this inquisition, and several other prominent faculty resigned right in his wake as well because of it.” Clyde Barrow returns to the...

“The argument about the absence of democracy is powerful in one way at the workplace. But it is also powerful in another way, in the general community, where it ought to be pushed much, much harder.” This is my conversation with Richard D. Wolff, a longtime economics professor and host of Economic Update , one of the many programs affiliated with Democracy at Work . Richard and I discuss the lack...

This is the recording of my presentation to East Bay DSA about Reconstruction and Radical Republicanism. Apologies for the rough audio quality.

"The Voting Rights Rollback Shows We Need a New Constitution." Originally published on Jacobin on May 6, 2026.

“America is not a democracy, which means we’re being ruled by a small elite. That is just unacceptable. I think that’s the fundamental basis of a political movement in this country. Everyone knows how much power corporations have. They are the elite, and they keep their power by force. They have the power of laws and the police. Well, democracy says someone else is going to control those laws and...

In this episode, I talk with August Nimtz, the author of several books, including Marx and Engels: Their Contribution to the Democratic Breakthrough , The Ballot, The Street—Or Both? , and The Communist and the Revolutionary Liberal in the Second American Revolution: Comparing Karl Marx and Frederick Douglass in Real-Time . August covers a wide range of topics, including Karl Marx, Friedrich Engel...

In this episode, I talk with Beau J. Baumann, a legal scholar and the author of the recent article “ What Would a Russell Vought of the Left Look Like? ” Beau dives into the article, discussing Russell Vought’s influence within the Trump administration and his executive-focused constitutional vision. He also discusses the legacy of the New Deal in the US political imagination, the limits of the De...

In this episode, I talk with Oliver Larkin, an activist, union organizer, and Democratic Socialist running for Congress in Florida’s 23rd District against Jared Moskowitz. Oliver’s campaign website is  here . Oliver and I discuss the details of his campaign, including what it means to run as a proud Democratic Socialist and member of Democratic Socialists of America ( DSA ). We also talk about Flo...

In this episode, I talk with Clyde Barrow, a professor of political science and the author of several works, including a recent Jacobin article, “ Reading C. Wright Mills in the Age of Trump .” I wanted to talk with Clyde about Mills, including his biography and works, his theory of democracy and a democratic state, and his impact on the New Left, including on Tom Hayden and Students for a Democra...

In this episode, I talk with Corey Brooks, a professor of history at York College of Pennsylvania and chairperson of the Department of History and Political Science. Corey is the author of Liberty Power: Antislavery Third Parties and the Transformation of American Politics . We discuss the antecedents of the abolitionist third-party movement and what led to the conclusion that abolition couldn’t b...

This is part two of a two-part conversation . Here, Terry continues the conversation on resistance to tax collection and property concentration after the revolution. He covers the elitist reaction to the 1776 Pennsylvania Constitution, including the 1787 federal Constitution and its ratification, and the imposition of a new Pennsylvania Constitution in 1790. The conversation ends with the anti-Fed...

In this episode, Luke talks with Terry Bouton, author of Taming Democracy: “The People,” the Founders, and the Troubled Ending of the American Revolution . His forthcoming book is The American Monarchists: The Founders who Betrayed the Revolution . This is part one of a two-part conversation . Here, Terry introduces the conflicts that developed between the British metropole and colonists in the Am...

In this episode, Luke talks with Patrick Rael, a professor of history at Bowdoin College and the author of several books, including  Black Identity and Black Protest in the Antebellum North  and  Eighty-Eight Years:   The Long Death of Slavery in the United States, 1777-1865 . The discussion covers a wide range of topics, including how colonists invoked ideas of slavery before the revolution to “p...

In this episode, Luke talks with José Luis Granado Ceja, a journalist based in Mexico City. José Luis covers Latin America for Dropsite News and is a co-host of Soberanía and Sin Muros . José Luis talks about the history of Venezuela, including changes to the oil industry in the 1970s, the Caracazo uprising, and the rise of Chavismo; how Chavismo changed and what remained the same after Maduro cam...

In this episode, Luke talks with Jason Maloy, author of several works, including “ The Paine-Adams Debate and Its Seventeenth-Century Antecedents ,” presented at a conference on Paine hosted by San Jose State University in 2007. Jason writes that for Paine, “nothing else but a single sovereign assembly can be truly representative of the nation, and nothing else can be accountable to the people of...

In this episode, Luke talks with Woody Holton, author of Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia and Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution . The conversation touches on many topics, including constitutional myths, what motivated the creation of a federal political system, how the new Constitution differed from the (often more...

In this episode, Luke talks with Dr. Gerald Horne, the author of many books, including The Counter-Revolution of 1776 , Confronting Black Jacobins , and The Capital of Slavery: Washington, D.C., 1800-1865 . Dr. Horne has also written several articles, including a trio for The Nation on W.E.B. Du Bois , C.L.R. James , and Eric Williams . The conversation covers a wide range of topics, including the...

In this episode, Lucas and Luke talk with Tad Stoermer, author of the forthcoming book, A Resistance History of the United States . Tad also posts on his blog and has a prolific TikTok and YouTube presence. The conversation touches on many topics, including the role of public historians in the United States; the Patriot Myth that emerged during World War II, the distortion of history to serve spec...

In this episode, Luke talks with Michael Fox , a long-time journalist based in Latin America. Michael's work includes the podcasts Under the Shadow , Brazil on Fire , and Stories of Resistance . He’s also the co-director of the documentary Beyond Elections . Michael touches on many topics, including the failures of most mainstream reporting on Latin America, the Monroe Doctrine, the brutal U.S...