The Democratic Constitution Podcast

The Original article is here .

In this episode, Luke talks with David Waldstreicher, the author of many books, including Slavery’s Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification . David discusses a range of topics, including the place of slavery in the lead-up to 1776, debates over slavery at the Constitutional Convention, and how the issue of slavery was never explicitly recognized in the text of the Constitution. He also exami...

The original article is here .

East Bay DSA will be hosting a reading group on the Constitution and the anti-democratic aspects of the US political system. We will use Robert Dahl’s  How Democratic is the American Constitution?  as a framework, along with other articles and presentations from Robert Ovetz, Aziz Rana, Daniel Lazare, Gil Schaeffer, and Steven R., all of whom have appeared on the Democratic Constitution Podcast. A...

In this episode, Luke talks with Don Doyle, the author of many books, including The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War. The conversation touches on many topics, including how the North and South sold their story of the battle to the rest of the world; the smörgåsbord of Union soldiers from across the globe; the Civil War as a tectonic struggle between republic...

In this episode, Luke talks with Gary Dorrien , the author of many books, including The Neoconservative Mind: Politics, Culture, and the War of Ideology (1993), Breaking White Supremacy: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Social Gospel (2019), and American Democratic Socialism: History, Politics, Religion, and Theory (2021), which Gary discussed in DSA’s Democratic Left . His forthcoming book is...

In this episode, Luke talks with Gregory Downs , the author of several books, including The Second American Revolution: The Civil War-Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic (2019) and After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War (2015). He’s also co-author with Kate Masur of the article “ Civil War Sesquicentennial: Reconstruction: Retrospect and Prospects .”...

Cease Being Autocratic. By Luke Pickrell. The original article is ⁠⁠ here⁠⁠ . The Democratic Constitution Blog is ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ . Our YouTube channel is ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ . Our podcast on Apple Podcasts is ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ . Thank you to our listeners, blog subscribers, and donors.

In this episode, Luke talks with Van Gosse , the author of several books, including Where the Boys Are: Cuba, Cold War America, and the Making of a New Left (1993), Rethinking the New Left: An Interpretive History (2005), and The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America, From the Revolution to the Civil War (2021). The wide-ranging conversation touches on the extensive political participati...

The Wheels Are Falling Off. By Luke Pickrell. The original article is ⁠⁠ here⁠⁠ . The Democratic Constitution Blog is ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ . Our YouTube channel is ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ . Our podcast on Apple Podcasts is ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ . Thank you to our listeners, blog subscribers, and donors.

In this episode, Luke talks with Robert Tsai, author of America’s Fogotten Constitutions . The conversation covers the similarities and differences between various constitutional projects — including John Brown’s abolitionist constitution, the Confederate Constitution, the founding documents of the Icarian Nation and the Republic of New Afrika, and others — what it means to look at the Constitutio...

Terror Tuesday Redux. By Luke Pickrell. The original article is ⁠ here⁠ . The Democratic Constitution Blog is ⁠here⁠ . Our YouTube channel is ⁠here⁠ . Our podcast on Apple Podcasts is ⁠here⁠ . Thank you to our listeners, blog subscribers, and donors.

Proposition 50: A Race to the Bottom. By Luke Pickrell. The original article is here . The Democratic Constitution Blog is here . Our YouTube channel is here . Our podcast on Apple Podcasts is here . Thank you to our listeners, blog subscribers, and donors.

In this episode, Luke talks with Alec Karakatsanis, Founder and Executive Director of  Civil Rights Corps  and author of  Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News.   The conversation touches on George Floyd’s murder and subsequent protests; the illusion of police reforms as presented through body cameras and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act; the undemocratic Constitution and...

Luke talks with Greg Coleridge and John Fioretta from Move to Amend . Topics include Move to Amend’s origins and current projects, various approaches to discussing the Constitution with people, the challenges of passing constitutional amendments, the need to reform campaign finance, and what to make of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The Move to Amend petition is availabl...

Luke talks with Manisha Sinha about her latest book, The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic . Topics include Amy Circuit, a freedwoman in South Carolina who was murdered by two white men in early 1868; the reactionary role of the Supreme Court during Reconstruction; the ripple effects caused by struggles for freedom and political rights; what to make of the call for a new constitution;...

Luke talks with Jonathan Eig, author of the Politzer Prize-winning King: A Life . Jonathan discusses King’s life leading up to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, his opinion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, his stance on the Vietnam War, his relationship with other activists like Stokely Carmichael and Muhammad Ali, and King’s final book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos of Community? , in which he says tha...

Luke speaks with  Matthew Stewart  about his latest book,  An Emancipation of the Mind . Conversation topics include revolutionary and counterrevolutionary movements in 18th- and 19th-century U.S. history, the role of religion in the abolitionist and anti-abolitionist movements, the influence of Tom Paine on revolutionary thought, European immigrants and veterans of the 1848 revolutions such as Ka...

Luke talks with Jalil Muntaqim about the Spirit of Mandela Coalition ’s call for a national rally on July 4, 2026, to protest the genocide in Gaza. The conversation also covers the Spirit of Mandela Coalition’s People's Senate , the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, decolonization and memory, and the Black Panther Party. Jalil’s latest book is We Are Our Own L...

A Heavy Heritage. By Luke Pickrell. Published on August 20, 2025. Original article: https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/a-heavy-heritage Tad's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi2YTUtgjlQ&t=6s Our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@demconpod?si=KvA2PfAxlFr0tGZX Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-democratic-constitution-podcast/id1777552669

Luke talks with Bruce Levine about his book, Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice . The conversation covers several topics, including Bruce’s political development, the history of Vermont and the state’s influence on Stevens, the Civil War and Stevens’s ceaseless struggle during Reconstruction, and what Stevens, the Civil War, and Reconstruction can teach the Left.

An Inescapable Network of Mutuality. By Luke Pickrell. Published on July 28, 2025. Original article: https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/the-military-event YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@demconpod?si=KvA2PfAxlFr0tGZX Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-democratic-constitution-podcast/id1777552669

Houston, We Have a Problem. By Luke Pickrell. Published on July 29, 2025. Original article: https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/cheating?utm_source=publication-search YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@demconpod?si=KvA2PfAxlFr0tGZX Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-democratic-constitution-podcast/id1777552669

Zohran Mamdani is Wrong About Democracy. By Luke Pickrell. Published on August 16, 2025. Original Article: https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/zohran-mamdani-is-wrong-about-democracy YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@demconpod?si=KvA2PfAxlFr0tGZX Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-democratic-constitution-podcast/id1777552669

Luke talks with Professor Kermit Roosevelt about his latest book,  The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America’s Stor y. The conversation covers several topics, including problems with the American “triumphalist narrative," Reconstruction and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as alternative foundations for American identity, shifting views of the Declaration of Independence, Martin Luther King an...