The Democratic Constitution Podcast

This is a recording of Luke’s recent Jacobin article, “ DC Deserves Statehood .” Donald Trump’s takeover of Washington’s police force this week is adding insult to the injury of the United States’ long denial of equal political standing to the capital’s residents. But the demand for equal rights in DC needs to be part of a larger voting rights struggle that goes beyond our nation’s capital. It mea...

Luke talks with Dr. Leah Downey about her latest book,  Our Money: Monetary Policy as if Democracy Matters . Topics include an overview of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, issues with separating monetary policy from the legislative branch and broader oversight, current dissatisfaction with bureaucracies and our elected officials, and how a country might manage money creation  if  democracy truly m...

Sixty years ago, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law. Its protections have been rolled back in recent years — and our fundamentally undemocratic Constitution is to blame. This is a recording of Luke’s recent Jacobin article, “ To Protect Voting Rights, We Need a Democratic Constitution .”

Luke talks with Rogers Smith, co-author with Desmond King of  America’s New Racial Battle Lines: Protect Versus Repair . Rogers describes the two sides — “protect” versus “repair” — of America’s current political landscape, the Constitution’s role in shaping America’s political arena and impeding the repair agenda, Trump as the embodiment of the protect agenda, and the significance of the Declarat...

Luke talks with Osita Nwanevu about his forthcoming book, The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding . Luke and Osita discuss the impetus for The Right of the People book, definitions of political democracy, the place of economic democracy, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a possible Democratic Constitution Conference, and gerrymandering in...

Luke talks with Zaakir Tameez about his recent book, Charles Sumner: Conscience of a Nation . Zaakir discusses the origins of Sumner’s abolitionist spirit, his relationship to the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, the extent to which Reconstruction changed the federal Constitution, and what it means to call for a Third Reconstruction.

Luke talks with Douglas Egerton about Abolitionism, Reconstruction, and the life and times of the abolitionist and social activist Thomas Wentworth Higginson. According to John Brown’s biographer, David Reynolds, Higginson carried forward Brown’s “Abolitionist spirit” more than anyone else. Doug is Professor of History at LeMoyne College. His books include The Wars of Reconstruction: The Brief, Vi...

Luke talks with Gil Schaeffer about his recent article, “The Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement,” including debates between the Revolutionary Union (RU) and Communist League (CL), Lenin’s theory of political consciousness and leadership, and the importance of Martin Luther King Jr. Gil has written several articles for the blog, including “ Marxism Is Democratic Republicanism: The History of the S...

Luke talks with Daniel Lazare about Trump’s foreign policy, the Supreme Court’s liberal opposition to Trump v. CASA, No Kings protests, resistance to ICE raids, and why we need a constituent assembly. Dan is the author of The Frozen Republic , The Velvet Coup , and America’s Undeclared War . He has written several articles for the Democratic Constitution Blog and Permanent Revolution . Lucas and L...

Luke talks with Dan Farbman about parallels between current events and America in the 1850s, the abolitionist movement and resistance lawyering, working within “the master’s house,” and protests in Los Angeles. Dan teaches classes on constitutional law, local government law, movement lawyering, inequality, and legal realism at the Boston College Law School. His work includes “ A Commons in the Mas...

A recap of articles, interviews, and current events during the week of 6/30/25.

The US government is already preparing massive celebrations of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution next July 4, the country’s semiquincentennial. It’s high time to scrap the antidemocratic system the Framers bequeathed us. This is a recording of Luke’s recent Jacobin article, “This July 4, Let’s Resolve to Win an Actual Democracy.”

Trump and Birthright Citizenship. By Luke Pickrell. Published on April 23, 2025. Original Article: https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/trump-and-citizenship

Luke speaks with Stephen Pimpare about his recent article, “ The Right is Risen: It’s Time to Admit the US Constitution Has Failed .” They discuss topics such as poverty in the US and widespread social discontent, the Constitution's role in allowing for the emergence of authoritarianism, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and uniting various constituencies in the struggle for democracy.  Stephen is...

Democratic in Name Only. By Luke Pickrell. Published on June 18, 2025.

A recap of articles, interviews, and current events during the week of 5/23/25.

Luke talks with Gregory Claeys Grandin about Tom Paine, including Paine’s ideas of natural rights and natural laws, how a new generation of radicals challenged Paine’s ideas of natural rights, how Machiavellian/neo-Roman republican theories differ from Paine’s republicanism, and why “the age of Paine has barely begun.” Greg is Professor Emeritus at the University of London and the author of severa...

Luke talks with Mariano Guevara following Mexico’s first-ever popular election for federal judicial officials. Mariano is a law student and political activist in Mexico. He can be found at mariano_gl17 on X and Instagram. This episode is in Spanish. An abridged translation in English is here .

Forward and Over. By Luke Pickrell. Published on June 16, 2025. Original Article: https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/go-forward-and-over

A recap of articles, interviews, and current events during the week of 5/16/25.

Luke talks with Bruce Watson about 1964’s Freedom Summer, what animated the participants, the importance of moral motivations, and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Bruce is an educator and the author of several books, including Bread & Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream , and Freedom Summer: The Savage Season of 1964 That Made Mississippi B...

Build Something Better. By Luke Pickrell. Published on April 14, 2025. Original Article: https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/the-best-defense-is-a-good-offense

Starting Point. By Luke Pickrell. Published on June 4, 2025. Original Article: https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/starting-point

Luke talks with Dr. Lynn Hunt about the development of human rights and how they became self-evident, the significance of rights claims, socialism/communism and human rights, and how to think about our current political structure. Lynn is the Eugen Weber Professor of Modern European History at the University of California, Los Angeles. She’s the author of several books, including Politics, Culture...

David Hogg, the Democratic Party, and the Oligarchic US Constitution. By Lucas De Hart. Published on June 3, 2025. Original Article: https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/david-hogg-the-democratic-party-and