Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchHow democracies can win the war on reality [rebroadcast]
Peter Pomerantsev will visit Penn State March 31 and April 1 to discus Ukraine, Russian misinformation, and more. To get ready for his visit, we're r…
4 years ago
Ro Khanna on dignity and democracy
Episode 209
The concept of dignity comes up a lot when we think about the condition of American democracy. Francis Fukuyama wrote about the demand for dignity an…
4 years ago
Russia and Ukraine: How we got here
Episode 208
Was the war in Ukraine inevitable? What is Vladimir Putin trying to achieve? What does the conflict say about Ukraine as a democracy? Those are just …
4 years ago
Defending democracy at home and abroad
Episode 207
Robert Kagan is a foreign policy expert who turned his focus to the United States last fall in a Washington Post column titled "Our Constitutional Cr…
4 years ago
What academic freedom really means in a democracy
Episode 206
What should academic freedom look like in 2022? How has it become conflated with the idea of free speech? Who should decide how issues regarding facu…
4 years, 1 month ago
Tracing the rise of illiberalism
Episode 205
Thomas Main's new book The Rise of Illiberalism explores the philosophical underpinnings of this toxic political ideology and documents how it has in…
4 years, 1 month ago
Moving beyond news deserts and misinformation
Episode 204
We've talked a lot on this show about the problems that news deserts, misinformation, and information silos present to democracy. Our guest this week…
4 years, 1 month ago
How national parties are breaking state politics
Episode 203
Over the past generation, the Democratic and Republican parties have each become nationally coordinated political teams. American political instituti…
4 years, 1 month ago
Can the courts save civics education?
Episode 202
Recent elections and the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection have underscored worrisome trends in the present state of our democracy: the extre…
4 years, 2 months ago
When religion and democracy collide
Episode 201
Correction: In this episode, we referred to St. John's Church in Lafayette Square as a Presbyterian Church. It is an Episcopalian Church. We apologiz…
4 years, 2 months ago