Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
Unpacking political polarization
Episode 17
Polarization is a term that’s thrown around among political pundits as one reason for the decline of American democracy — often without an explanatio…
7 years, 9 months ago
What should voting look like in the 21st century?
Episode 16
Across the U.S., the process to register to vote and cast a ballot is different in every state. And we’re not just talking about minor details. The e…
7 years, 9 months ago
When the “business of business” bleeds into politics
Episode 15
What is the role of a corporation in a democracy? If you asked Milton Friedman, the answer would be none at all. He famously said in the 1970s that t…
7 years, 9 months ago
Michael Mann’s journey through the climate wars
Episode 14
This episode is not about climate change. Well, not directly, anyway. Instead, we talk with Nobel Prize winner and Penn State Distinguished Professo…
7 years, 10 months ago
Can young people revive civic engagement?
Episode 13
Peter Levine is one of the country’s leading scholars in the area of civic engagement. He is the Associate Dean for Research and Lincoln Filene Prof…
7 years, 10 months ago
Bonus: Democracy In Action #1
Episode 12
We love talking with scholars and thought leaders on Democracy Works, but we’d also like to bring you the everyday stories of democracy in action. Th…
7 years, 10 months ago
A conversation about conversation
Episode 11
This week’s episode seeks to answer one simple, but very important, question: Why is it so hard for people to talk to each other? There are a lot of …
7 years, 10 months ago
Ten thousand democracies
Episode 10
One of the things we talked about in our episode with How Democracies Die author Daniel Ziblatt is the “grinding work” that it takes to make a democr…
7 years, 10 months ago
It’s good to be counted
Episode 9
Jennifer Van Hook
The next census is just around the corner 2020, and the U.S. Census Bureau is already hard at work on preparing to count the more t…
7 years, 10 months ago
Satire is good for more than just a few laughs
Episode 8
Political satire has been around nearly as long as politics itself and can provide a much needed laugh in times of crisis.
But, as you’ll hear from …
7 years, 11 months ago