Stay ConnectedA show that takes the big ideas in civic life and democracy and turns them into action items for everyday people.
Join host Mila Atmos for in-depth conversations with citizen changemakers that inspire civic action and hope. Citizen participation is fundamental to a thriving democracy. Now more than ever, our engagement is critical.
Copyright: © 2023 Mila Atmos
We discuss the necessary policies that make a family friendly economy possible, such as investments in child care, elder care, and paid family leave. Such investments ought to be considered basic infrastructure, which contribute to the economy.
Sondra's civic action toolkit recommendations are:
Talk to your friends and family who are having challenges around caregiving.
Vote for candidates who support child care and paid family leave, and hold them accountable after elections.
Sondra Goldschein is the Executive Director of the Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, which focuses on building grassroots support for family-friendly policies. The organization also runs a political action committee that focuses on electing candidates who support paid family and medical leave and affordable elder and childcare.
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Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Sondra Goldschein
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis
Future Hindsight is a finalist in the 2024 Signal Awards and we need your help to win the gold!
We're being recognized in the Activism, Public Service, & Social Impact category for our episode on Policing Equity and Justice with Dr. Phillip Atiba Solomon.
Public voting is open until Oct 17th, 2024 and every vote counts. Go to this link to vote for Future Hindsight now:
You can also vote for us by following us on Instagram @FutureHindsightPod and clicking the link in our bio there!
We discuss the deep impact of Project 2025 policies on the American people, even if only 10-15% were implemented. Well beyond abortion bans and no-fault divorces, Project 2025 would adversely affect democracy. It would be easier for big money to influence election outcomes, for disinformation and misinformation to spread, and for foreign actors to meddle in elections.
Matt's civic action toolkit recommendations are:
Look at what's going on around you and take action at the local level
Join a mutual aid group in your community
Matt Cohen is a senior staff writer covering elections, voting rights, and threats to democracy at Democracy Docket, the leading digital news platform dedicated to information, analysis, and opinion about voting rights and elections in the courts.
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Listen to Skye Perryman's Episode:
https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/courts-for-democracy-skye-perryman
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Sponsor:
Thanks to Shopify for supporting Future Hindsight! Sign up for a $1/month trial at shopify.com/hopeful.
Want to support the show and get it early?
https://patreon.com/futurehindsight
Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Matt Cohen
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis
This is a recording of a live event of the American Voter Project at the Eric H. Holder Jr. Initiative for Civil and Political Rights. We discuss the long history of voter suppression, voting rights, the electoral college, the Supreme Court, and democracy.
General Holder' and Michael's civic action toolkit recommendations are:
Vote!
Engage in a major social movement
Eric H. Holder, Jr. serves as Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. He served in the Obama Administration as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from February 2009 to April 2015, the third longest-serving Attorney General in U.S. history and the first African American to hold that office.
Michael Waldman is president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. A nonpartisan law and policy institute that focuses on improving systems of democracy and justice, the Brennan Center is a leading national voice on voting rights, money in politics, criminal justice reform, and constitutional law.
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Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Attorney General Eric Holder & Michael Waldman
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis
We discuss deepening our understanding of the climate crisis, the urgent need for decarbonization, and our role in speaking truth about phasing out fossil fuels.
Genevieve's civic action toolkit recommendations are:
Call your elected representatives and demand policies to phase out fossil fuels.
If extreme weather comes up in conversation, connect the dots to climate change and say: "We really need to phase out fossil fuels so we can halt global heating."
Genevieve Guenther is the founding director of End Climate Silence and affiliate faculty at The New School. Her most recent book is The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It.
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Read the transcript here:
https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/end-climate-silence-genevieve-guenther
Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Genevieve Guenther
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis
We discuss the power and the promise of public schools, the universal rejection of book bans by parents across the country, and an inclusive vision for democracy.
Their civic action toolkit recommendations are:
Have a conversation with people with whom you disagree
Remain open-minded.
Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider are co-hosts of the education podcast Have You Heard. Their new book is The Education Wars: A Citizen's Guide and Defense Manual.
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Read the transcript here:
Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Jennifer Berkshire & Jack Schneider
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis
We discuss how ballot measures give voters the opportunity to take power and agency. It is about citizens putting issues that are important to their communities, gathering signatures, and then putting them on the ballot directly to effect policy change.
Her civic action toolkit recommendations are:
1. Voting is the starting line, not the finish line.
2. Hold your elected officials accountable after elections by reaching out to them about the issues that matter to you, and making sure they are keeping their promises.
Chris Melody Fields Figueredo is the Executive Director of The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which works to strengthen American democracy using ballot initiatives.
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Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!
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Read the transcript here:
https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/people-power-on-the-ballot-chris-melody-fields-figueredo
Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Chris Melody Fields Figueredo
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis
We discuss how two parties alone cannot represent the diversity of views in American society, how fusion voting could solve for better representation, and who exactly should get engaged in our civic lives.
His civic action toolkit recommendations are:
1. Support political parties and reforms that create more choices.
2. Be a good neighbor and participate in a local meeting.
Lee Drutman is Senior Fellow in the Political Reform program at New America, co-host of the Politics in Question podcast (a fellow Democracy Group podcast!), and author of Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America.
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Read Lee's Paper:
https://protectdemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/The-Case-for-Multiparty-Presidentialism.pdf
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Sponsor:
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Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!
http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard
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Want to support the show and get it early?
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Check out the Future Hindsight website!
Read the transcript here:
https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/break-up-the-two-party-system-lee-drutman
Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Lee Drutman
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis
We discuss what it takes for citizens to take action and run for elected office. Wendy ran as a Democrat in Utah because she wanted to give voters a viable, different choice. She knew it was going to be difficult to win as a first time candidate, but she ran so hard that she left a body mark in the wall. She lost by a mere 78 votes.
Her civic action toolkit recommendations are:
1. Vote and encourage other people to vote
2. Work or volunteer for a candidate during an election year
Wendy Davis is a former candidate for Utah House of Representatives and the author of The Fight You Don't See – an honest memoir about her campaign.
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Check out the Future Hindsight website!
Read the transcript here:
https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/what-is-it-like-to-run-for-office-wendy-davis
Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Wendy Davis
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis
Joe Spielberger is the policy counsel for the Effective and Accountable Government team at the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), where he advocates in Congress and the executive branch to strengthen whistleblower rights, protect a merit based civil service, and promote government ethics and transparency. We discuss how government can be transparent and accountable to us, the People.
All Americans need to be confident that federal employees are hired based on their qualifications and not because of their partisan political ideology. In retaliation to the whistleblower on Trump's phone call with Ukrainian president Zelensky, Trump signed Schedule F, an executive order that could have allowed a complete purge of the civil service of nonpartisan career civil servants. Because whistleblower retaliation is rampant, protecting whistleblowers and civil servants is one of the best ways to protect the public from harm. The Supreme Court does not have a binding code of ethics because the Supreme Court refuses to adopt one. However, Congress has clear and direct mechanisms to hold the Supreme Court accountable and can pass legislation that would implement a binding code of ethics.
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Check out the Future Hindsight website!
Read the transcript here:
https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/protect-whistleblowers-joe-spielberger
Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guest: Joe Spielberger
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis
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