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
Thursday, June 22nd, 2023
Anna Chu is the executive director of We The Action, an organization that connects volunteer lawyers with nonprofits that require legal assistance. We discuss how lawyers play a unique and critical role in strengthening American democracy.
A strong democracy relies on everyone having the ability to have their voices heard at every level of the government, but in the US there is a huge gap between who is actually eligible to vote and who actually votes. In addition, there are lots of different rights currently being challenged at the federal level and at the state level. Lawyers can and do advance access to justice, as well as ensure that democracy can be accessible for everyone.
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Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Anna Chu
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis
Thursday, June 15th, 2023
Frank Guridy is the Executive Director of the Eric H. Holder Initiative for Civil and Political Rights at Columbia University and the Dr. Kenneth and Kareitha Forde Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies. We discuss social movements in the past, present, and future.
Social movements consist of mass participation from outside of established political structures to address grievances or to pursue larger social goals. They are often long term endeavors that might not fully achieve their goals but nonetheless move the needle in social attitudes. Sometimes they achieve the unthinkable, like freedom from slavery or marriage equality.
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https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/the-power-of-solidarity-frank-guridy
Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Frank Guridy
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis
Thursday, June 8th, 2023
David Priess is the Director of Intelligence at Bedrock Learning and has served at the CIA as an intelligence officer, a manager, and a daily intelligence briefer during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. We discuss how the issues of waging war and negotiating peace affect our everyday lives.
The intelligence function is about discovering the truth in order to reduce uncertainty for decision-makers on issues of national security. Intelligence cannot predict the future, especially when it comes to human choices. Although some information is necessarily secret for our own security, we should all be engaged on national security issues. That means asking questions of our elected representatives instead of being passive recipients of information, and to vary where we get our news.
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Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: David Priess
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis and Sara Burningham
Thursday, June 1st, 2023
Beto O'Rourke is a fourth-generation Texan, the former US Representative of Texas's 16th Congressional district, the Democratic Party's nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2018, and the Democratic nominee for the 2022 Texas gubernatorial election. He is also the author of We've Got to Try: How the Fight for Voting Rights Makes Everything Else Possible.
We discuss the outsized importance of Texas politics for the nation. Republicans have relied on winning Texas's electoral college votes to clinch presidential races. However, even without investment from the Democratic party, the trend over the last three presidential elections is improving for Democratic candidates. Texas is currently the hardest state in which to vote and to register to vote. Broad and consistent participation from citizens is vital to changing the status quo. The fight for democracy goes on forever and no victory is ever final.
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Read the transcript here:
https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/democracy-in-texas-beto-orourke
Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Beto O'Rourke
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis and Sara Burningham
Thursday, May 25th, 2023
Representative Anna Eskamani serves on behalf of Florida's 42nd district of Orange County in the state House of Representatives. We discuss her victories at the ballot box and her work to represent her constituents. Her campaign slogan is "Working for you. Fighting for us."
When serving in the minority of the Florida state legislature, you only pass legislation by working across the aisle. Anna is a firm believer in calling people in before calling them out, and on finding common ground on issues of good government. Her formula for success is showing up for people by focusing on real life issues, like on tax fairness, versus the manufactured culture war debates.
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Read the transcript here:
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Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Anna Eskamani
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis & Sara Burningham
Thursday, May 18th, 2023
Chris Wiggins and Matthew L. Jones are co-authors of How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms. Chris is an associate professor of applied mathematics at Columbia University and the New York Times's chief data scientist and Matt is a professor of history at Columbia. Together, they taught a course called "Data: Past, Present, and Future," and their book is an extension thereof. We discuss the history of how data is made; the relationship between data and truth; and the unstable three-player game between corporate, state, and people power.
We are currently in an unstable and unpredictable three-player game between state power, corporate power, and people power. In fact, we have a lot of collective influence via the way we construct norms. Our constant human activity is the grist of the mill for machine learning. Corporations do not have all the power. Still, the mix between advertising and data has created a lot of the most pressing concerns in the world's algorithmically mediated reality.
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Read the transcript here:
https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/people-power-and-ai-chris-wiggins-matt-jones
Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Chris Wiggins & Matt Jones
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producer: Zack Travis
Thursday, May 11th, 2023
Judge Victoria Pratt was Chief Judge in Newark Municipal Court in New Jersey and the author of The Power of Dignity. She is currently the Executive Director of Odyssey Impact, an interfaith non-profit driving social change through innovative storytelling and media. We discuss procedural justice, municipal court reform, and increasing the public's trust in the justice system.
Tough-on-crime laws are ineffective. Punishing people for wrongdoing does not change behavior. Judge Pratt asserts her authority when she understands the people who appear in court before her. People obey the law when they are treated with respect and dignity, because then they view the people who impose rules and laws as legitimate authorities. Engaging with the criminal justice system is punishment enough, whether you're innocent or not.
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Read the transcript here:
https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/dignity-and-justice-judge-victoria-pratt
Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Judge Victoria Pratt
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producers: Zack Travis and Sara Burningham
Thursday, May 4th, 2023
Craig Aaron is the Co-CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action. We discuss the civic information bill in New Jersey and the promise of centering civic information in the media.
A vibrant multiracial democracy requires civic information media, which delivers the information that helps us live better lives in our communities. Journalism or civic media are a public good, and the public needs to invest in media along those lines. In New Jersey, bipartisan legislative support led to the civic information bill and the founding of the Civic Information Consortium. The best thing all of us can do right now is to support our local media. Read it and engage it!
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Read the transcript here:
https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/civic-information-media-craig-aaron
Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Craig Aaron
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producers: Zack Travis and Sara Burningham
Thursday, April 27th, 2023
Jeff Sharlet is a journalist, best-selling author, and longtime observer and investigator of the Christian right. His latest book is The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War. We discuss America's democratic bankruptcy, the martyrdom of Ashli Babbit, and the rightward shift of the mainstream.
The notion of civil war was a fringe idea, but in recent years it has become mainstream. It was just a question of time and for some, it was already happening. Fascism does not respond to logic but relies heavily on myths. Fascist movements need martyrs like Ashli Babbitt. Along those lines, the MAGA movement can be understood as an innocence cult, wishing for a return to a time that never was.
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Read the transcript here:
https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/a-slow-civil-war-jeff-sharlet
Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Jeff Sharlet
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producers: Zack Travis and Sara Burningham
Thursday, April 20th, 2023
Chloe Maxmin and Canyon Woodward are the co-authors of Dirt Road Revival: How to Rebuild Rural Politics and Why our Future Depends on It. We discuss the importance of winning rural races in America.
When Chloe ran for office in rural Maine, she knocked on over 20,000 doors and discovered that constituents feel a lack of representation in their daily lives. Democrats really stopped showing up and investing in strong organizing infrastructure in rural places, but it's possible to turn things around. There's a huge opportunity to organize in small towns and places that have been overlooked–and not at the expense of urban efforts. A key ingredient is to focus on what we have in common and connecting on those values levels.
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Read the transcript here:
https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/reclaiming-rural-power-chloe-maxmin-canyon-woodward
Credits:
Host: Mila Atmos
Guests: Chloe Maxmin and Canyon Woodward
Executive Producer: Mila Atmos
Producers: Zack Travis and Sara Burningham
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