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
Danielle Allen is a MacArthur Fellow and the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University. She's published broadly in democratic theory, political sociology, and the history of political thought, and is widely known for her work on justice and citizenship. Her most recent book is Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus. We discuss the promise of good governance, common purpose, and our moral compass in action.
Democracy WorksGood governance bolsters democracy by delivering for people in real ways that improve quality of life. For instance, it lowers the costs of living, makes quality healthcare accessible, and addresses the climate crisis, racial injustice, and more. Effective government connects hope with getting things done.
Common PurposeFinding a common purpose is what fosters action. If individuals and communities can unite over a common purpose, they will have a target to work towards. Shared goals make it possible for teams to work cohesively and effectively. If we know where we are going collectively, then we can apply this to any issue that plagues our democracy, from inequality to climate.
Moral Compassion in ActionOur moral compass is already in action across the nation. For example, working together for fairness is much more common than one might think. Ballot propositions often achieve super majority votes. In Massachusetts, more than 70% of voters in 2020 voted for a proposition that gave small auto dealers access to data in cars, so they could stay in the business of making repairs. It's just one instance of solidarity in action.
FIND OUT MORE:Danielle Allen is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and is currently on leave as the Director of Harvard's Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. She is a political theorist who has published broadly in democratic theory, political sociology, and the history of political thought. Her most recent book is Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus.
Danielle has worked tirelessly through her writing, policy work, and political advocacy to advance the causes of freedom and equality, and to lay economic and health foundations on which all can flourish. She is especially proud of her civic education initiative which is supporting teaching and learning in fourteen Massachusetts school districts.
When the COVID crisis hit, Danielle quickly assembled a Rapid Response Network of forty researchers and eight institutions to lay out a policy roadmap, The Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience, and led the development of influential data metrics and tools. Many of the proposals in that Roadmap and in the related work developed have been incorporated in the Biden-Harris Administration Coronavirus Response Plan, and Danielle and her team have offered technical assistance to local leaders at city and county levels throughout the country.
She is a former Chair of the Mellon Foundation Board, past Chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
You can follow Danielle Allen on Twitter at @dsallentess
Understanding Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter stands as a movement to demand and secure Black humanity. Being a leader-full movement makes it less susceptible to disruption and has de-centered Black patriarchy. Its broad and deep inclusivity has also widened our consciousness beyond historical notions of Blackness. However, the lack of a clear leader also poses challenges in national messaging about the movement.
Love, Equality, and FairnessLooking back at the history of Black thought in America, we see the shortcomings in our understanding of racism. Simply knowing that racism is wrong is not enough to break away from the everyday segregation our society faces. This moral immaturity continues to exist today, especially in the form of performative activism and fickle support of social movements. Combatting this kind of immaturity requires building a stronger sense of filial love across different communities.
Moral and Affective IdeasIdeas can be powerful, but it's the affective nature of an idea that determines its power. It's clear that racial inequality results in an uneven distribution of wealth. Some would say that it is unfair. However, describing this reality as unfair removes the emotional punch that racial inequality actually results in the devastation of families, leading to anguish and despair. These two ideas are not interchangeable.
FIND OUT MORE:Chris Lebron is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. He specializes in political philosophy, social theory, the philosophy of race, and democratic ethics. His first book, The Color of Our Shame: Race and Justice In Our Time (OUP 2013) won the American Political Science Association Foundations of Political Theory First Book Prize. His second book The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of An Idea (OUP 2017) offers a brief intellectual history of the black lives matter social movement.
Lebron is the winner of the 2018 Hiett Prize In The Humanities, which recognizes a "career devoted to the humanities and whose work shows extraordinary promise to have a significant impact on contemporary culture." In addition to his scholarly publications, he has been an active public intellectual, writing numerous times for The New York Times's philosophy column, The Stone, Boston Review, The Nation, The Atlantic, and Billboard Magazine.
You can follow Chris on Twitter @lebron_chris
Neil Roberts is Professor of Africana Studies and Faculty Affiliate in Political Science and Religion at Williams College. He's working on a new book titled How To Live Free in an Age of Pessimism. We discuss the legacy of Charles Mills' scholarship on the racial contract, freedom, and transforming society from the bottom up.
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Racial ContractWhite supremacy has shaped modern society in ways that may not be immediately obvious. Charles Mills proposes in the Racial Contract that we've operated under the assumption that rights belong to whites and are theirs to give away. By changing our conceptions about the racial contract and, in turn, racism, we can work towards constructing a new approach towards living free in our democracy.
Living FreeLiving free isn't simply the lack of enslavement. In our world, social and political orders are constantly changing, creating new dynamics of subjugation. If we choose to think of freedom outside of the context of enslavement, then living free requires the individual to grow a sense of awareness of their surroundings and the political system they exist in. For example, suffrage is a hallmark of a democratic and free society.
Positive and Negative FreedomsPositive notions of freedom are about the visions of freedom that are desired in a body politic, such as autonomy or plurality. They also include public policy, legislation, and constitutions. Negative notions of freedom are about non-interference and non-domination. One example is mask mandates, which is considered by some to be an interference of freedom.
FIND OUT MORE:Neil Roberts is Professor of Africana Studies and Faculty Affiliate in Political Science and Religion at Williams College. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago with a specialization in political theory. Roberts is the recipient of fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation as well as a member of the Caribbean Philosophical Association Board of Directors.
His present writings deal with the intersections of Caribbean, Continental, and North American political theory with respect to theorizing the concept of freedom. His most recent book is A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass (The University Press of Kentucky, 2018). Roberts was President of the Caribbean Philosophical Association from 2016-19 and, since July 2018, he has served as the W. Ford Schumann Faculty Fellow in Democratic Studies. His next book is How to Live Free in an Age of Pessimism.
You can follow Neil on Twitter @neildsroberts.
Anat Shenker-Osorio is a renowned communications researcher and campaign advisor, the host of Words to Win By, and the Principal of ASO Communications. We discuss how to empower voters, the impact of repetition, and the importance of being clear on what you stand for. Social Proof Is Real
The most telling sign that a message is reaching the masses effectively is if the public acts on it. For example, the last national election cycles in 2018 and 2020 saw a large increase in voter turnout. It is not productive to narrate the problems with voter turnout. Instead, we should encourage non-voters to grasp the potential their vote holds. The proof of that effective messaging is in the social movements that follow.
Vote Is a VerbVoting behavior is one of the most studied aspects of political communications. Because of this, we know that voting behavior is best understood as a matter of habituation. Seeing voting as an action that we need to take rather than a belief that we need to hold will create a more effective approach to spurring voter turnout. In order to make voting a habit for more people, we have to talk about it consistently.
Say what you're for: the Question of Negative MessagingAll candidates should repeatedly state what they stand for because repetition is an essential ingredient in making sure a message is heard. Negative messaging can often be counterproductive because when you're negating the other side, you are actually reinforcing their argument. What's more, by focusing on the opposition and not clearly stating your own position, you risk leaving your message unheard. It's impossible to have a message resonate if no one hears it.
FIND OUT MORE:Anat Shenker-Osorio is the host of the Words to Win By podcast and Principal of ASO Communications. Anat examines why certain messages falter where others deliver. She has led research for new messaging on issues ranging from freedom to join together in union to clean energy and from immigrant rights to reforming criminal justice. Anat's original approach through priming experiments, task-based testing, and online dial surveys has led to progressive electoral and policy victories across the globe.
Anat delivers her findings at venues such as the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Centre for Australian Progress, Irish Migrant Centre, Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation, and LUSH International. Her writing and research is profiled in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Boston Globe, Salon, The Guardian, and Grist among others. She is the author of Don't Buy It: The Trouble with Talking Nonsense About the Economy.
You can follow Anat on Twitter @anatosaurus
We're revisiting our conversation with Mark Rank, a poverty expert, professor, and author of Poorly Understood: What America Gets Wrong About Poverty. We discuss the true causes and systemic nature of poverty, and poverty reduction as being both moral and smart public policy.
Musical ChairsAmerican poverty is a bit like a game of musical chairs. The US only has good opportunities for 8 out of 10 Americans, meaning 2 people always lose. Instead of adding new opportunities or chairs, we shuffle the opportunities around, but 2 of every 10 people still end up without the opportunities. This shows that poverty is a result of the systems we have in place, not personal shortcomings, and if we continue shuffling the opportunities, we will continue having a poverty problem.
Poverty MythsBeing poor in the US is subject to several damaging myths that make it harder to reduce poverty rates country-wide. We think of a poverty rate between 10-15% of the US population, but shockingly 60-75% of Americans will spend at least one year of their lives in poverty. Another myth blames poor Americans for their own poverty, not the systems that maintain poverty in America. We also assume the costs of poverty are borne by the poor, but US taxpayers pay more than $1 trillion per year due to the externalities of poverty.
Social Safety NetsThe US has a much weaker social safety net than other developed countries. We view poverty as a personal shortcoming that is not to be rewarded with welfare programs or healthcare. Since we think the poor are undeserving of help, we do not invest in social safety nets, creating high rates of poverty. Social safety nets reduce poverty by 75-80% in other countries, whereas the US safety net only reduces it by 25-30%. The most successful anti-poverty program in the US is Social Security.
FIND OUT MORE:Mark R. Rank is recognized as a foremost expert on issues of poverty, inequality, and social justice. His research on the life course risk of poverty has demonstrated for the first time that most Americans will experience poverty at some point during their lives. To date, he has written 10 books on a range of subjects, including an exploration of the American Dream, a new understanding of poverty and inequality, and the role of luck and chance in shaping the course of our lives. In addition, he has published articles in numerous academic journals across a wide variety of fields.
He has provided research expertise to members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as many national organizations involved in issues of economic and social justice. His work has been cited by then-President Barack Obama, as well as Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
You can check out his book Poorly Understood here.
We're revisiting our conversation with Colin Jerolmack, an environmental sociologist and author of Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town. We discuss the public-private paradox and the tragedy of the commons, as well as the undemocratic aspects of American property rights. Public-Private Paradox
America has clearly delineated public and private domains: the public domain is regulated, and the private domain is not. A public-private paradox occurs when a decision made in the private domain creates issues in the public domain. In the case of fracking, choosing to allow drilling in your land is a private decision. That decision creates many externalities such as overuse of roads, unwanted sights and sounds, contaminated well water for neighborhood, which harms the public good.
Tragedy of the CommonsThe Tragedy of the Commons explains how individual decisions pertaining to common resources can lead to degradation of that resource, hurting everyone. It's in everyone's own best interest to use as much of a common resource as possible, because if they don't, someone else will. Unfortunately, when everyone does this the shared resource is often quickly degraded. In the case of fracking, many landowners decided to lease land because their neighbors were doing it, and choosing not to lease would mean absorbing the externalities of fracking without any compensation.
American Property RightsAmerican landowners own their land "up to heaven, and down to hell," meaning they own both the air and subsurface rights along with their land. This is quite different from almost all other countries, where subsurface mineral rights are owned, regulated, and sold by government bodies. Landowners in the US make entirely private decisions to allow oil and gas drilling on their property without the consent of their neighbors, and in some cases without any regulation from local, state, or federal governments.
FIND OUT MORE:Colin Jerolmack is a professor of sociology and environmental studies at NYU, where he also teaches courses on human-animal relations and chairs the Environmental Studies Department. His first book, The Global Pigeon explores how human-animal relations shape our experience of urban life. His second book, Up To Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town follows residents of a rural Pennsylvania community who leased their land for gas drilling in order to understand how the exercise of property rights can undermine the commonwealth. He also co-edited the volume Approaches to Ethnography: Modes of Representation and Analysis in Participant Observation with Shamus Khan. He lives in New York City with his wife and two sons.
You can follow Colin on Twitter @jerolmack.
We're sharing a curated list of podcast recommendations on abortion rights that we put together for our friends at EarBuds Podcast Collective in September 2021. Reproductive rights will be in the news a lot this year because of the Mississippi case before SCOTUS and because of the midterm elections.
The 5 episodes we recommend are:
Amicus with Dahlia Lithwick – "Abortion, Surveillance, and Vigilantism: An American Story"
Fresh Air with Terry Gross – "SCOTUS & The Future of Roe v. Wade"
Access: A Podcast About Abortion with Garnet Henderson – "2021 is a Record-Breaking Year for State Attacks on Abortion. How Are Advocates Fighting Back?"
The Takeaway with Melissa Harris-Perry – "Corporations Stay Silent on Abortion"
Future Hindsight with Mila Atmos - "The Human Rights of Women"
FIND OUT MORE:
Follow the podcasts on Twitter!
EarBuds Podcast Collective: @EarBudsPodCol
Fresh Air: @nprfreshair
The Takeaway: @TheTakeaway
Access: A Podcast about Abortion: @ACCESSpod
Future Hindsight: @Futur_Hindsight
Retaking The Commons
In order to repair our current social contract, we must first repair our relationship to the Commons. Our economy currently prioritizes property protection, wealth protection, and disproportionate power, while often disregarding the realities of human life. Social movements can create a sense of mutuality, of what we hold in common, and amass power to retake the Commons. Turning to each other has never been more effective.
The Solidarity EconomySolidarity economics is a system that focuses on mutuality in the form of co-ops, community land trusts, and other social movements. The key is to create experiences that widen the circle of belonging and everyone is valuable. For example, solidarity economics aims to increase workers' power in order to get better deals from their employers. It also creates alternative economic enterprises, government regulation to prevent abuses, and rewards high road businesses.
The Benefit of MutualismOperating in mutuality is the opposite of operating in self-interest. In many ways, our society has been built to reward those who are powered by self-interest, but the benefit of mutuality extends far beyond personal gain. Creating solidarity means building commonality between all types of communities. Social movements are at the heart of mutuality, since they foster a responsibility to one another. The more we practice mutuality, the more normal it becomes, and the greater the rewards that are delivered.
FIND OUT MORE:Dr. Manuel Pastor is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He currently directs the Equity Research Institute at USC. Pastor holds an economics Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is the inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at USC.
His latest books are South Central Dreams: Finding Home and Building Community in South L.A. (co-authored with Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo) and Solidarity Economics: Why Mutuality and Movements Matter (co-authored with Chris Benner). His previous works include State of Resistance: What California's Dizzying Descent and Remarkable Resurgence Means for America's Future and Equity, Growth, and Community: What the Nation Can Learn from America's Metro Areas (co-authored with Chris Benner [UC Press 2015]).
You can follow Manuel on Twitter @Prof_MPastor
Faith in the Social Contract
As members of a society, we must have an understanding of "we" for the social contract to function. When citizens are put in a position of protecting the state or the economy instead of protecting its people, we all lose out. Faith can help us find a sense of togetherness. If we know who we're fighting for, the sacrifice makes that much more sense. The pandemic has been a great example of both the wins and losses of living for the greater good.
Beloved CommunityA beloved community is one that prioritizes having enough as opposed to having abundance. If everyone has enough to get by, then no one is left out. In this way, members of the community can shed the stress of the next meal or a roof over their heads, and instead are able to put resources and engagement into one another. A beloved community builds from the heart of our social contract through a faith in neighborliness and diplomacy.
Mutual AidThe pillars of mutual aid are recognizing that there are no unworthy people and that everyone in the community is valued. In turn, people can get the help they need and ask for. For instance, in the vulnerability many experienced during the pandemic, mutual aid groups made it so if you needed food, you could rely on someone to help you with that need. Mutual aid does not depend on filling out applications to prove that you have a need, but instead a sense of trust in your community that asking for help will guarantee that help.
FIND OUT MORE:The Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan-Simpson is the president of Auburn Seminary, a leadership development and research institute that equips bold and resilient leaders of faith and moral courage to build communities, bridge divides, pursue justice, and heal the world. Founded more than 200 years ago by Presbyterians in upstate New York, Auburn is committed to right relationship with a truly multifaith, multiracial movement for justice.
Rev. Jordan-Simpson preached her first sermon at the age of 17 at House of Prayer Episcopal Church in Newark, NJ, and was ordained by The Concord Baptist Church of Christ, a historic freedom faith congregation in Brooklyn, NY. Her ministry has been grounded in the call to community.
She is a graduate of Fisk University (BA); Union Theological Seminary (M. Div), and Drew Theological Seminary (D. Min). She is the President of the Board of American Baptist Churches of Metropolitan New York and serves on the Board of Directors of FPWA.
You can follow Dr. Jordan-Simpson on Twitter at @RevEmmaJ
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