The Democracy Group

Latest Episodes:

Congressman Ro Khanna: “Dignity in the Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us” | The Bully Pulpit Oct 10, 2022

Show notes

CPF Director Bob Shrum joins Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA) to discuss his new book “Dignity in the Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us,” which is a roadmap to facing America’s digital divide and offering greater economic prosperity to all. They also discuss the digital economy, technological innovation, progressive capitalism, and the future of American democracy. Featuring:

Ro Khanna - U.S. Representative (D-CA) for California’s 17th Congressional District
Bob Shrum - Director, Center for the Political Future; Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics, USC Dornsife

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How Corporate Cash May Influence the Midterms with Craig Holman | TDG Twitter Spaces Oct 07, 2022

Show notes

A recording from our Twitter Space Event with Public Citizen

Hosts

Justin Kempf, Host of Democracy Paradox

Guests

Craig Holman, Public Citizen’s Capitol Hill lobbyist

If you would like to listen and ask questions live, follow us @GroupDemocracy or subscribe to our newsletter are democracygroup.org/newsletter to be the first to know about upcoming events.

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Sarah Cook on China's Expanding Global Media Influence | Democracy Paradox Oct 05, 2022

Show notes

In country after country - we've counted over 130 news outlets of 30 countries that were republishing content that was produced by Chinese state media outlets or the Chinese embassy. So, these state media outlets are actually formally under the control of the Communist Party's propaganda department.
A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.
Sarah Cook is the Research Director for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan at Freedom House. She also directs their China Media Bulletin and authored the executive summary of this latest report, "Beijing's Global Media Influence 2022: Authoritarian Expansion and the Power of Democratic Resilience."
Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:38
China and its Media Influence - 2:58
Chinese Influence Tactics - 12:48
The Effectiveness of Chinese Influence - 18:30
Resiliency of Democracies - 27:47

Key Links

Read the report "Beijing's Global Media Influence 2022: Authoritarian Expansion and the Power of Democratic Resilience"

Follow Sarah Cook on Twitter @Sarah_G_Cook

Follow Freedom House on Twitter @freedomhouse

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When should the states decide? | Democracy Works Oct 03, 2022

Show notes

Following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Supreme Court decision, reproductive rights are heading to ballots in states across the country this fall. Are states the right venue for this and other issues? Our guest this week says yes and makes the case that state courts and constitutions are more democratic than their counterparts at the federal level.

In Who Decides? State as Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation, U.S. Appellate Court Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton focuses on the constitutional structure of the American states to answer the question of who should decide the key questions of public policy today. We also discuss work by Jake Grumbach in his book Laboratories Against Democracy and the forthcoming Moore v. Harper case in the U.S. Supreme Court, which grapples with what's come to be known as the Independent State Legislature Theory.

Sutton is the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was previously a partner with the law firm of Jones Day and served as State Solicitor of the State of Ohio. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (Ret.), the Honorable Antonin Scalia, and the Honorable Thomas J. Meskill. His previous book is 51 Imperfect Solutions, published in 2018.

Who Decides: States as Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation

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Making Complex News Clear ft. Robert Costa | Politics is Everything Sep 28, 2022

Show notes

Robert Costa, chief election and campaign correspondent for CBS News and a scholar at the Center for Politics this academic year, shares his approach to covering campaigns, elections and politics to help the public make sense of the complex issues facing the nation. “It can become a blizzard that's hard to follow," says Costa, "You have to report deeply and you want to break news...Unless it's breaking ground on the biggest players, it's important, but not THE story."

Links in this episode:

Peril
Watergate at 50: The political scandal that changed Washington
Rep. Liz Cheney Speaks joins Robert Costa, CBS Sunday Morning, June 5, 2022

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Women of Color Mobilizing Before the Midterms and The Passing of Queen Elizabeth II | Our Body Politic Sep 26, 2022

Show notes

This week, Farai interviews Dr. Sayu Bhojwani, civic entrepreneur and founder of Women’s Democracy Lab, about what it takes to create a more inclusive democracy and what current intraparty tensions reveal about the election field ahead of the midterms. Then, we re-air a conversation from “One With Farai” featuring Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry and her 2011 book “Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America.” And in this week’s segment of ‘Sippin’ the Political Tea’, Farai interviews Bobby Ghosh, Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering foreign affairs and Hagar Chemali, foreign policy expert and host of “Oh My World!” on YouTube, about the death of Queen Elizabeth II amidst the United Kingdom’s energy crisis.

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The Power of Crisis: Ian Bremmer | Future Hindsight Sep 21, 2022

Show notes

Ian Bremmer is a political scientist and he’s the founder and president of the research and consulting firm Eurasia Group. We discuss his latest book, The Power of Crisis: How Three Threats -- and Our Response -- Will Change the World. He argues that the major challenges humanity is facing are spurring us to create a new world order that works against these common threats.

The climate crisis, disruptive technologies, and pandemics are existential threats to humanity. These crises are truly global and provide an opportunity for real cooperation across the world. For example, everyone around the world now sees that the climate is only going to get worse. Even though the solutions are not optimally coordinated, and arguably not acting fast enough, everyone is now rowing in the same direction.

Follow Ian on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/ianbremmer

Follow Mila on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/milaatmos

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Is there a generation gap in American politics? | Politics in Question Sep 19, 2022

Show notes

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Kevin Munger joins Lee to discuss the generation gap in American politics. Munger is the Jeffrey L. Hyde and Sharon D. Hyde and Political Science Board of Visitors Early Career Professor of Political Science and Assistant Professor of Political Science and Social Data Analytics at Penn State University. His research has appeared in leading journals like the American Journal of Political Science, Political Behavior, Political Communication, and Political Science Research & Methods. Munger is the author of Generation Gap: Why the Baby Boomers Still Dominate American Politics and Culture (Columbia University Press 2022).

Is there a generational divide in American politics? What issues do young people care about most? How can they influence what’s happening in Washington, D.C.? And is it time for an older generation to pass the torch? These are some of the issues Kevin and Lee ask in this week’s episode.

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Primaries and Polarization: Is The Whole System Broken? | Let's Find Common Ground Sep 14, 2022

Show notes

The primary election season in this midterm election year is now over in most states. Turnout was often very low— less than 20% of registered voters showed up in many places— while the partisan divide was as wide as ever.

In this episode, we hear from leading political strategists, scholars, authors, and journalists about the American system for choosing candidates who will face each other in November's election. We hear criticisms of closed party primaries and look at other ways to pick candidates for public office.

Proposals aimed at reducing polarization include the introduction of ranked-choice voting and open primaries, where independent voters, and those who are neither registered Republicans nor Democrats, can participate.

Guests include Former Democratic Party Chair Donna Brazille, ex-Congressmen Will Hurd, David Jolly, and Barney Frank, Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice, constitutional law scholar Rick Pildes, author Tony Woodlief, and journalists Salena Zito, Christa Case Bryant, and Story Hinckley.

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Our Stone-Age Brains, with Maren Urner | On Opinion Sep 12, 2022

Show notes

“We have mental mechanisms that have been there since the Stone Age and no longer function in this environment”

Short-term thinking, lazy reasoning and stereotyping, and too much focus on what’s bad (the ‘negativity bias’)… all are throw-backs to our last major evolutionary stage, when humans lived in a world of scarcity, danger and constant tribal fighting.

In today’s more clement environment where resources are plentiful and the likelihood of being murdered minimal, those mental models no longer apply. In fact, over-reliance on those outmoded forms of thinking risk bringing us back to an age of conflict.

“We can either change by design or change by disaster. I prefer the former.”

Listen to Maren make the case for embodied thinking, and explain how a new approach to conversation can change the way we engage socially and politically:

The 3 Principles of Dynamic Thinking
How to redefine groups
Switching our focus from the individual to the collective
Constructive Journalism
Why thinking is embodied
Why rational decision-making is always emotional
The danger of habits

Prof. Maren Urner

Maren Urner is a neuroscientist, professor of media psychology, and the best-selling author of Raus aus der Erwigen Dauerkrise. She is also the founder of Perspective Daily, a German-language online magazine for constructive journalism.