The Democracy Group

Latest Episodes:

The Good Gamble | Democracy in Danger Sep 07, 2022

Show notes

We’re back! Legal scholar Jedediah Purdy joins Will and Siva to help launch a new season focused on democracy, law and the people. Can Americans transcend gross inequality, neoliberal ideology, and the “politics of nihilism” taking root among their leaders? Looking to Frederick Douglass for inspiration, Purdy thinks so. His new book urges readers to reimagine and rebuild their body politic — to rule themselves at last. It may be a crapshoot, but it’s one a free people can’t afford to pass up.

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Laura Gamboa on Opposition Strategies to Resist Democratic Erosion | Democracy Paradox Sep 05, 2022

Show notes

There's always another set of elections. So, let's set up for elections. Let's figure out how to mobilize people. Let's figure out how to engage them and answer the question, ‘Why they elected this person? What did we miss? What do we need to build? Which kind of program.’ I think using the streets is great, but definitely you need training… A lot of training.This is a long-term effort. It's not about calling you on Facebook for a demonstration and that's it.

Laura Gamboa
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Preorder Laura Gamboa's new book Resisting Backsliding: Opposition Strategies against the Erosion of Democracy here.
A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com.

Laura Gamboa is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah. She is the author of the forthcoming book Resisting Backsliding: Opposition Strategies against the Erosion of Democracy.

Key Highlights

Introduction - 0:47
Uribe was a Threat to Democracy - 3:11
Opposition Strategies in Colombia - 14:20
Opposition Strategies in Venezuela - 17:53
How Often do Aspiring Autocrats Get Elected - 27:03
Final Advice for Democratic Oppositions - 34:02

Key Links

Learn more about Laura Gamboa

"The Peace Process and Colombia’s Elections" by Laura Gambia in the Journal of Democracy

Resisting Backsliding: Opposition Strategies against the Erosion of Democracy by Laura Gamboa

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Can We Fix the Rage Machine? Ft. Tim Miller | Politics is Everything Aug 31, 2022

Show notes

Tim Miller is an MSNBC analyst, writer-at-large at The Bulwark, and the host of "Not My Party" on Snapchat. Tim was communications director for Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign and spokesman for the Republican National Committee during Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign. He has since left the GOP and become one of the leaders of the “Never Trump” movement. He is author of Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell that aims to explain why Washington DC politicos who knew better went along with Trump and he joins us on Politics is Everything to discuss his book and what we can do to fix the rage machine he helped to create.

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Millennial Politicians on Finding Common Ground: Jillian Gilchrest and Devin Carney | Let's Find Common Ground Aug 29, 2022

Show notes

In US politics bipartisanship is now the exception, not the rule. But the Millennial Action Project is pushing back: it trains young leaders to bridge the partisan divide and work together to solve America’s problems.

In this episode, we meet two members of the Millennial Action Project from opposite sides of the aisle. They are state representatives from Connecticut, Republican Devin Carney and Democrat Jillian Gilchrest.

They discuss the joys and challenges of being a local politician at a time when national politics is so divisive. ‘Get to know me’ is something they often say to constituents who judge them solely on the ‘R’ or ‘D’ after their name.

Carney and Gilchrest talk about listening and responding to their constituents, having their own prejudices upended, and how they find ways to agree for the good of their state.

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Fighting for Democracy & Freedom with Evan Mawarire of #ThisFlag & RDI | TDG Twitter Spaces Aug 26, 2022

Show notes

A recording from our Twitter Space Event with Renew Democracy Initiative

Hosts

Justin Kempf, Host of Democracy Paradox

Guests

Evan Mawarire, founder of #TheFlag movement

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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Corey Nathan interviews hosts Liz Joyner and Vanessa Rowse | Village SquareCast Aug 24, 2022

Show notes

Join us as podcast host Corey Nathan of Talkin’ Politics and Religion without Killin’ Each Other flips the switch by interviewing The Village Square's Liz Joyner and Vanessa Rowse about how we make pigs fly. We were fast friends with Corey right from the start because of our shared goal to have constructive and respectful conversations about those taboo topics of politics and religion.

Corey started TP&R to take back some of the airspace from the screamers who feed off our divisions. He says politics and religion are too important to be left only to the extremes, so he hosts engaging, provocative and fun conversations about the most pressing issues of our times. We (obviously) love his mission, we love the show, and we love hanging out with Corey, so we were thrilled when he invited us on the show. Now we're sharing that talk with you because we think you'll love Corey and his podcast too.

From Corey, about this episode: "We get into all kinds of important, timely topics including:

how we're all living in this "high energy environment";
the "us vs. them dynamic" and what the solution is;
the value of actually getting together in person;
how the Village Square is able to get people of diverse views in the same venue together;
how the first casualty in this environment is nuance;
and being played by the "conflict entrepreneurs.""

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How We Value Black Women’s Health in the US and Abroad | Our Body Politic Aug 22, 2022

Show notes

This week, host Farai Chideya interviews longtime TV and film producer and now co-director of the Sundance award-winning documentary Aftershock, Tonya Lewis Lee and one of the film’s featured subjects, reproductive justice advocate Shawnee Benton-Gibson. Benton-Gibson’s daughter died in October 2019 after giving birth – one more fatality in a long epidemic of Black maternal mortality. Farai also speaks to Lewis Lee one-on-one about how her work in media and experience as a children’s author led to her work as a maternal health advocate. Then, in our weekly segment Sippin’ the Political Tea, Farai interviews legal analyst and NYU Law professor Melissa Murray and University of Pennsylvania Ph.D History candidate Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon about the impact and implications of the highly politicized conviction of WNBA star Brittney Griner in Russia.

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Framing Is Vital For Survival. Kenneth Cukier and Francis de Véricourt | How Do We Fix It? Aug 17, 2022

Show notes

From pandemics, populism and climate change, AI and ISIS, inflation and growing tensions with China and Russia, we are faced with enormous challenges— some of which threaten our existence.

In this episode we discuss how we are all influenced by our personal perspectives and prejudices— our frames— and how we can use mental models to see patterns, solve problems and go beyond a narrow lens of red vs. blue or "us" vs. "them."

Our guests are Kenneth Cukier, deputy executive editor of "The Economist" and Francis de Véricourt, professor of management science at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin. Both are co-authors of "Framers. Human Advantage in an Age of Technology and Turmoil." This innovative book shows how framing is not just a way to improve decision-making in an age of algorithms and machine learning, but also a matter for survival at a time of upheaval.

Real-world examples of how framers changed the world include: The rapid rise of #MeToo, which went viral on Twitter after the actress Alyssa Milano tweeted a request to her followers: “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.” Successful, innovative responses to Covid-19 were made by the governments of New Zealand and Taiwan. Recently, the Federal Reserve was forced to change its inflation frame before beginning a series of interest rate hikes.

In our interview we learn why the advice to "think outside the box" is useless, and how to understand the role of mental models in our own daily lives.

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How Do We Fix It? Podcast

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Ballot initiatives in 2022 and beyond | When the People Decide Aug 15, 2022

Show notes

Amanda Renteria the CEO of Code for America, an organization of people-centered problem solvers working to improve government in a meaningful way. We discuss making government work better for everyday people by design.

The first season of When the People Decide has officially ended, but we have a few bonus episodes for you that we’ll be sharing over the next few weeks. This first is a conversation with Kelly Hall, Executive Director of The Fairness Project.

We mentioned The Fairness Project briefly in episode 7. It is one of the organizations working to fight back against the war on the initiative. The Fairness Project also works with ballot initiative organizers across the country — Jenna Spinelle talked with Kelly about some of the issues they’re working on right now and some of the issues that could be heading to state and municipal ballots in the coming years.

As we alluded to in episode 8, there are some hot button issues in the ballot measure arena right now and Kelly is at the forefront of it all. She comes to the role of Executive Director with a fierce passion for progress and over 15 years of experience making change in government, with the labor movement, and through winning ballot measure campaigns.

Kelly was the architect of The Fairness Project’s work expanding Medicaid in six states (soon to be seven!) and her passion for health policy has meant expansion of healthcare to over 830,000 people. Kelly worked on Capitol Hill during the drafting and passage of the Affordable Care Act, and then served in President Obama’s administration helping to implement the law.

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Making Government Work: Amanda Renteria | Future Hindsight Aug 10, 2022

Show notes

Good governance starts with getting the basics right, such as delivering clean water to all communities. Making government simple and accessible is also key. Currently it’s so complicated that many people have lost trust in the government's ability to respond to crises. Modernizing systems so that the government reaches folks where they are is an incredibly powerful tool to reimagining trust and rebuilding a government for, and by, us all.

Follow Amanda on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/AmandaRenteria

Follow Mila on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/milaatmos