We are excited to begin a new school year with a new cohost, Candis Watts Smith, who you may remember from an episode earlier this summer on her book Stay Woke, or from a roundtable discussion on Black politics back in February.
In this episode, Michael, Chris, and Candis discuss:
We are excited to welcome Candis to our team. As you'll hear, she doesn't always agree with Michael and Chris and brings some important perspectives to the table.
The clumsy journey to antiracism
Public health depends on the Census
Free and fair elections during a pandemic
This episode was engineered by Jenna Spinelle, edited by Mark Stitzer, and reviewed by Emily Reddy.
Whether you live in a big city, a suburb, or a small town, one issue tends to stand out from the rest in local government — housing. This week, we talk with author and New York Times reporter Conor Dougherty about the connections between housing and democracy, particularly at the local level. There can be immense power in showing up to make your voice heard, but some of the same forces that corrupt and polarize national politics are present locally, too.
Many of us are spending more time at home these days than we ever have before. In the United States, owning a home has come to symbolize the American Dream and homeowners have more political capital than those who don't. Over the past decade or so, this has led to showdowns at local government meetings between YIMBYs, who want more housing, and NIMBYs, who do not.
Dougherty covers economics and housing for the New York Times and is the author of "Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America." The book focuses on San Francisco, but as you'll hear Dougherty say, he could have written it about just about any major city in the U.S.
We also discuss the role that ballot initiatives play in the fight for housing, particularly in California. Born during the Progressive era to give more power to the people, Dougherty they've become co-opted by money and other influences that plague other areas of our democracy.
Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America
Dougherty's work in the New York Times
As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, this episode traces the history of women's voting behavior and why women voters have never been a monolith — despite efforts to portray them that way.
In their new book A Century of Votes for Women: American Elections Since Suffrage, Christina Wolbrecht and Kevin Corder examine women’s (and men’s) voting behavior, and trace how women’s turnout and vote choice evolved across a century of enormous transformation overall and for women in particular.
The work shows that there is no such thing as ‘the woman voter. Instead, there is considerable variation in how different groups of women voted in response to changing political, social, and economic realities. The points Wolbrecht makes in this interview about how women are perceived by pundits and scholars alike are worth reflecting on as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of suffrage and prepare for an election this fall.
Wolbrecht is Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame and Director of the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy. Her areas of expertise include American politics, political parties, gender and politics, and American political development.
A Century of Votes for Women: American Elections Since Suffrage
Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy
Christina Wolbrecht on Twitter
John Gastil and Katherine Knobloch, authors of "Hope for Democracy: How Citizens Can Bring Reason Back Into Politics: join Democracy Works host Jenna Spinelle for a discussion of deliberative democracy, ballot initiatives and the Citizens Initiative Review
"Hope for Democracy" recognizes the primary problems that plague contemporary democracy and offers a solution. It tells the story of one civic innovation, the Citizens' Initiative Review (CIR), which asks a small group of citizens to analyze a ballot measure and then provide recommendations on that measure for the public to use when voting.
It relies on narratives of the civic reformers who developed and implemented the CIR and the citizens who participated in the initial review. Coupled with extensive research, the book uses these stories to describe how the review came into being and what impacts it has on participants and the public.
In this episode, we also discuss the ways that deliberative democracy challenges existing power structures and how it can change participants' thoughts on civic engagement and how they can impact government outside of partisan politics.
Gastil is Distinguished Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences and Political Science and Senior Scholar in the McCourtney Institute. Knobloch is Assistant Professor in the Communication Studies Department at Colorado State University and Associate Director of the university's Center for Public Deliberation.
Hope for Democracy: How Citizens Can Bring Reason Back Into Politics
McCourtney Institute for Democracy Virtual Book Club on Hope for Democracy - August 31, 2020, 4 p.m. ET
At the end of its 2020 term, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling on what might seem like an obscure question in Constitutional law, but could have huge ramifications in elections this November and beyond. We dive into the ruling on "faithless electors" in this episode from The Democracy Group podcast network.
Democracy Works podcast host and producer Jenna Spinelle leads a discussion with:
The first half of the episode focuses on the Supreme Court's decisions in Chafalo v. Washington and Baca v. Colorado. Lessig and McGehee explain what led them to get involved in the cases and have a spirited discussion about the role special interests could play in the Electoral College.
Then, Lessig and Baranowski discuss the Supreme Court's opinion written by Justice Elena Kagan, and how to make the Electoral College more democratic though measures like the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
A huge thank you to The Democracy Group Network Manager Katie DeFiore for editing this episode!
Note: Severe thunderstorms hit Washington, D.C. when we recorded this episode on July 22, 2020 and Meredith McGehee lost power halfway through. We were not able to get her back on the line before the end of the recording session. We apologize and are grateful for the time she was able to join us!
The Democracy Group podcast network
We're digging into the archives this week for another episode on race and criminal justice. Peter K. Enns, associate professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University, Executive Director of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, and author of Incarceration Nation: How the U.S. Became the Most Punitive Democracy in the World.
In this episode, you'll hear our initial conversation with Enns from October 2018, and an update we recorded with him on June 30, 2020. Like the conversation with Frank Baumgartner last week, we look at how public opinion around criminal justice has changed over the past two years and how that translates into public policy.
Enns argues that, while public opinion around criminal justice continues to shift, we still don't have anything close to a clear picture about what's happening inside correctional institutions. That, he says, makes it tough for the public to fully grasp the gravity of how incarcerated people are treated and inhibits progress toward a more just, rehabilitative system. We also talk about whether it's possible to both deal with COVID-19 in prisons and jails while also pushing for long-term structural change — and how making conditions healthier and safer benefits everyone.
Incarceration Nation: How the U.S. Became the Most Punitive Democracy in the World
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
The Marshall Project - nonprofit journalism on criminal justice
Suspect citizens in a democracy
A roadmap to a more equitable democracy
This week marks the beginning of our summer break here on Democracy Works. We are going to be rebroadcasting a few episodes from our back catalog — with a twist.
In fall 2018, we did two episodes on police, criminal justice, and race that are directly relevant to what's happening today. We caught up with those guests recently to talk about what's changed in the past two years and how they think about the research in our current moment.
First up is Frank Baumgartner, Robert J. Richardson Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He directed the team that analyzed the data published the book Suspect Citizens: What 20 Million Traffic Stops Tell Us About Policing and Race.
In the book and in our initial conversation, Bamgartner makes the case that an empathy gap exists between people with political and social power and the people who are most likely to be pulled over. The result is that segments of the population who are already disenfranchised become even more distrustful of the police and the government and less likely to vote and otherwise engage with democracy.
During our follow-up conversation in late June 2020, Baumgartner reflected on whether the empathy gap has closed over the past two years and how common-sense police reform can work — even in the midst of a pandemic.
Suspect Citizens: What 20 Million Traffic Stops Tell Us About Policing and Race
Frank’s profile on the Scholars Strategy Network
The full episode with Frank from October 2018
What Serial taught Sarah Koenig about criminal justice
The clumsy journey to antiracism
Before we take a short summer break, Michael and Chris answer your questions about democracy in our current moment. Thank you to everyone who sent in questions; they were excellent!
Some of the things we talk about in this episode include:
For the next few weeks, we'll be revisiting some of the episodes in our back catalog (with a twist) and bringing you episodes from other podcasts that we think you'll enjoy. We'll be back with new episodes before the end of August.
If you have suggestions for episodes topics or guests for us to tackle in the fall, please don't hesitate to get in touch. We would love to hear from you.
Last summer's listener mailbag
A democracy summer reading list
Free and fair elections during a pandemic
This episode was recorded on June 18, 2020. It was engineered by Jenna Spinelle, edited by Jen Bortz, and reviewed by Emily Reddy.
As we bring this season of Democracy Works to a close, we're going to end in a place similar to where we began — discussing the role of political parties in American democracy. We started the season discussing the Tea Party and the Resistance with Theda Skocpol and Dana Fisher, then discussed presidential primaries with David Karol and the role of parties in Congress with Frances Lee.
All of those episodes looked at the party system as it currently stands. This week's conversation invites all of us to imagine how we can break out of the status quo and create something very different.
Lee Drutman is a senior fellow in the Political Reform program at New America. He is the author of Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America and The Business of America is Lobbying, and winner of the 2016 American Political Science Association's Robert A. Dahl Award, given for "scholarship of the highest quality on the subject of democracy.” He has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Drutman is also the co-host of the podcast Politics in Question, and writes for the New York Times, Vox, and FiveThirtyEight, among other outlets. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California.
We have one more new episode next week before we take a summer break. We'll close the season with the second annual Democracy Works listener mailbag.
Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America
Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop audiobook
Political Reform at New America
Does Congress promote partisan gridlock?
Primaries, parties and the public
How the Tea Party and the Resistance are upending politics
Your guide to ranked-choice voting
Congressional oversight and making America pragmatic again
This week, we are bringing you another interview that we hope will give some context to the discussions about racism and inequality that are happening in the U.S. right now.
We're joined by Tehama Lopez Bunyasi, assistant professor at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University and Candis Watts Smith, associate professor African American Studies and political science at Penn State. She was recently named the Brown-McCourtney Early Career Professor in the McCourtney Institute for Democracy.
Bunyasi and Smith are coauthors of a book called Stay Woke: A People’s Guide to Making all Black Lives Matter, which looks at the history of structural racism in the U.S. and gives people information and tools to become antiracists.
We talk about the clumsiness associated with changing patterns of thinking and behavior and how that’s playing out across our online and offline lives and among both individuals and companies. We also discuss the inherent messiness of the Black Lives Matter movement and why that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Stay Woke: A People’s Guide to Making all Black Lives Matter
Three Myths about Racism - Candis's TEDxPSU talk from February 2020
24 podcasts that confront racism in America - list from the Bello Collective
A roadmap to a more equitable democracy
The ongoing struggle for civil rights
This episode was recorded on June 9, 2020. It was engineered by Jenna Spinelle, edited by Jen Bortz, and reviewed by WPSU News Director Emily Reddy.
We are part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.