This week David and Lea resume their conversation – and their differences of opinion – about how to understand politics in the modern world. What is it reasonable to expect of democracy? Are its failures because of bad design or bad faith? And why don’t we have more democracy at the international level where it’s really needed? This is the start of a series ... Show More
Apr 2019
#75 Democracy Is Dead. What Now? (with David Runciman)
David Runciman is author of "How Democracy Ends" and host of the Talking Politics podcast. We spoke about what the function of democracy is, the significance of the generational divide when voting, the relationship between corporations and government, anarcho-syndacalism & the ri ... Show More
1h 26m
Feb 2024
Lisa Herzog, "Citizen Knowledge: Markets, Experts, and the Infrastructure of Democracy" (Oxford UP, 2023)
For better or worse, democracy and epistemology are intertwined. For one thing, politics is partly a matter of gathering, assessing, and applying information. And this can be done responsibly or incompetently. At least since Plato, a leading critique of democracy has focused on t ... Show More
1h 7m
Jun 2023
Barack Obama - Protecting Democracy and Committment to Facts
“Democracy requires, by definition, getting along with people who don’t agree with you.” Former President Barack Obama discusses why he believes the youth turnout made all the difference in Democratic victories in the midterms; how globalization, disinformation, and the media inf ... Show More
37m 6s
Dec 2022
Barack Obama - Protecting Democracy and the Commitment to Facts
“Democracy requires, by definition, getting along with people who don’t agree with you.” Former President Barack Obama discusses why he believes the youth turnout made all the difference in Democratic victories in the midterms; how globalization, disinformation, and the media inf ... Show More
35m 23s
Jan 2024
Is the world losing faith in democracy?
2024 will be the world’s biggest election year ever. From the United States to the UK, Taiwan to India, South Africa to Mexico, it’s estimated countries representing nearly half the world’s population will head to the polls in some form of election this year. But how much faith d ... Show More
48m 57s
Nov 2022
Barack Obama - Protecting Democracy and the Commitment to Facts
“Democracy requires, by definition, getting along with people who don’t agree with you.” Former President Barack Obama discusses why he believes the youth turnout made all the difference in Democratic victories these midterms, how globalization, disinformation and the media infra ... Show More
35m 20s
Feb 2023
Is democracy doomed? The global fight for our future | Timothy Snyder
If you think democracy is some kind of inevitable, default setting for the world, then you aren't going to have it for very long, says historian and author Timothy Snyder. From World War I to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Snyder dives into the structures that uplift and tear d ... Show More
33m 16s