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PODCAST

Democracy Works

Penn State McCourtney Institute for Democracy

The Democracy Works podcast seeks to answer that question by examining a different aspect of democratic life each week — from voting to criminal justice to the free press and everything in between. We interview experts who study democracy, as well as people who are out there doing the hard work of democracy day in and day out. The show’s name comes from Pennsylvania’s long tradition of iron and steel works — people coming together to build things greater than the sum of their parts. We believe that

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All Episodes

00:39:37

A dark side to "laboratories of democracy"

Democracy Works ·

2020/09/07

Virginia Eubanks examines the relationship between technology and society in her book Automating Inequality: How High-Tech tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor and joins us this week for a discussion about who matters in a democracy and the empathy gap between the people who develop the technology for social systems and the people who use those systems.Eubanks is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University at Albany, SUNY. She is also the author of Digital Dead End: Fighting

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00:39:39

A fall preview — with a new cohost!

Democracy Works ·

2020/08/31

In this episode, Michael, Chris, and Candis discuss:The dynamics at play in national, state, and local elections this fallHow politics impacts the Census Bureau and other organizationsWhether all politics are really localWhat we've learned since 2016 about how democracy functionsWe 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.Related episodesThe clumsy journey to antiracismBreaking down

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00:39:14

YIMBYs and NIMBYs in a democracy

Democracy Works ·

2020/08/24

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

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00:31:05

After 100 years, there's still no "woman voter"

Democracy Works ·

2020/08/17

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 traces 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

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00:32:55

She Votes! — Susan B. Anthony and "voting while female"

Democracy Works ·

2020/08/10

This episode examines the arrest, trial, and conviction of suffragist Susan B. Anthony for the crime of "voting while female." Rather than sitting on her heels, Anthony launched a campaign to raise awareness about voting rights for women that would set the stage for the next 50 years of work through the passage of the 19th Amendment.You might be familiar with parts of this story, but you've never heard it quite like this — Anthony is voiced by actress Christine Braranski in this episode. She Votes

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00:30:21

Reason in politics and hope for democracy

Democracy Works ·

2020/08/03

"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

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00:42:10

The people who choose the President

Democracy Works ·

2020/07/27

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:Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, founder of Equal

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00:22:47

Broken Ground: Robert Bullard on environmental justice

Democracy Works ·

2020/07/20

This week, we're bringing you an episode from another podcast we think you might enjoy, Broken Ground from the Southern Environmental Law Center.Broken Ground digs up environmental stories in the South that don’t always get the attention they deserve, and giving voice to the people bringing those stories to light. While the show focuses on the South, the conversations — including the one in this episode — resonate far beyond the region's confines.In the latest season, the podcast explores how

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00:38:49

The world's most punitive democracy [revisited]

Democracy Works ·

2020/07/13

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 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

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00:36:29

Suspect citizens in a democracy [revisited]

Democracy Works ·

2020/07/06

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

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00:39:40

The second annual Democracy Works listener mailbag

Democracy Works ·

2020/06/29

Michael, Jenna, and Chris in the studio in summer 2019. 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: The difference between federalism and the federal government The definition of an institution How media coverage of the 2020 election will compare to 2016 What mask wearing says about the health of American

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00:43:55

How to end democracy’s doom loop

Democracy Works ·

2020/06/22

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

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00:34:52

The clumsy journey to antiracism

Democracy Works ·

2020/06/15

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

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00:40:09

Civil rights, civil unrest

Democracy Works ·

2020/06/08

As protests continue throughout the U.S. in the wake of George Floyd’s death, we’ve been thinking a lot about comparisons to the Civil Rights era and whether the models for demonstrations created during that era are still relevant today. As we’ve discussed on the show before, public memory is a fuzzy thing and we’re seeing that play out here amid discussions of how peaceful protests should be. Our guest this week is uniquely suited to speak to questions of civil rights and civil unrest. Clarence

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00:33:55

Aaron Maybin on doing the hard work of democracy...

Democracy Works ·

2020/06/03

We are working on an episode about the social and democratic context for the protests taking place around the U.S. after George Floyd’s death; we’ll have it for you on Monday. In the meantime, we are going to share a few episodes from our archives that we hope can provide context for our current moment. One voice we want to lift up during this time is Aaron Maybin, a former Penn State and NFL football player who is now an artist, educator, activist, and organizer in Baltimore, which is where we

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00:42:07

Free speech from the Founding Fathers to Twitter

Democracy Works ·

2020/06/01

This is another episode that we recorded in our final days together in the office before COVID-19. However, the topic is just as relevant — if not more so — in our new reality.The topic is free speech and our guest is Stephen D. Solomon, Marjorie Deane Professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University and founding editor of First Amendment Watch. He is the author of Revolutionary Dissent: How the Founding Generation Created the Freedom of Speech.Stephen lays out how the

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00:19:26

Bonus: Mayors and bipartisanship during COVID-19

Democracy Works ·

2020/05/29

Today we’re bringing you a special episode produced by Nicole Gresen, our intern on Democracy Works during the spring 2020 semester. Nicole spoke with Bob Buckhorn, who was mayor of Tampa, Florida from 2011-2019, about the role that mayors have played during COVID-19 and how they have to put partisans allegiances aside during times of crisis. As Bob says, people look to mayors for empathy and solidarity in the face of uncertainty — whether it’s a natural disaster or a pandemic. Bob also talks about

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00:35:30

The people vs. the experts — and those caught in the...

Democracy Works ·

2020/05/25

These days, it can feel like some politicians are working against experts in public health and other fields when it comes to actions surrounding COVID-19. There’s always been a tension between populism and expertise, but our media landscape and strong partisan polarization are pushing that tension to its breaking point — or so it seems, anyway. As with many issues we’ve covered on this show, there’s more to it than meets the eye, and we are digging into the relationship between expertise and

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00:35:12

China’s role in the COVID-19 infodemic

Democracy Works ·

2020/05/18

As if the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t enough to deal with, the World Health Organization says we’re now in an infodemic alongside it. We’ve seen this play out as misinformation and conspiracy theories move from digital to mainstream media and cast a shadow of doubt about information coming from the government and public health experts. Our guests this week have been tracking China’s role in this infodemic and argue that Beijing is taking a few pages out of Russia’s playbook for interfering in the 2016

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00:39:53

A roadmap to a more equitable democracy

Democracy Works ·

2020/05/11

COVID-19 has exposed longstanding racial and economic inequalities in American life, which is evident in the fact that communities of color are being hit the hardest by both the medical and the economic impacts of the virus. Our guest this week argues that now is the time to empower those communities to have a stake in building a better future for themselves and making our democracy stronger in the process. Our guest this week is K. Sabeel Rahman, president of Demos and co-author of the new

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