Legislators and parent groups are asking school districts across the country are removing books from school library shelves — often before they've even read them. This week, we explore what's happening and what it means for free speech and public education in our democracy.

The Republican National Committee's decision to withdraw from the Commission on Presidential Debates prompted us to take a step back and consider the role of debates in a democracy.

Peter Pomerantsev returns to the show to discuss how misinformation and polarization are impacting Ukraine and the United States in similar ways.

Pulitzer prize-winning writer Jon Meacham joins us this week to discuss what unity looks like in polarizing times, who in history inspires him most, his role in the changing media landscape and more.

Lilliana Mason of the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University joins us this week to discuss her work on the radicalization of American politics and why political scientists have been slow to catch onto it.

Rep. Ro Khanna draws from Frederick Douglass and John Rawls to create a vision for democratic patriotism, and has ideas for how technology can help make that vision a reality.

Michael Berkman leads this week's interview on the evolution of Russia and Ukraine in the post-Soviet era to understand the origins of the current conflict between the countries.

Foreign policy expert and Washington Post columnist Robert Kagan joins us this week to discuss crises in democracy in the United States and Ukraine.

This week, we dive headfirst into free speech, cancel culture, academic freedom, and what role universities play in democracy.

Thomas Main argues that illiberalism is the basic repudiation of liberal democracy, the very foundation on which the United States rests. He joins us this week to discuss how we got here and what we can do about it.