Democracy Works

Anthropologist Jason De León joins us to discuss his book "Soldiers and Kings," which tells the stories of smugglers who help migrants make the journey from central America to Mexico and the United States.

Michael Berkman, Chris Beem, and Candis Watts Smith reflect on recent events in democracy and what's to come this summer.

Democracy Works host Michael Berkman, director of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy and professor of political science, talks with fellow Penn State political scientist Joe Wright about his new book, "The Origins of Elected Strongmen: How Personalist Parties Destroy Democracy from Within."

In honor of Civic Learning Week, we explore the promise of civics education to help us move through disagreements about teaching race, gender and other hot-button issues.

On this Take Note, we hear about the Colored Conventions Project. For much of the 19th Century, African Americans gathered in cities across the United…

Today we’re going to hear the untold stories of Black Americans during the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War.The podcast “Seizing Freedom”…

This Take Note is from the Democracy Works podcast.We’ll hear about Gerrymandering and the people fighting to take the politics out of drawing districts.…

Many, many articles, books, documentaries — and even podcasts — have been produced over the past four years to try and explain who Donald Trump's base is…

What does jazz music have to do with democracy? We’ll find that out from this week’s guest, jazz great Wynton Marsalis. He’ll explore power, struggle,…

In this crossover episode with WPSU's Take Note, Anne Danahy interviews Michael Berkman and Candis Watts Smith about several factors impacting the 2020…