Democracy Works

We end this season where we started — a conversation about higher education and democracy.

It's easy to blame algorithms and AI for corroding our information ecosystem, but our guest this week argues that we have a just as much, if not more of a role to play in creating the environment we want to see.

Sociologist Eric Klinenberg joins us to discuss how the pandemic increased polarization and distrust in institutions, and weakened social connection.

Alex Burness, a reporter who covers state and local democracy issues for the news site Bolts, joins us to discuss how democracy is expanding and contracting at the state level.

Democracy Works host Chris Beem talks with author Jonathan Rauch about why the current crisis in American Christianity is also a crisis in American democracy.

Two leading experts on democracy join us to discuss how to prevent political violence in the United States and around the world.

Balazs Trencsenyi, co-director of Invisible University for Ukraine, joins us to discuss the university's work to uphold education and democracy in Ukraine amid the country's ongoing war with Russia.

Colleen Shogan, archivist of the United States, joins us for a conversation about democratizing access to national records and running a non-partisan organization in an increasingly polarized country

Democracy Works host Michael Berkman talks with Christopher Claassen, a political scientist at the University of Glasgow, about how to measure support for democracy across countries and across generations.

Dahlia Lithwick, Slate's senior legal correspondent, joins us to discuss how the Supreme Court has shaped — and could continue to shape the 2024 presidential election.