Francis Fukuyama, senior fellow at Stanford University and Mosbacher Director at The Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, joins us to talk about how culture impacts a democracy.
Read more
Is the U.S. Really a Democracy?
Astra Taylor joins us to talk about why creating a true democracy is so hard – and the steps we might take to get closer to that goal of treating everyone the same.
Read more
Why Are Laws Hard To Change? Follow The Money
Princeton sociology professor Paul Starr joins us to talk about how concentrated wealth is often at the root of societal stagnation.
Read more
A New Breed of Conspiracy Theory
Nancy L. Rosenblum, Senator Joseph Clark Research Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government at Harvard, joins us to talk about a new breed of conspiracy theorist – one who believes an idea to be true and uses repetition and bold assertions to turn fiction into fact.
Read more
How Much Do You Need To Know To Vote?
George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin studies voter participation, and he joins us to talk about the danger of willful voter ignorance and how it plays into elections.
Read more
One Writer’s View Of An America In Crisis
Ben Fountain joins us to explain why he thinks the 2016 election and its aftermath have put the nation in another state of crisis.
Read more
Is Democracy Bad For Economic Growth?
Economist Dambisa Moyo talks with us about what it will take to preserve both representative government and economic opportunity.
Read more
How The U.S. Is Making The World Less Democratic
Brian Klaas joins us to talk about the ways in which the U.S., Britain and other nations are actually hindering democratic efforts across the globe.
Read more
Compromise: A Capitol Offense
This hour, we’ll talk about the hope for compromise in politics – with a co-author of “It’s Even Worse Than it Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism.”
Read more
The Individual Versus The Common Good
This hour, we’ll talk about individual rights versus the good of the whole with Colin Woodard, author of “American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good.”
Read more
Defending The Ballot Box
This hour, we’ll talk about the evolution of suffrage in the United States – and about efforts to restrict voting rights through the years – with Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.
Read more
Rebuilding America
This hour, we’ll talk about everyday Americans already at work making the country a better place with James Fallows of “The Atlantic.”
Read more