Between the Headlines

"Those who are standing up for democracy, and defending the rule of law, and committed to working across party lines — those are the kind of candidates we want to support," says Joel Searby. He is the National Political Director for the Renew America Movement, which supports candidates who defend democracy and reject extremism.

Searby left the Republican Party in 2016 because of Trump's divisive rhetoric. He hopes to create viable alternatives for conservative voters, regardless of candidates' party affiliations, so that they are not represented by politicians who propagate conspiracy theories and inflammatory polemics. He says, "In my conservatism, there's a lot of room for both compromise and compassion."

He discusses the importance of coalitions that draw from across the political spectrum, describing how he worked with the left wing to expand voting rights in Florida in 2018, and now supports Evan McMullin's independent senatorial campaign in Utah. He calls for legislators and citizens to focus on areas of common ground and shared priorities.

"We believe that environmental threats are big, but the power of well-organized community groups is bigger," says Mireille Bejjani, who is the Energy Justice director for Community Action Works. Mireille has years of experience organizing communities to achieve policy changes.

She adds, "We work side by side with everyday people to confront those who are polluting and harming the health of our communities. We partner with those who are most impacted by environmental problems [...] and we train them with the know-how they would need to make change in their own backyard."

Mireille shares her strategies and process when facing an environmental threat, some stories of emerging victorious by remaining persistent through a taxing dispute, and her vision for building more environmentally friendly communities.

"In order for a system of self-government to work, it required an informed and engaged citizenry," says Julie Silverbrook, a constitutional scholar who works for iCivics, a platform that provides civic education resources for teachers and students. She explains how civic education fosters a public perceptive to current affairs, how iCivics reaches its audience effectively, and how schools can incorporate civics curriculums. She also gives us a bite-size civics lesson, giving insight into the Constitution, the courts, and the breakdown of deliberation in government.

Matthew Graham is a political scientist at George Washington University who studies the public's role in keeping politicians accountable. He said that this ability is severely compromised by political polarization, which minimizes voter choice and raises the cost of supporting democracy, as well as a general lack of unawareness about current affairs. 

He noted, "If the same person is the same person is your enemy in every single debate, then you never practice compromising with them, you never learn to respect them, and ultimately you just let problems simmer the way that we've seen happen so frequently in the past few decades."

This episode continues an ongoing series on democracies in decline.

Anais Marin is the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus. She says, "The atmosphere I would describe now as one of fear and impunity for abuses against internationally recognized human rights."

Anais describes how peaceful protests against President Alexander Lukashenko's rigged election victory were repressed through torture and arbitrary arrests. She breaks down Belarus' illiberal institutions, dynamics of civil society and mobilization, and the international response.

According to Anais, this situation is an important case study for how an authoritarian government seeking to retain power can suppress democratic freedoms. Additionally, since recording this interview, Belarus has cooperated with Russia to invade Ukraine. 

"If we reach a place where state legislatures and the U.S. House are beyond the reach of a majority of voters, we have a really dangerous, undemocratic situation on our hands," says David Daley, a best-selling author and leading expert on partisan gerrymandering.

David explains how gerrymandering has become more potent in the last decade, with more precise and partisan maps than ever before, telling the story of the Republican REDMAP redistricting operation. He also explains how gerrymandering contributes to political polarization and a lack of fair representation. Then, he shares some solutions to gerrymandering, like multi-member districts. He offers some hope with stories of grassroots organizers who achieved meaningful progress with anti-gerrymandering ballot measures.

Ben Silberstein recently received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, writing his dissertation on original research of social structures in North Korea. He shares tragic glimpses into the former experiences of many defectors to South Korea, and some of their reflections. We discuss songbun, North Korea's rigid caste system that organizes people into social classes based on their family's loyalty to the government, exploring its legitimization, implementation, and possible subversion through public reaction and economic development. Then, we talk about surveillance, involving a network of spies and self-censorship. 

"[Goal] number one is to help to build a more resilient, peaceful society in the places that we work," says David Alpher, a contractor for the Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention at the United States Agency for International Development. He adds, "working with communities, the key is working with the consent and the leadership of the people of the ground." Joining him is Ivan Rasiah, an employee at USAID's local office in Sri Lanka, who manages peacebuilding projects in the country. Drawing from their experience, David and Ivan help us understand the who, what, when, where, why, and how of American peacebuilding missions at their most and least effective.

"I hate bullies, and I see [civil rights work] as a way to help the bullied in society — people who are less powerful — against policies that corporations and governments use to unfairly hurt those who are marginalized or weak," says Alejandro Ortiz, a civil rights attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Alejandro outlines the legislation preventing housing discrimination and protecting free association (unionizing) rights. He discusses the techniques, including crime-free housing acts and union-busting law firms, that companies and governments use to violate them in subtle but significant ways. Then, he moves on to his approaches in his ongoing legal battles to counter these violations, forming impact-based claims and gathering evidence.

"We need the industry to develop guidelines, and values, and professional ethics," says Gilad Edelman, a journalist at WIRED who covers the politics of technology.

Free speech, misinformation, and content moderation on social media platforms like Facebook have been playing a significant role in political discourse since President Trump and the COVID-19 pandemic. To what extent do companies have a right or responsibility to patrol their platforms when content might be harmful? Gilad shifts this conversation from one-or-the-other principles to a case-by-case, comprehensive decision-making process.