Congressional Communities

What if you could make a difference in your community without ever running for office? Alex Clark and Dan Carracino sit down with Priya Elangovan, Director of Programs and Research at All In Together, a nonpartisan organization that helps women participate in civic life. Priya explains why local democracy feels out of reach, from late-night public meetings, to “civic deserts”. Priya explores why women out-vote men in every election, but under-represent as elected officials, and how the decline of community spaces has changed the way we connect with our neighbors. Most importantly, Priya shares why you don’t need to be a policy expert or elected official to create change. Your lived experience is your expertise, and sometimes the path to a stronger democracy starts with something as simple as connecting with the people around you.

Please visit congressionalcommunities.org to learn more about your community.

All in Together Event mentioned: aitogether.org/events 

Hosts: Dan Carracino, Alex Clark
Executive Producer: Alex Clark
Music: Aditya Shrestha
Animation: Seventy Seven Lab

This Iowa mayor spent a decade working to make citizens of one of the state’s most diverse cities feel seen, heard, and represented. 

Alex Clark and Dan Carracino sit down with Quentin Hart, who served as mayor of Waterloo, Iowa, from 2016 to 2025, becoming the city’s first Black mayor and its longest-serving mayor in history. From expanding opportunities for Black-owned businesses and people with criminal records to advancing police reform, improving access to affordable high-speed internet, and addressing disparities between neighborhoods, Hart explains why equity means giving people what they need to succeed, not simply giving everyone the same thing.

He also reflects on what national leaders can learn from local government, where public service often means working face-to-face with residents. Hart’s experience offers a perspective on how democracy can become more meaningful when people don’t just see themselves reflected in government, they see government working for them.

Please visit congressionalcommunities.org to learn more about your community.

Links mentioned: hartcivicstrategies.com 

Hosts: Dan Carracino, Alex Clark
Executive Producer: Alex Clark
Music: Aditya Shrestha
Animation: Seventy Seven Lab

Dr. Nancy Young was the only woman and the only person of color on her city council. She made sure she wouldn't stay the only one. Alex Clark and Dan Carracino sit down with Dr. Nancy Young, Tracy, California's first African American mayor and first elected female mayor, who served over eight years on the city council and two terms as mayor. Nancy talks about joining a council of four white men as the only woman and the only person of color, and how a simple check-in ("Councilmember Young, did you have something to add?") taught her to make room for newer voices. She explains why she rewrote the bylaws of Tracy's Youth Advisory Commission after finding that about 90 percent of its members came from a single high school. Nancy also shares her path from registered Republican to Independent candidate for California governor, and how her nonprofit, The Young Connects, raises money and connects neighbors to the organizations serving them. As Nancy puts it, her theme has always been "your voice matters," and if you don't speak up, nobody will ever know.

Please visit congressionalcommunities.org to learn more about your community.

Hosts: Dan Carracino, Alex Clark
Executive Producer: Alex Clark
Music: Aditya Shrestha
Animation: Seventy Seven Lab

Nobody in this room is allowed to grab the mic and rant. Ambassador Allan Katz spent his career in diplomacy and city government before building American Public Square, a Kansas City nonprofit that gets people on opposite sides of gun violence, immigration, and abortion into the same room to actually listen, with real-time fact-checkers on standby and a civility bell for when things go sideways. We talk about the fight for a coal plant in Tallahassee that started it all, the moment he realized strangers were desperate for this, and the question underneath everything he does: what if changing someone's mind was never the goal?

Please visit congressionalcommunities.org to learn more about your community.

Learn more about American Public Square at americanpublicsquare.org.

Hosts:
Dan Carracino
Alex Clark

Executive Producer:
Alex Clark

Music:
Aditya Shrestha

Animation:
Seventy Seven Lab

What actually pulls someone out of an extremist mindset, and what pulls them in? Alex Clark and Dan Carracino sit down with Heather Rosso, a PhD candidate in Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, whose research spans lone actor violence, polarization, and disinformation. Heather explains why polarization isn't really about two sides clashing, but about people drifting so far apart they lose the ability to meet in the middle, and why the antidote, again and again, comes down to one person reaching out. She connects the dots between extremist recruitment, cults, intimate partner violence, and even online scams, and argues that the algorithms shaping our feeds function a lot like cults.

Please visit congressionalcommunities.org to learn more about your community.

Hosts: Dan Carracino, Alex Clark

Executive Producer: Alex Clark

Music: Aditya Shrestha

Animation: Seventy Seven Lab

Why does the U.S. House of Representatives still have 435 members, even though the country has tripled in size since that number was set?  Alex Clark and Dan Carracino sit down with Dr. Christopher Malone, Deputy Executive Director of Policy and Education Innovation at the Consortium for Worker Education, to unpack his recent Newsday op-ed arguing that the House of Representatives should grow from 435 members to 1,100.

Chris walks through the forgotten history of proportional representation in Congress, how we could get back to it, and what it would actually mean for your day-to-day life. Along the way: what even counts as a "community," and why Chris thinks engagement, not perfect representation, is the real goal.

Please visit congressionalcommunities.org to learn more about your community.

Hosts: Dan Carracino, Alex Clark
Executive Producer: Alex Clark
Music: Aditya Shrestha
Animation: Seventy Seven Lab

What if the loudest voices in Washington don't actually represent what most Americans agree on? Alex Clark and Dan Carracino sit down with Keith Allred, Executive Director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse and founder of Common Sense American, an organization with over 91,000 members that identifies where Republicans, Democrats, and Independents already agree. Then, they bring that consensus straight to Congress. Keith walks through the four-step model he built first in Idaho and now runs nationally, the surprising story of running for governor as an independent recruited by the Democratic Party, and how a bipartisan push on "workforce Pell" grants turned into real legislation. As Keith puts it, the biggest misconception isn't that we're divided, it's that we don't realize how much we already agree.

Please visit congressionalcommunities.org to learn more about your community.

Hosts: Dan Carracino, Alex Clark
Executive Producer: Alex Clark
Music: Aditya Shrestha
Animation: Seventy Seven Lab

What if we gave ordinary people real power over public money? Alex Clark and Dan Carracino sit down with Isabel Luciano of the Participatory Budgeting Project to explore what happens when communities, including young people, get to decide what their government should fund. In Phoenix, students got to decide how $600,000 would be spent to make their schools safer. What they wanted was not what you might expect: shade, water, and better bathrooms.

Participatory budgeting is built on a simple idea: people who live in a community have knowledge that policymakers and experts may not. Isabel shares what happens when we trust that knowledge: young people discover their own power and governments learn things they might otherwise miss. As she puts it, “you have a lot of knowledge just being a resident in your own neighborhood.”

Please visit congressionalcommunities.org to learn more about your community.

Hosts:
Dan Carracino
Alex Clark

Executive Producer:
Alex Clark

Music:
Aditya Shrestha

Animation:
Seventy Seven Lab

What happens when two people from opposite sides of the political spectrum decide to work together? We sit down with MoveOn.org co-founder Joan Blades and AllSides.com co-founder John Gable to discuss why they are teaming up on trustworthy elections and an upcoming American Dream Roundtable, which will bring people with different viewpoints together to mark America’s 250th anniversary. Moving through money in politics and climate change, the conversation asks the larger question: How do people actually change their minds? For Joan and John, the answer starts with relationships and real conversations across differences.

Please visit congressionalcommunities.org to learn more about your community.

Register here for the AllSides American Dream Roundtable, in partnership with Living Room Conversations: https://www.allsides.com/american-dream 

Hosts:

Dan Carracino

Alex Clark

Executive Producer:

Alex Clark

Executive Assistant:

Karina Nguyen

Music:

Aditya Shrestha

Animation:

Seventy Seven Lab

Why would an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and successful CEO walk away from it all to focus on congressional representation? Alex Clark sits down with Congressional Communities founder Dan Carracino to discuss the future of American democracy, why local representation is more important than ever, and why the country's greatest untapped resource isn't money or technology—it's its people.

Please visit congressionalcommunities.org to learn more about your community

Hosts:

Dan Carracino

Alex Clark

Executive Producer:

Alex Clark

Executive Assistant:

Karina Nguyen

Music:

Aditya Shrestha

Animation:

Seventy Seven Lab