Defending Democracy with Malcolm Turnbull

How can we build a society where different opinions are met with curiosity and understanding? 

Dame Louise Richardson is a counter-terrorism expert, author and the President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and she has some thoughts. 

In this episode, Dame Louise and Malcolm argue how our environments can bring people back to the centre, reduce division, and inoculate against extremism. 

Dame Louise believes the public is less divided than politicians would lead you to believe, but the American political system and broader media ecosystem do not encourage moderation.

So, what can we learn from unifying institutions like the BBC and NHS? How can universities create space for people to disagree and understand? And is it possible to bring an increasingly partisan United States back together? 

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Donald Trump's MAGA movement has inspired a following of non-college-educated, working-class Republican voters; but it's also had a profound impact on Republican policy.  

Ben Ginsberg is a Republican lawyer who wrote Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election. He says the Republican party would be better off arguing for conservative policy solutions rather than pandering to Donald Trump's personalised wishes.

Malcolm and Ben discuss the challenges faced by electoral officials in the US and why defending electoral integrity is crucial for maintaining faith in the electoral process and ensuring a peaceful transfer of power. 

They also discuss what America would look like under Trump 2.0, including the Heritage Foundation's manifesto of Project 2025 and Trump's vengeance towards his political opponents.

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Could a Trump 2.0 bring more blatant and dangerous violations of the norms and rules of democracy than we've seen before?

Larry Diamond, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, has dedicated his life to the cause of liberal democracy.

Malcolm and Larry discuss the success of centrist candidates in Australia, which is improbable in America because of a combination of primary elections, the sore loser rule and first-past-the-post voting.

They discuss how, in 2020, Alaska ended partisan primaries and adopted rank-choice voting (preferential voting), allowing more moderate candidate Lisa Murkowski to emerge victorious. 

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In a world of social media echo chambers, misinformation and partisan media, the lines between truth and lies are blurrier than ever.

Jonathan Rauch knows this well - he's the author of The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth, which describes the crisis in our society, in which we are no longer divided based on different opinions but on other realities.

Malcolm and Jonathan discuss the norms and rules of reality-based politics and journalism and how communities interact to seek the truth.

Rauch argues that left-wing-cancel culture and right-wing disinformation are now each other's best friends.  Truth in politics is on the ballot in November.

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As the US election looms, Malcolm talks to Eric H. Holder, Jr., about the United States electoral system, how it compares to Australia, and the significant challenges to democracy the US faces today.

Eric H. Holder Jr, served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States of America from 2009 to 2015 in the Obama Administration. 

Holder argues that the health of a democracy can be measured by the number of people who can easily engage in the electoral process.

America has voluntary voting and a system that allows state legislatures to draw district boundaries through gerrymandering. This practice significantly distorts the political landscape and skews representatives to the left and right, making the primary the main contest for a safe seat.

Malcolm and Eric delve into the intricacies of the US election process, discussing the role of the Electoral College and its implications for the presidential race, particularly for Joe Biden.

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Barbara Walter has been part of a CIA task force looking at predictive models for where civil wars might break out around the world. As the task force looked closely at the data, they discovered that the two most predictive factors were well-established in America.   
 
Barbara says the 2024 U.S. Presidential election is a genuine trigger for violence, and if the U.S. does not change its course, it could end up in a second civil war.  
 
Malcolm talks to Barbara about what leads modern democracies toward violence and what can be done to avert a second civil war in the United States.  

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What do you do when a country suddenly falls into darkness?   

Afghan Australian businessman Saad Mohseni is Chairman, Chief Executive, and CEO of Moby Group, which runs Afghanistan's 24/7 Tolo News channel. 

Saad is widely applauded for advancing press freedom and defending women's rights; Time Magazine recognized him in 2011 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.    

In this episode, Saad relives the chaotic 48 hours inside his Tolo news network when the Taliban took over as U.S. forces pulled out.  

Malcolm and Saad alsodiscuss how the Australian war crimes investigation and the Ben Roberts Smith defamation case were reported inside Afghanistan. And how the remaining Tolo news journalists continue to report on women's rights.   

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Climate change and the decline of democracy are two global crises that have come to a head in recent years. Transitioning to green energy is key to tackling both.  
 
Can we make enough progress fast enough to save the planet and democracy?  
 
Energy security expert Anna Mikulska discusses how Vladimir Putin weaponised gas for decades before the ground invasion of Ukraine and warns that Europe is not yet clear from danger.  
 
Malcolm and Anna discuss if the transition to clean energy could save European democracies from Russian aggression as well as save the planet.  

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Who are the new autocrats and what’s their playbook?  

We are now living in the era of the strongman - and every dictator has built on the accomplishments of his predecessors.

Hitler watched Mussolini, and Gaddafi learned from Lt Col Gamal Abdul Nasser.

So why, despite the evidence of history, do strongmen still hold such appeal for us? What does the playbook reveal about  Donald Trump’s run for the 2024 Presidency? 

Malcolm talks with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Author of Author, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present about how the new high-tech autocrats are gaining popularity.  

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Congressman Adam Kinzinger reflects on the toxicity that has overtaken the United States and why it’s almost certain Donald Trump will be the Republican Presidential nominee.

What would a Trump 2.0 Presidency look like and what does this mean for the allies and democracy around the world?

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