Democracy Nerd

Democracy Book Club! Thomas Maine, Professor of Politics at Baruch College, joins Democracy Nerd to discuss his new book "The Rise of Illiberalism." Professor Maine describes the defining characteristics of various illiberal movements, explains how illiberal ideology drives mainstream politics, and shows how when the mask of illiberalism is revealed, actions such as the January 6th insurrection and Putin's invasion of Ukraine occur as a result.

100 years ago, the United States was reeling from the Spanish Flu and World War I. Similar circumstances fact the country today. How did American Presidents respond to the adversity they face? Which Presidents did the most to expand democracy, both home and abroad? Ronald Gruner, author of "We the Presidents: How American Presidents Shaped the Last Century" joins the podcast to discuss the last 100 years of American presidencies, including which recent presidencies could be used as examples to help Joe Biden respond to present-day problems.

Heading into the second decade of wide-spread use of social media, and its impact on democracy is less than ideal. Originally applauded as a way around legacy media "gate keepers" but instead acts as an amplifier of extremist voices. Jonathan Nagler, co-director of NYU's Center for Social Media and Politics joins the podcast to discuss social media's impact on democracy, the fallout of the Facebook Papers, and explains why Americans are just so awful at identifying fake news.

Impacted by a number of crises--ranging from 9/11 to the Great Recession to the COVID outbreak--Generation Z has been impacted like no other previous generation. According to John Della Volpe--Director of Polling at Harvard's Institute of Politics and author of "Fight: How Gen-Z is Channeling Their Fear and Passion to Save America"--this makes Gen-Z voters more like "hardened diamonds" and shouldn't be dismissed as "snowflakes." John joins the podcast to discuss his new book and explain how Generation Z voters may be crucial to protecting democracy in the 2022 midterm elections.

To honor the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., here is a re-airing of a November interview with Reginal C. Oh, professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, who explains how MLK was one of the first practitioners of critical race theory.

To honor the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., here is a re-airing of November's interview with Reginald C. Oh, Professor of Law at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, who explains how Dr. King was one of the earliest practitioners of what is now considered "Critical Race Theory."

Amanda Marcotte, senior politics writer at Salon, joins the podcast to offer her take on 2021's top political stories--and gives a peek ahead at what's in store for 2022.

How are winning coalitions formed in democracies? Do the same variables apply, or does each democracy have its own unique circumstances that form along political cleavages to create a winning majority? How do these political cleavages worsen or mitigate social inequality? Amory Gethin, manager of the World Political Cleavages and Social Inequality Database and co-author of the exhaustive new volume "Political Cleavages and Social Inequalities: A Study of 50 Democracies, 1948-2020" joins Democracy Nerd to discuss these issues.

What is Critical Race Theory? And why does Fox News hate it so much? Law professor Reginald C. Oh joins the podcast to explain how Critical Race Theory went from an obscure legal academic theory to the latest tactic exploited by the Republican Party for political gain.

Did you buy a cup of coffee this morning? Congratulations. You paid more than 55 corporations pay in taxes. And what are these corporations doing with these savings? Funding the campaigns of candidates who will continue to keep their status quo zero-tax burden. This is according to "The Price of Zero" report issued by consumer advocate organization Public Citizen. Susan Harley, Managing Director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division, joins the podcast to discuss the report's findings, and explains how a low corporate tax burden results in increased taxes for everyone else.