Non-Western Democracies

David Stasavage is the Dean for Social Sciences at New York University, and the author of The Decline and Rise of Democracy. Stasavage and host Andrew Keen go over some non-western examples of early democracies, departing from the lineage of Athenian democracy. From elections, to bureaucracy and conceptions of meritocracy, they discuss the components of democratic governance that have aided and hindered its success throughout history.

A Political Wilderness?

DeLesslin "Roo" George-Warren is a queer artist, researcher, and organizer from Catawba Indian Nation and a Humanity in Action Landecker Fellow. He talks with host Andrew Keen about Catawba Nation views of property, democracy, and the environment in the search for an indigenous view of the meaning of citizenship. Just as arriving Europeans falsely viewed the North American landscape as wilderness, when it was in fact masterfully stewarded by indigenous peoples, they discuss what misconceptions Europeans had about indigenous political and societal organization.

Citizenship and July 4th

Roya Hakakian is a writer and poet and the author of A Beginner's Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious. Talking just before July 4th, host Andrew Keen speaks with Roya Hakakian about her own experience coming to the U.S. from Iran, the meaning of America's Independence Day, and what we should think about during the holiday.

On June 1st, 2021, we hosted a live session of How to Fix Democracy with Dr. Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies at Emory University, to discuss recent voter suppression measures in the United States and her new book, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America.

Digital Democracy and Citizen Engagement

Wietse Van Ransbeeck is the Co-Founder and CEO of the Citizen Lab, a Brussels-based company that works with governments to enable public participation in decision-making. With host Andrew Keen, Van Ransbeeck discusses his goals to make citizenship easier by using new technology to help local democracy be more participatory. In many past How to Fix Democracy interviews, technology's negative impact on democracy has been highlighted, so it is great to have Van Ransbeeck's perspective on the positive potential of digital democracy.

Democracy Through the Camera Lens

Astra Taylor is an author and filmmaker whose documentary What is Democracy? covers much of the same ground as our own series, but with a different essential question in mind. In this interview, Astra Taylor and host Andrew Keen reflect on what they drew from ancient Athenian democratic practices in their respective quests to understand democracy and predict what it will look like (and sound like) in the future. From the evolution of citizenship to the impact of capitalism and debt on democracy, Taylor and Keen trace threads of democracy from antiquity to the present day.

Citizen Power

Eric Liu is the co-founder and CEO of Citizen University and the Director of the Aspen Institute's Citizenship and American Identity Program. In this episode that delves into the meaning of citizenship and the nature of power in politics, Liu and host Andrew Keen discuss contemporary conceptions of power in the United States and responsibilities of citizens. There is a tension, especially in America, between individualism and citizen responsibility toward building communities and cooperating for a common good, argues Liu, and it's important to explore this and find a way to give citizens positive agency.

What is Global Citizenship? | Nanjala Nyabola is a writer, political analyst, and activist based in Nairobi, Kenya. In this interview, she talks with host Andrew Keen about the meaning of citizenship especially in relation to global citizenship. If citizenship is related to rights and freedoms in a country, she says, global citizenship means enjoying similar rights and freedom around the world. In reality, as they cover in this fascinating interview, this is a luxury of the few, not the many, and the walls are only getting higher thanks to ethnic nationalist influences resurfacing in politics in various countries around the world.

Devil's Curse of Migration

Abdul-Rehman Malik is a journalist, community organizer, and Associate Research Scholar and Lecturer in Islamic Studies at Yale Divinity School. Malik and host Andrew Keen address the contradictions of belonging and inclusion. Migrants, they discuss, face these contradictions constantly, seeking belonging in their new homes, but not excluding their own multifaceted identities. If there is a principal Muslim virtue that can aid conceptions of citizenship and fix democracy, Malik concludes, it is mercy--the compassion, empathy, and vitality that holds communities together.

Democracy, Citizenship, and Dystopian Fiction

Margaret Atwood is an award-winning author, who has written numerous best-sellers including the 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale. In this episode, she discusses with Andrew Keen her impressions of citizenship and the importance of fiction writers in a democracy. Dystopias, Atwood says, show us the future if we do not correct the mistakes of the present, and so writers of dystopian fiction aid democracies by showing the consequences of inaction.