Citizenship and Belonging 

Adrienne Clarkson is the co-founder of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship and the former Governor General of Canada. Madame Clarkson tells host Andrew Keen her story of coming to Canada, learning what it was to be Canadian, and her journey to becoming Governor General of the country. Along the way, she formed important ideas of what citizenship and belonging means in Canada and around the world.

The Contradictions of Human Nature 

Adam Hochschild is an award-winning author, historian, and journalist. In this interview, hosted by Andrew Keen, he discusses the contradictions within the history of democracy in Europe and America. Hochschild points out that capability of democracies to wage war, torture, and enslave people abroad, while aspiring to uphold enlightened values at home. Beyond historical examples, Hochschild and Keen examine how capitalism and inequality contribute to unfulfilled democratic aspirations today.

Human Capital-ism

Daniel Markovits is Guido Calabresi Professor of Law at Yale Law School. In this interview with Andrew Keen, he explains how the accumulation of human capital--the skills and education that enable advanced economies--has been captured by the elites. But, he argues, because these skilled workers in fields like law and finance are also laborers, they find themselves alienated in the Marxist sense, despite also achieving higher and higher incomes. To help fix democracy, Markovits says, this concentration of human capital can be addressed with education and labor reform.

No Nostalgia 

Jan Sowa is an Associate Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland. In this interview, he explains the Marxist view of capitalism as more than an economic system. The social and cultural aspects of a capitalist system are just as important and have shaped democracy in the modern era. In Sowa’s view, democracy must continue to develop beyond its current structures and practices to incorporate new ideas for better representation.

Laboratories of Democracy 

Anne-Marie Slaughter is the CEO of New America, a think tank in Washington, DC. In this interview, she discusses with host Andrew Keen possible structural changes to American democracy, including adopting ranked-choice voting and re-thinking campaign finance. She argues that capitalism--it’s ethos and influence--has infected the political process. American politicians have taken on capitalist forces before, Slaughter argues, but it will take major political cooperation to do it again.

Crisis of Confidence

Ian Bassin is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Protect Democracy, a non-profit created to fight threats to democracy in America. Bassin explains some of the factors eroding liberal democracy in the United States, including economic causes. From tackling voter suppression and checks and balances in the federal government, this interview covers a wide range of challenges to healthy democracy in the United States.

Mark Blyth is William R. Rhodes Professor of International Economics at Brown University. In this interview, he discusses how our economics are rife with anger and frustration. Blyth’s “angry-nomics” emerged from financial crises and a decline in social institutions, like unions, that give people feelings of stability and control. In this frank discussion of the conflicts between our economics and politics, Blyth offers several concrete recommendations to get capitalism to work for democracy instead of against it.

Political Power without Capital?

Peniel Joseph, Professor of Public Affairs and Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values at the University of Texas at Austin, explains the critical views of capitalism that emerged in the American Civil Rights movement. Major figures in this movement, like Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and Stokely Carmichael, explored social democratic and socialist political ideas when trying to find a path to equal rights in America. Moving beyond these early critics of capitalism’s influence on democracy, Peniel Joseph and host Andrew Keen explore the legacy of these ideas on the Black Lives Matter movement in contemporary America due to persistent political and economic inequality.

Listening to Others

Arlie Hochschild is Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her recent work deals with the rise of the American far-right. Her book, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, was built on interviews with Tea Party supporters in Louisiana. For Hochschild, it is important to understand the feelings behind political views, though listening and feeling empathy does not imply agreement. If Americans are to reconcile their differences, she argues, more people must learn how to listen to views they might not agree with.

Winner Takes All 

Robert H. Frank is the Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management Emeritus at Cornell University’s SC Johnson Graduate School of Management. What does a winner take all ethos in capitalism mean for democracy? Robert Frank discusses with Andrew Keen what the concentration of wealth amongst the best of the best and the sinking top tax rates means for conceptions of equality and fairness in America. Understanding this is essential to understanding the disconnect between politics and people today.