"There are many ways to serve our democracy. Get informed, get educated, do something that matters to you." In this episode, Major Robert Kennedy, who deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, shares his experiences serving in the Army. MAJ Kennedy was recently assigned to the Army G-3/5/7, where he assesses Army Readiness.

For Constitution Day 2021 and to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution, we talk with Carolyn Quilloin Coleman who started her activism work as a teenager protesting segregation in Savannah, Georgia. In April 1969, she organized the NAACP-sponsored Youth Mobilization conference in Washington, D.C. The gathering brought together 2,000 young people from 33 states to lobby Congress in support of youth voting rights.

Lt. Col. Dan Maurer, a JMU alum, Judge Advocate, an Assistant Professor of Law at U.S. Military Academy at Westpoint and a Fellow with the Modern War Institute, discusses September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks and consequences for military justice and civil-military relations.

Dr. Terri Rodzevik served in the United States Army Nurse Corps from 2004-2009 with two deployments to Iraq, including to Tikrit and Baghdad. She currently serves in the United States Public Health Service as a Supervisory Research Nurse Practitioner for the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Disease in Phoenix, AZ and as a Supervisory Nurse Practitioner for the Indian Health Service at Phoenix Indian Medical Center Emergency Department.

"In an era of high geographic polarization and historically low ticket-splitting, meaning that people know well in advance of an election who they are going to vote for, redistricting and how the lines are drawn matters a great deal. It's almost existential for election outcomes," says redistricting expert David Wasserman, Senior Editor, U.S. House of Representatives for The Cook Political Report. Learn more about why redistricting matters and what's at stake.

How did the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States impact the criminal legal system? What are the challenges of litigating national security and terrorism cases? How did 9/11 and subsequent national security and terrorism cases impact how the legal system treats citizens and non-citizens convicted of terrorism offenses? Is torture justified under any circumstances? How have national security and terrorism legal cases changed over the last two decades? Leading terrorism and national security legal expert Joshua L. Dratel answers these questions and discusses how the national security state and the war on terrorism have impacted democracy and justice.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United states and explored the consequences of the U.S. response, the James Madison Center for Civic Engagement and JMU X-Labs have parterened to share and highlight the contributions of James Madison University alumni who commissioned through the ROTC and served in the Global War on Terror. In this episode, Lieutenant Colonel Dan Curran shares his experiences with the JMU ROTC program and the impact it has, what makes a patriot, as well as the betrayal of the Kurds.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 extremist terrorist attacks on the United States driven by Usama bin Ladin. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Philip Zelikow, who served as the executive director of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, better known as the "9/11 Commission." The Commission's landmark report was published in 2004 and provides an authoritative narrative on the attacks and U.S. response to them. The Commission's work and report provide lessons for making sense of collective mass trauma and reimagining more responsive governing institutions.

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and explore the consequences of the U.S. response, the James Madison Center for Civic Engagement and JMU X-Labs have partnered to share and highlight the contributions of James Madison University alumni who commissioned through the ROTC and served in the Global War on Terror. In this episode, Marilyn Houde shares her experiences in the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade. She discusses how we can learn from local leaders and improve governance through defense, diplomacy and development.

In this episode we talk with Dr. Jon A. Krosnick from Stanford University about how we can make elections more fair.