Luce Change

Aaron Tanaka, CEO of One Project and founder of the Center for Economic Democracy, joins Sean Buffington on this episode of Luce Change to make the case that America’s political crisis is, at its root, an economic one. When the majority of people have no real agency over the decisions that shape their lives, democracy becomes a ritual rather than a reality. 

Tanaka traces this failure from the founding contradictions of the country through the bipartisan embrace of neoliberalism, and argues that the antidote isn’t better messaging—it’s restructuring who controls land, labor, and capital.

Articles & Organizations Mentioned:

One Project: https://oneproject.org/ 

Center for Economic Democracy: https://www.economicdemocracy.us

Boston Ujima Project: https://www.ujimaboston.com

Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative: https://www.dsni.org

Right to the City Alliance: https://righttothecity.org

City Life / Vida Urbana: https://www.clvu.org

Climate Justice Alliance: https://climatejusticealliance.org

Civic Lex: https://www.civiclex.org

Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance: https://www.amazonsacredheadwaters.org

Participatory Budgeting Project: https://www.participatorybudgeting.org

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On this episode of Luce Change, Sean Buffington sits down with Ash Hanson—theater artist, rural cultural worker, and Creative Executive Officer at the Department of Public Transformation—to explore why bending the arc of history toward justice has to start locally. Ash makes the case that civic culture erodes the way sandstone does: slowly, incrementally, and at enormous cost to the communities least resourced to rebuild.

With only 3–7% of philanthropic dollars reaching the 20% of Americans who live in rural places, Ash argues that geographic inequity is foundational to the democratic crisis, and that artists and cultural organizers are doing the essential work of shifting community narratives and building civic imagination before traditional engagement can even begin.

Articles & Organizations Mentioned:

Department of Public Transformation: dopt.org 

Voices for Rural Resilience: voicesforruralresilience.org 

The Mellon Foundation: mellon.org    

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson: justmercy.eji.org 

SiP Culture: sipculture.org 

Blue Sky Center: blueskycenter.org 

Cheyenne River Youth Project: cryp.org 

No Hate in My Holler: nohateinmyholler.com 

Epicenter Utah: epicenterutah.org 

Art of the Rural: artoftherural.org 

Springboard for the Arts: springboardforthearts.org 

Daily Yonder: dailyyonder.com 

Center for Rural Strategies: ruralstrategies.org 

Rural Assembly: ruralassembly.org 

Masumoto Family Farm: masumoto.com 

Country Queers: countryqueers.com 

Civic Lex: civiclex.org   

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On this episode of Luce Change, Sean Buffington speaks with Richard Young, Executive Director of CivicLex in Lexington, Kentucky, about the power of place, and why local democracy is the most underestimated front in the fight to rebuild civic life in America.

At the center of the conversation is CivicLex’s first-ever civic assembly: 36 randomly selected, demographically representative Lexington residents convening across six sessions to deliberate on proposed changes to the city charter. Like the concentric rings of a public square, the assembly draws people inward toward a shared decision–Young believes that is exactly how civic repair begins.

Articles & Organizations Mentioned:

CivicLex: civiclex.org

American Academy of Arts and Sciences: amacad.org

Everyday Democracy (Martha McCoy): everyday-democracy.org

Harvard Kennedy School / Archon Fung: hks.harvard.edu

Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange: kyrux.org

Oak Ridge Periodic Tables (David Allred, Oak Ridge, TN): oakridgeperiodictables.com

Black Yarn (Lexington, KY): blackyarn.com

Outlier Media (Detroit, MI): outliermedia.org

People’s Budget Office / Mural Arts Philadelphia: muralarts.org

North Carolina Local News Lab Fund: nclocalnews.org

Panelot (sortition software): panelot.org

The Austin Common (Austin, TX): theaustincommon.com

The Village Square (Liz Joyner, Tallahassee, FL): tlh.villagesquare.us

Good Neighbor Week (San Francisco, CA): sfgoodneighborweek.org

Department of Public Transformation: publictransformation.org

Knight Foundation: knightfoundation.org

Bluegrass Community Foundation: bgcf.org

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In this episode of Luce Change, host Sean Buffington sits down with Paul Brandeis Rauschenbusch, an ordained Baptist minister, CEO of Interfaith Alliance, and co-author of an essay suggesting the US may be entering its next Great Awakening.

Paul makes the case that every major leap forward in American democracy has been powered not just by policy, but by a moral and spiritual awakening. He argues that what looks like a crisis may also be an invitation: a moment when people across lines of faith, race, and class are choosing to become neighbors to one another.

Articles & Organizations Mentioned:

"We Need a New Great Awakening" by Paul Brandeis Rauschenbusch & Ian Bassen: thebulwark.com

Interfaith Alliance: interfaithalliance.org

Faith for Libraries (Interfaith Alliance initiative): interfaithalliance.org

American Library Association: ala.org

No Kings: nokings.org

ISAIAH (Minnesota): isaiah-mn.org

March Minnesota: marchmn.org

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What does a photograph prove—and who gets to decide? Recorded live at MacDowell, archaeologist Nam Kim, curator and Magnum Foundation executive director Kristen Lubben, and photographer Accra Shepp join Sean Buffington on this episode of Luce Change to wrestle with photography’s contested role as historical evidence.    

At a moment when AI is blurring the line between documentation and fabrication, their discussion cuts to the heart of how we trust images.

We exist in challenging times. Deep, generational problems have surfaced as very real, present pain and terror. Where do we go from here? On this season of Luce Change, we ask: what comes after a crisis? What will it actually take to bend the arc of history? And where do we start? Host Sean Buffington sits down with Eric Liu, co-founder and CEO of Citizen University, to explore the tools we have, and which we might want to cultivate, to bend the arc of history toward justice—not in the next election cycle, but over generations. 

The conversation moves beyond headlines to examine something deeper: the slow erosion of civic culture and our weakening faith in shared institutions. From the corridors of Washington, DC, to community-rooted work in Seattle, Liu has discovered that real civic renewal happens through relationships and local engagement, not national political theater. 

Organizations mentioned: 

• Citizen University: https://citizenuniversity.us/
• Civic Nebraska: https://civicnebraska.org/
• Trust for Civic Life: https://trustforciviclife.org/

Articles mentioned: 

• Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship: https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/report
• “We Need a New Great Awakening” by Paul Brandeis Raushenbush and Ian Bassin: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/we-need-a-new-great-awakening

Our new president, Jonathan Holloway, joins Sean Buffington on the Luce Change podcast to reflect on the idealistic pursuit of truth, the ruptures in our civic square, and the opportunity—and obligation—for philanthropy and institutions to help rebuild trust, uphold purpose, and meet this moment with clarity and care.

A vibrant and timely panel discussion focused on new currents in Native art and the vital role of Indigenous voices in American arts institutions.

In this episode of Luce Change, we dive deep into the complex landscape of faith in America, exploring how religion can both divide and unite us.

In this episode of Luce Change, we explore what happens when the media neglects the communities they are meant to serve. We also examine what it takes to rebuild journalism from the ground up: with care, trust, and accountability.