A Heavy Heritage. By Luke Pickrell. Published on August 20, 2025. Original article: https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/a-heavy-heritage

Tad's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi2YTUtgjlQ&t=6s

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Luke talks with Bruce Levine about his book, Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice. The conversation covers several topics, including Bruce’s political development, the history of Vermont and the state’s influence on Stevens, the Civil War and Stevens’s ceaseless struggle during Reconstruction, and what Stevens, the Civil War, and Reconstruction can teach the Left.

An Inescapable Network of Mutuality. By Luke Pickrell. Published on July 28, 2025. Original article: https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/the-military-event

YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@demconpod?si=KvA2PfAxlFr0tGZX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-democratic-constitution-podcast/id1777552669

Houston, We Have a Problem. By Luke Pickrell. Published on July 29, 2025. Original article: https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/cheating?utm_source=publication-search

YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@demconpod?si=KvA2PfAxlFr0tGZX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-democratic-constitution-podcast/id1777552669

Zohran Mamdani is Wrong About Democracy. By Luke Pickrell. Published on August 16, 2025. Original Article: https://democraticconstitutionblog.substack.com/p/zohran-mamdani-is-wrong-about-democracy

YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@demconpod?si=KvA2PfAxlFr0tGZX

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-democratic-constitution-podcast/id1777552669

Luke talks with Professor Kermit Roosevelt about his latest book, The Nation That Never Was: Reconstructing America’s Story. The conversation covers several topics, including problems with the American “triumphalist narrative," Reconstruction and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as alternative foundations for American identity, shifting views of the Declaration of Independence, Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement, how the Constitution changed and didn’t change after the Civil War, and the need for a Third Reconstruction. 

This is a recording of Luke’s recent Jacobin article, “DC Deserves Statehood.” Donald Trump’s takeover of Washington’s police force this week is adding insult to the injury of the United States’ long denial of equal political standing to the capital’s residents. But the demand for equal rights in DC needs to be part of a larger voting rights struggle that goes beyond our nation’s capital. It means a movement for a democratic constitution — one that abolishes the Senate, establishes equal suffrage and proportional representation, reins in the executive and judiciary, and grants full political rights to all US territories, from Puerto Rico to American Samoa.

Luke talks with Dr. Leah Downey about her latest book, Our Money: Monetary Policy as if Democracy Matters. Topics include an overview of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, issues with separating monetary policy from the legislative branch and broader oversight, current dissatisfaction with bureaucracies and our elected officials, and how a country might manage money creation if democracy truly mattered.

Sixty years ago, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law. Its protections have been rolled back in recent years — and our fundamentally undemocratic Constitution is to blame. This is a recording of Luke’s recent Jacobin article, “To Protect Voting Rights, We Need a Democratic Constitution.”

Luke talks with Rogers Smith, co-author with Desmond King of America’s New Racial Battle Lines: Protect Versus Repair. Rogers describes the two sides — “protect” versus “repair” — of America’s current political landscape, the Constitution’s role in shaping America’s political arena and impeding the repair agenda, Trump as the embodiment of the protect agenda, and the significance of the Declaration of Independence’s semiquincentennial.