Stefanie Schäfer kicks off the new season of LadyFiction with her guest Katharina Motyl. They confront many difficult and complex questions about feminist solidarity with the Iran protests, imperial feminism, and the Western obsession with the burka as the only symbol of female oppression, liberation, freedom, or self-determination. Mohja Kahf's poem "My Body Is Not Your Battleground" provides a starting point for reflecting on Arab and Muslim feminism, then and now, and on the potential of a European Feminist Foreign Policy.

It's turning into a hot summer in Europe. France is burning in protest after the killing of an ethnic teenager by the police. A Koran was torched in Stockholm, inflaming tensions with Turkey about Sweden's membership in NATO. The far-right AFD party won a local election in East Germany, stoking anti-immigrant tensions. And Ukraine continues to burn after 500 days of war. Andrew Sola and Günter Danner discuss these issues and many more in their summer politics update.

The past is present and the present is personal. With her guest, German

Narratives of immigration and identity formation are never fully told,

In this episode, Lady Fiction returns to the First Lady mystique with a

In this episode, Douglas Cowie and Adrienne Brown (University of Chicago) discuss the life and poetry of Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks. They talk about her poems that document life in Chicago, "Kitchenette Building," "In the Mecca," "Chicago Picasso," and "The Wall," and unpack the social, economic, racial, cultural, and political history that informs her life and work.

Please see these links for further information about topics mentioned in the episode:

Gwendolyn Brooks and others reading her poetry:

The Library of Congress Audio: https://www.loc.gov/item/85755182/

The Wall of Respect (City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs):

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/wall_of_respect.html

History of The Mecca and IIT (Segregation by Design):

https://www.segregationbydesign.com/chicago/iit-and-the-mecca-flats

Andrew Sola provides a new introduction to this episode, originally published in 2021 to mark the end of the War in Afghanistan, by reflecting on the 20-year anniversary of the War in Iraq.

What lessons can we learn from America's blunders in Iraq and Afghanistan? Has Russia avoided the same mistakes in its war against Ukraine? And if Russian has learned nothing, are there reasons for Ukraine to be hopeful?

Please see the following sources for some fantastic scholarship on the theories discussed in the episode:

Graham T. Allison. Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (1971)

James Dobbins, et al. America's Role in Nation-Building: From Germany to Iraq (2003). https://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1753.html

Our first politics podcast of 2024 begins on a tragic note after the mass shooting in Hamburg, which claimed the lives of at least 7 victims and injured many more. The Amerikazentrum would like to express its heartfelt condolences to the victims' families and friends, as well as to the all of the citizens of Hamburg. After a discussion of gun laws in Germany, Sola and Danner turn to the concept of feminist foreign policy and describe its place in wider foreign policy debates about power-based approaches and humanitarian or values-based approaches. Lastly, they provide analysis of recent developments in Ukraine and discuss the situation in Bakhmut, Chancellor Scholz's visit to DC, and the simmering crises in Moldova and Georgia.

In this special Women's History Month episode, Stefanie Schäfer discusses gossip with American Studies Scholar Katrin Horn, head of the research project www.archivalgossip.com. Following the trajectories of American artists in Rome, and specifically the making of actress Charlotte Cushman's celebrity persona, they read the functions of gossip in 19th-century US magazines between the intimate and the political, between escapism and nation building, and they also ponder the question of how gossip became gendered.

In Episode 2 of A Better Democracy Is Possible, Antoine Vergne from Missions Publique and our sortition expert Ahmed Radi Teleb continue the conversation about new democracy initiatives. They highlight current efforts by the European Commission to engage citizens throughout the European Union in the EU decision-making process regarding issues such as the reduction of food waste and the future of the internet. Other topics include the feeling of democratic euphoria that results when citizens participate in citizens assemblies as well as the evolutionary basis for democratic deliberation.

Additional resources about sortition and deliberation are listed in the show notes below:

US Citizen Juries/Assemblies

Eugen, OR Citizen Panel on Housing: https://healthydemocracy.org/what-we-do/local-government-work/2020-eugene-review-panel-on-housing/

Michigan's Lottery-based Independent Citizens' Redistricting Commission: https://www.michigan.gov/micrc

Center for New Democratic Processes (formerly the Jefferson Center): https://www.cndp.us/

US Organizations advocating for minipublics etc.

Democracy Without Elections: https://democracywithoutelections.org/

Healthy Democracy: https://healthydemocracy.org/

Belgian Permanent Citizens' Council:

https://www.buergerdialog.be/

https://www.buergerdialog.be/en

DE Citizen Juries/Buergerraete/Citizens' Assemblies:

Recent/Contemporary Buergerraete (non-exhaustive list): https://www.buergerrat.de/

Losland (lot-land in English): https://losland.org/

Mehr Demokratie: https://www.mehr-demokratie.de/

German Citizens' Assembly on Climate: https://buergerrat-klima.de/

Critiques of elections:

Against Elections, David Van Reybrouck: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/645360/against-elections-by-david-van-reybrouck/

Rebooting Democracy, Manuel Arriaga: https://www.rebootdemocracy.org/

Arguments for sortition

Open Democracy, Helene Landemore: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691181998/open-democracy

Hope for Democracy, Gastil and Knobloch: https://johngastil.com/hopefordemocracy/

Types of minipublics pdf (frp, New Democracy Foundation in Australia)

https://www.newdemocracy.com.au/2017/05/08/forms-of-mini-publics/

Critiques of sortition

Democracy without Shortcuts, Christina LaFont: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/democracy-without-shortcuts-9780198848189?cc=pl&lang=en&

Do-It-Yourself Democracy, Caroline Lee: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/do-it-yourself-democracy-9780199987269?cc=pl&lang=en&

Legislate by Lot, John Gastil et. al. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/609638/legislature-by-lot-by-john-gastil-and-erik-olin-wright/

Political Agoraphobia

Hatred of Democracy, Jacques Ranciere: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/239222/hatred-of-democracy-by-jacques-ranciere/

Politics in the Pluriverse, Kennan Ferguson: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13762268-william-james

Podcasts & Podcast Series

https://realdemocracynow.com.au/

https://facilitatingpublicdeliberation.libsyn.com/

https://www.mehr-demokratie.de/podcast

https://machtlos.podigee.io/

https://www.wortfm.org/democracy-in-crisis-part-1-whats-wrong-with-democracy/

https://www.wortfm.org/democracy-in-crisis-part-2-mini-publics-citizens-assemblies-and-juries/

https://www.wortfm.org/democracy-in-crisis-part-3-alternatives-to-elections/