Jeremi hosts a roundtable discussion about the protests in Belarus

Zachary sets the scene with his poem, ”Speaking of the Hurricane.”

Nataly (Natalia) Yagur, born and raised in Belarus, has been a US resident since 2010. She holds a BS in Economics from Belarusian State University and an MS in Statistics from Texas A&M University. She has been the Community Coordinator for Belarusians in Austin since 2014 and is a Lead for Belarusians in Texas since 2017. 

Michael has an MA in Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on the Lukashenko regime's use of anti-western propaganda, especially propaganda invoking national trauma connected to the devastation Belarus experienced during the Second World War. He lived in Belarus for an extended period of time. 

Matthew Orr is pursuing dual master’s degrees in Global Policy Studies and Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.A. in Russian language and literature from George Washington University and lived in Russia for three years, including a year teaching English through the Fulbright program. He is a co-host and a producer of The Slavic Connexion podcast at UT.

Thomas Rehnquist is a cyber security fellow at the Strauss Center. Tom is in his third year at the University of Texas at Austin, completing a dual Master’s in Russian Studies and Global Policy. Tom’s attraction to cybersecurity buds from the growing use of non-military levers to conduct geo-political warfare, a strategy assumed to proliferate in the coming years. Tom is a co-host and producer of the The Slavic Connexion podcast at UT.

Jeremi and Zachary meet with Fredrik Logevall to learn how President JFK's legacy influences our politics today.

Zachary sets the scene with his poem, "The Ghost of JFK."

Fredrik Logevall is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and Professor of History, Harvard University. Logevall is the author or editor of ten books, most recently JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956. His previous book, Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam, won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for History and the 2013 Francis Parkman Prize, as well as the 2013 American Library in Paris Book Award and the 2013 Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations. His other recent books include America’s Cold War: The Politics of Insecurity (with Campbell Craig), and Choosing War: The Lost Chance For Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam.

On this episode of This is Democracy, Jeremi speaks with guest Dr. Nicole Hemmer on the growing right-wing voices in mainstream American media.

Zachary sets the stage with his poem, "The Wise Man Addresses the Masses."

Nicole Hemmer is an associate research scholar with the Obama Presidency Oral History project. A political historian specializing in media, conservatism, and the far-right, Hemmer is author of Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics. She is co-founder and co-editor of Made by History, the historical analysis section of the Washington Post. She is also a columnist for Vox and The Age in Melbourne. She co-hosts Past Present, a weekly podcast where three historians discuss the latest news in American politics and culture, and is the producer and host of A12: The Story of Charlottesville, a six-part podcast series on the white-power terrorism in Charlottesville in 2017. Hemmer’s historical analysis has appeared in a number of national and international news outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlantic, Politico, U.S. News & World Report, New Republic, PBS NewsHour, CNN, NPR, and NBC News.

On this episode of This is Democracy, Jeremi speaks with guest Steven Olikara on the role of race in the politics of the Midwest as it relates to the current political climate

Steven Olikara is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is the Founder and President of the Millennial Action Project. Internationally, Steven has advised two multi-platinum recording artists on youth issues and sustainable energy efforts, including the Akon Lighting Africa initiative that has electrified over 1 million homes in Africa with solar power. Previously, he worked at the World Bank and served as Harry Ott Fellow on Coca-Cola’s Environment Team, developing public-private water projects with USAID in Africa. Steven is a frequent speaker on next generation leadership at venues such as the Aspen Ideas Festival, the White House, Harvard Institute of Politics, Yale College, SXSW, and the United Nations.

On this episode of This is Democracy, Jeremi brings on guest Ian Buruma to discuss the lasting legacy of Winston Churchill as it relates to our current political climate.

To set the scene, Zachary reads his poem entitled, "The Greeks have Seceded from the Continent."

Ian Buruma is a leading writer about recent history, politics, human rights, democracy, and international affairs. He is a prolific author of major books, including, among many others: Year Zero; Occidentalism; and The Wages of Guilt. Ian's most recent book is: The Churchill Complex: The Curse of Being Special, From Winston and FDR to Trump and Brexit.

To honor the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, Jeremi brings on Dr. Lisa Tetrault to discuss the untold history and the memory of the intersectional struggle for women's suffrage that continues in the form of voter disenfranchisement today.

To set the scene, Zachary reads his poem entitled, "The Pained Footsteps."

Dr. Lisa Tetrault is an associate professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University. She specializes in the history of gender, race, and American democracy—with an emphasis on memory and social movements. She is the author of the prize-winning book, The Myth of Seneca Falls: Memory and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, 1848-1898. A frequent commentator on the suffrage centennial, Tetrault also serves as an historical consultant for Nineteenth Amendment projects launched by the National Constitution, the Woodrow Wilson House, the Schlesinger Library, and Ancestry.com, as well as the documentary, “The Vote” ( PBS’s American Experience). The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Radcliffe Institute, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Library of Congress, she is currently at work on a genealogy of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Jeremi and Zachary host a panel of historians Don Carleton, Michael Stoff, and Ben Wright, to discuss the lasting effects of the United States' atomic bombings on Japan in WWII.

Michael Stoff is Associate Professor of History and UT Regents and University Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Oil, War and American Security, co-editor of The Manhattan Project: A Documentary Introduction to the Atomic Age, series co-editor of The Oxford New Narratives in American History, and co-author of five American history textbooks. He has lectured widely about American political culture and US foreign policy, the presidency, the Second World War, and the atomic bomb. He is currently at work on a book about the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

Ben Wright is a curator and researcher at the Briscoe Center. Previously he worked as a journalist and then as a press secretary at the Texas state capitol. He has a Master’s Degree in Modern History from King’s College London and is pursuing his PhD in the history department here at UT. Originally from Leicester, England, he has been in Texas since 2003.

These three authors are co-editors of an important new book, Flash of Light, Wall of Fire: Japanese Photographs Documenting the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You can read a preview of the book in the New York Times.

In episode 109 of This is Democracy, Jeremi brings on Michele Deitch to discuss criminal justice and prison reform in light of BLM protests and COVID-19.

To set the scene, Zachary shares his poem entitled, "The Difference Between the One and the Other."

Michele Deitch is an attorney with more than 30 years of experience working on criminal justice and juvenile justice policy issues with state and local government officials, corrections administrators, judges and advocates. An award-winning teacher and Soros Senior Justice Fellow, she holds a joint appointment as a senior lecturer at the LBJ School and the School of Law at The University of Texas at Austin. Her areas of specialty include independent oversight of correctional institutions, prison conditions, the management of youths in custody, and juveniles in the adult criminal justice system. She co-chairs the American Bar Association’s Subcommittee on Correctional Oversight and helped draft the ABA’s Standards on the Treatment of Prisoners. She has written numerous articles about correctional oversight, including a 50-state inventory of prison oversight models, as well as many reports on juvenile justice that have received national attention. Her TEDx talk “Why are we trying kids as adults?” was named a TEDx Editor’s Pick in January 2015. Prior to entering academia, she served as a federal court-appointed monitor of conditions in the Texas prison system, as the policy director of Texas’ sentencing commission, as general counsel to the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee, and as an independent consultant to justice system agencies across the country.

In this episode of This is Democracy, Jeremi and Zachary talk with professor in law Stephen Vladeck about federalism and the recent focus on protests and law enforcement in Portland.

Zachary sets the scene with his poem, entitled "Still."

Stephen I. Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) is the A. Dalton Cross Professor in Law at the University of Texas School of Law and a nationally recognized expert on the federal courts, constitutional law, national security law, and military justice. Professor Vladeck has argued multiple cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and the lower federal courts; has served as an expert witness both in U.S. and foreign tribunals; and has been repeatedly recognized for his influential and widely-cited legal scholarship, his prolific popular writing, his teaching, and his service to the legal profession.

Vladeck published an important article in the Washington Post on July 25 about the contemporary constitutional issues surrounding the use of federal force in American cities: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/25/are-trump-administrations-actions-portland-legal-are-they-constitutional/

On episode 107 of This is Democracy, Jeremi brings on Dr. Julian Zelizer to discuss the divisive partisanship in politics and the some of the roots of today's radical conservative movement.

To set the scene, Zachary reads his poem entitled, "The Sour Grapes."

Julian E. Zelizer is one of the leading experts on modern American political history. He is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Professor Zelizer is the author and editor of 19 books on American political history, including: Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945-1975; The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society; and Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974, co-authored with Kevin Kruse. Most recently, Zelizer published Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, The Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party.