This Is What Democracy Looks Like

We are joined by David Bollier, one of the world's leading theorists and evangelists for the idea of the “commons” — a new (old) paradigm for re-imagining economics, politics, and culture. He pursues this work as Director of the Reinventing the Commons Program at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics and as cofounder of the Commons Strategies Group, an international advocacy project. His classic book on the topic is Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons. And his most recent book is The Commoner's Catalog for Changemaking, inspired by the format and spirit of The Whole Earth Catalog, but focused on commons and commoning as a countercultural force.

We are joined by Civil Rights Corps founder Alec Karakatsanis to talk about his work changing the unjust criminal legal system—and the policies and strategies he believes are promising to achieve mass decarceration.

We are joined by Community Wealth Builders director Stephanie Geller to talk about her work fostering more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable neighborhood economies through community wealth building models and strategies across Baltimore.

We are joined by strategist, organizer, wonk, and former Chicago mayoral candidate Amara Enyia to talk about her policy-focused Chicago mayor campaign, the power of public banks, and what she meant when she said she wanted to help turn Chicago into a "Cooperative City."

We are joined by physician, author, former Detroit health director, and former Michigan governor candidate Dr. Abdul El-Sayed to talk about the power of state policy, the status of the Medicare for All movement, and the promise of state-level single payer campaigns.

A special episode to explain the organizational home of this podcast: The Democracy Policy Network (DPN, for short).

We are joined by NYC Debt & Finance Working Group leader Jenny Zhang to talk about their cutting edge state-level Tax the Rich campaign.

We are joined by cooperative lawyer Jason Wiener to talk cooperatives, employee ownership, and the inspiring Main Street Phoenix project.