Recorded December 16, 2020.

In this episode, Melody Barnes discusses the developments in the Black Lives Matter movement, technology and misinformation, vaccine distribution and the 2020 US election.

Melody Barnes is co-director for Policy and Public Affairs for the Democracy Initiative at the University of Virginia. She is the Dorothy Danforth Compton Professor of Practice at the Miller Center of Public Affairs and a Distinguished Fellow at the School of Law. From 2009 until January 2012, Melody was Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. She also served as chief counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the US Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Rethinking Democracy Podcast is produced by the Trinity Long Room Hub in partnership with the Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University. Find out more about the Rethinking Democracy Podcast here: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/rethinking-democracy-podcast.php

Learn more at: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/