How Can We Have a Vibrant, Functioning Democracy?

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There's far too many us who come out either thinking we don't have any real power and can't change the things that matter. Or maybe we think like the only power you could have is to be a rich celebrity or just, like, exploit people. And i've said in the past that every right i have as a black man in this country, it's because all kinds of folks where engagingi like, radical kind of civic engagement.

In most American schools, children *hear about* democracy, but don’t get to *practice* it. What would a more engaged brand of civics education look like?

Story reported by Ben James, with host John Biewen and collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews with Arielle Jennings, Hilary Moss, and Nikole Hannah-Jones.

The series editor is Loretta Williams. Music by the Summer Street Brass Band, Algiers, John Erik Kaada, Eric Neveux, and Lucas Biewen. Music consulting and production help from Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.

Photo: Stephen Buckley, Jelicity Mercado, Bella Goncalves, and Angelica Pareja, eighth-grade students at Pyne Arts Magnet School in Lowell, Massachusetts, with their award at Civics Day in Boston, December 2019.