The Importance of Curiosity in Film

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I get a lot of comments on the podcast about the fact that it's audio only. I'm sympathetic to this because it really does matter to see people talk. But, you know, even a film, my film is an hour and 45 minutes or so. And if you transcribed it, it wouldn't make rational sense Because there are these leaps that film allows. It would be like a academic book chapter or something like that. The mediums have different, they're they're different, depending on what it is I'm trying to communicate.

“Democracy may not exist, but we’ll miss it when it’s gone” — or so suggests the title of Astra Taylor’s new book. We all know how democracy falls short, in practice, of its lofty ideals; but we can also appreciate how democratic values are crucial in the fight for a more just society. In this conversation, we dig into the nature of democracy, from its origins to the present day. We talk about who gets to participate, how economic inequality affects political inequality, and how democratic ideals manifest themselves in any number of real-world situations.

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Astra Taylor is a filmmaker, author, and activist. Her documentary films include Zizek!, The Examined Life, and most recently What Is Democracy? Her books include The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital age and the new Democracy May Not Exist, But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone. She has taught sociology at the university level, and written for publications from n+1 to The London Review of Books. She was active in the Occupy movement, and is a co-founder of the Debt Collective.