Rich Harwood is the president and founder of The Harwood Institute, who just launched a campaign to reclaim the public square from the most divisive voices and build it into a place that can make hope real for all.   The public square is a noisy and messy place where society disagrees, argues, and also finds solutions. It’s through working out expectations, engaging in the work to be on the right path forward, and holding ourselves accountable to our goals that we engender hope. Acknowledging what has already been accomplished, no matter how small, both to yourself and others, makes the work visible to the community. Paying attention to the civic culture of communities is key to success.    Follow The Harwood Institute on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/HarwoodInst    Follow Mila on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/milaatmos    Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!  http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard    Take the Democracy Group’s Listener Survey! https://www.democracygroup.org/survey   Want to support the show and get it early?  https://patreon.com/futurehindsight    Check out the Future Hindsight website!  www.futurehindsight.com   Read the transcript here:  https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/building-the-public-square-rich-harwood    Credits:  Host: Mila Atmos  Guests: Richard Harwood Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producer: Zack Travis

Juliet Hooker is the author of Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss and the Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence in Political Science at Brown University. We talk about how racism has narrowed the political imagination of both black and white citizens.   In American politics and democracy, neither side is supposed to win all the time. Losing is a fundamental part of democracy, and does not make the losers victims. In a multiracial democracy, having a president or any other elected representative who is not white should not be a big deal. Democratic cultures need to be inclusive, and the nuts and bolts work of “repairing” democracy should be equally distributed among the body politic.   Follow Juliet on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/creoleprof   Follow Mila on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/milaatmos    Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!  http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard    Take the Democracy Group’s Listener Survey! https://www.democracygroup.org/survey   Want to support the show and get it early?  https://patreon.com/futurehindsight    Check out the Future Hindsight website!  www.futurehindsight.com   Read the transcript here:  https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/black-grief/white-grievance-juliet-hooker      Credits:  Host: Mila Atmos  Guests: Dr. Juliet Hooker Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producer: Zack Travis

Shaun Donovan is the CEO & President of Enterprise Community Partners. We discuss how the deeply entrenched housing crisis has become worse in recent years and the multiple strategies to make home and community places of pride, power, and belonging.   Housing is a basic need that is fundamental to democratic participation. The lack of housing is preventing communities around the country from attracting workers and studies show slowing GDP growth due to housing affordability. People across the US are increasingly recognizing that housing isn't just a moral issue or an issue of justice for low-income people. It's a larger challenge for our society.  Follow Enterprise Community Partners on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/enterprisenow    Follow Mila on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/milaatmos    Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Sponsor:  Thanks to Shopify for supporting Future Hindsight! Sign up for a $1/month trial period at shopify.com/hopeful.    Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!  http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard    Take the Democracy Group’s Listener Survey! https://www.democracygroup.org/survey   Want to support the show and get it early?  https://patreon.com/futurehindsight    Check out the Future Hindsight website!  www.futurehindsight.com   Read the transcript here:  https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/housing-is-a-moral-issue-shaun-donovan      Credits:  Host: Mila Atmos  Guests: Shaun Donovan Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producer: Zack Travis

Christopher Paul Harris is Assistant Professor of Global & International Studies at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of To Build A Black Future: The Radical Politics of Joy, Pain, and Care. We discuss why addressing our society’s hard-wired prejudices must be a substantial part of our endeavors toward a truly multicultural democracy.   Central to building a Black future is reframing and recreating institutions from the perspective of those who have been historically marginalized. The core of the Black movement is a response to Black pain and anti-Black violence. Despite all the violence, Black Joy is evidence that Black communities are thriving and serve as a prefigurative politics of what’s possible on the other side of pain. Care is recognizing that Black people and other marginalized communities carry trauma and need healing.  Follow Chris on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/black_poethics    Follow Mila on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/milaatmos    Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!  http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard    Take the Democracy Group’s Listener Survey! https://www.democracygroup.org/survey   Want to support the show and get it early?  https://patreon.com/futurehindsight    Check out the Future Hindsight website!  www.futurehindsight.com   Read the transcript here:  https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/building-a-black-future-christopher-paul-harris      Credits:  Host: Mila Atmos  Guests: Christopher Paul Harris Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producer: Zack Travis

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Neal Rickner joins us to talk about the American Values Coalition, a growing community of Americans who are empowered to lead with truth, reject extremism and misinformation, and defend democracy. Get some pointers to dialogue across political divides and across the table.   First, have the courage to have the conversation. As much as hiding in the kitchen sounds preferable, we’re going to engage on the issues one relationship at a time. Begin the conversation with a thoughtful question, and then sit back and really listen. Since we rely on the news to understand what’s happening in the world, our news choices frame our reality. In fact, media source is among the top indicators of political choice. Consult multiple news sources and bring more truth to the conversation.   Follow American Values Coalition on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/ourvaluesngo    Follow Mila on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/milaatmos    Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!  http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard    Take the Democracy Group’s Listener Survey! https://www.democracygroup.org/survey   Want to support the show and get it early?  https://patreon.com/futurehindsight    Check out the Future Hindsight website!  www.futurehindsight.com   Read the transcript here:  https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/have-the-conversation-neal-rickner      Credits:  Host: Mila Atmos  Guests: Neal Rickner Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producer: Zack Travis

Thursday, November 16th, 2023   Theda Skocpol is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University and co-author of Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working-Class Voters are Turning Away from the Democratic Party. We learn how unions are true laboratories of democracy and why their demise has eroded our democratic culture.   Unions were at the heart of local communities well beyond bargaining for contracts. They were part of recreational and social life, and even the churches were aligned with unions. There was a sense of solidarity for fellow union members, pride in their work, and a natural alignment on politics. If elections are about voting for who is on your side, then politics is partly about who we are — and who they are. American democracy is at an inflection point and the question is whether the news who are engaged are willing to practice and defend democracy.     Learn More About Theda:  https://scholar.harvard.edu/thedaskocpol/home     Follow Mila on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/milaatmos    Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!  http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard    Sponsor:  Thanks to Shopify for supporting Future Hindsight! Sign up for a $1/month trial period at shopify.com/hopeful.   Take the Democracy Group’s Listener Survey! https://www.democracygroup.org/survey   Want to support the show and get it early?  https://patreon.com/futurehindsight    Check out the Future Hindsight website!  www.futurehindsight.com   Read the transcript here:  https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/unions-and-democracy-theda-skocpol     Credits:  Host: Mila Atmos  Guests: Theda Skocpol Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producer: Zack Travis

Thursday, November 9th, 2023   Bernard E. Harcourt is Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Columbia University -- and he was also our very first guest on the podcast! Bernard's most recent book, Cooperation: A Political, Economic, and Social Theory, offers the blueprint for a society based on cooperation.   The idea of creating a space that benefits the stakeholders, rather than the shareholders, has a long history. Cooperatives offer a robust way of being. They practice self-governance among equals through democratic process. In fact, we could have democratic processes, democratic education, and democratic training in every aspect of our lives. We could even nurture a culture of democratic self-governance at work, which is traditionally one of the least democratic places in our daily lives. Cooperation democracy aims to extend the democratic culture to every facet of our lives.      Follow Bernard on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/BernardHarcourt    Follow Mila on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/milaatmos    Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!  http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard    Take the Democracy Group’s Listener Survey! https://www.democracygroup.org/survey   Want to support the show and get it early?  https://patreon.com/futurehindsight    Check out the Future Hindsight website!  www.futurehindsight.com   Read the transcript here:  https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/cooperation-democracy-bernard-harcourt      Credits:  Host: Mila Atmos  Guests: Bernard Harcourt Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producer: Zack Travis

Thursday, November 2nd, 2023   Hajar Yazdiha is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences and the author of The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement. We discuss the role of collective memory in the myth-making of American exceptionalism.    Collective memory is the way that we remember history and that becomes central to our idea of who we are as a people. It’s a process of storytelling and the most central stories to who we are as a people. The civil rights movement has become one of the central collective memories in America's story of both who it is and who it wants to be. However, careful examination of the record reveals that the civil rights movement was a political project that was meant to actually dismantle multicultural democracy. Further, as the collective memory of Dr. King became sanitized and whitewashed, his legacy carried a lot of moral legitimacy, and his moral symbolic authority became ripe for manipulation.   Follow Hajar on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/HajYazdiha    Follow Mila on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/milaatmos    Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!  http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard    Take the Democracy Group’s Listener Survey! https://www.democracygroup.org/survey   Want to support the show and get it early?  https://patreon.com/futurehindsight    Check out the Future Hindsight website!  www.futurehindsight.com   Read the transcript here:  https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/shaping-collective-memory-hajar-yazdiha      Credits:  Host: Mila Atmos  Guests: Hajar Yazdiha Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producer: Zack Travis

Thursday, October 26th, 2023   Nick Suplina is Senior Vice President for Law & Policy at Everytown for Gun Safety. He was previously an advisor for New York State’s Attorney General. We discuss how 10 years of grassroots organizing has changed the political calculus on gun safety legislation, starting with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.    Although progress is slow, 15 Republican senators did vote for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022. This was made possible because of 10 years worth of pressure from constituents. Since Sandy Hook, grassroots organizing has made a significant difference. The notion that there is no point in fighting because nothing will ever change is false. As Nick told us, “Just because we can’t get everything we want, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t act every way we can.”   Follow Nick on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/nicksuplina    Follow Mila on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/milaatmos    Learn about Everytown for Gun Safety:  www.everytown.org   Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!  http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard    Take the Democracy Group’s Listener Survey! https://www.democracygroup.org/survey   Want to support the show and get it early?  https://patreon.com/futurehindsight    Check out the Future Hindsight website!  www.futurehindsight.com   Read the transcript here:  https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/everytown-for-gun-safety-nick-suplina      Credits:  Host: Mila Atmos  Guests: Nick Suplina Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producer: Zack Travis

Thursday, October 19th, 2023   Sam Oliker-Friedland is the Executive Director of the Institute for Responsive Government and a former Department of Justice voting rights litigator at the Civil Rights Division. We discuss the promise of automation for good governance and democracy.   There is a lot of good pro-voter legislation being implemented in states from Nevada to Michigan, Pennsylvania to New York. The success of automatic voter registration laws are fertile ground for better public policy making and better governance across the board. Practical public policy is impact forward. It takes account of on the ground implementation and of the political reality in the states. And then it goes back to see if the policy did achieve the desired impact.     Follow Sam on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/SamOlikerF   Follow Mila on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/milaatmos    Sponsor:  Thanks to Shopify for supporting Future Hindsight! Sign up for a $1/month trial period at shopify.com/hopeful.   Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey!  http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard    Take the Democracy Group’s Listener Survey! https://www.democracygroup.org/survey   Want to support the show and get it early?  https://patreon.com/futurehindsight    Check out the Future Hindsight website!  www.futurehindsight.com   Read the transcript here:  https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/making-government-responsive-sam-oliker-friedland      Credits:  Host: Mila Atmos  Guests: Sam Oliker-Friedland Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producer: Zack Travis