How Do We Fix It?

Rick Pildes, Professor of Constitutional Law, debates with political scientist Lee Drutman on the causes and consequences of political polarization and fragmentation. They explore the challenges faced by Western democracies in forming stable coalitions and delivering effective governance. They also discuss the toxic and tribal nature of political culture in the US compared to the UK's system, along with the impact of voting systems, diversity, and the primary system on political polarization and fragmentation in America.

Mónica Guzmán, bridge builder and author, discusses the toxic polarization in society and the importance of curiosity in successful conversations. She shares her personal journey and the need to find common ground. The podcast explores the role of emotion in conversations and the organization Braver Angels, which aims to reduce affective polarization. Curiosity and open-mindedness are emphasized as tools to bridge political divides.

Lanae Erickson, an expert on Democratic party strategy and outreach, discusses the Democrats' struggle in elections and the need to expand their voter base. She explores the disconnect between democratic politics and people of faith, the impact of education polarization on the party, and advocates for including different sides in a debate to make lasting progress on major issues.

Globalization, technology, devastating impacts from the foreclosure crisis and the opioid addiction have wreaked havoc on communities left behind by the modern economy. Some of these discarded places are rural. Others are cities or suburbs. Some vote blue, others red. Some are the most diverse communities in America, while others are nearly all white, all Latino, or all Black. In this episode we visit four cities and towns with deep poverty and gutted public services— where entire communities are struggling to hold on.Our guest is Michelle Wilde Anderson, a professor of property, local government and environmental justice at Stanford Law School. Her recent book is "The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America"."We have given up on many of these places", Michelle tells us. She describes discarded America as "giant parts of many states that have not found their foothold in the 21st century economy." Discarded America is "a term that describes active decision making."Her book describes the fallout from decades of cuts to local government amidst rising segregation by income and race. She reports on efforts to revive four communities— Stockton California, Lawrence Massachusetts, Josephine County Oregon, and Detroit.The focus is on local activists, community leaders, elected officials and others who have poured their heart and soul into fighting for the places where they live. In these places and others some of the most basic aspects of local government services have been dismantled.This podcast was first published last year and is a companion piece to "How Do We Fix It?" episode #390— "For the Love of Cities" with Peter Kageyama.In this episode we learn about brave and innovative efforts to cope with years of falling tax receipts in many communities that were hit hard by the foreclosure crisis, and decades of economic decline as jobs and entire industries moved offshore or to other parts of the country.As always with our podcast, there is also a focus on solutions, as we discuss examples of civic pride and rebuilding.Michelle Wilde Anderson book Review: "Building Back Better— One Community at a Time (New York Times).Recommendation: Richard watched the FX drama series, "The Old Man", starring Jeff Bridges, John Lithgow, Amy Brenneman and Alia Shawkat. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why do we connect emotionally with some places and not others? Why does that matter? What does loving the place you live in have to do with healing the partisan divide? We explore these questions and hear about solutions from author, researcher and speaker Peter Kageyama.This shared episode is an edited version of a podcast released earlier this year by "Village Squarecast". Our show includes extracts from a speech delivered at a special meeting of The Village Square in Tallahassee, Florida.Peter Kageyama is the author of For the Love of Cities: The Love Affair Between People and Their Places, the follow up, Love Where You Live: Creating Emotionally Engaging Places and his latest, The Emotional Infrastructure of Places. He loves cities and is the former President of Creative Tampa Bay, a grassroots community change organization and the co-founder of the Creative Cities Summit, an interdisciplinary conference that brings citizens and practitioners together around the big idea of ‘the city.’"The mutual love affair between people and their place is one of the most powerful influences in our lives, yet rarely thought of in terms of a relationship," says Peter. "As cities begin thinking of themselves as engaged in a relationship with their citizens, and citizens begin to consider their emotional connections with their places, we open up new possibilities in community, social and economic development by including the most powerful of motivators—the human heart—in our toolkit of city-making." In this episode we learn about the importance of "high touch" local entrepreneurs and local innovators who send "love notes" to the places where they live.Peter shares creative initiatives and speaks of the work of local innovators and public artists. Examples mentioned here include the transformation of Times Square's public space in New York City, The Bean (Cloud Gate) in Chicago, and the Grand Rapids Lip Dub.A warm thankyou to Liz Joyner, President and CEO of The Village Square for giving us permission to share this episode. Village Square is a non-profit organization based in Tallahassee, Florida. It "builds community in our hometown across the ideological, racial, ethnic and religious divisions that have deepened so dramatically in our nation and that have prevented us from addressing the challenges we face together. Hometowns with strong and deep relationships are communities that thrive." Learn more here. "How Do We Fix It?" and "Village Squarecast" are proud members of The Democracy Group podcast network of shows covering democracy, civic engagement and civil discourse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

American politics are evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. But our guest argues that it doesn't have to be this way. He tells fellow Democrats: "Given the problems the Republicans have, why aren't you beating the hell out of these people?"Political scientist and author Ruy Teixeira says that recent election results have been a lost opportunity as the left pursued identity politics instead of focusing on class. While more white college-educated voters have abandoned the Republicans in the past decade, Democrats have lost ground among white and hispanic working class voters. "That's a fundamental question that Democrats should be confronting, but don't," he tells us.Ruy Teixeira is among America's best-known political thinkers. He's a senior fellow at The American Enterprise Institute, where he writes and does research about changing party coalitions and the future of electoral politics. He calls himself a social democrat.He is co-author with John Judis of "The Emerging American Majority" that was published two decades ago. The highly influential book argued that Democrats would gain a lasting advantage in twenty-first century America. But the party has not made significant gains. Their next book, out this fall, is called "Where Have the All Democrats Gone?: The Soul Of The Party In The Age of Extremes".In this episode we hear about a wake-up call for Democrats. Teixieira argues for a return to policies of growth, prosperity and economic abundance that enabled the left to dominate American politics in much of the second half of the last century. Recommendation: Richard has read James Wilson's critically acclaimed and profoundly moving book "The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever since the 2008 financial crisis and recession, central bankers and most economists have agreed that it's good to keep interest rates as low as possible. Making it easy to borrow money very cheaply helps the economy recover from recessions and the COVID pandemic.But what if very cheap money has unintended consequences such as asset bubbles and bank failures, and benefits the haves much more than the have-nots of society?Our guest is financial analyst, journalist, and historian Edward Chancellor, author of the new book, "The Price of Time, The Real Story of Interest". Edward specializes in financial crises— bubbles, crashes and panics. He uses examples from history to challenge conventional wisdom about near-zero interest rates, and walks though his arguments in a relatable way."If you reduce the cost of borrowing, you will increase the amount of debt," Edward tells us. "Is it socially just to get large numbers of people into debt that they can't pay, to get them to buy cars they can't afford?"The idea of charging interest on loans has been around as long as civilization. In ancient Mesopotamia they invented interest before humans learned how to put wheels on carts. Yet throughout history interest or usury has been considered immoral by religious leaders and even philosophers. Edward Chancellor offers a robust defense of the need for interest rates. "Interest is the difference in value of something over time," he explains. "You could say it's the exchange rate between the present and the future."We recorded this episode at the headquarters of The Manhattan Institute in New York. Thank you to Brianna Mangat for recording our conversation and to everyone who made this podcast possible.Recommendation: Jim is a frequent listener to The Glenn Show, a podcast about race, inequality and economics in the US and throughout the world with Professor Glenn Loury. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"America is rigidly divided between red and blue." That's what we're constantly being told by pundits, politicians and media outlets, both left and right.But what if that wasn't quite true?On a surprisingly large number of issues, Americans agree on the broad outlines of public policy. Author, conflict mediator, and social entrepreneur, Bill Shireman makes the case that the middle 70% of the public should have a much greater say in who gets elected to make laws and decide policy."All it takes is a small number of folks who are aware of how we're being gamed to build a bridge between the political left and right, Bill says. "We need a relatively small percentage of voters who will not divide the way we are triggered to divide," Bill argues that the media and political industry make money and gain power by dividing Americans and making us mad at the other side."The middle 70%" does not necessarily mean moderates. Bill calls them "the silenced majority of us who are common-sense, reality-based voters who can work out our differences." Some are conservatives or progressives, while others have a mix of opinions on social and economic issues. The House of Representatives vote for the debt ceiling bill is an example of what Bill is talking about. Despite furious denunciations by legislators on the progressive left and Freedom Caucus right, the compromise bill passed by an overwhelming margin. President Biden and House Republican leaders quietly worked together. More about Bill Shireman: Host of the podcast series "A Moment of BS Bill Shireman Disrupts the Dividers". President of Future 500, where he invites Greenpeace, ExxonMobil, Rainforest Action Network, Mitsubishi and other corporate and environmental leaders to work together.Bill co-chairs the Donor Roundtable and its citizen recruitment initiative, In This Together.He's the author of seven books. The most recent is "In This Together: How Republicans, Democrats, Capitalists and Activists are Uniting to Tackle Climate Change and More.Bill teaches leadership and negotiations at the Berkeley Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley.Recommendation: Richard listened to and was moved by the documentary podcast series "The Witch Trials of JK Rowling", hosted by Megan Phelps-Roper. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Generative Artificial Intelligence has the power to transform lives and change our jobs. In this episode, we discuss the potential for good and bad from large, creative AI models such as ChatGPT.Our guest is Nathanael Fast, who serves as Director of the Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making and Co-Director of the Psychology of Technology Institute. Professor Fast teaches in the MBA, Ph.D., and Executive Education programs at USC Marshall in Los Angeles.ChatGPT reached over 100 million active users within two months of its release. Consumers have used it to write essays, take tests, crack jokes and write poetry in response to questions or prompts. We raise the questions we need to ask about rapidly changing forms of artificial intelligence. Should we be scared or excited… or both?With calls for new regulation, even from the industry itself, policy makers and the public need to gain a fuller understanding of the AI revolution. This episode introduces listeners to the meaning of large language models and generative AI.Nate Fast argues that if we want to understand and improve the future, we’ll need to focus on the adoption of technology and how AI, social media and other platforms shape human psychology. Recommendation: Jim has been listening “The Spear”, from The Modern War Institute at West Point. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Coronation of King Charles III promises to be very big on pomp and circumstance, but it may also play a leading role in healing divisions between post-Brexit Britain and the European Union. Leading EU officials will be in attendance at Westminster Abbey.This podcast shares a personal perspective on some of the momentous changes in the UK over recent years, and includes comparisons between the hot topics on both sides of The Atlantic. Our co-host Richard last lived in London in the 1970's and 80's. During late March and April he returned, spending a month there.Richard tells us that forty years ago London was "darker, smellier, poorer, louder and less orderly than the great city of today." He shares examples that illustrate this shift, as well as discussing the great impact of Brexit on the UK economy and politics. Jim and Richard examine the special relationship between the US and UK plus similarities and differences in debates over cancel culture, populism, immigration and abortion.The 2016 Brexit vote that led to the UK's withdrawal from the EU has not been the disaster that many had forecast. But the British economy is losing ground compared to other leading nations of Europe. Growth is flat and a small recession is forecast for later this year.  Compare this with Ireland— still inside the EU— where the economy has been growing at more than twice the European average. The Irish growth rate may be as high as 8% this year.Recommendations: Refreshed after his recent trip, Richard urges listeners, if possible, to head overseas for at least a week or two. Travel is not only a tonic for the soul, but also broadens our political and cultural perspectives. During his trip, Richard read two fine books about the world-class city: "London: A Short History", a short, fluid and lively account by E.N. Wilson, and the much longer "London: The Biography", by Peter Ackroyd. Both give the reader a rich sense of London's very long and layered story.Anti-recommendation: Jim urges listeners to be very skeptical about the accuracy of ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot. While researching an article for The Manhattan Institute recently, Jim came across potentially alarming examples of made-up quotes and magazine articles that were cited but never actually written. Jim discusses the crucial differences between search engines and new forms of AI. This article in The New York Times looks at how ChatGPT can fabricate information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.