This is Democracy

Jeremi sits down with Michael Lind to discuss the evolution of the American Working Class. Once again, Zachary sets the scene with his poem “Picturing America’s Working Class.” Michael Lind is a professor of practice at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of more than a dozen books of nonfiction, fiction, poetry and children’s literature, including several that were New York Times Notable Books of the Year. His studies of U.S. history, economics and foreign policy include The Next American Nation (1995), The American Way of Strategy (2006), Land of Promise:  An Economic History of the United States (2012) and, most recently, The New Class War:  Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite (2020).

Jeremi sits down with Clay Katsky to discuss congress and war powers. As always, Zachary sets the scene with his poem “An Adaptation of Alan Ginsburg’s ‘A Supermarket in California for a Nation on the Brink of War’.” Clay Katsky is a historian of Congress’ role in American foreign policy. He is completing a dissertation on Congress’ efforts to oversee policy and presidential actions after the Vietnam War. Clay is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at the University of Texas at Austin and a teaching assistant this semester for Professor Suri’s course on US History since the Civil War.

At year’s end, we want to share some of the voices from our podcast that exemplify the diversity and dynamism of our democracy today. The energy of change and reform is all around us. We can see many promising pathways to renew our democracy.  Please listen and get involved.

At year’s end, we want to share some of the voices from our podcast that exemplify the diversity and dynamism of our democracy today. The energy of change and reform is all around us. We can see many promising pathways to renew our democracy.  Please listen and get involved.

Jeremi sits down with Professor Kennedy to discuss the status of Brexit and how it will change the dynamic relationships between countries within the U.K. and its peoples. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “England 2019.” Dane Kennedy teaches courses in British imperial, modern British, and world history at George Washington University. He is the author of six books, the most recent being The Imperial History Wars: Debating the British Empire (2018), Decolonization: A Very Short Introduction (2016) and The Last Blank Spaces: Exploring Africa and Australia (2013) and editor or co-editor of three others, including How Empire Shaped Us (2016) and Reinterpreting Exploration: The West in the World (2013). Kennedy was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003-04 and a National Humanities Center Fellowship in 2010-11. He was president of the North American Conference of British Studies from 2011-13. He currently directs the National History Center.

This week Jeremi sits down with Professor Richard Reddick to about the disparities in opportunity in higher education among various demographics. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “Protagonists Prospective.” Dr. Richard J. Reddick is an award-winning Associate Professor in Educational Leadership and Policy, where he serves as coordinator of the Program in Higher Education Leadership, with courtesy appointments in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, and the Warfield Center of African and African American Studies. Dr. Reddick is also the Assistant Director of the Plan II Honors Program in the College of Liberal Arts, and serves as a faculty fellow in the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis, all at The University of Texas at Austin. Reddick is a Spring 2018 Visiting Associate Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and serves as the faculty co-chair of the Institute for Educational Management (IEM) at Harvard. In 2016, he served on the steering committee and as Education Working Group co-chair of the Mayor’s Task Force on Institutional Racism and Structural Inequity (IRSI) for the City of Austin.

This week Jeremi and Zachary sit down with Professor Manisha Sinha to talk about the first presidential impeachment of Andrew Jackson and reflect on what lessons we can take from the events of the past that apply to our political and societal climate today. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “Lessons from the 19th Century.” Manisha Sinha is the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut and a leading authority on the history of slavery and abolition and the Civil War and Reconstruction. She was born in India and received her Ph.D from Columbia University where her dissertation was nominated for the Bancroft prize. She is the author of The Counterrevolution of Slavery: Politics and Ideology in Antebellum South Carolina, which was named one of the ten best books on slavery in Politico in 2015 and recently featured in The New York Times’ 1619 Project. Her multiple award winning second monograph The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition was long listed for the National Book Award for Non Fiction. It was named the book of the week by Times Higher Education to coincide with its UK publication and one of three great History books of 2016 in Bloomberg News. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships, including two yearlong research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2018, she was a Visiting Professor at the University of Paris, Diderot and was elected to the Society of American Historians. She is a member of the Board of the Society of Civil War Historians and of the Council of Advisors of the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg, New York Public Library. She taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst for over twenty years, where she was awarded the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest recognition bestowed on faculty. She is currently writing a book on the “greater reconstruction” of American democracy after the Civil War, which is under contract with Basic Books.

This week, Jeremi sits down with Brian Roberts to talk about the development of campaign finance in a historical context. As always, Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “Money Have Mercy.” Brian Roberts is a professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin. His fields of interest are American Political Institutions, Interest Groups, and Positive Political Economy, with a focus on politics and financial markets, corporate political participation, and distributive politics. He has published papers in the fields of political science, economics, and finance.

Zachary’s poem this week asks, “What are the Rules?” Brett Hurt is the CEO and co-founder of data.world, a Public Benefit Corporation (and Certified B Corporation®) that is the platform for modern data teamwork and the world’s largest collaborative data community. In 2017, 2018, and 2019, data.world was honored on the “Best for the World” list by B Lab, placing the company in the top 10% of all B Corps globally. Brett is also the co-owner of Hurt Family Investments (HFI), alongside his wife, Debra. HFI are involved in 73 startups, 21 VC funds, and multiple philanthropic endeavors. In 2017, Brett was given the Best CEO Legacy Award by the Austin Business Journal. Brett Hurt began programming at age seven and doing so on the Internet at age eighteen. Brett finished his free book, “The Entrepreneur’s Essentials”, in August 2019.

Jeremi and Zachary are joined by Miha Vindis to discuss naturalized citizenship in the United States. Zachary’s sets the scene with his poem, “America in the Face.” Miha Vindis is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on leadership and entrepreneurship. When not teaching, Miha works as a consultant helping organizations create and implement strategic planning processes and train their next generation of leaders. He also serves as a board member for Habitat for Humanity Texas. Prior to moving to Texas, Miha worked for Shell Oil in The Netherlands and also worked with entrepreneurs in Europe, a passion which he has continued in Texas. He is originally from Slovenia and has lived in Thailand, Germany, Poland, and The Netherlands. Miha earned his master’s degree in Global Policy Studies and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.