The Democracy Group

We continue our Best of 2024 episodes with an  episode from The Great Battlefield podcast, with hosts Nathaniel Pearlman.Regina Wallace-Jones joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about her career in tech, politics and business and her current role as CEO of ActBlue, a nonprofit fundraising platform for progressives, and where she wants to take it.Additional InformationThe Great Battlefield PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We continue our Best of 2024 episodes with an  episode from the Democracy Works podcast, hosted by Jenna Spinelle, Christopher Beem, Michael Berkman. Cynthia Miller-Idriss, one of America's leading experts on the far right, joins us this week to discuss what draws people to political extremism online and offline — and what we can do to combat it.Miller-Idriss is the director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University and author of the book Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right. As you'll hear, PERIL takes a public health approach to preventing violent extremism and provides tools and resources to help communities create resilient democracies.In the interview, Miller-Idriss discusses how extremism and political violence are linked to our desire for community. This dynamic means that extremist ideas can pop up in seemingly innocuous places from martial arts groups to online wellness communities. She says understanding this dynamic is key to moving people away from extremist spaces and into constructive communities.Miller-Idriss visited Penn State as part of the Mellon-funded Sawyer Seminar exploring the theme, "Birthing the Nation: Gender, Sex and Reproduction in Ethnonationalist Imaginaries."Democracy Works PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We continue our Best of 2024 episodes with an  episode from the Village SquareCast podcast, hosted by the Village Square.We wanted you wonderful SquareCast listeners to know that we didn't plan for this episode to drop on Leap Day and we didn't plan on it being (we kid you not) Episode 100. But both things just happened. At the very least, we think that's a sign that you really ought to listen. Were we "the universe has a plan" maximalists, though, we'd say it means you need to quit your day job and follow bridge builders like Jon Haidt and The Village Square around like Jack Kerouac groupies. You pick. Here's our blurb to help inform your imminent life choice:What if, at a pinnacle of our civilization’s technological achievement, everything just broke — the institutions we’ve come to rely upon in navigating a modern complex world, the shared stories that hold a large and diverse democratic republic together, and even a common language through which to navigate the rising tide of crisis.  According to renowned social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt, this describes our current reality, one that he calls “After Babel.” In this new normal, we are scattered by a digital environment into feuding tribes that are governed by mob dynamics and driven by a minority of ideological outliers, made stupid at warp speed by group think, and — thanks to social media — armed with billions of metaphorical “dart guns” with which to immediately wound “the enemy” in ways that are hardly only metaphorical. What could go wrong?Our very special guest, Dr. Jonathan Haidt, will delve into the profound impact of social media on democratic societies, dissecting the intricate web of challenges it poses to civic trust and civil discourse. Don’t miss this chance to hear from one of the foremost thought leaders of our time — one who has generously given his counsel to The Village Square, and countless efforts like ours — on this existential challenge of our time. Read Why the Past Ten Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid  in The Atlantic and learn more about Dr. Haidt by clicking the MORE button, below.Additional InformationThe Village SquareCast PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We continue our Best of 2024 episodes with an  episode from the Bad Watchdog podcast, hosted by Maren Machles. For the past few episodes, Maren has explored the reality of immigration detention, uplifting the conditions in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) centers where thousands are held under the presumption that they may be threats to national security. In the season finale of Bad Watchdog, we return to where we started, with the DHS’s counterterrorism mission. Maren breaks down the current landscape of terrorism in the United States, where the most dangerous threat isn’t posed by those who’ve crossed our borders illegally, but by homegrown, far-right, violent extremists. And, as Maren learns, domestic violent extremism isn’t just a problem across the country — it’s a problem in DHS’s own ranks as well.Domestic terrorism experts Daryl Johnson and Alejandro Buetel walk Maren through the rise of far-right violent extremism in the U.S. and interrogate whether DHS is taking the threat seriously. Maren discusses both shortfalls and potential solutions for how DHS could address far-right violent extremism with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty’s Spencer Reynolds. POGO Senior Investigator Nick Schwellenbach shares his investigation into just how many Oath Keepers are or were employed at DHS. And Maren connects with people who are working to make this broken system more humane, including activists Arely Westley and Berto Hernandez, Las Americas Director of Cross-Border Strategies Crystal Sandoval, former POGO Senior Researcher Freddy Martinez, and POGO Senior Paralegal Lance Sims.To report waste, fraud, or abuse in the federal government, please visit us at https://www.pogo.org/send-us-a-tip.Additional InformationBad Watchdog PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Democracy Works host Michael Berkman, director of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy and professor of political science at Penn State talks with Christopher Claassen, a political scientist at the University of Glasgow, about how to measure support for democracy across countries and across generations. Claassen grew up in South Africa and was 16 when the country held its first democratic elections. His interest in democracy continued through college and into his career as a political scientist. Today, he is a professor of political behavior at the University of Glasgow. One area of his research focuses on how to measure support for democracy. In a recent paper, he and colleagues developed 17 survey questions that cover all eight components of liberal democracy as defined by the V-Dem project in an effort to refine what people mean when they say the support or don't support democracy.Berkman and Claassen also discuss how support for democracy is part of the 2024 U.S. election. Note that this interview was recorded in late October 2024 before the election took place.Referenced in this episode: McCourtney Institute for Democracy Mood of the Nation PollEpisode with Cynthia MIller-Idriss on communities and political extremismAdditional InformationDemocracy Works PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Do you believe what you see in newspapers, websites and on TV? Most Americans don't trust the people who are supposed to truthfully report the news. A new Gallup poll says Americans have record-low trust in mass media. Only one-in-three adults has a "great deal" or a "fair amount" of confidence in the media to report the news "fully, accurately and fairly."More than 150,000 readers each day turn to Tangle, a website read by liberals, conservatives and independents. Every day Tangle tackles one current debate in American politics, and summarizes arguments from left, right, and center. All Sides Bias Checker gives Tangle a "middle" rating, which means the site neither leans left nor right.Our guest, politics reporter Isaac Saul, started Tangle in 2019 as an independent, ad-free, nonpartisan newsletter. He grew up in Bucks County Pa. — one of the most politically divided counties in America — where he was exposed to a huge range of political opinions and values. As a young journalist, Isaac learned the media ecosystem was broken when he found that he wasn’t being judged based on his writing, but where it was being published. On Tangle "you will encounter a wide range of views, including some you really disagree with," Isaac tells us. "We're trying to be a big tent news organization and we are succeeding at that... Our readership is split almost evenly between conservative and liberal readers." "I'm working from the premise that the reds and blues don't understand each other," he says. "I really do want to bring people under one roof with a shared set of arguments to analyze and talk about, and a shared set of facts to work from."About this show: Every couple of weeks we release a new episode hosted by Richard Davies about the work, the ideas, and the people of Braver Angels, a remarkable band of brothers and sisters who get together across political divides in person and online: Reds and Blues who do battle against toxic polarization. In this show we speak with a fellow traveler of this effort. Links to news sites that feature a range of opinions on a single issue:Tangle, All Sides, and Ground News.Additional InformationThe Democracy Group listener surveyHow Do We Fix It? PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Lee and James explore the role of the Senate and the dysfunction we see today with Sean Theriault. Theriault is a Professor at the Department of Government at the University of Texas, Austin and the author of Disruption?: The Senate During the Trump Era (Oxford University Press, 2024).Do we need the Senate? What has caused gridlock in the Senate? What would the Senate look like during a second Trump term? These are some of the questions Sean, Lee, and James ask in this week’s episode.Additional InformationPolitics in Question PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mike talks with Stephen J. Ducat, an author, political psychologist, psychoanalyst, and former psychology professor in the School of Humanities at New College of California. They discuss Professor Ducat’s most recent book, Hatreds We Love: The Psychology of Political Tribalism in Post-Truth America.Topics Mike and Stephen discuss include:- why tribal loyalty often overrides material self-interest- demonizing outsiders to reinforce in-group virtue- conservative disgust vs liberal disdain- the ‘malignant, intuitive genius’ of Donald Trump- the dark side of political purity- the importance of being morally multi-lingualThe Politics Guys on Facebook | XAdditional InformationThe Politics Guys PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We discuss why American democracy should not treat the Latinx community as a monolith, what actually matters to this community, and how the strength of their engagement in U.S. democracy will play out in this year’s presidential election.Maria Teresa’s civic action toolkit recommendations are: VOTE!Share your excitement to vote with everyone you know, especially young people.Maria Teresa Kumar is the President and CEO of Voto Latino, a civic engagement organization focused on educating and empowering a new generation of Latinx voters, as well as creating a more robust and inclusive democracy.Additional InformationThe Democracy Group listener surveyFuture Hindsight PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When New Hampshire voters picked up the phone earlier this year and heard what sounded like the voice of President Joe Biden asking them not to vote in that state’s primary election, the stage was set for an unprecedented election year. The call was a deepfake — and the first major instance of artificial intelligence being used in the 2024 election. With the rise of AI tools that can credibly synthesize voices, images and videos, how are voters supposed to determine what they can trust as they prepare to cast their votes?To find out how lawmakers and civil society are pushing back against harmful false narratives and content, we talked with experts engaging the problem on several fronts. Stephen Richer, an elected Republican in Phoenix, posts on X (formerly Twitter) to engage misinformation head-on to protect Arizona voters. Adav Noti, the executive director of CLC, explains how good-governance advocates are hurrying to catch up with a profusion of new digital tools that make the age-old practices of misinformation and disinformation faster and cheaper than ever. And Mia Hoffman, a researcher who looks at the effects of AI on democracies, reminds voters not to panic — that bad information and malicious messaging don’t always have the power to reach their audience, let alone sway people’s opinions or actions.Host and Guests:Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at CLC, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.Stephen Richer is the 30th Recorder of Maricopa County.  He was elected in November 2020 and took office in January 2021. His office of approximately 150 employees records hundreds of thousands of public documents every year, maintains a voter registration database of 2.4 million voters -- the second largest voting jurisdiction in the United States -- and administers the mail voting component of all elections in Maricopa County. Prior to his time as Recorder, Stephen worked in various business sectors and, later, as an attorney at the law firms Steptoe & Johnson LLP and Lewis Roca LLP.  He holds a J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and a B.A. from Tulane University.  He is completing his PhD at Arizona State University.Adav Noti is Executive Director at Campaign Legal Center. He has conducted dozens of constitutional cases in trial and appellate courts and the United States Supreme Court. He also advises Members of Congress and other policymakers on advancing democracy through legislation. Prior to joining CLC, Adav served for more than 10 years in nonpartisan leadership capacities within the Office of General Counsel of the Federal Election Commission, and he served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Adav regularly provides expert analysis for television, radio, and print journalism. He has appeared on broadcasts such as The Rachel Maddow Show, Anderson Cooper 360, PBS NewsHour, and National Public Radio's Morning Edition, and he is regularly cited in publications nationwide, including the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Politico, Slate, and Reuters.Mia Hoffmann is a Research Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. Her research focuses on AI harm incidents, aiming to provide a deeper understanding of failure modes and the efficacy of risk mitigation practices. In recent work, she examined the uses of AI in US election administration and their risks to electoral integrity. Prior to joining CSET, Mia worked at the European Commission and as a researcher in Brussels, where she studied AI adoption and its implications. She holds a MS in Economics from Lund University and a BS in International Economics from the University of Tuebingen. Links:How Artificial Intelligence Influences Elections, and What We Can Do About It - Campaign Legal CenterHow 2024 presidential candidates are using AI inside their election campaigns - CNBCNonprofit group plans ad campaign using AI misinfo to fight AI misinfo - PoliticoCLC Op-Ed Examines Artificial Intelligence Disinformation in Elections - Campaign Legal CenterCongress should pass bipartisan bills to safeguard elections from AI - Campaign Legal CenterAdditional InformationDemocracy Decoded PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.