The latest (and penultimate) episode of Season 7, continuing the conversation with Ben Hepburn. Become a Patreon subscriber: https://www.patreon.com/EqualCitizens Music: Roundpine by Blue Dot Sessions; Noe Noe by Blue Dot Sessions; Vengeful by Blue Dot Sessions Post-production: Josh Elstro of Elstro Production
Pulling it all together, Lessig asks his high school friend Ben Hepburn: How can you defend this? Listen to the conversation, and the common ground that gets built. Become a Patreon subscriber: https://www.patreon.com/EqualCitizens Music: Roundpine by Blue Dot Sessions Noe Noe by Blue Dot Sessions Vengeful by Blue Dot Sessions Post-production: Josh Elstro of Elstro Production...
In this episode, Lessig and Hepburn discuss what Lessig has elsewhere described as Trumps strategy of extortion — illegal threats to force compliance by every institution that might resist him. (Plus a quick trip to Vietnam, and the promise of a brand new Trump resort!) Become a Patreon subscriber: https://www.patreon.com/EqualCitizens Music: Roundpine by Blue Dot Sessions Noe Noe by Blue Dot Sessions Vengeful by Blue Dot Sessions Post-production: Josh Elstro of Elstro Production...
In this episode, Lessig and Hepburn discuss the tariffs. Is there some point at which MAGA supporters call uncle? Become a Patreon subscriber: https://www.patreon.com/EqualCitizens Music: Roundpine by Blue Dot Sessions; Noe Noe by Blue Dot Sessions; Vengeful by Blue Dot Sessions Post-production: Josh Elstro of Elstro Production
Lessig's conversation with Ben Hepburn continues, this time about Ukraine, DOGE and RFKJr
In this second episode, Ben Hepburn and Lessig continue to see where we can find common ground in our understanding of the current administration. Are we on the left too pessimistic? Is the other side too optimistic?
In this season, Lessig will have a conversation with Ben Hepburn, a friend from high school, whose politics is not Lessig's. The plan for the season is to check in regularly about the latest questions raised by the new Trump administration, and see whether a conservative and a liberal can find common ground, or even just understanding. This first episode was recorded just before in Inauguration. Become a Patreon subscriber: https://www.patreon.com/EqualCitizens Music: Roundpine by Blue Dot Sessi...
On this episode (recorded before Tuesday's election), Lessig is joined by his colleagues Matthew A. Seligman (Stris & Maher), Ned Foley (Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State), and Derek Muller (Notre Dame Law School) to discuss what could (have) happen(ed) in the period after Election Day and before the counting of electoral votes.
In this episode, Lessig outlines what happens if Maine passes Question 1. What are the next steps, and the arguments that will get us to the Supreme Court — and to victory!
On this episode, Lessig describes the campaign in Maine. The legislature chose to let the people decide whether to vote against SuperPACs in Maine — and if upheld, the nation. This episode discusses that campaign, and the risks it faces. Check out the website of the campaign at CitizensToEndSuperPACS.org.
On this episode, Lessig keeps the story going. We got the signatures. The next step was that the Maine legislature needed to decide whether it would pass the initiative into law itself, or let it go to the ballot. This episode is the story of the legislative hearing, and its decision on how to handle the initiative.
On this episode, Lessig chronicles the next chapter in the story of the Maine initiative. We had an idea — based on FreeSpeechForPeople’s brilliant argument — for an initiative. And Mainers were excited about the idea. A poll showed overwhelming support for the initiative. We just needed to raise the funds to get the signatures gathered. That proved to be an enormous challenge — unsurprisingly, as our theory of victory included convincing the Supreme Court we were right. This episode tells the s...
On this episode, Lessig details how we got to this initiative that could end Super PACs: FreeSpeechForPeople.org’s brilliant argument, and the decision to take that argument into the field and win!
On this episode, Lessig provides a brief history of the fight to end SuperPACs. Then, critically, he examines how the theory of the conservatives — originalism — supports our argument against SuperPACs.
On this episode, Lessig asks: How is money a problem in a democracy, and how is it like the other problems we’re facing in our democracy?
On this episode, Lessig explains the legal background to the Maine initiative, from Citizens United to the case that gave us SuperPACs: SpeechNow v. FEC (2010).
On this episode, Lessig introduces the upcoming Maine initiative that could end SuperPACs and lays out the plan for Season 6 of Another Way.
For this final episode of Season 5, Lessig speaks to TedX Berlin about AI, democracy, and the future. You can watch a video recording of this TedX talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zYHqg1PwoQ
In 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, Jon Stever launched an extraordinary experiment to draw together a representative sample of the world to discuss the climate and ecological crisis the world is facing. In this conversation, I talk to him about how he and his team did that, and what it teaches us about the potential for citizen assemblies generally.
Ireland has been perhaps the most impressive example of citizen assemblies addressing national issues in a new and edifying way. David Farrell is an academic who has studied the Irish example. I talk with him about what Ireland can teach the rest of the world.
Katrín Oddsdóttir is a founding mother of the still-not-ratified Iceland Constitution. In 2012, the people of Iceland told their Parliament to adopt a constitution based on the draft that she and 24 other Icelanders crafted. They had crafted their draft based upon the results from two citizens assemblies. We hear about that history and what it can teach us going forward.
Claudia Chwalisz is a social entrepreneur, spreading the gospel of citizen assemblies. In this episode we talk to her about citizens assemblies' potential and how they are spreading across the world.
Not all AI is democracy ending AI. Some can support democracy and make it better. In this episode, I talk to Kim Polese, whose career launching transformative technologies (beginning with Java) has landed with a democracy enhancing AI, CrowdSmart. We talk about its potential, as well as the open source alternative, pol.is .
David Van Reybrouck's book, Against Elections , helped crystalize a movement for citizen assemblies. In my conversation with him, we talk about the origin of this idea, and how it could complement democracy.
Chloe Maxim and Canyon Woodward built a people focused movement in rural Maine to change the way politics works. I talk to them about their book, Dirt Road Revival, and the organization they've launched, DirtRoadOrganizing.org , aiming to change how we do politics, for the better.
Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn at 23, and founder of UpWorthy, talks to me about creating healthy online spaces, and democratic activism that builds up democracy rather than tearing it down.
After hope, we need health. Josh Greene, professor of psychology at Harvard University and author of Moral Tribes talks to me about building healthier engagement between increasingly polarized citizens.
Jennifer Pahlka, founder of the Code for America and former Deputy CTO, talks with me about improving digital governmental capacity, working from her new book, Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Era and How We Can Do Better.
Our first lifeboat is hope — hope that government could actually do good. Brink Lindsey, formerly of the Cato Institute, and now Director of the Open Society Project at the Niskanen Center, talks to me about governmental capacity, and how we could make it better.
We can make our unrepresentative representative democracy representative. But AI may mean that's not enough. This episode introduces the final section of this season — lifeboats: the changes we could make to make it so democracy can survive.
