Over the last 25 years, college tuition has almost doubled. Meanwhile, America’s K-through-12 education system has only become more fractured — with acute disparities in standards and resources at different schools sometimes just miles away from each other. But UVA president Jim Ryan has hope that with creative solutions across the board, learning can be democratized, and democracy itself enriched in the process. Hear what he has to offer Siva and Will — and the tough questions their students ha...
Mar 02, 2021•37 min•Season 2Ep. 5
American democracy is supposed to come with a warranty: equal opportunity, social mobility, the promise of success with hard work. But the fabled Dream is fraying. In fact, NYT journalist Eduardo Porter says, it was never sold as advertised. From the beginning, the myth cheated people of color and poisoned working-class solidarity. To mend this tattered republic, Porter tells Siva and Will, we need “a new idea of America” — made from policies that address wealth inequality across the social spec...
Feb 23, 2021•32 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Brazil is cursed. Or so it would seem, says media studies scholar David Nemer. Every three decades over the last 100 years, an authoritarian government rises to power. And the results are disastrous. Under Jair Bolsonaro, the “curse of the thirty years” continues, with covid deaths mounting and Brazilian institutions buckling. Find out what’s going on and what hope remains for democracy in South America’s largest country.
Feb 16, 2021•31 min•Season 2Ep. 3
In a largely unregulated social media ecosystem, a curious mom looking for info about vaccine mandates in public schools can end up feasting on the internet’s most insidious — and outlandish — conspiracy theories. Stanford researcher Renée DiResta joins Will and Siva to grapple with the tangled web of QAnon, antivaxxers and more. If the Jan. 6 riot in Washington is any indication, what starts in chatrooms doesn’t stay in chatrooms. And the real-world consequences of the virtual Wild West can be ...
Feb 09, 2021•28 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Remember Silvio Berlusconi? Sex scandals, shady deals and a cult-like following marked the former Italian prime minister’s lasting grip on power. It’s a playbook with a long history and a troubling appeal nowadays, says NYU historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat. On our first episode back from the winter break, she walks Will and Siva through the characteristics of political strongmen — and the lessons they offer for American democracy in the post-Trump era.
Feb 02, 2021•26 min•Season 2Ep. 1
After such a wacky month in America, is there any question democracy is still in danger? Yeah, we didn’t think so either. Will and Siva are back with Season Two and a whole new lineup of guests. Listen to our trailer for a taste of what’s in store. We’ll bring you stories from the trenches of democracy around the world, interviews on climate change and economic inequality, a primer on QAnon... and much more. So keep that thumb on our feed: our first show drops in just a few days.
Jan 29, 2021•5 min
President Biden has said he wants to move quickly to address racial injustice in America. But as historian Leah Wright Rigueur told us last summer, that remains a tall mountain to climb. She calls the U.S. a “failed state” that has always fallen short of its promise of equality. But she also saw hope in the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 — and the possibility of transformation. Listen to this repost and look for new shows next week.
Jan 26, 2021•30 min
Among the more troubling kinds of iconography embraced by the mob that swarmed the U.S. Capitol earlier this month were symbols of the White Power movement. Historian Kathleen Belew traces an unbroken line from far-right militias operating largely under the radar since the 1980s to this very moment. Give this episode from September another listen.
Jan 19, 2021•31 min
Still reeling from last week’s turmoil in Washington? Yeah, same here. We thought it would be a good time to bring you a rebroadcast of last September’s show on violent extremist groups and their recruitment strategies. What draws young people into the toxic universe of far-right groups that pine for a white ethno-state? The temptation to hate often begins with innocent chatter before it’s fed by degrees — and algorithms, says Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a sociologist and education expert who tracks ...
Jan 12, 2021•32 min
The Confederate flag flew inside the U.S. Capitol this week, a feat not even Robert E. Lee achieved. Egged on by President Trump, a violent mob laid siege to the building, bringing death and mayhem, and temporarily halting the work of Congress to certify Joe Biden’s victory. Siva and Will — together with their University of Virginia students — reflect on what happened. Much as the nation was stunned, these acts were not unprecedented or unpredictable.
Jan 09, 2021
It’s been a long year: A tiny virus laid us low, protests over racial injustice erupted across the country, climate change loosed record-setting wildfires and hurricanes, and citizens voted in one of the most fraught national elections ever. So what did 2020 reveal about the state of democracy in America and across the world — and what will come in its wake? In this live recording for our season finale, a panel of experts helps Will and Siva break it all down and build it back up. Where do we go...
Nov 18, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 18
President Trump is calling for recounts and crying voter fraud while the Biden transition team roars to life, laying the groundwork for action on key issues like climate change, the pandemic and economic reignition. But our guests this week say America’s democratic institutions will continue to buckle if political leaders and citizens alike don’t take bold action to strengthen — and alter — them. Join Will and Siva for an election wrap-up and a look ahead with commentators Jamelle Bouie and Dahl...
Nov 11, 2020•49 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Last month we learned that 545 immigrant children remained stranded in the United States, separated from their families: casualties of the president’s hard-nosed stance on immigration. And yet, despite all the tough talk and draconian policies, Trump’s administration hasn’t deported people as aggressively as his predecessor. So as Americans head to the polls this week, what should they make of this legacy, and what hope is there for a more humane future? Political scientist Elizabeth Cohen has s...
Nov 02, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the Supreme Court on the eve of a presidential election has raised questions about Congress’s duty to check the power of the judiciary. Risa Goluboff, dean of the UVA Law School, offers Will and Siva some judicial — and judicious — history, and weighs the future. What will Justice Barrett do to the Supreme Court? How will it change her? And what’s with all the turtles carved into the court’s building? Well, Goluboff says, the pace of justice is slower than you ...
Oct 27, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Kate Manne argues that contempt for women is not a bug but a feature of Donald Trump’s politics. She says this helps explain why “masculine” issues — like the military, gun rights, law enforcement and border security — have drowned out health care, education, climate change and food protection. Manne, a philosopher at Cornell, also tells Will and Siva how such misogyny is refracted in the “himpathy” afforded to male perpetrators of sexual violence, and internalized not only by men but many women...
Oct 20, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Fascism. We know what that looked like in 20th-century Germany and Italy: dictatorship, genocide, war. But can a creeping enthusiasm for authoritarianism in the 21st century — in democracies like India, Hungary and even the United States — be called “fascist”? Yale philosopher Jason Stanley thinks so. Not only that, he tells Siva and Will, but democracies are especially susceptible to fascism. Find out why.
Oct 14, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 13
In less than a week, Donald Trump told Americans not to let coronavirus “dominate” them, spread falsehoods about the flu, and told a violent hate group to “stand back and stand by.” These are just the sort of statements that make him a demagogue, says Texas A&M rhetorician Jennifer Mercieca. This time, Mercieca helps Will and Siva make sense of the president’s penchant for inflammatory language. How has it overshadowed the public sphere for five years, and what does it say about the state of...
Oct 07, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 12
When Phil Howard lived in Budapest, he watched as Hungary’s fledgling democracy was polluted with polarizing stories spread online. It’s a phenomenon now threatening political discourse everywhere, and recent tweaks meant to improve social media policies and algorithms, he says, amount to “a drop in the bucket.” But find out why Howard, a professor of internet studies at Oxford University, thinks we need more social media, not less; and how machine learning and big data might be democratized for...
Sep 29, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 11
In 1890, Mississippi adopted a new constitution that offered a blueprint for Jim Crow. It all but banned African Americans from voting, erecting a charade of roadblocks: poll taxes, literacy tests and other targeted assaults on the franchise. As historian Carol Anderson explains, such laws blocked Black citizens from polling booths for decades. And today, she says — as the core safeguards of the Voting Rights Act unravel — Americans keep risking their lives to protect the kernel of democracy: th...
Sep 22, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Charleston. Tree of Life. Christchurch. All these deadly attacks have some grim details in common — their death tolls were massive... white-power ideology fueled their architects... and they only seemed to be the work of loners, according to historian Kathleen Belew. Join Will and Siva as Belew traces the unsettling history of anti-government militias since the 1980s. Often misunderstood in this story, she says, is the deadliest act of domestic terrorism on record in America: the Oklahoma City b...
Sep 16, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 9
What draws young people into the universe of toxic far-right groups that pine for a White ethno-state? The temptation to hate often begins with innocent chatter before it’s fed by degrees — and algorithms, says Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a sociologist and education expert who tracks such groups. They work through a mix of alluring aesthetics, direct appeals in social media and online gaming, even in old-fashioned flyers on college campuses. But, Miller-Idriss has found, the path to extremism can be ...
Sep 10, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Internet giants like Facebook, Google and Twitter aren’t just part of the disinformation problem — they are the problem, according to author Nina Jankowicz. Her new book, “How to Lose the Information War,” details Russia’s efforts to meddle in the affairs of other countries by turning the tools of free speech against democracy itself. In this interview, Jankowicz makes clear the stakes are high, but the solutions — regulation and education — are within our grasp. Join Will and Siva as they explo...
Sep 01, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 7
America incarcerates more people than any country: nearly a quarter of the world’s prison population. And U.S. inmates are disproportionately Black and Latino. How did we get here? Yale historian Elizabeth Hinton argues that minority communities suffered from successive “wars” meant to save them — from poverty, from crime, from drugs — but which criminalized them instead. She joins Will and Siva for a poignant discussion about the past and future of policing and mass incarceration in the United ...
Aug 26, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Leah Wright Rigueur calls America a failed state. As a polity, she says, the United States has failed black people, falling short of its promises of equality and justice. This summer's protests are a dramatic diagnostic of that failure — the latest in a long history of wake-up calls. But this is also, perhaps, a transformative moment, a sign of hope. Rigueur, a Harvard historian and public policy expert, discusses the importance of heeding black protest, black politics, and black demands for rep...
Aug 18, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Donald Trump has called Mexican migrants criminals and rapists, vowed to build a “beautiful” wall along the southern border, and presided over traumatic family separations among asylum seekers. But nativist ideology in U.S. politics — and policy — is nothing new. Immigration scholar Erika Lee walks Will and Siva through America's spotty record as a nation of immigrants, from the Naturalization Act of 1790, which barred nonwhite people from becoming citizens, to the Trump administration's Muslim ...
Aug 11, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 4
The U.S. Constitution guarantees religious freedom, but also freedom from religion — an idea that rankles many white Evangelicals who would like to see America remade in their own image of Christianity. Religion scholar Matt Hedstrom speaks with Siva and Will about the ideology of Christian nationalism and its harder-core variety, dominionism. Arguably, Hedstrom says, it’s not traditional religious piety but a muscular resistance to pluralism that lies at the core of this belief system.
Aug 04, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Populist regimes are gaining ground across the world, and perhaps nowhere have the consequences been more dramatic than in Brazil. Under the chaotic leadership of president Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil has become a major hot spot in the coronavirus pandemic. In this episode, Will and Siva talk to historian Federico Finchelstein about the rise of populism in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America. For someone who grew up during Argentina's Dirty War, these current populists trends echo fascist regimes o...
Jul 28, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Government by the people can't work without getting reliable information in the people's hands. So when disinformation artists hijack the media, democracy itself is put at risk. On this debut episode of Democracy in Danger , political historian Nicole Hemmer joins hosts Will Hitchcock and Siva Vaidhyanathan to explore the roots of the powerful right-wing media in America, and their influence on Republican politics. How did the party of Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt become the house of Trump an...
Jul 21, 2020•33 min•Season 1Ep. 1
