"This is a film about why you should join a club." So begins the documentary Join or Die , available to stream on Netflix , that follows the work of sociologist Robert Putnam, who famously argued that American civic organizations and engagement were in serious and steady decline and that this would not bode well for the nation. The documentary's co-directors and co-producers (and siblings), Rebecca and Pete Davis, join the O'Connor Institute to discuss their film and why joining a club may be th...
Jul 01, 2025•51 min
From trade wars to rising prices, America’s economic landscape is being reshaped by powerful forces. How do tariffs affect U.S. industry and global standing? With inflation cooling but uncertainty lingering, where are things headed next—and what does it mean for policy and growth? Economist John Cochrane joins the Institute to explore the pressures and policies defining this critical moment for the U.S. economy. You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: Twitter Facebook Ins...
Jun 03, 2025•47 min
At a time when civic knowledge is in decline, political scientist Jeffrey Sikkenga makes the case that the health of our democracy depends on how—and whether—we teach American principles. Sikkenga, executive director of the Ashbrook Center, joined the O’Connor Institute to discuss A Republic, If We Can Teach It , which he coauthored with Hoover Institution fellow David Davenport. The book explores the challenges facing civic education today and argues that a strong republic requires citizens who...
Apr 16, 2025•28 min
Is democracy in trouble? Many Americans believe so: recent polls consistently rank "threats to democracy" as one of respondents' top concerns. In the new book The Civic Bargain, authors Brook Manville and Josiah Ober look to history for examples of democracies under threat. By examining the ways in which historical democracies confronted their own challenges, the authors are able to distill lessons and principles that can benefit us today. You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow...
Mar 28, 2025•46 min
At a time when many Americans struggle with economic insecurity, sociologist Jessica Calarco offers an exploration of how women have become America’s default social safety net. Calarco joined the O’Connor Institute to discuss her latest book, Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net . Drawing on extensive research and interviews, she argues that American society relies disproportionately on women’s unpaid and underpaid labor and that this reliance has concealed critical gaps in...
Mar 19, 2025•42 min
As we transition from Black History Month into Women's History Month, we share "Heroes of Abolition and Suffrage" from our podcast library. This powerful conversation brings together descendants of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, and Booker T. Washington. Coline Jenkins and Kenneth B. Morris, Jr. continue the work of their three significant ancestors, honoring their legacy of work in civil rights history and shaping the world around us today. Grab your headphones and join us for this...
Feb 28, 2025•59 min
At a time when Americans seem more divided than ever, Yuval Levin offers a compelling argument for how we can rebuild a shared national identity. Levin, the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, joined the O’Connor Institute to discuss his latest book, American Covenant, which examines the Constitutional foundations of American unity. You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube...
Feb 21, 2025•39 min
We are pleased to share this conversation with Dr. Carla Hayden of the Library of Congress led by moderator Chevy Humphrey, CEO of the Museum of Science and Industry, originally recorded in 2021. In it, she discusses the Library of Congress's significant history and the information available at the country's most extensive library. Specifically, she spotlights crucial pieces of African American History, the 13th Amendment, and the life of President Abraham Lincoln. You can listen to this illumin...
Feb 07, 2025•54 min
The story is the same in many places: citizens aren't currently wild about their leaders. As John A. Burtka IV writes in the introduction to Gateway to Statesmanship , the "examples of elite failures are so ubiquitous that there is no reason to chronicle them all here." Better, Burtka argues, to turn to history to "rediscover the time-tested principles of leadership." Listen to or watch the conversation here: https://civicsforlife.org/rediscovering-political-leadership-with-john-a-burtka-iv/ You...
Dec 19, 2024•26 min
December 6 marks the anniversary of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery in America in 1865. In this podcast, we look at the paradox of enslavement and our forefathers' emphasis on liberty and equality. In this unique conversation, hear from a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, who is now the Monticello Public Relations and Community Engagement Officer, speaking on "The Paradox of Liberty. Would you like to watch the conversation with the presentation? You can find it here:...
Dec 13, 2024•59 min
Ambassador Eizenstat joined the O'Connor Institute to discuss his latest book, The Art of Diplomacy , which in one readable volume covers every major contemporary international agreement, from the treaty to end the Vietnam War to the Kyoto Protocols and the Iranian Nuclear Accord, and has earned glowing reviews from people as different in outlook as Tony Blair and Henry Kissinger. Diplomacy is a craft founded on trust and compromise. What lessons might its history hold for international and dome...
Oct 18, 2024•58 min
Today, we share a conversation that looks at the impact of stereotypes, how they affect us, and what we can do to limit their adverse effects. This discussion is led by Stanford Professor Dr. Claude M. Steele, an expert on social psychology, and initially took place as part of our Constitution Series Webcasts focusing on Equality and Justice for All. While this is a challenging topic, Dr. Steele leads us through where we came from and the hope psychologists see today. You can find us at: https:/...
Sep 12, 2024•59 min
As students return to classrooms across the country this fall, we are resharing important conversations on landmark cases related to education. Today, we look at one of the most important Supreme Court decisions of the 20th Century - Brown v. Board of Education. This detailed conversation with Cheryl Brown Henderson, daughter of the late Rev. Oliver L Brown, who brought the suit represented by NAACP Chief Council Thurgood Marshall, examines the history behind the case. You can find us at: https:...
Sep 06, 2024•59 min
As preparations for the 2024 General Election approach, the Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy sat down with the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) President Secretary Steve Simon (D-MN), President-elect Michael Watson (R-MS), and NASS Executive Director Leslie Reynolds to discuss important bipartisan aspects of election administration, including election security, voter registration, poll worker recruitment, and evolving technology. You can find us at: https:/...
Aug 15, 2024•41 min
We are pleased to take a new look at this conversation with Dr. Spencer Crew, in which he discusses the importance of making African American history accessible to the public. Art and documents in a museum can be an important way to experience and understand cultures in new ways. Dr. Spencer Crew has worked in public history institutions for more than twenty-five years. He served as president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center for six years and worked at the National Museum of A...
Aug 09, 2024•1 hr
Empty office buildings. Workforce changes allow for more remote work. American downtowns are struggling. The pandemic-led changes in where and how we work and live have weakened and withered many urban cores. The office vacancy rate in Houston is some 26 percent; in Phoenix it is above 20 percent. This shift means fewer workers, fewer businesses to serve them, less tax revenue, and hollowed-out neighborhoods. Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh of Columbia University coined the term "urban doom loop" to desc...
Jul 10, 2024•41 min
We are excited to revisit this fascinating discussion with Judge Douglas Ginsburg as he delves into past, present, and future struggles for liberty through the lens of the US Constitution - just in time for the 4th of July and the celebration of our Country’s independence. Judge Ginsburg is the author of Voices of Our Republic, the companion to the 2020 three-part PBS series, A More or Less Perfect Union. You can find us at: https://oconnorinstitute.org/ Follow us on: Twitter Facebook Instagram ...
Jul 03, 2024•57 min
The Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy presents a conversation with author and historian Claire Rydell Arcenas and Liam Julian, director of Public Policy at the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. In her book America's Philosopher: John Locke in American Intellectual Life, Rydell Arcenas seeks to better understand and illuminate the crucial 17th century philosopher by showing how he influenced Americans at different historical moments. Widely known as the founding father of modern “...
Jun 27, 2024•58 min
There is broad scholarly agreement that our current political world owes much to what Thomas Paine was the first to call the "age of revolutions"—that is, the several late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century decades during which revolutions rocked the globe. But what gave rise to the age of revolutions? Why, suddenly, were era-spanning monarchies being toppled? Were revolutionaries motivated by democratic ideals, as some have argued, or, as others believe, merely advancing a newer version o...
Jun 04, 2024•49 min
Perhaps no extant product of the U.S. Constitution has received more bipartisan animus than the Electoral College. Since 1800 there have been more than 700 proposals introduced in Congress to amend or eliminate the way in which America chooses its presidents. Yet the Electoral College lives on. Why do we have this system? Why does it inspire such cross-party antipathy? Can it be changed -- should it be changed? -- and if so how? Electoral College expert Dr. Edward B. Foley joins the Institute to...
Apr 30, 2024•50 min
Some 40 million people in the American West rely on water from the Colorado River. But the river’s flow has diminished, and those decreases will likely continue. What does this mean for the American West in general and California and Arizona in particular? Will booming metro areas—Maricopa County, for example—have to halt their growth? Will vast expanses of agriculture disappear? Or is there reason to be optimistic about the West’s water future? Grady Gammage Jr. and Sarah Porter of Arizona Stat...
Oct 04, 2023•50 min
Episode three of the three-part series "The Economy: Inflation, the Fed, and You." Inflation in America is happening for the first time in forty years, but different parts of the country are experiencing inflation differently. How do the ways in which we measure price increases, such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI), contribute to regional variances in inflation? What role do rising housing costs play? And do certain types of inflation cause more pain than others? University of Arizona economis...
Jun 26, 2023•23 min
Episode two of the three-part series "The Economy: Inflation, the Fed, and You." Inflation in America is happening for the first time in forty years, and the Federal Reserve has committed to fighting it. What tools can and does the Fed use to battle inflation, and what are its other economic duties beyond keeping prices stable? Who at the Federal Reserve makes decisions, and how do they make them? Brookings Institution economist Louise Sheiner joins Liam Julian, director of Public Policy at the ...
Jun 19, 2023•43 min
Episode one of the three-part series "The Economy: Inflation, the Fed, and You." Inflation in America is happening for the first time in forty years. Why have prices gone up and when might they come down? What role do monetary policy, the Federal Reserve, and legislators play? And what is the fiscal theory of inflation? Hoover Institution economist John H. Cochrane joins Liam Julian, director of Public Policy at the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute, for a discussion. The Economist magazine wrote th...
Jun 15, 2023•47 min
In September 1981, Senator Dennis DeConcini, a Democrat from Arizona, supported President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor as the first woman to take a seat seat on the United States Supreme Court. Hear an eyewitness to history from that unprecedented time, Senator Dennis DeConcini himself, in a moderated conversation with his longtime friend Fred Duval, former U.S. deputy chief of protocol, and deputy assistant secretary of state in the 1990s. The Honorable Barry Goldwater, Jr....
Jun 02, 2023•37 min
