Thursday, May 5th, 2022 Nisha Anand is an Indian-American activist, leader for racial justice, and the CEO of DreamCorps. Her expansive organizing experience solidified her belief in the power of working with unlikely partners to find real solutions. Nisha leads a diverse group of people who are learning, like her, the value of unconventional relationships. We discuss Dream Corps' work in criminal justice reform, building a green economy, and creating equity in tech. We all have our humanity in ...
May 05, 2022•42 min•Ep 194•Transcript available on Metacast Thursday, April 28th, 2022 Ian Haney López is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in race and racism. His focus for the last decade has been on the use of racism in electoral politics, and how to respond. We discuss strategic racism and its antidote: race-class fusion politics. Strategic racism is a divide and conquer scam by elites that pushes us to hate each other while they rig the system for themselves. Race-class fu...
Apr 28, 2022•49 min•Ep 193•Transcript available on Metacast Thursday, April 21st, 2022 Richard Hasen is a nationally recognized expert in election law and campaign finance regulation, and his new book is Cheap Speech: How Disinformation Poisons Our Politics and How to Cure It. We discuss the long-term dangers of cheap speech and ways to improve our information sphere in keeping with the First Amendment. Cheap speech is lower-value speech that finds a way to rise to the top of social media, news outlets, and everyday conversation. This overabundance of mi...
Apr 21, 2022•45 min•Ep 192•Transcript available on Metacast Thursday, April 14th, 2022 David J. Toscano served 14 years (2006-20) in the Virginia House of Delegates representing the 57th District. He’s the author of Fighting Political Gridlock: How States Shape Our Nation And Our Lives . We discuss strengthening our democracy at the State level through legislation, meaningful cooperation, and civic engagement in State politics. States are laboratories for democracy. State Houses make a big difference in people’s lives, from education, criminal justice, e...
Apr 14, 2022•44 min•Ep 191•Transcript available on Metacast Thursday, April 7th, 2022 Emily Cherniack is the founder of New Politics. She believes that politics has the power to change systems. Her organization works with military veterans and alumni of civilian service programs like Americorps with a goal of encouraging more people with civil and military service experience to run for office, all the way from school boards to Congress. We discuss how servant leadership is about doing something greater than yourself because it rests on the backbone of se...
Apr 07, 2022•36 min•Ep 190•Transcript available on Metacast We are running a short, four-minute survey during the month of April, and it’s all about you. We want to learn more about what you think of Future Hindsight, and if there is anything we can do to make it better. Your participation can help us find more people to join our community of change-makers and give even more people the tools they need to be an engaged citizen, especially during this midterm election year. TAKE THE SURVEY HERE ! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScOWRKPFgSkQGKyn4w2...
Apr 01, 2022•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Thursday, March 31st, 2022 Carol Jenkins is the President and CEO of the ERA Coalition and the Fund for Women’s Equality, sister organizations dedicated to the adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment. We discuss the current state of the ERA and why this constitutional amendment will address the problems of equality, misogyny, and discrimination. The Equal Rights Amendment guarantees equality of rights under the law, regardless of sex. The source of sexism, however, derives directly from the Const...
Mar 31, 2022•33 min•Ep 189•Transcript available on Metacast Jocelyn Benson is the Secretary of State of Michigan and the author of State Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process. We discuss what's at stake this year, why it's vital to pay attention to this November's elections and the primaries this spring, and the role everyday people can play in protecting democracy. Go to Novo.co/HOPEFUL and get your FREE business banking account Referees of Democracy Secretaries of State are the referees of democracy. They serve as the chief election...
Mar 24, 2022•34 min•Ep 188•Transcript available on Metacast Nathan Lockwood is the Executive Director of Rank the Vote, an organization with a vision that the national adoption of ranked choice voting (RCV) could create a political and social culture with elections based on a competition of the best ideas. We discuss how RCV works, the spoiler problem, and the benefits for our democracy. Go to Shopify.com/ hopeful for a FREE fourteen-day trial and get full access to Shopify’s entire suite of features. Thank you, Native. Get 20% off your first purchase by...
Mar 17, 2022•44 min•Ep 187•Transcript available on Metacast Art Chang was a mayoral candidate in New York City in 2021. We discuss his campaign and the big issues facing the City of New York. He shed light on the eviction crisis, the hurdles to adopting technology in government, and the power of joining and belonging. Technology Is Culture Change Adopting technology solutions equates to culture change, which goes well beyond updating ways of working. Tech startups build things with users as their starting point and then work backward from that. Governmen...
Mar 10, 2022•40 min•Ep 186•Transcript available on Metacast Danielle Allen is a MacArthur Fellow and the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University. She’s published broadly in democratic theory, political sociology, and the history of political thought, and is widely known for her work on justice and citizenship. Her most recent book is Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus . We discuss the promise of good governance, common purpose, and our moral compass in action. Democracy Works Good governance bolsters democracy by delivering for p...
Mar 03, 2022•34 min•Ep 185•Transcript available on Metacast Understanding Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter stands as a movement to demand and secure Black humanity. Being a leader-full movement makes it less susceptible to disruption and has de-centered Black patriarchy. Its broad and deep inclusivity has also widened our consciousness beyond historical notions of Blackness. However, the lack of a clear leader also poses challenges in national messaging about the movement. Love, Equality, and Fairness Looking back at the history of Black thought in ...
Feb 24, 2022•41 min•Ep 184•Transcript available on Metacast Neil Roberts is Professor of Africana Studies and Faculty Affiliate in Political Science and Religion at Williams College. He’s working on a new book titled How To Live Free in an Age of Pessimism. We discuss the legacy of Charles Mills’ scholarship on the racial contract, freedom, and transforming society from the bottom up. Thanks to Native for supporting Future Hindsight! Get 20% off your first purchase by visiting nativedeo.com/hopeful or using promo code HOPEFUL at checkout. Racial Contract...
Feb 17, 2022•35 min•Ep 183•Transcript available on Metacast Anat Shenker-Osorio is a renowned communications researcher and campaign advisor, the host of Words to Win By, and the Principal of ASO Communications. We discuss how to empower voters, the impact of repetition, and the importance of being clear on what you stand for. Social Proof Is Real The most telling sign that a message is reaching the masses effectively is if the public acts on it. For example, the last national election cycles in 2018 and 2020 saw a large increase in voter turnout. It is ...
Feb 10, 2022•44 min•Ep 182•Transcript available on Metacast We're revisiting our conversation with Mark Rank, a poverty expert, professor, and author of Poorly Understood: What America Gets Wrong About Poverty. We discuss the true causes and systemic nature of poverty, and poverty reduction as being both moral and smart public policy. Musical Chairs American poverty is a bit like a game of musical chairs. The US only has good opportunities for 8 out of 10 Americans, meaning 2 people always lose. Instead of adding new opportunities or chairs, we shuffle t...
Feb 03, 2022•36 min•Ep 181•Transcript available on Metacast We're revisiting our conversation with Colin Jerolmack, an environmental sociologist and author of Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town. We discuss the public-private paradox and the tragedy of the commons, as well as the undemocratic aspects of American property rights. Public-Private Paradox America has clearly delineated public and private domains: the public domain is regulated, and the private domain is not. A public-private paradox occurs when...
Jan 27, 2022•32 min•Ep 180•Transcript available on Metacast We’re sharing a curated list of podcast recommendations on abortion rights that we put together for our friends at EarBuds Podcast Collective in September 2021. Reproductive rights will be in the news a lot this year because of the Mississippi case before SCOTUS and because of the midterm elections. The 5 episodes we recommend are: Amicus with Dahlia Lithwick – “Abortion, Surveillance, and Vigilantism: An American Story” Fresh Air with Terry Gross – “SCOTUS & The Future of Roe v. Wade” Access: A...
Jan 20, 2022•17 min•Ep 179•Transcript available on Metacast Retaking The Commons In order to repair our current social contract, we must first repair our relationship to the Commons. Our economy currently prioritizes property protection, wealth protection, and disproportionate power, while often disregarding the realities of human life. Social movements can create a sense of mutuality, of what we hold in common, and amass power to retake the Commons. Turning to each other has never been more effective. The Solidarity Economy Solidarity economics is a sys...
Dec 30, 2021•44 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast Faith in the Social Contract As members of a society, we must have an understanding of “we” for the social contract to function. When citizens are put in a position of protecting the state or the economy instead of protecting its people, we all lose out. Faith can help us find a sense of togetherness. If we know who we’re fighting for, the sacrifice makes that much more sense. The pandemic has been a great example of both the wins and losses of living for the greater good. Beloved Community A be...
Dec 23, 2021•44 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast Technology in the Social Contract Increasingly, the design of new technology determines the way our society functions and the way we live. Simple design flaws like the lack of a mute button on Sony Camcorders ended up changing our laws on surveillance. We don’t elect the people that build our global technology landscape. In addition, once the technology is successful in the marketplace, its design is replicated without question. More Equitable Algorithms Algorithms have the power to harm us beyo...
Dec 16, 2021•42 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast Tax Policy is Where It Starts What do our tax dollars really go towards? The truth is, so much of it is invisible. Tax dollars go towards helping homeowners through mortgage deductions or keeping prices low on your water bill. The money we spend on taxes has the power to shape our social contract, but it’s not always spent correctly. By focusing on tax policy first, we can control which programs and policies are funded and which are not. In this way, taxes are at the root of social change. Tax F...
Dec 09, 2021•34 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast Racism Bites Everybody Creating racist policies and ideologies is short-sighted. In the long run, these practices affect everyone, including white people. In 1978, older white voters in California decided they didn’t want their tax dollars going towards the funding of education for children who were increasingly non-white. To reflect this, Prop 13 capped property taxes and essentially led to a defunding of public education in the state, which families of every race and ethnicity rely on. Interse...
Dec 02, 2021•39 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast The Legacy of the Subminimum Wage The devaluation of Black lives and women's work is at the heart of the subminimum wage. Until the 1850s, restaurant workers were white men who were unionized and were tipped on top of a living wage. But business owners started hiring women and black people for free, making them rely on tips to make their living. This means that the customer—instead of the employer—is responsible for paying the worker. A century and a half later, the subminimum wage has increased...
Nov 25, 2021•38 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Our Responsibility to Defend the Truth Science denialism has existed as long as science has existed. As a part of our social contract, we’re responsible for challenging the spread of misinformation and understanding, especially when it comes to science. If we open ourselves up to these difficult conversations, we can offer up a path into more logical reasoning and avoid a culture where science and truth are rejected. Science Denialism is Dangerous All science denialism relies on a flawed bluepri...
Nov 18, 2021•44 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast The Social Contract and Our Bodies The pandemic has given us a glimpse into the ways our health is woven into the social contract. The high number of deaths from COVID are the result of the government’s failure to collaborate with international organizations and with our own state lawmakers. We leaned on essential care workers, many of whom are people of color. And yet, they often lacked PPE, challenging what it really means to be “essential.” The Inequality of Health Racism is a preexisting hea...
Nov 11, 2021•38 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Racial Injustice in the Climate Crisis Economic and racial injustices are at the center of the climate crisis. White communities have largely avoided things like polluting power plants and detrimental pipelines in their neighborhoods. Instead, communities of color have faced that burden. The willingness to sacrifice communities of color has made it easier for governments to tolerate climate chaos. Aiding Youth Activism Successful social movements often start with activism by young people, and in...
Nov 04, 2021•40 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Architecture of Opportunity We lose talent in our society when we overlook those from poor backgrounds or minority families. For example, Lost Einsteins are children who harness above-average skills, but don’t have a chance to invent and create later in their lives because they lack access to opportunity. John Rawls' Veil of Ignorance provides the template for a just society where the luck of your birth need not be a factor in your life’s outcomes. The Importance of Childcare Our social contract...
Oct 28, 2021•41 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast The Social Contract The state of nature is a human condition that exists in any space that lacks a civil authority. With the social contract, we're prepared to make a deal with each other in order to live together as best we can and exit the state of nature. Philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau expressed versions of the social contract that influence governments around the world today. Co-Creating Reality We are all co-creators of our community politics and s...
Oct 21, 2021•43 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Our all-new season is all about something that we most often hear about in terms of its brokenness: the social contract. We will be asking big questions about how we live together, what we owe each other, what we can ask of governments, and how we can repair what’s broken, renegotiate what never worked, or what’s not working anymore.
Oct 19, 2021•4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Subscribe to Some of My Best Friends Are at http://podcasts.pushkin.fm/futurehindsight This week, we're sharing an episode of Some of My Best Friends Are... The show is hosted by Khalil Muhammad and Ben Austen, two best friends who grew up together on the South Side of Chicago in the '80s. Khalil is Black; Ben is white. They invite listeners into their conversations about the absurdities and intricacies of race in America. Mixing anecdotes, entertaining storytelling, and thoughtful debate, Some ...
Oct 07, 2021•45 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast 
