EPISODES

News deserts are democracy deserts, too

July 1, 2024

More than 2,000 local newspapers have closed over the past 20 years, leaving some parts of the country in what's known as a "news desert." This week, we examine what impact that's had on civic engagement and democratic participation — and look at ways people are trying to make local news great again.

The connection between local news and democracy goes back to the Founding Fathers and particularly to Alex de Tocqueville. We explore the rise, fall, and potential rebirth of local news this week with Jennifer Lawless, Commonwealth professor of politics at the University of Virginia and co-author with Danny Hayes of the forthcoming book News Hole: The Decline of Newspapers and the Future of American Democracy.

In the golden age of newspapers, the "news hole" was the section of the paper not taken up by advertising — aka where the stories, photos, sports scores, TV listings, weather, and everything else lived. Though that dynamic still exists, the term news hole has taken on a whole other meaning that's literally a hole in a community without a local news organization.

This conversation is critically important in the height of election season as people across the U.S. vote for the more than 500,000 local elected positions across the country. As we heard from Mirya Holman in the Sheriffs 101 episode, it can often be difficult to find accurate, credible information about these candidates without local news organizations.

Additional Information

Resources for finding local news in your area:
Institute for Nonprofit News
LION Publishers
States Newsroom (for state government coverage)

UNC research on news deserts

Is that a fact? podcast from the News Literacy Project

Jennifer Lawless on Twitter

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Sheriffs 101

Defending the First Amendment and the Fourth Estate

Fake news, clickbait, and the future of local journalism

The Supreme Court's politics and power

July 1, 2024

The Supreme Court has always been political, despite what recent history may lead us to believe. However, things may feel different now because the Court is more powerful now. Historian Rachel Shelden takes on a trip back to the Civil War era and we discuss the lessons from that era the might apply today.

A lot of people are thinking about the Civil War era these days, whether it's asking questions about whether we're in a second civil war now or thinking about what happened during the election of 1876. In addition to our discussion of the Supreme Court, we talk about both of these things with Shelden, associate professor of history at Penn State and director of the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center.

If it sounds like we covered a lot in this episode, it's because we did. Like any good historian, Shelden does not use her knowledge of history predict the future, but she does offer some very useful insights for how the past can help all of us frame and interpret what's happening now.

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The perfect storm for election disaster

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Additional Information

Shelden's article in the Washington Post

Stanford's Jonathan Gienapp on originalism and history

Penn State Richards Civil War Era Center

The perfect storm for election disaster

July 1, 2024

COVID-19, partisan gridlock, and Donald Trump have joined forces to create the potential for disaster in this year's election. This week, the author of "Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Electoral Meltdown in 2020: joins us to explain what could happen and what we might be able to do about it.

In this episode, we review the mechanics of how election results are certified and the work of the Electoral College between Election Day and Inauguration Day. Most of their work has historically happened behind the scenes, but it could become very public this fall if results are contested. We also look at what elections in 2000 and 1876 can tell us about what might play out over the next few months, and why the act of conceding an election is important for democratic legitimacy.

Our guest is Lawrence Douglas, the James J. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought at Amherst College. He is the author of seven books and a regular contributor to The Guardian.

Additional Information

Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020

Lawrence Douglas in The Guardian

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The people who choose the President

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The 2020 Election from WPSU's Take Note

July 1, 2024

This is a crossover episode with WPSU, the NPR station in central Pennsylvania and our partner on Democracy Works. WPSU's Anne Danahy interviews Michael Berkman and Candis Watts Smith about several factors impacting the 2020 election — including polls, the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and even the prevalence of yard signs this fall.

We really enjoy collaborating with the team at WPSU on Democracy Works and were happy to give the interviewer's chair to WPSU News reporter Anne Danahy for an episode that also aired on the station's interview show Take Note.

This interview was recorded on Tuesday, September 30, 2020, before the first presidential debate and President Trump's diagnosis with COVID-19.

Hong Kong's fight is everyone's fight

July 1, 2024

In some ways, the fight for democracy in Hong Kong is unique to the region and its relationship with China. However, the protests also feel familiar to anyone who's been watching the Black Lives Matter protests in the U.S. or what's happening in countries like Hungary and Brazil.

This week, we examine what's driving Hong Kongers into the streets, the generational divides that are emerging over issues like universal suffrage and income inequality, and what Hong Kong's relationship with China might look like moving forward.

Our guest is On-cho Ng, head of the Asian Studies Program at Penn State and Professor of History, Asian Studies, and Philosophy. He is a native Hong Konger and received both his undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Hong Kong.

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China's threat to democracies around the world

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Sheriffs 101

July 1, 2024

Have you ever walked into a voting booth and seen a sheriff's race on the ballot and not known who the candidates were, or even what they do once elected? You're not alone, which is why we wanted to make this episode.

Our guest is Mirya R. Holman is an associate professor of political science at Tulane University. She was drawn to researching sheriffs after growing up in rural Oregon, where sheriffs were the only type of law enforcement, and identifying a lack of research about them once she got to graduate school.

In this conversation. Holman  discusses what sheriffs do, how those responsibilities have changed in light of COVID-19 and ongoing civil unrest, the difference between sheriffs and police, and where to go to find information about sheriff elections that might be happening in your city or town this fall.

Additional Information

Holman's website

Holman on Twitter

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Students learn, students vote

July 1, 2024

National Voter Registration Day is September 22. In a normal election year on a college campus, that would mean lots of canvassers with clipboards and pizza parties to encourage students to register. Those activities can't happen the same way this fall, but our guest this week argues that the pandemic should not detract colleges and universities from their civic missions.

Nancy Thomas is director of the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education, an applied research center at the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. Over the past decade, the IDHE has worked to understand how college students vote and make recommendations to university leaders about both short-term voting challenges and long-term obligations to creating democratic citizens. This conversations covers both of those areas, as well as what role faculty can play in fostering democracy and civic engagement in their courses.

Additional Information

Institute for Democracy and Higher Education

National Voter Registration Day

Faculty Network for Student Voting Rights

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The promise and peril of early voting

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A dark side to "laboratories of democracy"

July 1, 2024

The phrase "laboratories of democracy," coined by former U.S. Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis, is typically used to describe experiments with new social and economic policies that occur at the state level — things like voting systems and public financing of elections. This week's episode explores a different side of that approach when state and local systems are used to disadvantage poor communities and prevent people from accessing social services.

Virginia Eubanks examines the relationship between technology and society in her book Automating Inequality: How High-Tech tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor and joins us this week for a discussion about who matters in a democracy and the empathy gap between the people who develop the technology for social systems and the people who use those systems.

Eubanks is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University at Albany, SUNY. She is also the author of Digital Dead End: Fighting for Social Justice in the Information Age; and co-editor, with Alethia Jones, of Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith. Her writing about technology and social justice has appeared in Scientific American, The Nation, Harper’s, and Wired. She was a founding member of the Our Data Bodies Project and a 2016-2017 Fellow at New America.

Additional Information

Automating Inequality: How High-Tech tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor

Eubanks will present a lecture on her work for Penn State's Rock Ethics Institute on October 1, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. The event is free and open to anyone. Register here.

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A roadmap to a more equitable democracy

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A fall preview — with a new cohost!

July 1, 2024

We are excited to begin a new school year with a new cohost, Candis Watts Smith, who you may remember from an episode earlier this summer on her book Stay Woke, or from a roundtable discussion on Black politics back in February.

In this episode, Michael, Chris, and Candis discuss:

  • The dynamics at play in national, state, and local elections this fall
  • How politics impacts the Census Bureau and other organizations
  • Whether all politics are really local
  • What we've learned since 2016 about how democracy functions

We are excited to welcome Candis to our team. As you'll hear, she doesn't always agree with Michael and Chris and brings some important perspectives to the table.

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Episode credits

This episode was engineered by Jenna Spinelle, edited by Mark Stitzer, and reviewed by Emily Reddy.

YIMBYs and NIMBYs in a democracy

July 1, 2024

Whether you live in a big city, a suburb,  or a small town, one issue tends to stand out from the rest in local government — housing. This week, we talk with author and New York Times reporter Conor Dougherty about the connections between housing and democracy, particularly at the local level. There can be immense power in showing up to make your voice heard, but some of the same forces that corrupt and polarize national politics are present locally, too.

Many of us are spending more time at home these days than we ever have before. In the United States, owning a home has come to symbolize the American Dream and homeowners have more political capital than those who don't. Over the past decade or so, this has led to showdowns at local government meetings between YIMBYs, who want more housing, and NIMBYs, who do not.

Dougherty covers economics and housing for the New York Times and is the author of "Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America." The book focuses on San Francisco, but as you'll hear Dougherty say, he could have written it about just about any major city in the U.S.

We also discuss the role that ballot initiatives play in the fight for housing, particularly in California. Born during the Progressive era to give more power to the people, Dougherty they've become co-opted by money and other influences that plague other areas of our democracy.

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Additional Information

Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America

Dougherty's work in the New York Times