55 Voices for Democracy – The Podcast

Award-winning director, screenwriter, and producer Patty Jenkins joined Aida and Tom at the Thomas Mann House for this special episode. Jenkins is best known for the films Wonder Woman (2017), Wonder…

“Physically putting your body in a place where history happened gives you a different sense of intimacy, a different sense of proximity to that history.” In the final episode of our podcast, author, …

“Going through a crisis and having a positive vision of the future are not the same thing. You need to have a positive vision of the future to get through the crisis.” Our hosts, Aida Baghernejad and…

“There is an understanding that between humans we have this one thing called language and it brings us - or can bring us - together.” Writer and poet Lynne Thompson talks with hosts Aida Baghernejad …

Host Tom Zoellner sat down with professor William Wiggins to discuss the ongoing importance of African-American history within the larger context of US history. Professor Wiggins has written on numer…

“Time is a political resource. How time is distributed is a question of structures we find within a society. It’s structured by the economic system we have; it’s structured by gender, by race,” state…

“I’ve been through war. I’ve witnessed the workings of genocide. I have gone to mass graves across the entire continent (…) We have to un-forget to get past the present fear.” In this episode, writer…

“Part of what has led the movement against fossil fuels is the increased number of people being confronted with the effects of oil drilling and fracking,” argues energy analyst and investigative jour…

“I realized that everything I learned in terms of communication, creativity, strategy and planning at university can also be used for good...for the rights of people with disabilities,” states Raul K…

“Until we start thinking about what people’s lives are really like and not just shame them for how they vote, we’re not going to have a healthy democracy,” argues Sarah Jaffe. The labor journalist ta…

"One of the things that is so fascinating about last night‘s midterm elections is how young people really showed up,” states Geraldo Cadava, professor of history and Latina and Latino studies at Nort…

While politics can involve seemingly abstract decisions, “literature can remind us of the stakes at human level,” argues Boris Dralyuk.  In this episode, the translator, author and editor-in-chief of…

“Some of the tension and voter suppression we are experiencing right now is not a result of us losing, it is a result of us winning,” states LaTosha Brown, community organizer and co-founder of Black…

What makes a city a home for people with different backgrounds? How has the pandemic impacted city planning and urban architecture? In this episode, the 2022 Thomas Mann Fellow, architect and author …

What can be done against online hate speech and deep fakes? Host Tom Zoellner talks to the political scientist & 2022 Thomas Mann Fellow Dr. Christoph Bieber about internet regulation in Europe and t…

The Brazilian origins of his mother Júlia were initially a source of shame for Thomas Mann, but that changed in the 1920s “as his understanding of his role in society and democracy changed,” claims D…

This episode focuses on what novelist and writer Rosecrans Baldwin calls "the city state Los Angeles.” In his recent best-selling book Everything Now: Lessons From the City-State of Los Angeles, the …

When it comes to politics, “distrust is a very healthy thing,” says Dr. Christine Landfried. But Dr. Landfried warns that a complete loss of trust in democratic processes lead people to disconnect fr…

In this episode, author and intellectual historian of the right, Matthew Continetti talks about the past and current strains of American Conservatism. Continetti notes that the territory on which pol…