Scholars’ Circle – Author interview of the book – Can Deliberation Cure the Ills of Democracy? ; Remembering Ngugi wa Thiongo author of Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature – June 1, 2025

We interview Professor James S. Fishkin author of the recently published book – Can Deliberation Cure the Ills of Democracy? . Then we remember Ngugi wa Thiongo , scholar of language and author many books such as Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986).

First our discussion with Professor Fishkin on his book Can Deliberation Cure the Ills of Democracy?. He shares his experience in conducting deliberative polling 150+ times around the world. Hosted by Doug Becker.  [ dur: 30 mins. ]

• James S. Fishkin he holds the Janet M. Peck Chair in International Communication at Stanford University. He is the Professor of both communication and of political science at Stanford University and a senior fellow of the Freeman Spogly Institute for International Studies and the director of the Deliberative democracy lab. His work focuses on a concept We’ll get into, uh, called deliberative polling.

Interview with Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o hosted by Prof. David Lloyd. This is an excerpt from the original recording from October 2021 ( show link ). 

In this excerpt Professor Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o recalls his thoughts on theory of Globalectics and how it affects thoughts of decolonizing the mind.  [ dur: 28 mins. ]

• Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and English at the University of California, Irvine. Among his many writings are Decolonising the Mind, Globalectics and his memoir Detained recently recast as Wrestling with the Devil. His most recent novel is Murogi wa Kagogo, published in English as Wizard of the Crow. His rendering of the Gikuyu epic, The Perfect Nine: The Epic of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi, appeared in 2019. He has been awarded numerous prestigious prizes.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Maria Armoudian, Ankine Aghassian, and Sudd Dongre.