55 Voices for Democracy – The Podcast
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
Patty Jenkins on the Power of Storytelling
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Award-winning director, screenwriter, and producer Patty Jenkins joined Aida and Tom at the Thomas Mann House for this special episode. Jenkins is bes...
Clint Smith on Cultures of Remembrance in the U.S. & Germany
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“Physically putting your body in a place where history happened gives you a different sense of intimacy, a different sense of proximity to that hist...
Marina Weisband on What Gets us Through the Crisis
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“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 t...
Lynne Thompson on the Role of Poetry in Democracies
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“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 p...
Bill Wiggins on African-American History & Historically Black Colleges and Universities
23 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Host Tom Zoellner sat down with professor William Wiggins to discuss the ongoing importance of African-American history within the larger context of U...
Teresa Bücker on Time as a Political Resource
02 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“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 syste...
Roberto Lovato on the Tenderness that Survives the Terror
16 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“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-forg...
Antonia Juhasz on the Impact of Fossil Fuels on Democracy
05 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
“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 frac...
Raul Krauthausen on Inclusion and Accessibility
08 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“I realized that everything I learned in terms of communication, creativity, strategy and planning at university can also be used for good...for the...
Sarah Jaffe on Working Conditions & Labor Movements
22 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“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 ...
Geraldo Cadava on the 2022 Midterm Elections & 'the Latino Vote'
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"One of the things that is so fascinating about last night‘s midterm elections is how young people really showed up,” states Geraldo Cadava, profe...
Boris Dralyuk on Poetry, Translation and Émigrés
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
While politics can involve seemingly abstract decisions, “literature can remind us of the stakes at human level,” argues Boris Dralyuk. In this ...
LaTosha Brown on Fighting Voter Suppression
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“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,” sta...
Doris Kleilein on Changing Definitions of Urban Architecture
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What makes a city a home for people with different backgrounds? How has the pandemic impacted city planning and urban architecture? In this epi...
Christoph Bieber on Hate Speech, Deep Fakes and Other Challenges of the Internet
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Veronika Fuechtner on Thomas Mann's construction of "Germanness"
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Ulrich J. Schneider on Libraries as Democratic Spaces
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“Today, when politicians think you can close down libraries because everything is available online, you have to remind them that libraries are not o...
Rosecrans Baldwin on Los Angeles as a City-State
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode focuses on what novelist and writer Rosecrans Baldwin calls "the city state Los Angeles.” In his recent best-selling book Everything ...
Christine Landfried on the Democratic Potential of Citizens' Assemblies
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Matthew Continetti on Populism and Conservatism in the American Right
15 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, author and intellectual historian of the right, Matthew Continetti talks about the past and current strains of American Conservatism....
Diana Garvin on the Political Implications of Food
02 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The fascist regime in Italy attempted early on to create a culinary nationalism by “re-writing ‘la cucina povera’ (the cooking of the poor) as n...
Craig Calhoun on Nationalism & Protest Movements
19 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Can we reframe the concept of nationalism to use it as a resource for change? Social scientist Craig Calhoun argues for a more complex understanding o...
Ruben Neugebauer on Sea Rescue and the Crisis on the Mediterranean Sea
05 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Civil sea rescue by organizations such as Sea-Watch saves lives, but the fundamental problem that Europe is sealed off to many who seek refuge remains...
Lawrence Douglas on Fixing the Electoral System
21 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How can we restore trust in democratic elections and what are the problems electoral systems are facing today? With his book Will He Go? Trump and t...
Mohamed Amjahid on the Protection of Minorities
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What is negotiable in our societies? Mohamed Amjahid talks with host Aida Baghernejad about the dangers of majority rule and why, for him, protecting ...
Aurora Almendral on the Political Situation in the Philippines
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Tom Zoellner and fellow journalist Aurora Almendral analyze the political situation in the Philippines: How does President Rodrigo Du...
David Kipen on the Renewal of the Federal Writers' Project
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1935, the Federal Writers' Project was launched by President Roosevelt to create jobs for out-of-work writers during the Great Depression and to...
Birte Meier on Equal Pay
27 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What can Germany learn from California in terms of Equal Pay? Award-winning journalist Birte Meier explored this question during her Fellowship at the...
Sonia Faleiro on Political Oppression in India
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, award-winning journalist Sonia Faleiro talks about dangerous developments in Indian democracy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The...
Daniel Ziblatt on Resilient Democracies | A Collaboration with the German American Conference at Harvard
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this collaboration with the German American Conference at Harvard, Dr. Daniel Ziblatt talks about the decline of democracies. Ziblatt encourages us...
Tobias Boes on Thomas Mann’s War
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How did Thomas Mann use the then still young medium of radio in his fight against fascism? How did he channel repressed energies into political activi...
Anniversary Episode: One Year of "55 Voices for Democracy"
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The 55 Voices for Democracy podcast celebrates it's first birthday this month! Time to look back on the first 25 episodes and reflect on what happen...
Emilia Roig on Intersectionality
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"We have to think of the entire fabric of our society, and we have to be courageous!“ French political scientist Emilia Roig talks about the interse...
Timothy Snyder on Resisting Authoritarianism
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"The problem is ourselves." Timothy Snyder describes why the challenges of our democracies are not so much political figures like Trump, but ourselve...
Samuel Moyn on the idea of humane wars
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, legal historian Samuel Moyn critically reflects on the pursuit of 'humane wars.' "We fight war crimes, but we have forgotten the c...
Stephanie Kelton on Democracy and the Deficit Myth
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Stephanie Kelton explains how deficits can strengthen economies and be healthy for democracies. She argues that there are no budgetary const...
Susan Bernofsky on Translation and the Plurality of Language
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Susan Bernofsky's new translation of Thomas Mann's novel "The Magic Mountain" is eagerly awaited. In conversation with Tom Zoellner, Bernofsky talk...
Mithu Sanyal on 'Transracialism' and Identity
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As more and more Americans self-identify as multiracial, transgressing categories of race still raise questions. Most prominently in the case of Rac...
David Himbara on Threatening Developments in Rwanda
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
While his government has long been a promise for reconciliation and development, Rwanda's President Paul Kagame is facing increasing international cri...
Colm Toíbín on Thomas Mann & Democracy
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Irish novelist, journalist and scholar Colm Toíbín talks about Thomas Mann’s formation as a democrat and the historic circumstances that formed hi...
Joyce Marie Mushaben on Post-Merkel Germany
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What is a post-Merkel Germany going to look like? How did Germany change in the 16 years of Merkel’s administration and should Germans be afraid of ...
Max Czollek on Diversity and the New German Nationalist Culture
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Poet and writer Max Czollek talks about why German remembrance culture seems staged to him, and what a radically diverse society might look like. Czol...
Andreas Reckwitz on the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Effect on Late Modern Societies
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How can societies and states reinvent themselves after the pandemic? Andreas Reckwitz, sociologist, cultural theorist and one of Germany’s most emin...
Nora Krug on Notions of Belonging and Historical Memory
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, illustrator and author Nora Krug talks about notions of belonging, nationalism, and the power of images. In conversation with our hos...
Keisha N. Blain on African American History and Selective Memory
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Historian Keisha N. Blain, Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and President of the African American Intellectual History Society, recently co-e...
55 Voices for Democracy – Trailer
29 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
55 Voices for Democracy is modeled after the BBC radio speeches, through which Thomas Mann in the mid 1940s pleaded to thousands of listeners to resis...
Luisa Neubauer on Dreaming as a Tool for Change
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The societal state as a crisis of imagination? German climate activist Luisa Neubauer is one of the main organizers of Fridays for Future in Germany, ...
Deborah Feldman on Religion, Integration and Political Participation
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, U.S.-German writer Deborah Feldman engages in a conversation with hosts Tom Zoellner and Aida Baghernejad about contemporary Jewish c...
John S. Adams on Donations as Threats for Democracies (Special Episode)
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this special episode of our podcast, the award-winning investigative and political reporter John S. Adams talks about money, politics and its effec...
Brad Smith on the Role of Digital Technology in the World of Politics
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We have to step up and accept our responsibility for all of the implications that technology has created.” Brad Smith, President of Microsoft and au...
Igor Levit on Music and Politics
12 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Pianist Igor Levit talks with our hosts about the persistence of the arts in the face of political threats and why Europeans should work against their...
Chantal Mouffe on Conflict as a Political Good
22 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Belgian political theorist Chantal Mouffe reflects on the question of why democracy has to be turbulent and how to foster a democrati...
Daniel Kehlmann on Politics, Power, and Populism
08 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The German-Austrian novelist and playwright Daniel Kehlmann talks with host Tom Zoellner and co-host Aida Baghernejad about the reasons for the rise o...
Wolfgang Ischinger on Trust, Truth, and Transparency
24 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The former German Ambassador to the U.S. and Chairman of the Munich Security Conference speaks about Europe's position in international politics. In t...
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Franak Viačorka and the Crisis in Belarus
17 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The guests in this episode are the Belarusian opposition politicians Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Franak Viačorka. Tsikhanouskaya, who ran for presid...
Dipayan Ghosh on Digital Democracy
10 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How should democracies deal with the increasing power of tech companies? This episode features Dipayan Ghosh, a former technology and economic policy ...
Conny McCormack on Election Mechanics
02 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Conny McCormack has served as an international observer of fair elections in Albania, Ecuador, Finland, Panama, Zambia and other countries. She had be...
David Shimer on the Vulnerability of the Electoral Process
27 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
David Shimer is a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and an Associate Fellow at Yale University. His reporting and ...
Rebecca Solnit on Hope in Politically Dark Times
17 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Polymath author of twenty books, writer, historian, essayist, urban geographer and activist Rebecca Solnit is our inaugural guest on 55 Voices for D...