Is there a way to make the 2020 election about something more than simply defeating President Trump? Can it become an election that unites America? Can we leverage what unifies America, and get an (unrigged) democracy that could work? That’s the hope described in this six episodes — Another Way, Season One.

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LATEST EPISODE

S5E26: Lifeboats: Jon Stever

S5E26: Lifeboats: Jon Stever

In 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, Jon Stever launched an extraordinary experiment to draw together a representative sample of the world to discuss the climate and ecological crisis the world is facing. In this conversation, I talk to him about how he and his team...

PAST EPISODES

S5E25: Lifeboats: David Farrell

S5E25: Lifeboats: David Farrell

Ireland has been perhaps the most impressive example of citizen assemblies addressing national issues in a new and edifying way. David Farrell is an academic who has studied the Irish example. I talk with him about what Ireland can teach the rest of the world. Become...

S5E23: Lifeboats: Claudia Chwalisz

S5E23: Lifeboats: Claudia Chwalisz

Claudia Chwalisz is a social entrepreneur, spreading the gospel of citizen assemblies. In this episode we talk to her about citizens assemblies' potential and how they are spreading across the world. Become a Patreon subscriber: https://www.patreon.com/EqualCitizens...

S5E22: Lifeboats: Kim Polese

S5E22: Lifeboats: Kim Polese

Not all AI is democracy ending AI. Some can support democracy and make it better. In this episode, I talk to Kim Polese, whose career launching transformative technologies (beginning with Java) has landed with a democracy enhancing AI, CrowdSmart. We talk about its...

S5E21: Lifeboats: David Van Reybrouck

S5E21: Lifeboats: David Van Reybrouck

David Van Reybrouck's book, Against Elections, helped crystalize a movement for citizen assemblies. In my conversation with him, we talk about the origin of this idea, and how it could complement democracy. Become a Patreon subscriber:...

S5E20: Lifeboats: Chloe Maxim / Canyon Woodward

S5E20: Lifeboats: Chloe Maxim / Canyon Woodward

Chloe Maxim and Canyon Woodward built a people focused movement in rural Maine to change the way politics works. I talk to them about their book, Dirt Road Revival, and the organization they've launched, DirtRoadOrganizing.org, aiming to change how we do politics, for...

S5E19: Lifeboats: Eli Pariser

S5E19: Lifeboats: Eli Pariser

Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn at 23, and founder of UpWorthy, talks to me about creating healthy online spaces, and democratic activism that builds up democracy rather than tearing it down. Become a Patreon subscriber: https://www.patreon.com/EqualCitizens...

S5E18: Lifeboats: Josh Greene

S5E18: Lifeboats: Josh Greene

Jennifer Pahlka, founder of the Code for America and former Deputy CTO, talks with me about improving digital governmental capacity, working from her new book, Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Era and How We Can Do Better. Become a Patreon...

S5E17: Lifeboats: Jennifer Pahlka

S5E17: Lifeboats: Jennifer Pahlka

Jennifer Pahlka, founder of the Code for America and former Deputy CTO, talks with me about improving digital governmental capacity, working from her new book, Recoding America: Why Government is Failing in the Digital Era and How We Can Do Better. Become a Patreon...

S5E16: Lifeboats: Brink Lindsey

S5E16: Lifeboats: Brink Lindsey

Our first lifeboat is hope — hope that government could actually do good. Brink Lindsey, formerly of the Cato Institute, and now Director of the Open Society Project at the Niskanen Center, talks to me about governmental capacity, and how we could make it better....

S5E15: Lifeboats: Intro

S5E15: Lifeboats: Intro

We can make our unrepresentative representative democracy representative. But AI may mean that's not enough. This episode introduces the final section of this season — lifeboats: the changes we could make to make it so democracy can survive. Become a Patreon...

ABOUT ANOTHER WAY

Can we make 2020 something more than a civil war between Democrats and Republicans?

That’s the challenge that has inspired this podcast by Equal Citizens founder, Lawrence Lessig. Without doubting the urgent need to defeat our current President, Lessig lays out a strategy that leverages the common ground that unites America, to the end of fixing our rigged and broken democracy.

Drawing upon the history of other moments of fundamental change in America, Lessig maps a strategy that steps above our partisan divide. It is a moonshot, no doubt. But it is the one shot that could get us beyond the pathological division that destroys our government today.

This is the conversation that the politicians won’t give us. And that’s precisely why we citizens must begin it now. This is six episodes that are an invitation to begin that repair.

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