A new series of episodes on a Cornell podcast will reflect on the 250th birthday of the U.S. and feature three Cornell deans.
“Democracy Dialogues,” an effort of the new Cornell Center on Democracy, launched the first of its “U.S. 250” series July 10 with an interview with Peter John Loewen, Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences. The show is also available on Apple podcasts and other streaming platforms.
“We want to explore what the legacies of the U.S. founding and the past 250 years mean for today and for democracy’s future,” said Rachel Beatty Riedl, the Peggy Koenig ’78 Director of the Cornell Center on Democracy and professor in the Department of Government (A&S) and the Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. In her interview with Loewen, they discuss the ways in which America’s unique founding moment has shaped democratic institutions and practice, and the paradox of America’s profound democratic experiment. The next guests will be Colleen L. Barry, the inaugural dean of the Brooks school, and Jens Ohlin, the Allan R. Tessler Dean of Cornell Law School.
“We’ll continue with leading scholars at Cornell and beyond to use this key national moment as a jumping off point for our work of supporting and bolstering and deepening democratic practice and institutions,” Riedl said.
The podcast was created to share research related to democracy with a wide audience, Riedl said.
“There is so much important research that is being done on sustaining, strengthening and renewing democracy, on what democracy means and what it does, and I wanted to be able to share that research in an open format, so that it can reach people who care about these topics, in a way that can be put to use by a variety of different listeners – policymakers and practitioners, democracy defenders who are working locally, nationally and globally, our students and young people who are tuning in from everywhere around the world,” she said. “It’s a way of connecting what we do in our research to what kind of impact and ideas it can inspire well beyond our close circle of academic readers.”
Guests have included scholars releasing new books, such as Susan Stokes with “The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies,” or Pepper Culpepper with “Billionaire Backlash: Can It Help Save Democracy?” Riedl has also interviewed guests reacting to world events, including India’s local elections and Poland’s democratic victories and subsequent challenges, and has taken advantage of campus visits, bringing dignitaries such as Laura Chinchilla, former president of Costa Rica and President of the Club de Madrid, onto the podcast as guests.
“The podcasts are an opportunity to take up the big themes and think about the specific instantiations of them in our local, national and global contexts,” Riedl said about the research-focused episodes. “And to be able to share some of the important conversations that happen on campus in Ithaca with our followers around the globe is a really important aspect of this podcast, and the work of the Cornell Center on Democracy.”
Riedl said the podcast is meant for anyone who cares about democracy – “from very active democracy defenders, to policymakers and practitioners, to journalists and scholars, to everyday citizens, young and old – who want to have a government that upholds their rights and freedoms, that provides governance and security, liberty and fairness, for the good of the people.
“The democratic ideal is always an unmet standard, and democracy is really a process, a system, that lets us all contribute to that expanding ideal.”
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