New Podcast Democracy:Differently Asks How Do We Make Democracy Better for Everyone?

A new fortnightly podcast Democracy:Differently launches on 4th July, inviting listeners to engage in conversations about how to make democracy work better for everyone.

Created by Keith Hyams, Professor of Political Theory and Ethics at the University of Warwick and Jessica Sutherland, Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, Democracy:Differently brings leading political thinkers, experts and practitioners to explore practical ideas for strengthening democracy in the face of today’s challenges.

Podcast co-creator Keith Hyams says, “It’s clear that democracy is having a crisis moment. It’s under threat from populists around the world. We have a narcissistic bully in the White House and the climate crisis has been allowed to get worse for over three decades, on democracy’s watch.”

“There are many ideas out there about how democracy could be done better.” Hyams continues.

“Some have been tried – things like citizens assemblies and commissioners for future generations – and many remain ideas in academic books and journals. There’s never been a more urgent time to get these ideas out of the libraries and into the public debate.”

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Kicking off the series on 4th July is a conversation on the cultural foundations of democracy with political philosopher Jo Wolff, the Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government.

In this episode, host Keith Hyams and Jo examine how norms such as mutual respect, the legitimacy of opposition, and civic empathy are essential for a resilient democratic society.

The first series of Democracy:Differently will launch on July 4th, followed by new releases every second Wednesday. Other guests and episodes include Dr Johan Farkas from the University of Copenhagen asking How can we do democracy in a post-truth era? and Nicole Curato, Professor of Democratic Governance at University of Birmingham covering topics including deliberative democracy in times of misery.

The exciting new podcast will ask questions like Why is democracy so bad at long problems like climate change and what can we do about it? What impact will AI have on democracy? How to rescue democracy from populism?

It will ponder what’s going wrong with democracy, and how to fix it. It will discuss subjects ranging from fake news and post truth in the era of tech companies to epistocracies and the role of knowledge in democracy. It will explore creative solutions for revitalising democracy in the 21st century and dive deep into actionable ideas that can make democracy more effective, transparent, and participatory.

“Democracy could be so much more than it currently is, more responsive to public needs, less myopic, more inclusive of citizens.” Hyams says, “We’ve spoken to experts from many different fields about why democracy isn’t working, and what can be done to fix it. And the overall message that we’ve been hearing is – yes, we need to wake up to the huge problems that democracy faces right now – but there are solutions out there, and it’s time to start turning those solutions into reality.”