With Jon Alexander and Jo Barratt, we’re super proud to introduce How To Save Democracy – season zero of a new podcast that aims to heal society’s broken relationship with democracy.

I’d love you to join us as we hold the space for the tough conversations we need to have.

We love democracy, genuinely, wholeheartedly. But it’s like a dysfunctional relationship. Democracy today is full of flaws. It’s not “by the people, for the people” anymore. There are resentments and frustrations and anger, and we can’t go on like this.

We want to make this relationship work though! It’s a long term thing, it’s valuable, we need to work through this. We need to have the tough conversations, and that’s what we are doing on this podcast.

The first four episodes below are a test, and we’d love to know what you think!

1) Facing the Menace is a conversation with best-selling author and journalist Ece Temelkuran and political strategist and pollster Paul Hilder – In this episode, we’re acknowledging the cracks in our democracies and asking what can still be done.

2) Citizen is a Verb is a conversation with Baratunde Thurston and Elizabeth Stewart, the powerhouse duo behind How To Citizen podcast.
In this episode, we explore their radical and hopeful idea: that being a citizen is something we do, not something we are. It’s a call to action and a reminder that democracy is not a product, but a practice.

Episodes 3) Meet Omezzine and 4) Meet Jon are casual conversations between Jon and I, interviewing each other about our respective paths in politics and democratic innovation and setting the tone for what’s to come.

For the future, we’ve got some great conversations lined up if you want more, from legendary musician and artist Brian Eno, to the former Chief Creative Officer of Mexico City, to the digital guru behind Taiwan’s crowdsourced Covid response Audrey Tang, to the former Portuguese Minister who introduced the world’s first national participatory budget Graça Fonseca.

But if we’re going to make more, we need to know you want it and we need your support. We’re seeking funding from a range of foundations, but every little helps – and every sign up and every donation demonstrates the appetite to potential funders. So if you can’t contribute right now, please do sign up for the mailing list at the bottom of this page or add a review on our podcast page.

You can donate here to help make season one 🩷