Brennan Center Live

What role do members of the cultural and media elite play in the ascent of nationalist rule? In her new book, Twilight of Democracy, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian Anne Applebaum examines the surrogates who enable autocracy. She discusses the patterns of weakening democracies around the world with Washington Post columnist Max Boot.

In his most recent book, North of Havana, legendary trial lawyer Martin Garbus recounts one of his most high-profile cases: the Cuban Five. In this episode of Brennan Center Live, Garbus talks to Victoria Bassetti about what this case can teach us about the U.S. justice system, American politics, and U.S.-Cuba relations.

In recent years, the Supreme Court has empowered moneyed interests to wield disproportionate influence in elections, gutted the Voting Rights Act, and upheld President Trump’s travel ban. These decisions fit a troubling, decades-long pattern, argues journalist Adam Cohen. He talks with NYU Law professor Melissa Murray about his new book, Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court’s Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America, and his finding that since the Nixon era, the Court has done little to protect the rights of the poor and disadvantaged.

How did George Washington view the presidency? What might he think of politics today? Historian Alexis Coe examines America's first president in a freshly humanizing light in her new book You Never Forget Your First. She talks with Julian Zelizer in this new episode of Brennan Center Live.

In her memoir Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For, former National Security Advisor and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice reveals pivotal moments from her career on the front lines of U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy. In this episode of Brennan Center Live, Rice talks with NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell about the current state of foreign affairs and the challenges facing American leadership. What are the greatest threats to democracy around the world? To what extent does our current approach to foreign policy advance or endanger our national security? And how do we repair our relationships with our democratic allies?

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed several problems with the American elections system, but even outside of global pandemic, Americans are increasingly questioning the fairness and accuracy of our elections. In his new book Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy, law professor Richard L. Hasen examines sources of voters’ distrust. In this new episode of Brennan Center Live, he speaks with legal expert Victoria Bassetti and proposes steps to restore voters' confidence.

Today, with a criminal justice system designed to punish, the U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. What if the American legal system was set up to weigh grounds for forgiveness? In her new book, When Should Law Forgive?, former Harvard Law School dean Martha Minow argues that we should build forgiveness into the administration of American law. She speaks with NYU Law Professor Melissa Murray in this new episode of Brennan Center Live.

Nearly half a century after Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court seems poised to undermine or overturn the landmark ruling. It’s an unnerving time for reproductive rights across the U.S., but it’s not new: social movements, politics, and courts have lead us here. Legal experts Melissa Murray, Reva Siegel, and Kate Shaw trace the evolution of reproductive rights in their new book, Reproductive Rights and Justice Stories. They join Rebecca Traister (Writer at large, New York Magazine) in this new episode of Brennan Center Live.

District attorneys wield tremendous power and have for decades been a driving force in mass incarceration. In her new book Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration, journalist Emily Bazelon follows a new crop of district attorneys who are using their offices to pursue criminal justice reform. She discusses these efforts with district attorneys Kimberly M. Foxx and Eric Gonzalez, Fair and Just Prosecution’s Miriam Krinsky, and the Brennan Center’s Lauren-Brooke Eisen. Brennan Center Live is a podcast created from Brennan Center events, featuring fascinating conversations with well-known thinkers on issues like democracy, justice, race, and the Constitution. For more, visit brennancenter.org/podcast

Policies supported by a majority of Americans are stymied in Washington and state capitals time and again. Enacting this agenda requires progressives to redouble their efforts at gaining power by expanding the franchise, ending voter suppression, and winning judicial elections, argues Caroline Fredrickson, former president of the American Constitution Society, in conversation with Eric Lesh. Fredrickson’s new book is The Democracy Fix: How to Win the Fight for Fair Rules, Fair Courts, and Fair Elections. Brennan Center Live is a podcast created from Brennan Center events, featuring fascinating conversations with well-known thinkers on issues like democracy, justice, race, and the Constitution. For more, visit brennancenter.org/podcast

African Americans fleeing racial terror in the South sought refuge in the North but instead encountered discrimination in housing, employment, and policing. Marcia Chatelain, Kenisha Grant, Ted Johnson, and Mark Whitaker discuss the history of the Great Migration and how it reverberates in mass incarceration and voter suppression today. Brennan Center Live is a podcast created from Brennan Center events, featuring fascinating conversations with well-known thinkers on issues like democracy, justice, race, and the Constitution. For more, visit brennancenter.org/podcast

The upheavals of the 1970s — the Watergate cover-up, defeat in Vietnam, racial conflict, and economic convulsions — formed the contours of today’s polarization, argue Princeton historians Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer. They joined Soledad O’Brien to discuss their new book, Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974. Brennan Center Live is a podcast created from Brennan Center events, featuring fascinating conversations with well-known thinkers on issues like democracy, justice, race, and the Constitution. For more, visit brennancenter.org/podcast

Reflecting on a distinguished prosecutorial career, former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara discusses the need for lawyers to take into account flaws in the legal system and in human nature in his new book, Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law. He is joined by political commentator Margaret Hoover. Brennan Center Live is a podcast created from Brennan Center events, featuring fascinating conversations with well-known thinkers on issues like democracy, justice, race, and the Constitution. For more, visit brennancenter.org/podcast  

Journalism and cultural production are crucial to making law and policy, Ta-Nehisi Coates argues, because they expand peoples’ empathy and imagination. In a wide-ranging conversation, the celebrated journalist discusses criminal justice reform, the 2020 election, the #MeToo movement, and more with NYU law professor Melissa Murray. 

Watergate revealed a trail of crimes and coverups that brought down a president and changed the course of American history. With Robert Mueller's findings likely to be unveiled soon, what can we learn from Watergate about Trump-era abuses of power? John Dean, who was President Nixon's White House counsel, and Elizabeth Holtzman, who as a member of the House Judiciary Committee voted to impeach Nixon, discuss. Brennan Center Live is a weekly series of podcasts created from Brennan Center events, featuring fascinating conversations with well-known thinkers on issues like democracy, justice, race, and the Constitution.

America has five percent of the world’s population, but nearly a quarter of its prisoners. Now, a dynamic movement for change is sweeping the country. CNN host Van Jones and Ford Foundation president Darren Walker on how to keep the momentum going.  Brennan Center Live is a weekly series of podcasts created from Brennan Center events, featuring fascinating conversations with well-known thinkers on issues like democracy, justice, race, and the Constitution.

New York Times best-selling author Carol Anderson speaks with Cornell Brooks about her new book on racist voter suppression and the fight against it. Anderson focuses in particular on the drive to weaken the landmark Voting Rights Act, and argues that voter suppression ultimately aims to make its targets lose faith in democracy itself. Ensuring that doesn’t happen could hardly be a more urgent task.   Brennan Center Live is a weekly series of podcasts created from Brennan Center events, featuring fascinating conversations with well-known thinkers on issues like democracy, justice, race, and the Constitution.

As crucial elections approach, voters from Georgia to North Dakota to Texas are at risk of disenfranchisement, and the result could be further skewed by extreme gerrymandering. Meanwhile, automatic voter registration could expand access to the polls in several states. How will the battle over voting shape the midterms, and what can we do to make sure every eligible American has a chance to cast a ballot?  Hear from several of America’s top voting rights lawyers — Dego Adegbile, Julie Ebenstein, Brenda Wright, and the Brennan Center’s Sean Morales-Doyle — on the most urgent issue facing our democracy.    Brennan Center Live is a weekly series of podcasts created from Brennan Center events, featuring fascinating conversations with well-known thinkers on issues like democracy, justice, race, and the Constitution.

How did we lose an entire generation to the American prison system following the War on Drugs? In Cuz, The Life and Times of Michael A., the Harvard professor and political theorist Danielle Allen explores the issue through the experience of her cousin, who served 11 years in prison for an attempted carjacking committed when he was 15, then lost his life to violence three years after being released. Allen is joined in conversation by the Brennan Center’s Nicole Austin-Hillery.   Brennan Center Live is a weekly series of podcasts created from Brennan Center events, featuring fascinating conversations with well-known thinkers on issues like democracy, justice, race, and the Constitution.  

Donald Trump poses a grave, long-term threat to our democratic institutions, Atlantic senior editor and former White House speechwriter David Frum has been warning. But, in this wide-ranging conversation with NYU Law School president Trevor Morrison, Frum argues we need to focus not just on Trump’s own behavior, but on “the system of power that enables him.” And Frum explores the ways in which America’s potential retreat from democracy under Trump mirrors developments around the world. Brennan Center Live is a weekly series of podcasts created from Brennan Center events, featuring fascinating conversations with well-known thinkers on issues like democracy, justice, race, and the Constitution.

Every ten years, the federal government conducts the census of all people in the United States. The stakes are extraordinarily high, particularly in light of the push to include questions about citizenship. The tally determines everything from the allocation of congressional seats and the shape of legislative districts, to the flow of vast amounts of government funds. Political pressure is especially high this time, as demographic change transforms the country. In all, it's a potential crisis looming ahead – with huge ramifications for civil rights and government policy for years to come.   How could budgetary constraints, new and untested technologies, and potential political interference create obstacles to an accurate count? What are the steps engaged organizations and individuals can take to increase the likelihood of a successful census?   Join civil rights leader Vanita Gupta, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Wendy Weiser, Director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, Thomas Saenz, President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Joseph J. Salvo, Director of the NYC Department of Planning's Population Division, to unpack the many questions and challenges of the upcoming census. They will spotlight work that litigators are doing to bolster the health of the census and ensure the decisions that will impact our society in political and economic ways are made are based on honest and accurate calculations.     Vanita Gupta, President and Chief Executive Officer, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Thomas Saenz, President and General Counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund Joseph J. Salvo, Director, Population Division of the NYC Department of Planning Wendy Weiser, Director, Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law

The courts have proven a key battleground in the fights of the Trump era. On immigration, voting rights, freedom of religion and more, legal advocates are taking on federal policy – and, often, winning. What are these new legal strategies? Will they last? And how can issues of democracy, justice, and the rule of law become burning matters of public – not just legal – debate?   Alexander Heffner, Host, The Open Mind on PBS Becca Heller, Director and Co-Founder, IRAP; Visiting Clinical Lecturer in law, Yale Law School Jameel Jaffer, Executive Director, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University Neal Katyal, Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor of National Security Law, Georgetown Law; former Acting Solicitor General of the United States Faiza Patel, Co-Director, Liberty & National Security Program, Brennan Center for Justice Elizabeth Wydra, President, Constitutional Accountability Center

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is largely remembered for his campaigns against segregation, his calls for racial brotherhood, and his unwavering commitment to nonviolence. He is less often remembered, however, for his fervent opposition to increasing global militarism, his all-consuming desire to eradicate poverty, and his vision for a transformed and truly participatory democracy. Fifty years after his assassination, former Rep. Donna Edwards and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, in conversation with the Brennan Center’s Ted Johnson, will reflect on King’s life and examine the expansion of his activism from 1967 to 1968. Who was King at the end of his life? What is his lasting impact on issues of poverty, war, and democracy? And what must we do to bring about the revolution of values he envisioned? Donna Edwards, former Representative, U.S. Congress Michael Steele, former Chairman, Republican National Committee Theodore Johnson, Senior Fellow, Brennan Center for Justice This program is produced by the Brennan Center for Justice in partnership with the NYU John Brademas Center and NYU Washington, DC.

There are a shocking 2.2 million Americans behind bars right now, but how can we cure America of its epidemic of mass punishment? Leaders across the criminal justice movement share an array of reform ideas, including improving prison conditions, creating effective youth re-entry programs, changes to the parole model, alternatives for mental health and drug addiction issues, and models of new industries to replace the prison economy. Speakers include Nicole Zayas Fortier, counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, Robin Steinberg, founder of the Bronx Defenders, and Judith A. Greene, a former Soros Senior Justice Fellow and criminal justice expert, both contributors to Decarcerating America, The New Press volume, edited by Ernest Drucker. Nicole Zayas Fortier, Advocacy & Policy Counsel at the Campaign for Smart Justice, American Civil Liberties Union Judith A. Greene, Former Soros Senior Justice fellow; Contributor, Decarcerating America: From Mass Punishment to Public Health Robin Steinberg, Founder, Bronx Defenders; Contributor, Decarcerating America: From Mass Punishment to Public Health

Big data has produced big change. As anyone with a phone knows, technology has exploded – and created startling amounts of data about our lives. How is this information tracked and stored, and how does that affect our rights? Algorithms trained on big data have transformed law enforcement and social services. Cash-strapped governments have proven especially eager to use automated tools. Some claim to predict crime “hot spots” and even individuals at risk. Others recommend whether to detain or release defendants before trial. And some assign children to schools and families to shelters. All these automated computing tools today play a larger role than ever before. Fans praise these as better than fallible human judgment. But do they live up to their promise? How to judge claims by the companies who stand to make money off them? Can we really achieve transparency and efficiency? Do big data tools, as some charge, simply reinforce class and race prejudice under the guise of objectivity? Can these systems be harnessed for good? And how can affected communities gain control over how data is used and packaged? Join us for a discussion on the use of big data in social welfare, policing, and criminal justice, and its impact on marginalized communities.   Tamika Lewis, Organizer, Our Data Bodies Rachel Levinson-Waldman, Senior Counsel, Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program Cornell William Brooks, Senior Fellow, Brennan Center for Justice Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, Professor of Law, University of the District of Columbia's David A. Clarke School of Law; author, The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement

With social media on the rise, living standards stagnating, and fears of multiethnic democracy growing, voters are discontent with politics. Across the world — from India to Turkey to the United States — authoritarian populists have seized power. In his new book, Yascha Mounk examines how trust in the political system is dwindling as money in politics soars and democracy wanes. How did we get here, and how can we protect democracy moving forward? Yascha Mounk, Lecturer on Political Theory at Harvard University and author of the new book The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It,discusses the future of democracy with Wendy Weiser, Director of the Democracy Program and the Brennan Center for Justice.     Yascha Mounk, Lecturer on Political Theory, Harvard University; author, The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It Wendy Weiser, Director, Democracy Program, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law

A half century after the Voting Rights Act guaranteed the franchise to all Americans, access to this fundamental right is once again under siege. How did a group of great citizens drive the enactment of the Voting Rights Act? How did the legislation work to secure access to the ballot? Why is its pledge once again under attack? In an extraordinary and relevant conversation, legendary television journalist Bill Moyers — who served as one of President Lyndon Johnson’s top aides during the civil rights era — will discuss the epochal events of the “Second Reconstruction.” He will be joined by two leaders of the current fight for democracy and veterans of courtrooms across the country in the fight against voter suppression — Kristen Clarke of the National Lawyers' Committee and Myrna Pérez of the Brennan Center's Democracy Program.     Kristen Clarke, President & Executive Director, National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Bill Moyers, President, Schumann Media Center Myrna Pérez, Deputy Director, Brennan Center's Democracy Program and leader of the Center’s Voting Rights and Elections project   This event is part of Carnegie Hall’s The ’60s: The Years that Changed America festival.

Considered one of the most influential justices to ever serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia left behind a complex legacy as a conservative legal thinker and disruptive public intellectual. A vivid writer known for caustic dissents, Justice Scalia was crucial to reshaping jurisprudence during his three decades on the bench. According to Richard Hasen, author of the new book The Justice of Contradictions, Scalia’s jurisprudence and confrontational style disrupted the American legal system, delegitimizing opponents and leading a conservative renaissance on the Court. Join Richard Hasen — professor at University of California, Irvine and one of The National Law Journal's 100 most influential lawyers in America — as he delves into the complicated legacy of Justice Antonin Scalia. He will be interviewed by leading legal journalist Joan Biskupic, author of the definitive biography of Justice Scalia. Rick Hasen, professor, University of California, Irvine School of Law; author, The Justice of Contradictions: Antonin Scalia and the Politics of Disruption Joan Biskupic, CNN legal analyst & Supreme Court biographer; author of American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and forthcoming biography of Chief Justice Roberts

Citizens United. Hobby Lobby. Many Americans had not heard of the movement to expand constitutional rights for businesses before these landmark cases. But the struggle for corporate rights has a long, complicated history in the United States. The first Supreme Court case extending constitutional protections to corporations was decided in 1809, more than a half-century before the first comparable cases for racial minorities or women. In the years since, the nation’s most powerful corporations have gained our most fundamental rights, transforming the Constitution to serve the ends of capital. Join Adam Winkler, law professor at UCLA and author of the new book We the Corporations, for a discussion about the American government’s relationship to big business and the 200-year effort to give corporations the same rights as people. He will be joined by Dahlia Lithwick — one of the country’s most prominent legal journalists — an editor at Slate and host of its Amicus podcast — who covers the Supreme Court and its decisions on corporate rights.   Adam Winkler, author, We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights; professor of law, UCLA Dahlia Lithwick, Senior Editor and legal (Supreme Court) correspondent, Slate   In partnership with the American Constitution Society.

When can a democracy slide into autocracy? In his provocative new book, Trumpocracy, conservative writer David Frum examines the ways in which Trump and his administration continually undermine our most important public institutions. As Frum argues, Trump has steadily damaged many of the tenets and accepted practices of American democracy in just his first year of presidency, including media freedom, judicial independence, and the right to have one’s vote counted fairly. David Frum is a Senior Editor at The Atlantic, the author of nine books, and served as a special assistant and speechwriter for President George W. Bush. In this special conversation with NYU School of Law Dean Trevor Morrison, a leading expert on the presidency and the Constitution, Frum will discuss what happens next under Trump, as well as how to prevent a push toward illiberalism. David Frum, Senior Editor, The Atlantic; author, Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic Trevor Morrison, Dean and Eric M. and Laurie B. Roth Professor of Law, New York University School of Law

President Donald Trump’s decision to keep control of his business empire despite apparent conflicts of interest is but one of a number of ethical controversies that have made headlines since Inauguration Day one year ago. As informal guardrails that constrain self-dealing by those in power fall away, what can be done to shore up federal ethics laws to give the public confidence that their leaders will put the interests of the American people first? The panel reviews the most significant gaps that exist in our system of federal ethics regulation, considers the special challenges that accompany any effort to regulate the president’s conduct in office, and debates the most promising ideas for reform. Kimberly Atkins, Chief Washington Reporter/Columnist, Boston Herald Kathleen Clark, Professor of Law, Washington University School of Law Walter Shaub, Senior Director, Ethics, Campaign Legal Center and former Director of the Office of Government Ethics Daniel I. Weiner, Senior Counsel, Democracy Program, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law This program is produced by The Brennan Center for Justice in partnership with the NYU John Brademas Center and NYU Washington, DC.

Join the Brennan Center’s Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, author of Periods Gone Public, and Malaka Gharib, Deputy Editor and Digital Strategist of NPR's Goats and Soda, to learn more about how this campaign emerged, why the issue resonates across party lines, and what is next for “menstrual equity.” Gretchen Borchelt of the National Women's Law Center and Congresswoman Grace Meng, (NY-6), sponsor of the Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2017 (H.R. 972), will introduce the conversation.          

Fact: More than 100,000 individuals in the US are held in private prisons and private immigration detention centers. These institutions are criticized for making money off mass incarceration―$5 billion every year―and have become a focus of the anti-mass incarceration movement. The Department of Justice under President Obama attempted to cut off private prisons, while DOJ under Trump has embraced these institutions. Few journalists or scholars have seen these prisons firsthand―until now. Join Lauren-Brooke Eisen―senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice―for the launch of her new book, Inside Private Prisons, as she reflects on her unprecedented access to our nation’s private penal system and what she’s uncovered about these corporate prisons. She will be joined by Glenn Martin of JustLeadershipUSA and CNN's Laura Jarrett will moderate the discussion.

For 510 days, NBC News Correspondent Katy Tur reported on Republican Nominee Donald Trump. She visited forty states with the candidate and made over 3,800 live television reports. Over the course of the year and a half, Trump taunted Tur incessantly, transforming her into a prominent figure in the presidential campaign. As Tur was singled out, colleagues rallied around her and thousands tweeted their support with #ImWithTur. Katy Tur—who recently received a Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence—joins the Brennan Center and Irin Carmon, co-author of Notorious R.B.G., to reflect on her unexpected time in the spotlight and the fascinating, highly controversial world of the 2016 Trump Campaign.

One year after the election of Donald Trump as president, this special program looks forward and asks: What can we do now? Trump has broken countless unwritten norms of democratic conduct meant to protect against corruption and abuse. In the past, reform often followed abuse, frequently in the form of new laws: the limit of presidential terms, anti-nepotism laws, the special prosecutor law, the War Powers Act, and many others. This panel asks what has been different about this presidency, and what should be the agendas going forward to check presidential power and curb oval office misconduct. We mark the one year anniversary of Trump’s electoral victory with Emily Bazelon, staff writer for New York Times Magazine, Preet Bharara, former US Attorney, Southern District of NY, John Podhoretz, editor of Commentary, and ABC's George Stephanopoulos for a public discussion of how to fortify our democracy in the Trump years and beyond.

Fact: More than 100,000 individuals in the US are held in private prisons and private immigration detention centers. These institutions are criticized for making money off mass incarceration―$5 billion every year―and have become a focus of the anti-mass incarceration movement. The Department of Justice under President Obama attempted to cut off private prisons, while DOJ under Trump has embraced these institutions. Few journalists or scholars have seen these prisons firsthand―until now. Join Lauren-Brooke Eisen―senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice―for the launch of her new book, Inside Private Prisons, as she reflects on her unprecedented access to our nation’s private penal system and what she’s uncovered about these corporate prisons. She will be joined by criminal justice journalist Eli Hager from The Marshall Project, investigate journalist Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Khalil Cumberbatch from The Fortune Society, and NPR correspondent Ailsa Chang.

In an otherwise treacherous political era for women’s bodies and health, activists and lawmakers are advancing a new, affirmative agenda – for the very first time, one that meshes menstruation and public policy. From tax reform to public benefits to corrections policy, periods have become the surprising force fueling a high-profile, bipartisan movement. Join Congresswoman Grace Meng, (NY-6), sponsor of the Menstrual Equity for All Act of 2017 (H.R. 972); the Brennan Center’s Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, author of Periods Gone Public, and Newsweek senior reporter Abigail Jones to learn more about how this campaign emerged, why the issue resonates across party lines, and what is next for “menstrual equity.”

Dive in to this lively dialogue about economics, history, philosophy, law, and politics with Ganesh Sitaraman, author of The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution. He makes a compelling case that inequality is more than just a moral or economic problem; it threatens the very core of our American constitutional system.

Join the Brennan Center and New York Immigration Coalition for a discussion on extreme vetting, the Muslim ban, and the implications for American democracy and society.

A deeply personal memoir that critiques the American prison system, Danielle Allen’s Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.tells a coming-of-age story born of the tragedy of mass incarceration. Her fifteen-year old cousin Michael was arrested and tried as an adult for attempted carjacking. Dropped into the Los Angeles prison system as a teenager, he served eleven years before returning to South Central—a region racked by gang warfare—and eventually lost his life to violence just three years later. How did we lose an entire generation to the American prison system following the War on Drugs, and how can we reduce mass incarceration moving forward?  Danielle Allen is a University Professor at Harvard University and the Director for the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. A political theorist, she is widely known for her work on justice and citizenship in ancient Athens and modern America. Join Allen and the Brennan Center for a discussion on the “new American story”—narcotics, gangs, the War on Drugs—and the impact of the criminal justice system on the African American community in the late twentieth century.

The Watergate scandal revealed a trail of crimes and cover-ups that ultimately changed the course of American politics. Forty-three years after President Nixon’s resignation, many have drawn parallels between the Watergate era and our own. What lessons can we learn that apply to today? The Brennan Center is bringing together some of the key figures from the Watergate drama. John Dean served as White House Counsel. His riveting testimony helped bring down the president. Elizabeth Holtzman, then the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, was a member of the House Judiciary Committee, which voted to impeach. Unpack what happened during Watergate and how it changed American politics with two of the main players from the era, and discuss what lessons we can draw for addressing abuse in politics today.

President Trump has incited open racism, xenophobia, and hostility to Latinos and immigrants. From his attacks on Judge Curiel during his campaign to his claims that 3-5 million noncitizens voted to his pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, to his recent vow to end DACA, there has never been any question that this is an era where Latinos face acute threats in many different arenas. The attacks seem to keep coming, and the Trump administration appears undeterred by Latinos’ growing percentage of the country’s population.

Technology moves like lightning—so how will innovation affect our democracy and economy? Will it eliminate privacy? What tools will the military and police have, and who will control them? What are the big ideas, fantastic inventions and potentially sinister trends that will shape our future? Are we prepared for the opportunities, as well as the dangers, that await?

Brennan Center contributor, Victoria Bassetti's podcast series, "The Line," examines the Electoral College.

An extra session of Brennan Center contributor, Victoria Bassetti's podcast series, "The Line," examining first time voters. 

An extra session of Brennan Center contributor, Victoria Bassetti's podcast series, "The Line," discussing Tammany Hall. 

Part 3 of Brennan Center Contributor Victoria Bassetti's new three-part podcast series, “The Line,” examining voter ID laws and the myth of voter fraud with the Brennan Center's Director of Democracy, Wendy Weiser. 

Part 2 of Brennan Center Contributor Victoria Bassetti's new three-part podcast series, “The Line,” examining the problem of low voter turnout today and historically with Brennan Center president Michael Waldman.

Part 1 of Brennan Center Contributor Victoria Bassetti's new three-part podcast series, “The Line,” examining the false claims of election rigging, how to fix low voter turnout in America, and the continued fight over voter identification laws.

Control of the country is up for grabs  — and the integrity of our democracy is at stake this November. Nearly two dozen states passed new voting restrictions. Gerrymandering keeps partisans in power. And the Supreme Court gutted campaign finance laws and protections against voting discrimination. In The Great Suppression: Voting Rights, Corporate Cash, and the Conservative Assault on American Democracy, MSNBC reporter Zachary Roth reveals how this movement prevents progress and quiets the political voices of people of color, students, and disadvantaged communities.  More info: http://www.brennancenter.org/event/great-suppression-book-talk-zachary-roth

A preview of Brennan Center Contributor Victoria Bassetti's new three-part podcast series, “The Line,” examining the false claims of election rigging, how to fix low voter turnout in America, and the continued fight over voter identification laws.