Podcast appearances and mentions of jenna spinelle

This episode marks the first time that all five of our hosts (Michael Berkman, Chris Beem, Cyanne Loyle, Candis Watts Smith, and Jenna Spinelle) are together on one episode. It's also the first time we've all been together since the election. We take some time to reflect on changes in America's political party, the decline of liberal democracy in the U.S., and how to harness the good from social media amid growing extremism and misinformation.Along the way, you'll hear from some of the guests who've appeared on the show this year:Joe Wright: How personalist parties destabilize democracyCassidy Hutchinson: Is there room for Republicans in the Democratic party?Alex Lefebvre: Can democracy exist without liberalism?Matthew Rhodes-Purdy: How populism spreadsCynthia Miller-Idriss: The rise of online extremismV Spehar: Social media as tool for community buildingFrom the entire Democracy Works team, best wishes for a happy holiday season! We'll see you in 2025.

We continue our Best of 2024 episodes with an  episode from the Democracy Works podcast, hosted by Jenna Spinelle, Christopher Beem, Michael Berkman. Cynthia Miller-Idriss, one of America's leading experts on the far right, joins us this week to discuss what draws people to political extremism online and offline — and what we can do to combat it.Miller-Idriss is the director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University and author of the book Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right. As you'll hear, PERIL takes a public health approach to preventing violent extremism and provides tools and resources to help communities create resilient democracies.In the interview, Miller-Idriss discusses how extremism and political violence are linked to our desire for community. This dynamic means that extremist ideas can pop up in seemingly innocuous places from martial arts groups to online wellness communities. She says understanding this dynamic is key to moving people away from extremist spaces and into constructive communities.Miller-Idriss visited Penn State as part of the Mellon-funded Sawyer Seminar exploring the theme, "Birthing the Nation: Gender, Sex and Reproduction in Ethnonationalist Imaginaries."Democracy Works PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

We want to share a show with you! Democracy Works comes from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State and explores how our democracy impacts and is impacted by issues ranging from climate change to criminal justice to party politics.  In this episode, “The immigration stories that aren't told,” hosts Michael Berkman, Cyanne Loyle, and Jenna Spinelle talk with anthropologist Jason De León. De León spent seven years embedded with a group of smugglers moving migrants across the Mexico border. His time culminated in a book titled Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling.  We hope you find their conversation as interesting and illuminating as we did.   Learn more about Democracy Works and listen to more episodes here.   Episode link: https://www.democracyworkspodcast.com/episodes/jason-de-leon   Links of interest: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/672038/soldiers-and-kings-by-jason-de-leon/  

On February 14, 2018, a former student opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, with an assault rifle he'd purchased legally. Hiding in a janitor's closet, David Hogg recorded his classmates on his phone. "I interviewed my classmates so that if we didn't make it out of there, hopefully our voices would carry on,” Hogg told NPR.” And it wouldn't be possible for the NRA and gun lobby to say, 'Oh, you can't talk about this. You're politicizing this.'”Seventeen students and staff died that day. Later that year, David Hogg co-founded March for Our Lives, and helped organize hundreds of thousands of young people to rally for an end to gun violence in the United States. In the years since, they've had some wins, including the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, which enhanced background checks for 18 to 21 year-olds, and provided funding for community violence intervention and mental health services. Hogg's new project, Leaders We Deserve, helps young progressives run for office. This week, we're bringing you a recent interview with David Hogg from Democracy Works, a podcast about what it means to live in a democracy, from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University. Something that stands out about Hogg, from our perspective as a podcast about peace, is how he works across the aisle to get laws passed. Like many in the peacebuilding field, Hogg recognizes that change is often incremental, and a compromise that will save lives is more useful than political gridlock.Democracy Works co-host Jenna Spinelle spoke with David Hogg on his trip to Penn State's campus this spring.You can find the original Democracy Works episode and a transcript here.Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions ABOUT THE SHOW Making Peace Visible is hosted by Jamil Simon and produced by Andrea Muraskin, with help from Faith McClure. Learn more at makingpeacevisible.org Support this podcast Connect on social:Instagram @makingpeacevisibleLinkedIn @makingpeacevisibleX (formerly Twitter) @makingpeaceviz We want to learn more about our listeners. Take this 3-minute survey to help us improve the show!

From talking heads on cable news to hot takes online, there seems to be more opinion than ever in journalism these days. There's an entire body of research about how this shift toward opinionated news impacts the people who consume news, but far less on how these changes impact the people who create it. Kimberly Meltzer tackles some of these questions in her book From News to Talk: The Expansion of Opinion and Commentary in U.S. Journalism (SUNY Press, 2019). The book features interviews with journalists like Maria Bartiromo and Brian Stelter about why the media landscape is changing, what role (if any) journalists play in the decline of civility in public discourse, and how they work together as communities of practice in an ever-changing profession. As Meltzer says, today's news landscape is complex. It recalls a past era of partisan newspapers, with the added wrinkle of 21st-century technology and a desire by some outlets to hold true to the standard of objectivity that became ubiquitous after World War II. In this interview, she offers some advice for journalists, news consumers, and journalism educators about how to think about the relationship between news, opinion, and civility today. Meltzer is Associate Professor of Communication and Chair of the Department of Communication at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. She is also the author of “TV News Anchors and Journalistic Tradition: How Journalists Adapt to Technology” and worked as a broadcast journalist herself before transitioning to academia. Jenna Spinelle is a journalism instructor at Penn State, host of the Democracy Works podcast, produced by Penn State's McCourtney Institute for Democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

From talking heads on cable news to hot takes online, there seems to be more opinion than ever in journalism these days. There's an entire body of research about how this shift toward opinionated news impacts the people who consume news, but far less on how these changes impact the people who create it. Kimberly Meltzer tackles some of these questions in her book From News to Talk: The Expansion of Opinion and Commentary in U.S. Journalism (SUNY Press, 2019). The book features interviews with journalists like Maria Bartiromo and Brian Stelter about why the media landscape is changing, what role (if any) journalists play in the decline of civility in public discourse, and how they work together as communities of practice in an ever-changing profession. As Meltzer says, today's news landscape is complex. It recalls a past era of partisan newspapers, with the added wrinkle of 21st-century technology and a desire by some outlets to hold true to the standard of objectivity that became ubiquitous after World War II. In this interview, she offers some advice for journalists, news consumers, and journalism educators about how to think about the relationship between news, opinion, and civility today. Meltzer is Associate Professor of Communication and Chair of the Department of Communication at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. She is also the author of “TV News Anchors and Journalistic Tradition: How Journalists Adapt to Technology” and worked as a broadcast journalist herself before transitioning to academia. Jenna Spinelle is a journalism instructor at Penn State, host of the Democracy Works podcast, produced by Penn State's McCourtney Institute for Democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

From talking heads on cable news to hot takes online, there seems to be more opinion than ever in journalism these days. There's an entire body of research about how this shift toward opinionated news impacts the people who consume news, but far less on how these changes impact the people who create it. Kimberly Meltzer tackles some of these questions in her book From News to Talk: The Expansion of Opinion and Commentary in U.S. Journalism (SUNY Press, 2019). The book features interviews with journalists like Maria Bartiromo and Brian Stelter about why the media landscape is changing, what role (if any) journalists play in the decline of civility in public discourse, and how they work together as communities of practice in an ever-changing profession. As Meltzer says, today's news landscape is complex. It recalls a past era of partisan newspapers, with the added wrinkle of 21st-century technology and a desire by some outlets to hold true to the standard of objectivity that became ubiquitous after World War II. In this interview, she offers some advice for journalists, news consumers, and journalism educators about how to think about the relationship between news, opinion, and civility today. Meltzer is Associate Professor of Communication and Chair of the Department of Communication at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. She is also the author of “TV News Anchors and Journalistic Tradition: How Journalists Adapt to Technology” and worked as a broadcast journalist herself before transitioning to academia. Jenna Spinelle is a journalism instructor at Penn State, host of the Democracy Works podcast, produced by Penn State's McCourtney Institute for Democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications

From talking heads on cable news to hot takes online, there seems to be more opinion than ever in journalism these days. There's an entire body of research about how this shift toward opinionated news impacts the people who consume news, but far less on how these changes impact the people who create it. Kimberly Meltzer tackles some of these questions in her book From News to Talk: The Expansion of Opinion and Commentary in U.S. Journalism (SUNY Press, 2019). The book features interviews with journalists like Maria Bartiromo and Brian Stelter about why the media landscape is changing, what role (if any) journalists play in the decline of civility in public discourse, and how they work together as communities of practice in an ever-changing profession. As Meltzer says, today's news landscape is complex. It recalls a past era of partisan newspapers, with the added wrinkle of 21st-century technology and a desire by some outlets to hold true to the standard of objectivity that became ubiquitous after World War II. In this interview, she offers some advice for journalists, news consumers, and journalism educators about how to think about the relationship between news, opinion, and civility today. Meltzer is Associate Professor of Communication and Chair of the Department of Communication at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. She is also the author of “TV News Anchors and Journalistic Tradition: How Journalists Adapt to Technology” and worked as a broadcast journalist herself before transitioning to academia. Jenna Spinelle is a journalism instructor at Penn State, host of the Democracy Works podcast, produced by Penn State's McCourtney Institute for Democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We continue our Best of 2023 episodes with an  episode from the When the People Decide podcast, hosted by Jenna Spinelle.Librarians have spoken for years about “library faith,” the belief that public libraries are central to democracy because they contribute to an informed citizenry. Today, the idea is gaining even more traction, and even conservative crackdowns on what's permitted in libraries reinforce the idea that they're more than just “book warehouses” but centers for community engagement and representativeness. This week, hear from two librarians working to enhance the role libraries of libraries democracy and civic engagement. Shamichael Hallman explains how he brought his experience in tech and faith leadership to bear when he ran a branch of the Memphis Public Libraries, including bringing Civic Saturdays to his community, a program of Citizen University. And public policy advocate Nancy Kranich of Rutgers University shares the high hopes she has that libraries remain crucial institutions that allow us to engage with our government–and each other.Learn more about the podcast at thepeopledecide.show and follow us on Twitter @PeopleDecidePod.Additional InformationWhen the People Decide PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

We continue our Best of 2022 episodes with an  episode from the Democracy Works podcast, hosted by Jenna Spinelle, Christopher Beem, Michael Berkman. Chris Beem talks with former Republican political operative Tim Miller about the party's loyalty to Donald Trump and where it might go in 2024 and beyond. Miller is a writer-at-large for The Bulwark and the author of the best-selling book Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell. He was previously political director for Republican Voters Against Trump and communications director for Jeb Bush 2016. He also appears on MSNBC and The Circus on Showtime.Miller's book is a reflection on both his own past work for the Republican Party and the contortions of his former peers in the GOP establishment. He draws a straight line between the actions of the 2000s GOP to the Republican political class's Trumpian takeover, including the horrors of January 6th. In this conversation, Miller and Beem also discuss alarming trends among young conservatives and how they may continue, or even exacerbate, some of what Miller observed after the 2016 election.Democracy Works PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

We're sharing a special interview of The Democracy Group founder, Jenna Spinelle, & network manager, Brandon Stover from the Continuing Studies podcast.Discover the power of a podcast network; the tremendous value that it brings to it's member shows, and how it's fostering democracy and civil discourse from all sides of the political landscape.  Join hosts Neil McPhedran and Jennifer Lee Gunson in conversation with Jenna Spinelle and Brandon Stover, the driving forces behind The Democracy Group, as they share the intricacies of their pioneering podcast network. From exploring the website's role as a central hub for diverse voices and initiatives, to dissecting the innovative use of thematic shows and curated playlists, we uncover the transformative impact of podcasts on civic education and political discourse. The episode provides a behind-the-scenes look at their fellowship program, highlighting their dedication to nurturing the next generation of leaders and fostering inclusive dialogue. Join us as we navigate the nuances of political conversations, the challenges of bridging divides, and the inspiring potential of podcast networks in pushing forward a common goal and educating the general public.

The Village Square is truly delighted to offer you a feed drop episode of When The People Decide, a podcast about how everyday people are shaping democracy. Along with Village SquareCast, they're a member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. Listen to When The People Decide Here.   This episode, Libraries as civic spaces is thoroughly enchanting to us—featuring special guests Shamichael Hallman and Nancy Kranich: Librarians have spoken for years about “library faith,” the belief that public libraries are central to democracy because they contribute to an informed citizenry. Today, the idea is gaining even more traction, and even conservative crackdowns on what's permitted in libraries reinforce the idea that they're more than just “book warehouses” but centers for community engagement and representativeness.  And meet the host of When the People Decide, Jenna Spinelle (one of our favorite podcast hosts, don't tell the others). Be sure to catch Season 1 while you're there—an eight-episode series explores the promise — and sometimes peril — that ballot initiatives have brought to American democracy by telling the stories of people who have organized initiative campaigns across the country. Village SquareCast will be back with brand new episodes of Village SquareCast this fall.

In the second season of this podcast all about how people engage with U.S. democracy, Jenna Spinelle zeroes in on hyperlocal efforts to increase participation in local government. She talks to the activists, city leaders, and academics doing everything from democracy lotteries to civic courses at city hall and the library–all aiming to empower residents to have a real, tangible say in what goes on in their communities. From The McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University, When the People Decide takes a close look at how we can really save democracy, starting with issues in our own backyards.New episodes start July 17! Follow the podcast at thepeopledecide.show or on social media at peopledecidepod.

The Village Square is truly delighted to offer you an episode of one of the best podcasts in the democracy space—Democracy Works.  Meet them: The Democracy Works podcast seeks to answer that question by examining a different aspect of democratic life each week — from voting to criminal justice to the free press and everything in between. We interview experts who study democracy, as well as people who are out there doing the hard work of democracy day in and day out.  This episode of Democracy Works is Separating News From Noise, examining the very real dynamic of news avoidance.  How much news is too much? Or not enough? News Over Noise, the new podcast from Penn State's News Literacy Initiative explores that question and offers guidance on how to consume news that enhances your participation in our democracy without becoming overwhelmed by all the noise on social media and the 24/7 news cycle.  If your first reaction is to demonize people who don't want to read the news, hold up. Read this Washington Post piece by our favorite journalist Amanda Ripley "I stopped reading the news—is the problem me or the product." The Village Square is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. Both The Democracy Group and Democracy Works are projects led by the wise and wonderful Jenna Spinelle of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University. If you don't know them already you should. Village SquareCast will be back with brand new episodes of Village SquareCast this fall.

Hi Friends. It's Tim Villegas, and for this week, we are switching things up a bit with a feed drop. What's a feed drop, you ask? Well, let me tell you. It's where we share a podcast episode made by someone else that we think is great with you right here in our podcast feed. As Think Inclusive listeners, we know that building bridges is important to you, and that is why we think you are going to appreciate this episode. This week we are featuring the Democracy Works podcast, and in this episode, they are talking about civics education in the US. Chris Beem, Candis Watts Smith and Jenna Spinelle discuss the importance of civic learning with Emma Humphreys of iCivics and Ashley Berner of Johns Hopkins. They think that civics education is important because it teaches students about how government works and how they can participate in decision-making. They also believe that schools should teach controversial topics and provide students with the skills to handle them. The episode also discusses the knowledge and skills needed for civic learning, such as history, political theory, economics, and geography. Emma and Ashley suggest that schools need more resources and flexibility to teach civic learning effectively. And now, please enjoy the Democracy Works Podcast.Episode show notes + transcript: https://www.democracyworkspodcast.com/civic-learning-week/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What are the most pressing concerns about the future of the American experiment and Democracy around the world? How can one person impact the many complex systems going on in the world? How can we better understand what's broken in our democracy? How can we work together to fix it? In what ways can we use the emerging medium of podcasting to explore these questions and help come up with solutions? The Democracy Group is a network of podcasts that is united around the goal of answering these questions. We're joined this week by Jenna Spinelle and Brandon Stover. Jenna is the Communications Specialist for the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University and the Founder of the Democracy Group Podcast Network. Jenna also teaches journalism in the College of Communications at Penn State. Brandon Stover is the Network Manager of the Democracy Group, he is the host of the podcast Brandon Stover on Life, and he's the Founder of Plato University where the mission is to help people find purpose and learn skills for social impact careers.Additional InformationTalkin‘ Politics & Religion Without Killin‘ Each Other PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

What are the most pressing concerns about the future of the American experiment and Democracy around the world? How can one person impact the many complex systems going on in the world? How can we better understand what's broken in our democracy? How can we work together to fix it? In what ways can we use the emerging medium of podcasting to explore these questions and help come up with solutions? The Democracy Group is a network of podcasts that is united around the goal of answering these questions.    We're joined this week by Jenna Spinelle and Brandon Stover. Jenna is the Communications Specialist for the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University and the Founder of the Democracy Group Podcast Network. Jenna also teaches journalism in the College of Communications at Penn State. Brandon Stover is the Network Manager of the Democracy Group, he is the host of the podcast Brandon Stover on Life, and he's the Founder of Plato University where the mission is to help people find purpose and learn skills for social impact careers.   Talkin' Politics & Religion Without Killin' Each Other is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.    www.democracygroup.org   twitter.com/JennaSpinelle   democracy.psu.edu   www.brandonstover.com/podcast   www.plato.university   www.democracygroup.org/shows/talkin-politics-religion   twitter.com/coreysnathan   post.news/@coreysnathan    

We continue our Best of 2022 episodes with an  episode from the When the People Decide podcast, hosted by Jenna Spinelle.Learn about the basics of the ballot initiative, the history of how it caught on in the United States, and the pros and cons that she will explore throughout the series.A campaign in Michigan to end partisan gerrymandering in 2018 is part of a legacy of ballot initiatives dating back to the 1800s. After becoming disillusioned with the results of the 2016 election, Katie Fahey took to Facebook to gauge the interest of grassroots mobilization amongst her colleagues, friends and family. Now the executive director of a nonpartisan voter reform organization, Fahey shares how the ballot initiative excited everyday people about becoming active in politics, including its 10,000 volunteers, and how they were inspired to make political changes in their communities. In this episode, host Jenna Spinelle explores the basics of the ballot initiative, the history of how it caught on in the United States, and the pros and cons that she will explore throughout the series.Learn more about the podcast at thepeopledecide.show and follow us on Twitter @PeopleDecidePod.ResourcesGiving Voters a Voice: The Origins of the Initiative and Referendum in America  by Steven Piott.Katie Fahey's organization, The PeopleKatie Fahey on TwitterAdditional InformationWhen the People Decide PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

We've had some incredible guests on the show in 2022. For our final episode of the year, we're taking a look back at what we've learned from them.  Michael Berkman, Chris Beem, Candis Watts Smith, and Jenna Spinelle revisit our episodes with:Jake GrumbachJeffrey SuttonFrancis FukuyamaJamelle BouieLilliana MasonJon MeachamJessica HusemanJoanna LydgateA programming note: Democracy Works will be moving to a bi-weekly release schedule in 2023. If you have ideas for people we should be talking to or topics we should cover, please get in touch! 

We continue our Best of 2022 episodes with an  episode from the Democracy Works podcast, hosted by Jenna Spinelle, Christopher Beem, Michael Berkman. Can liberal democracy withstand the challenges its currently facing? Francis Fukuyama is one of America's leading scholars on liberalism and joins us this week for a discussion about the threats its faces and how we might overcome them.It's no secret that liberalism didn't always live up to its own ideals. In America, many people were denied equality before the law. Who counted as full human beings worthy of universal rights was contested for centuries, and only recently has this circle expanded to include women, African Americans, LGBTQ+ people, and others. Conservatives complain that liberalism empties the common life of meaning. As the renowned political philosopher Francis Fukuyama shows in Liberalism and Its Discontents, the principles of liberalism have also, in recent decades, been pushed to new extremes by both the right and the left: neoliberals made a cult of economic freedom, and progressives focused on identity over human universality as central to their political vision. The result, Fukuyama argues, has been a fracturing of our civil society and an increasing peril to our democracy.Fukuyama isthe Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and a faculty member at Stanford's Institute on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. His previous books include Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment and The End of History and the Last Man.Liberalism and its DiscontentsDemocracy Works PodcastMore shows from The Democracy Group

When you're a leader at an independent news organization, it's easy to feel like you need to wear all the hats – or that you can't take a day off because your audience and advertisers depend on you. In this episode, you'll hear advice about how to identify burnout in yourself and your team — and what to do about it – from two experienced news leaders: Ryan Belmore is the owner and publisher of What'sUpNewp, a LION member publication in Newport, Connecticut. Naseem S. Miller is a reporter at The Journalist's Resource, where she writes about health and medicine. Other resources: ⚒️ Lead a “work redesign” in your newsroom. This American Press Institute guide shares advice for how to prevent burnout among newsroom managers.

You reap what you sow, and MAGA's have pushed PenelOpe far-too-far with their violent rhetoric. Especially Kari Lake! She's a bridge too the f@ck far for your normal warm-blooded mammal. If Scary Kari wins, just think: 8 more years of that corrosive, vitriolic, petty, vindictive Trumpie-with-Tits-and-a-brain!! Grammy, her one-eyed puggle, Pete Buttegieg and Abdullah Greenwood corner PenelOpe in the girl's bathroom, and conduct what they referred to as a “Deprogramming” intervention. You'll recall Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, got deprogrammed same. Self-Help BONUS: PenelOpe will deliver a point-by-point list on “How the F@ck to leave the Maga Cult.” Trumpie engages in more vile, antisemitic rants as does his bestie, Ye. Guess Kanye's dangerous rhetoric was a bridge too far for Adidas' kicks as well. They wrote in a statement that they will "not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech". And, thusly, this past week past week, they officially cut ties with rapper / Provocateur / unapologetic anti-Semite…  On this episode, Midge celebrates (and we poke) her fellow deplorables: Kanye Ye Yeezy, Adolph Hitler, Diamond and Silk, Herman Cain (RIP), Bill Barr, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Josh Hawley AKA “Fascist Gump”, Marjorie Taylor Greene, MAGA Republicans, Tucker Swanson McNutcase Carlson You are small in number, but great in passion and love, and we felt it all! Please do what you can do to help bring Brittney Griner home from Russia. Help raise awareness and amplify her story.  Harness your power and VOTE at the midterms. It is a privilege! Honor it! Looking for an informative, entertaining podcast about democracy? Please check out, DEMOCRACY WORKS, from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy! Hosted by McCourtney Inst. Communications specialist, Jenna Spinelle, this podcast seeks solutions! Harness your power and vote with your pocketbook. Teneral Cellars award winning wines is a women owned, women operated brand on a mission to upgrade the industry and empower women.Check out their new “Ruthless Collection,” fighting for women's fundamental rights.   Open a bottle, open a conversation.  Visit teneralcellars.com and use the code "ThornintheUSA" for 15% off your first purchase.The PERFECT way to show your colors, without talking about politics, at the Thanksgiving table!!

Overview: Jenna Spinelle (she/her) '08 Communications is a writer, podcaster, and speaker in higher education. She hosts and produces the Democracy Works podcast and the narrative series When the People Decide, both productions of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State. Jenna hops over from her host chair to the interview chair on Following the Gongfor this episode to discuss the current media landscape – on campus and at large – working in podcasting and content creation, and other topics like the value of continued participation in music. You can read Jenna's full bio and a breakdown of the episode topics below. Guest Bio: Jenna Spinelle (she/her) '08 Communications is a writer, podcaster, and speaker in higher education. She hosts and produces the Democracy Works podcast and the narrative series When the People Decide, both productions of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State. She teaches courses on freelancing and the creator economy at Penn State's Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, from which she earned her BA in Journalism with Honors in 2008. She also finds time to freelance for various firms and publications. She previously worked in marketing and public relations positions at Penn State and in traditional newspaper settings. Her writing has appeared in outlets including Bello Collective, Inside Higher Ed, and Current. You can find her on Twitter @JennaSpinelle or visit her website at jennaspinelle.com. Episode Specifics: In this episode, Jenna shares her insights on: · Choosing Penn State over “big city” schools for its academic reputation and being close to home · Aspects of journalism that can help you identify it as a field for you · Making the most of Penn State's student media culture – even if you are not a journalism major or in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications · Joining the College as a current Penn State student · The evolving media landscape of the mid-2000s through to 2022 · Getting into professional podcasting without previous on-air experiences · Translating dense topics for listeners on the Democracy Workspodcast · Creating a narrative-based podcast – like Serial – in When the People Decide · The different types of podcasts and Jenna's (and Sean's) inspirations · The how of podcasting, and advice on building up your skills to be a content creator · The value in freelancing and pursuing side-hustles · Continuing playing a musical instrument through college and into post-college life · Pushing yourself out of your professional comfort zone and initial discipline · Thoughts on mentorship ----- Schreyer Honors College Links: • Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram • LinkedIn • Upcoming Events • Scholars – Need Assistance? Book an Appointment! • Alumni – Learn Why and How to Volunteer • Make a Gift to Benefit Schreyer Scholars • Join the Penn State Alumni Association ----- Credits & Notes: This content is available in text form here. This show is hosted, produced, and edited by Sean Goheen ‘11 Lib (Schreyer). The artwork was created by Tom Harrington, the College's Web Developer. The sound effect is “Chinese Gong,” accessed via SoundBible used under Creative Commons License. The theme music is “Conquest” by Geovane Bruno, accessed via Pixabay and used under Creative Commons License.

Jenna Spinelle is a podcast producer based in State College, Pennsylvania and recently released a series called When the People Decide (http://thepeopledecide.show) that looks at how ballot initiatives and the people who organize them are changing American politics. She has talked with Benjamin Singer of Show Me Integrity for one episode and several others feature the heartland in some way (Nebraska, Cincinnati, and South Dakota just to name a few). Jenna joins Adam Sommer and Rachel Parker to talk about the power that the initiative offers everyday citizens — especially at a time when it feels like the courts and the legislature are not going to save us. Plus, the threats to the initiative process and how grassroots organizations like Show Me Integrity and Reclaim Idaho are pushing back against them.Website: https://thepeopledecide.show/ https://heartlandpod.com/Twitter: @TheHeartlandPOD"Change The Conversation"

Jenna Spinelle is a podcast producer based in State College, Pennsylvania and recently released a series called When the People Decide (http://thepeopledecide.show) that looks at how ballot initiatives and the people who organize them are changing American politics. She has talked with Benjamin Singer of Show Me Integrity for one episode and several others feature the heartland in some way (Nebraska, Cincinnati, and South Dakota just to name a few). Jenna joins Adam Sommer and Rachel Parker to talk about the power that the initiative offers everyday citizens — especially at a time when it feels like the courts and the legislature are not going to save us. Plus, the threats to the initiative process and how grassroots organizations like Show Me Integrity and Reclaim Idaho are pushing back against them.Website: https://thepeopledecide.show/ https://heartlandpod.com/Twitter: @TheHeartlandPOD"Change The Conversation"

In episode 1330, Jack and Miles are joined by host of When The People Decide, Jenna Spinelle, to discuss… Michigan Ballot Referendum and the Importance of Text Kerning, Hannity: DEMS ARE OUT OF CONTROL LOOK AT ALL THESE CHARGES, The Soft Power Of Expecting You to Give A Shit About the Queen's Death, The MTA Launches World's Worst Covid Safety Poster and more!  Michigan Ballot Referendum and the Importance of Text Kerning 50 Million People Stuck In 'Modern Slavery': UN The MTA Launches World's Worst Covid Safety Poster NY mask mandate lifted on subway and public transportation, Gov. Hochul announces Meet the Mask Force, the MTA's way to get you to wear your damn mask Sign of the times? MTA removes COVID-era yellow subway mask posters No NYC Subway Riders Got Fined for Defying Mask Mandate in August MTA Will Spend $249M On New Cops to Save $200M on Fare Evasion New York Transit Agency Intentionally Slowing Buses to Punish Riders for Fare Evaders LISTEN: Mercury by Steve LacySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are more revenue options than ever available to local independent publishers, from selling ads to launching a membership program to holding events to publishing sponsored content. Of course, having more options also means having to make more decisions — and creating more opportunities for a revenue stream to fail. In this episode, our host Candice Fortman talks with LION member Tom Lappas and news business expert Simon Owens about how publishers can determine the right revenue sources for their business and avoid learning the hard way that a monetization strategy wasn't a good fit. Tom Lappas is founder and publisher of the Henrico Citizen in central Virginia, and Simon Owens is a longtime journalist, marketer, and PR professional who hosts The Business of Content podcast and publishes Simon Owens's Tech and Media Newsletter on Substack. Related resources: The Independent News Sustainability Summit in Austin this October will feature sessions on planning for growth, assessing revenue opportunities, launching advertising and sponsorships, growing advertising and sponsorships, optimizing your audience funnel and other revenue topics. The News Entrepreneur Academy includes a lesson on Launching a New Revenue Stream, and later this month we plan to add a new Evaluating Growth Opportunities course that will provide frameworks for identifying different revenue opportunities and deciding whether an idea is worth pursuing. The LION-GNI Sustainability Audits and Funding program offers personalized business advice and up to $6,000 of funding to help independent publishers build more sustainable businesses. The deadline to apply for the next round of audits is Oct. 10. Sign up for the LION newsletter for more insights, tips and resources to help independent news publishers plan for revenue growth. News Guest is a production of LION Publishers, the only professional association solely focused on helping publishers build and grow more sustainable independent news business in the U.S. and Canada. This episode is hosted produced and edited by Jenna Spinelle, with editorial support from Ben DeJarnette.

Michael Berkman, Chris Beem, Candis Watts Smith, and Jenna Spinelle are back after summer break to discuss the January 6 committee hearings, which we previously teased as "democracy's summer blockbusters." Did they live up to the hype? Did they change public opinion — and does that matter?We also discuss the January 6 hearings and the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago in the context of democratic pedagogy, or behavior that helps us learn what it means to be good democratic citizens. Finally, we discuss some of the summer's primary elections and what to expect in the general election this fall.NBC News poll on threats to democracy as the most important issue facing the country

The promise and perils of direct democracy are at the heart of the debate over voter propositions and ballot initiatives. They have emerged as one way that citizens in more than two dozen U.S. states can vote directly on policy and bring issues they care about to their fellow voters.This episode is inspired by the recent podcast series, "When The People Decide", from The McCourtney Institute for Democracy. The show's producer, writer and host, Jenna Spinelle, tells the stories of some remarkable people who have organized initiative campaigns across the country. We speak with her about the history of ballot measures, including California's Prop 13 in 1978, and more recent efforts to expand Medicaid.Ballot initiatives are "a very powerful tool that citizens have, particularly when there is broad support for change to an existing policy or law", Jenna tells us. Over the past four decades in California and elsewhere the political establishment has been frequently shaken by the results.In this episode we hear about the story of Desmond Meade, the voting rights activist who led a winning ballot initiative to change Florida's constitution to give people like him — with past felony convictions — the right to vote. Desmond is Executive Director of The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which led the campaign that resulted in America's largest expansion of voting rights since the civil rights era. We also speak about Katie Fahey, the democracy activist who led the successful grassroots effort to ban partisan gerrymandering in Michigan. At "Voters Not Politicians", she organized thousands of volunteers who collected over 425,000 voter signatures for Proposal 2, a ballot initiative amending the state constitution to create an independent redistricting commission. We also spoke at length with Katie in episode #262.Recommendation: Jim is reading "Junk Science and the American Criminal Justice System" by M. Chris Fabricant. In their regular conversation at the end of the show, Jim and Richard discuss their skepticism of proposed federal ballot initiatives. Our podcasts are part of the Democracy Group podcasts network. "How Do We Fix It?" is a production of DaviesContent. We are supporting members of Bridge Alliance Education Fund. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

The first season of When the People Decide has officially ended, but we have a few bonus episodes for you that we'll be sharing over the next few weeks. This first is a conversation with Kelly Hall, Executive Director of The Fairness Project.We mentioned The Fairness Project briefly in episode 7. It is one of the organizations working to fight back against the war on the initiative. The Fairness Project also works with ballot initiative organizers across the country — Jenna Spinelle talked with Kelly about some of the issues they're working on right now and some of the issues that could be heading to state and municipal ballots in the coming years.As we alluded to in episode 8, there are some hot button issues in the ballot measure arena right now and Kelly is at the forefront of it all. She comes to the role of Executive Director with a fierce passion for progress and over 15 years of experience making change in government, with the labor movement, and through winning ballot measure campaigns.  Kelly was the architect of The Fairness Project's work expanding Medicaid in six states (soon to be seven!) and her passion for health policy has meant expansion of healthcare to over 830,000 people. Kelly worked on Capitol Hill during the drafting and passage of the Affordable Care Act, and then served in President Obama's administration helping to implement the law. 

On this special edition of Village SquareCast, we're excited to introduce you to one of our BFFs in the saving democracy space. Jenna Spinelle of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy has a new podcast we think you'll love, so we're sharing episode #1 in our feed. When the People Decide is a new eight-episode narrative series on ballot initiatives that tells the stories of activists, legislators, academics, and average citizens who changed their cities, states, and the country by taking important issues directly to voters. This first episode of When the People Decide tells the story of a campaign in Michigan to end partisan gerrymandering in 2018 and shows how it is part of a legacy of ballot initiatives dating back to the 1800s. After becoming disillusioned with the results of the 2016 election, Katie Fahey took to Facebook to gauge the interest of grassroots mobilization amongst her colleagues, friends and family. Now the executive director of a nonpartisan voter reform organization, Fahey shares how the ballot initiative excited everyday people about becoming active in politics, including its 10,000 volunteers, and how they were inspired to make political changes in their communities. We also hear from historian Steven Piott about the unlikely origin of the initiative and referendum in the United States at the turn of the 20th century. Village SquareCast is part of The Democracy Group. Check out one of our fellow network podcasts here: 70 Million

Jenna Spinelle is the Founder of The Democracy Group & Communications Specialist for the McCourtney Institute for Democracy. The Democracy Group is a network of podcasts united around the goal of helping listeners understand what's broken in our democracy, and how people are working together to fix it. The Democracy Group is organized and funded by The McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/americas-talking/support

Jenna Spinelle joins Ben & Bob for a discussion about her new podcast, When the People Decide, which traces the origins of ballot initiatives in the United States and their impact on American politics in recent years. Jenna Spinelle is the Communications Specialist for the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State, where she also teaches classes in the college of communications. You can follow her on twitter at @JennaSpinelle. To learn more about the differences between initiatives and popular referenda and which states allow citizens to directly propose laws, visit The National Conference of State Legislatures' guide to the Initiative and Referendum Processes. This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

The US Supreme Court has a long history of firmly defending its philosophy of neutrality and did the same for the recent and historic overturn of Roe. Wade. But according to law professor Cedric Merlin Powell, the Court's neutral stance on cases impacting marginalized groups – including women and communities of color – ignores inequalities and in doing so, worsens them. Professor Powell sat down to speak with us about the serious harms caused by a judicial branch whose decisionmaking ignores the realities of racism, sexism, and other oppressive forces in our society.  For more of Cedric Merlin Powell's work: Check out his SSN brief: How Race-Neutral Rulings by the Supreme Court Perpetuate Inequalities Pre-order his forthcoming book , Post-Racial Constitutionalism and the Roberts Court Last but not least, SSN is excited to highlight a new podcast series, When the People Decide, by The McCourtney Institute for Democracy at PennState. In this series, Jenna Spinelle tells the stories of activists, legislators, academics, and average citizens who changed their cities, states, and the country by taking important issues directly to voters — like Medicaid expansion in Idaho, sentencing reform in California, and LGBTQ workplace protections in Ohio.  

Christian conservatives in Ohio used the ballot initiative in the 1990s to restrict protections for LGBTQ folks in the workplace. The community fought back—how else? With their own initiative. In 1992, when anti-gay legislation was sweeping the U.S., Citizens for Community Values, one of the most active Christian right organizations in Cincinnati, seized on the opportunity to propose their own discriminatory campaign, Equal Rights, Not Special Rights. As pro-LGBTQ lawyers, activists and advocates rallied across the city to repeal the initiative, they soon realized that they not only had to be well-versed in grassroots mobilization, they needed to nail the timing to be successful—and as always, having powerful allies always helps.  In this episode, Jenna Spinelle examines how this anti-LGBTQ ballot initiative gained momentum in the 1990's, and analyzes the societal cues and shifting status quo that eventually made a repeal against the discrimination ban possible.Note: Roger Asterino, who you'll meet in this episode, responded to our request for an interview after production on this episode was finished. Jenna had an amazing conversation with him that we'll release as a bonus episode at the end of the season.Learn more about the podcast at thepeopledecide.show and follow us on Twitter @PeopleDecidePod.ResourcesKimberly Dugan's book: The Struggle Over Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Rights. Facing Off in Cincinnati.National LGBTQ Task ForceCincinnati Pride HistoryThe Buckeye Flame - Ohio's LGBTQ news source 

We are excited to share the first episode of a new narrative series on ballot initiatives from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy: When the People Decide. In this reported series, Jenna Spinelle tells the stories of activists, legislators, academics, and average citizens who changed their cities, states, and the country by taking important issues directly to votes — like Medicaid expansion in Idaho, sentencing reform in California, and LGBTQ workplace protections in Ohio. This episode tells the story of a campaign in Michigan to end partisan gerrymandering in 2018 and shows how it is part of a legacy of ballot initiatives dating back to the 1800s. After becoming disillusioned with the results of the 2016 election, Katie Fahey took to Facebook to gauge the interest of grassroots mobilization amongst her colleagues, friends and family. Now the executive director of a nonpartisan voter reform organization, Fahey shares how the ballot initiative excited everyday people about becoming active in politics, including its 10,000 volunteers, and how they were inspired to make political changes in their communities. We also hear from historian Steven Piott about the unlikely origin of the initiative and referendum in the United States at the turn of the 20th century.New episodes will be released throughout the summer. Subscribe to When the People Decide in your podcast app:Apple PodcastsSpotifyOvercastPodcast AddictGoogle Podcasts StitcherOther platformsLearn more about the podcast at thepeopledecide.show and follow us on Twitter @PeopleDecidePod. 

We are excited to share the first episode of a new narrative series on ballot initiatives from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy: When the People Decide. In this reported series, Jenna Spinelle tells the stories of activists, legislators, academics, and average citizens who changed their cities, states, and the country by taking important issues directly […]

Long before the current preoccupation with “fake news,” American newspapers routinely ran stories that were not quite, strictly speaking, true. Today, a firm boundary between fact and fakery is a hallmark of journalistic practice, yet for many readers and publishers across more than three centuries, this distinction has seemed slippery or even irrelevant. We see this play in pink slime local news sites and in the proliferation of truthers claiming to do their own research because of a deep distrust in the mainstream media. In Not Exactly Lying: Fake News and Fake Journalism in American History (Columbia UP, 2022) Tucher argues that the creation of outward forms of factuality unleashed new opportunities for falsehood: News doesn't have to be true as long as it looks true. Propaganda, disinformation, and advocacy—whether in print, on the radio, on television, or online—could be crafted to resemble the real thing. Dressed up in legitimate journalistic conventions, this “fake journalism” became inextricably bound up with right-wing politics, to the point where it has become an essential driver of political polarization.  In the book and in this conversation, Tucher explores how American audiences have argued over what's real and what's not—and why that matters for democracy. Andie Tucher the H. Gordon Garbedian Professor and the director of the Communications Ph.D. Program at the Columbia Journalism School. Jenna Spinelle is a journalism instructor at Penn State's Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. She's also the communications specialist for the university's McCourtney Institute for Democracy, where she hosts and produces the Democracy Works podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Long before the current preoccupation with “fake news,” American newspapers routinely ran stories that were not quite, strictly speaking, true. Today, a firm boundary between fact and fakery is a hallmark of journalistic practice, yet for many readers and publishers across more than three centuries, this distinction has seemed slippery or even irrelevant. We see this play in pink slime local news sites and in the proliferation of truthers claiming to do their own research because of a deep distrust in the mainstream media. In Not Exactly Lying: Fake News and Fake Journalism in American History (Columbia UP, 2022) Tucher argues that the creation of outward forms of factuality unleashed new opportunities for falsehood: News doesn't have to be true as long as it looks true. Propaganda, disinformation, and advocacy—whether in print, on the radio, on television, or online—could be crafted to resemble the real thing. Dressed up in legitimate journalistic conventions, this “fake journalism” became inextricably bound up with right-wing politics, to the point where it has become an essential driver of political polarization.  In the book and in this conversation, Tucher explores how American audiences have argued over what's real and what's not—and why that matters for democracy. Andie Tucher the H. Gordon Garbedian Professor and the director of the Communications Ph.D. Program at the Columbia Journalism School. Jenna Spinelle is a journalism instructor at Penn State's Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. She's also the communications specialist for the university's McCourtney Institute for Democracy, where she hosts and produces the Democracy Works podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Long before the current preoccupation with “fake news,” American newspapers routinely ran stories that were not quite, strictly speaking, true. Today, a firm boundary between fact and fakery is a hallmark of journalistic practice, yet for many readers and publishers across more than three centuries, this distinction has seemed slippery or even irrelevant. We see this play in pink slime local news sites and in the proliferation of truthers claiming to do their own research because of a deep distrust in the mainstream media. In Not Exactly Lying: Fake News and Fake Journalism in American History (Columbia UP, 2022) Tucher argues that the creation of outward forms of factuality unleashed new opportunities for falsehood: News doesn't have to be true as long as it looks true. Propaganda, disinformation, and advocacy—whether in print, on the radio, on television, or online—could be crafted to resemble the real thing. Dressed up in legitimate journalistic conventions, this “fake journalism” became inextricably bound up with right-wing politics, to the point where it has become an essential driver of political polarization.  In the book and in this conversation, Tucher explores how American audiences have argued over what's real and what's not—and why that matters for democracy. Andie Tucher the H. Gordon Garbedian Professor and the director of the Communications Ph.D. Program at the Columbia Journalism School. Jenna Spinelle is a journalism instructor at Penn State's Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. She's also the communications specialist for the university's McCourtney Institute for Democracy, where she hosts and produces the Democracy Works podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

A campaign in Michigan to end partisan gerrymandering in 2018 is part of a legacy of ballot initiatives dating back to the 1800s. After becoming disillusioned with the results of the 2016 election, Katie Fahey took to Facebook to gauge the interest of grassroots mobilization amongst her colleagues, friends and family. Now the executive director of a nonpartisan voter reform organization, Fahey shares how the ballot initiative excited everyday people about becoming active in politics, including its 10,000 volunteers, and how they were inspired to make political changes in their communities. In this episode, host Jenna Spinelle explores the basics of the ballot initiative, the history of how it caught on in the United States, and the pros and cons that she will explore throughout the series.Learn more about the podcast at thepeopledecide.show and follow us on Twitter @PeopleDecidePod.ResourcesGiving Voters a Voice: The Origins of the Initiative and Referendum in America  by Steven Piott.Katie Fahey's organization, The PeopleKatie Fahey on Twitter

Long before the current preoccupation with “fake news,” American newspapers routinely ran stories that were not quite, strictly speaking, true. Today, a firm boundary between fact and fakery is a hallmark of journalistic practice, yet for many readers and publishers across more than three centuries, this distinction has seemed slippery or even irrelevant. We see this play in pink slime local news sites and in the proliferation of truthers claiming to do their own research because of a deep distrust in the mainstream media. In Not Exactly Lying: Fake News and Fake Journalism in American History (Columbia UP, 2022) Tucher argues that the creation of outward forms of factuality unleashed new opportunities for falsehood: News doesn't have to be true as long as it looks true. Propaganda, disinformation, and advocacy—whether in print, on the radio, on television, or online—could be crafted to resemble the real thing. Dressed up in legitimate journalistic conventions, this “fake journalism” became inextricably bound up with right-wing politics, to the point where it has become an essential driver of political polarization.  In the book and in this conversation, Tucher explores how American audiences have argued over what's real and what's not—and why that matters for democracy. Andie Tucher the H. Gordon Garbedian Professor and the director of the Communications Ph.D. Program at the Columbia Journalism School. Jenna Spinelle is a journalism instructor at Penn State's Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. She's also the communications specialist for the university's McCourtney Institute for Democracy, where she hosts and produces the Democracy Works podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

In this reported series, Jenna Spinelle tells the stories of activists, legislators, academics, and average citizens who changed their cities, states, and the country by taking important issues directly to votes — like Medicaid expansion in Idaho, sentencing reform in California, and LGBTQ workplace protections in Ohio.  From The McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State, When the People Decide explores the pros and cons of this largely overlooked tool of government and its impact in the last half century. Learn more about the podcast at thepeopledecide.show and follow us on Twitter @PeopleDecidePod.

Journalist Mónica Guzmán is the loving liberal daughter of Mexican immigrants who voted—twice—for Donald Trump. When the country could no longer see straight across the political divide, Mónica set out to find what was blinding us and discovered the most eye-opening tool we're not using: our own built-in curiosity. Partisanship is up, trust is down, and our social media feeds make us sure we're right and everyone else is ignorant (or worse). But avoiding one another is hurting our relationships and our society. In I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times (BenBella Books, 2022), Mónica takes us to the real front lines of a crisis that threatens to grind America to a halt—broken conversations among confounded people. Drawing from cross-partisan conversations she's had, organized, or witnessed everywhere from the echo chambers on social media to the wheat fields in Oregon to raw, unfiltered fights with her own family on election night, Mónica shows how you can put your natural sense of wonder to work for you immediately, finding the answers you need by talking with people—rather than about them—and asking the questions you want, curiously. This podcast episode is a recording of a live event co-hosted by Gather, an initiative of the Agora Journalism Center at the University of Oregon that focuses on community-centered journalism. Jenna Spinelle is a journalism instructor at Penn State's Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. She's also the communications specialist for the university's McCourtney Institute for Democracy, where she hosts and produces the Democracy Works podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Journalist Mónica Guzmán is the loving liberal daughter of Mexican immigrants who voted—twice—for Donald Trump. When the country could no longer see straight across the political divide, Mónica set out to find what was blinding us and discovered the most eye-opening tool we're not using: our own built-in curiosity. Partisanship is up, trust is down, and our social media feeds make us sure we're right and everyone else is ignorant (or worse). But avoiding one another is hurting our relationships and our society. In I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times (BenBella Books, 2022), Mónica takes us to the real front lines of a crisis that threatens to grind America to a halt—broken conversations among confounded people. Drawing from cross-partisan conversations she's had, organized, or witnessed everywhere from the echo chambers on social media to the wheat fields in Oregon to raw, unfiltered fights with her own family on election night, Mónica shows how you can put your natural sense of wonder to work for you immediately, finding the answers you need by talking with people—rather than about them—and asking the questions you want, curiously. This podcast episode is a recording of a live event co-hosted by Gather, an initiative of the Agora Journalism Center at the University of Oregon that focuses on community-centered journalism. Jenna Spinelle is a journalism instructor at Penn State's Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. She's also the communications specialist for the university's McCourtney Institute for Democracy, where she hosts and produces the Democracy Works podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

As the United States moves on from the Trump era — and perhaps begins to contemplate what a second one might look like — conversations about journalism's relationship to Trump and his ideas are cropping up all over the place. Books like News After Trump address these questions through a scholarly lens, but Covering Politics in the Age of Trump (LSU Press, 2021) looks at coverage of Trump from the perspective of journalists who cover national politics.  Edited by Jerry Ceppos, the book takes a wide-ranging view of the relationship between the forty-fifth president and the Fourth Estate. In concise, illuminating, and often personal essays, two dozen top journalists address topics such as growing concerns about political bias and journalistic objectivity; increasing consternation about the media's use of anonymous sources; the practices journalists employ to gain access to wary administration officials; and reporters' efforts to improve journalism in an era of round-the-clock cable news. Contributors to the book include Ashley Parker of The Washington Post, McKay Coppins of The Atlantic, and Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report. In this conversation, Ceppos discusses how news organizations are starting to "take off the straightjacket" of detachment and objectivity and what that might mean for re-establishing trust with readers and peeling back the curtain on how journalists do their work. Jerry Ceppos is the William B. Dickinson Distinguished Professor of Journalism and former of the Manship School of Mass Communications at Louisiana State University. Before entering academia, he worked for thirty-six years in newsrooms. He has contributed to several books on media ethics and journalism, including News Evolution or Revolution? The Future of Print Journalism in the Digital Age. Jenna Spinelle is a journalism instructor at Penn State's Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. She's also the communications specialist for the university's McCourtney Institute for Democracy, where she hosts and produces the Democracy Works podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

As the United States moves on from the Trump era — and perhaps begins to contemplate what a second one might look like — conversations about journalism's relationship to Trump and his ideas are cropping up all over the place. Books like News After Trump address these questions through a scholarly lens, but Covering Politics in the Age of Trump (LSU Press, 2021) looks at coverage of Trump from the perspective of journalists who cover national politics.  Edited by Jerry Ceppos, the book takes a wide-ranging view of the relationship between the forty-fifth president and the Fourth Estate. In concise, illuminating, and often personal essays, two dozen top journalists address topics such as growing concerns about political bias and journalistic objectivity; increasing consternation about the media's use of anonymous sources; the practices journalists employ to gain access to wary administration officials; and reporters' efforts to improve journalism in an era of round-the-clock cable news. Contributors to the book include Ashley Parker of The Washington Post, McKay Coppins of The Atlantic, and Charlie Cook of the Cook Political Report. In this conversation, Ceppos discusses how news organizations are starting to "take off the straightjacket" of detachment and objectivity and what that might mean for re-establishing trust with readers and peeling back the curtain on how journalists do their work. Jerry Ceppos is the William B. Dickinson Distinguished Professor of Journalism and former of the Manship School of Mass Communications at Louisiana State University. Before entering academia, he worked for thirty-six years in newsrooms. He has contributed to several books on media ethics and journalism, including News Evolution or Revolution? The Future of Print Journalism in the Digital Age. Jenna Spinelle is a journalism instructor at Penn State's Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications. She's also the communications specialist for the university's McCourtney Institute for Democracy, where she hosts and produces the Democracy Works podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/political-science

Shock, surprises, and suffering are the most immediate results of all wars. Russia's brutal, yet deeply flawed invasion of Ukraine has profound implications for the West, global democracy, and the future of Europe and Russia. We hear the perspectives of two prominent thinkers, Jane Lytvynenko and Robert Kagen. Richard and Jim also share their analysis of the unexpected early outcomes of the war. This episode has extracts from an interview with Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing columnist for The Washington Post. He spoke with podcast producer and host Jenna Spinelle of "Democracy Works". We also share part of an interview from the current episode of "Democracy in Danger" with journalist Jane Lytvynenko, who covers technology, disinformation, and now, Ukraine. She was born in Kyiv. Jane is also a senior research fellow at Harvard University's Technology and Social Change Project at the Shorenstein Center. This podcast is produced with the generous help of the Democracy Group podcast network and the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University. "I actually believe in the long run we will come out of this," says Robert Kagen. "Unfortunately, the long run may be longer than we want and we may be in this for 20 years.""Had the West stood up against the torture of protesters in Belarus, Russia would not have been able to put tanks there today," says Jane Lytvynenko. She argues for a more robust response by the West to attacks against democracy in other nations.Recommendation: Jim is reading “Mercury Rising. John Glenn, John Kennedy and the New Battleground of the Cold War" by Jeff Shesol. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Cherie inherits a stack of 33 letters, written by her grandfather, who died during the Korean War, and who Cherie's family never talked about. Before receiving the letters, she knew almost nothing about him. She hadn't even seen a picture of him. But the letters unveil who he was and the fateful decisions he made that affected not only his life but still affect her life today. Larry Hood's page on the Korean War Project website. (While talking with Cherie, I misspoke and called it the Korean War Memorial website. It's the Korean War Project. My apologies to the folks there!)Season 1, Episode 4: Crystal's LettersGuest: Cherie Louise TurnerVisit www.MementosPodcast.com to see some photos of the memento in this episode. Follow the show @MementosPodcast on Twitter and Instagram.Follow the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mementospodcastFollow Lori at @mortaymortay on Twitter and Instagram. CREDITS:Lori Mortimer – Host, Sound Designer, ProducerCherie Turner – GuestCharles Gustine – Voice ActorGalen Beebe – Story Editor Alyssa Duvak – Social MediaMusic: Micolai by Blue Dot SessionsLooperman: looperman-l-1186967-0179585-piano-melody-654-abelouislooperman-l-2431466-0230476-sunset-piano-melodylooperman-l-4487063-0257366-lofi-piano-really-chilllooperman-l-2392682-0213471-classic-mellow-piano--------------------TRANSCRIPTMementos Episode S1:E4Cherie's Letters[00:00:00]CHERIE: One of the reasons that he was so aggressive about putting himself in danger is because he just wanted to get back home. And that was his fastest way to get back home. And it ended up doing the very thing that made it, this short track, which is that it was super, super dangerous and you're at risk of dying.And that's what happened.LORI: Welcome to Mementos. I'm Lori Mortimer. If you listened to the last episode, Crystal's Hymn, you'll know that it was a story about a grandfather. Today's episode is also about a grandfather, but the two episodes could not be more different. In this episode, my guest is going to tell us about a grandfather who she knew nothing about until just a few years ago.Cherie has been able to bring back to life, in a sense, her grandfather, who died many years ago and who had been lost to the sands of time. And she learned that he made some fateful decisions a long time ago that not only affected him but also still affect her life today.[00:01:30]CHERIE: My name is Cherie Louise Turner. And I'm originally from Goleta, California, which is near Santa Barbara.LORI: Cherie's story starts in 2010, when she got a phone call from her aunt. CHERIE: She informed me that my grandmother had passed, after several bouts of cancer. And she had left me some things in her will. Which I was very surprised about because I really hadn't spoken much to her um, in probably over 20 years. [00:02:00]So I received this stack of 33 letters that my grandfather, Larry Hood, had written to my grandmother while he was in the Army and then when he went off to the Korean War.Before I got these letters -- I got them when I was 40 years old -- I really didn't think much of my grandfather. Or I didn't give him much thought. I had maybe known that he died in a war. I wasn't even ever clear on which war it was.He went into the Army on the 4th of April, 1951, and he died on June 29th, 1952. He wasn't even overseas for but a few months. So by the time I was cognizant of this missing person, he'd been gone for such a long time, and nobody really talked about him because my grandmother had already been married -- remarried -- twice.And so this was my first opportunity to learn anything about him.[00:03:03]LORI: One by one, these letters unveil the pieces of Larry's life story.Most of them are written to Cherie's grandmother Mary and to Cherie's father Gary, who was just little at the time. He was between 4 and 5 years of age. And yes, this family has rhyming names: Larry and Mary, and their son Gary.In the letters, Larry talks about his everyday life in the Army. They start when he was in training camp in California, and then take him to a stop to Japan and then on to the front lines in North Korea.[00:03:30]CHERIE: I don't know how he ended up in the Army. I don't get the sense that he was real gung-ho about it. I think he probably got enlisted. And from all of the letters, all he wanted to do was come back home.LORI: You can tell that Larry was especially focused on getting home sooner rather than later. CHARLES (as LARRY):Dear Mary and Gary,Tomorrow morning at 3 a.m, I leave by ship for Korea. I get 20 percent more pay in Korea and the full G.I. Bil. The way the rotation system is now workin', I will get home twice as fast as I would if I stayed here in Japan.CHERIE: The other thing about these, coming from the Army, is there are just some basic things that you miss. You know, you miss your family. Every single letter, he writes, tell Gary I love him, tell him how much I miss him.LORI: He didn't just miss them, he stayed in communication and supported them. He stayed in communication and supported them. He asked how they were, and he followed up on the things they told him in their letters to him. And he expressed a lot of concern about Mary's well-being.[00:04:47]CHARLES (as LARRY):You say for me to take care of myself. It sounds like you're the one who should take it easy.Your mother wrote me you only weigh a hundred two pounds. So, gal, you better get on the ball and start taking your shots again. Especially now that the windy season is startin'. You're going to blow away if you don't.So honey, write me what you're doin' because sometimes I wonder and worry about you.[00:05:24]LORI: Through the letters, Cherie got a surprise about her grandparents' relationship, which makes Larry's support of Mary even more remarkable. CHERIE: He and my grandmother had been divorced before he went to war. They got married when they were 17 years old. So they were children. And when you look at the dates it seems pretty obvious that they got married because she got pregnant.[00:05:45]But he's just so sweet to her the whole time, and he talks about how she would always be very special to him.CHARLES (as LARRY):You'll always mean a lot more to me than just an ex-wife because we were together and did too much to ever forget. Even if it wasn't for the fact that Gary is part of us both.So, baby doll, take care of yourself, and tell Gary that I never stop thinking of him. And naturally, when I think of him, I also think of you.[00:06:27]LORI: You know, not surprisingly, Cherie has opened and read through these letters many times since she got them. But one time, not that long ago, she found something new when she was trying to put one of the letters back in its envelope.CHERIE: The envelope felt kind of heavy after I took the letter out and I just, I kind of gave it a second thought, but not much. And then I was reading through the letter, and I go to put it back, and it won't go in very well. And I realize that there are two photographs in here.They're the only photos I've ever seen of this man. Which is just kind of miraculous to me.[00:07:00]LORI: Think about that. She'd never even seen a picture of her grandfather before. And when Cherie saw these photos, she was struck by just how young he was. CHERIE: In my mind, he's an old person. But he died when he was 23.LORI: The photos also captured the bleakness of his surroundings and what he was living through while stationed in North Korea.CHERIE: Of course they're black and white, so like, there's no color to them. And you can see it's a very desolate landscape where he is.And you can see hills. Um, there's a lot of rocks. There are no trees whatsoever. And here they are guarding this post.CHARLES (as LARRY):Except for the guard duty, half the night, we don't have hardly anything to do, but every so often we have to go on patrols of the Chinese lines to see where and what they are doing. Goin' on those patrols, I can't say I like too well. As far as I'm concerned, they can stay on their hill, and we'll stay on ours.It gets me that so many fellas have to get hurt and go through so much just to take one of these worthless hills. I just hope I get outta here before too many more months because every week seems like a month itself.[00:08:18]CHERIE: He talks about how they do live in tents, and it snows. You know, they were digging into the snow in the hillside to get themselves into a warmer situation. That was just for insulation. Because it was so freezing cold. He said it would take them about an hour in the morning to put their boots on because everything was frozen.CHARLES (as LARRY):More guys have left here because of pneumonia or frozen hands or feet than those who have gotten wounded or shot. I got frostbite in January, and my knees are still bothering me from the cold that has set in them.I'll be home sometime this summer. I'll have at least 30 days' leave, which I'm going to spend at the beach. The sun will feel so good after havin' spent the winter here.[00:09:13]LORI: After getting frostbite and suffering with the lingering effects, Larry makes a fateful, but consistent, decision.CHARLES (as LARRY):I could have gotten off the front lines because of it, but I would have been moved to a rear area where I would have to stay twice as long.[00:09:33]CHERIE: I, I have a lot of respect for the military and the things that they do. But when you're reading about a single person's existence and their experiences, it also can make you feel like, here was this man who was full of life, and he didn't come back. And it really does make you wonder, was that life worth losing? LORI: The letters are kind of an extended family, treasure trove for Cherie because she learned that other family members were very supportive of Larry while he was overseas. One set of the letters are to Bernice and Ted Boyd. CHERIE: And I can only surmise that Bernice and Ted were my grandmother's parents, so my great-grandparents.I'm just putting this together because he sent a bunch of letters to these people, and it sounds like they took care of my father a lot. And that lets you know how fractured my family was and how little I know about a lot of these people.[00:10:42]CHARLES (as LARRY):Dear Bernice and Ted,Just received your letter today. You're right. Spring is here. Right now I'm sitting in the sun enjoying the sunshine. I sure hope I never spend another winter like this year has been. I'm still having trouble with the cold that had set in my bones. For a while, I even had trouble walking. But they are much better now.I would very much enjoy some cookies from you. They should be wrapped airtight. Wrapped and thin, put into a coffee can, they keep very well. When I get home, I'm going to get you to make some pop overs. I haven't forgotten how good they are or how swell you make 'em.[00:11:29]CHERIE: There is a very last letter in all of this, and it's in a return envelope. And it is a letter from Bernice Boyd that never gets to him because by the time it gets overseas, he's already died. Dear Larry,Yesterday your mother read to me over the phone your letter that you were in the hospital and hurt in the leg and knee.We have all been praying for you during all these months. I have pictured you in our home in chairs around the house with faith that you would be here.We told Gary last night at dinner that you were hurt and in the hospital. Larry, the expression on his face was so sad and so deeply hurt. I told him right away quick that his Daddy would be home soon and that he was getting well. And the expression changed right away to one of happiness. He loves his Daddy. We all love you.God will take care of everything, Larry. Right always wins in the end. I will accept the future as God's will.I have been making preserves to go into those popovers.Relax now, Larry, all you possibly can. And don't worry about anything.Love, BerniceHe really liked popovers. Just assuming that this is the mother of his ex-wife, there was just a very loving situation all the way around.And had he had the opportunity to come back, they would have all still at least had friendly relations. Who's to say how things would have turned out in the end? I can only fantasize about them, being that my father didn't turn out to be the nicest guy or the most responsible person.[00:13:17]LORI: Cherie's father, Gary, the little boy in the letters, was entirely absent from Cherie's life. By choice. CHERIE: My mother got divorced from Gary Hood, uh, about six months after I was born. So I never met him. Uh, he has since passed, so I will never meet him. And my grandmother I love to pieces, but she definitely had her challenges, and she could be a challenging person.And then there's this sort of shining light of a person who ends up getting killed … and so, it's, you know, it's sad. And I hold onto these because he really just felt like such a good part of a history that I didn't even – that I didn't know about. And then I got this gift of getting to know about him.It was just this really, it, argh, it just … it made me really happy to feel like there was this person who had been in the world who I'm related to, who I kinda got to know just through these series of 33 letters that he wrote to people. It brought him to life for me, and nobody else had done that.And the fact that he got to do that? That was really special.[00:14:42]LORI: At first, I was thinking this is where Cherie's story would end. But, you know, something kept nagging at me. And it was something Bernice Boyd said in the letter that was returned to her. She said that Larry had been injured in the leg and the knee. And I wondered if those are the injuries that killed him because he had been well enough to write a letter home to his mother about them. I was curious, so I did a little research. And then I called Cherie to tell her what I found.[00:15:20]LORI: Hey, Cherie.CHERIE: Hey, how's it going?LORI: It's goin' well, thanks! LORI: Um, okay, so I am going to read to you from the Korean War Memorial website.Private first class Lawrence Clark Hood was a member of the 179th infantry regiment, 45th infantry division. He was seriously wounded by the enemy in North Korea on June 16th, 1952, and returned to duty on June 18th, 1952.CHERIE: Oh, wow.LORI: Yeah, yeah, two days. And then he went back.LORI: He was killed in action while fighting the enemy on June 29th, 1952.CHERIE: Wow.So he survived the leg injuries. And then he was killed in action 11 days later.CHERIE: You know, that's really interesting because I just assumed he had died in the hospital. [00:16:06]This just makes so much more sense. It kind of, honestly, it kind of makes me want to cry.You know, the first thing that comes to mind is that … argh … I'm, I'm trying to think of a way of saying this without sounding, I don't know, dramatic or cruel. But, like he, he died fighting. You know, like somehow that just seems, it seems very powerful to me. I mean, in a really awful way, because to die violently is horrible.Um, but somehow it, I, I don't know. It, it just sort of goes with who he was that he was fighting to get home. He, he was putting himself in danger to get back to his family.And what a tough guy, right? Like, he's got frostbite, he's got a leg injury, and it's like, he's still not asking for desk duty.[00:16:58]Like, like I don't really like the word badass, but it's just like, well, that's kind of a badass move. Like just the, just the human spirit of that, right? Like, the human spirit of just wanting something so badly that you're just gonna keep at it until either you die or you get what you want.The fact that he died -- it changed my life. Absolutely. And I think he would have been an amazing father. And that's the saddest part because my father missed out on that. And I missed out on having a great grandfather. [00:17:26]Like, every time I think about him, like, it really gets me welled up. It's the sadness of missing out on what could have been. [00:18:00]LORI: Thank you, Cherie, for sharing the story, the letters, and your newly found grandfather with all of us. He really does sound like a shining light of a young man. Cherie has her own podcast called Strides Forward: Stories of women runners. You can check it out. She's on all the podcast apps. She's got a website. And she's publishing a series right now, um, about nine women who are prepping for the Boston Marathon, which is running in October this year instead of April, because of the pandemic.For this episode, I must give huge thanks and praise to Charles Gustine, who read Larry's letters.Beautiful work, Charles. Thank you so much. Charles also has a podcast called Iconography, which he calls a tour of icons real and imagined. It's a mix of pop culture, history, place. So I would check it out. One of my favorite episodes is the episode on Jaws.Galen Beebe edited the story and really helped me pull all the pieces together.[00:18:58]Thank you to the Pod Prod, secret society. And Skye Pillsbury and Jenna Spinelle for your feedback and suggestions. And as always my main man, Steve.This episode was written, produced, and sound designed by me, Lori Mortimer. And lastly, how you can support this show. If you like Mementos, and I hope you do, anytime you're talking to a friend, mention that you listen to the show and send them to it. See you again in two weeks where we will not hear about a grandfather this time, but we will hear about … birds. See you then!

Lee Drutman is a senior fellow in the Political Reform program at New America. He is the author of Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America and The Business of America is Lobbying. He is also the co-host of the podcast Politics in Question, and writes for the New York Times, Vox, and FiveThirtyEight, among other outlets. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California.Hear more from Drtuman at a virtual event on "Democracy's Crises and Failure of Imagination" sponsored by The Democracy Group podcast network. Lee will be joined by Carah One Whaley of James Madison University, democracy entrepreneur Turi Munthe, and Democracy Works host Jenna Spinelle. Join us Wednesday, July 7 at 2:00 p.m. ET or watch the recording at democracygroup.org.  Additional InformationJuly 7 event with The Democracy GroupBreaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in AmericaRelated EpisodesDoes Congress promote partisan gridlock?Primaries, parties and the publicHow the Tea Party and the Resistance are upending politics