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.

Brennan Center Live

Anne Applebaum on the Twilight of Democracy

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.

Martin Garbus and the Cuban Five

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.

Supreme Inequality

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.

George Washington: You Never Forget Your First

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?

Susan Rice on Things Worth Fighting For

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.

Election Meltdown

 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.

When Should Law Forgive?

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.

The Fight for Reproductive Rights

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

The Revolution in Prosecutors’ Offices

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

How Progressives Can Compete for Power

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 Great Migration’s Complicated Legacy

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

How the Tumultuous ’70s Shaped Our Political Conflicts

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   

Preet Bharara on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law

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. 

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Race, the Law, and Politics

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. 

Lessons From Watergate

A podcast from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.

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Brennan Center Live

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