55 Voices for Democracy – The Podcast

Thomas Mann House

How can democracy be renewed and defended today? A collaboration of the Thomas Mann House, the Goethe Institute, Wunderbar Together, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

  1. Patty Jenkins on the Power of Storytelling

    09/27/2024 ·  Bonus

    Patty Jenkins on the Power of Storytelling

    Award-winning director, screenwriter, and producer Patty Jenkins joined Aida and Tom at the Thomas Mann House for this special episode. Jenkins is best known for the films Wonder Woman (2017), Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), and her Oscar-winning debut Monster (2003). Wonder Woman smashed box office records and became the highest-grossing live-action film directed by a woman at the time. During their insightful conversation at the Thomas Mann House, the three talked about the universal power of storytelling, superheroes, and the future of film in a changing media environment.

    38 min

  2. 12/14/2023

    Clint Smith on Cultures of Remembrance in the U.S. & Germany

    "Physically putting your body in a place where history happened gives you a different sense of intimacy, a different sense of proximity to that history." In the final episode of our podcast, author, poet, and scholar Clint Smith speaks about the importance of collectively reckoning with history, the legacy of slavery in U.S.-American identity, and cultures of remembrance in the U.S. and Germany. He is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, and the best-selling poetry collection Above Ground, as well as the award-winning poetry collection Counting Descent. Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic.

    1h 2m

  3. 11/30/2023 ·  Bonus

    Marina Weisband on What Gets us Through the Crisis

    "Going through a crisis and having a positive vision of the future are not the same thing. You need to have a positive vision of the future to get through the crisis." Our hosts, Aida Baghernejad and Tom Zoellner, interview politician and publicist Marina Weisband for this special episode, recorded live at the international literatur festival berlin. After an introduction by political scientist and Thomas Mann Fellow Christine Landfried, they discuss the digital revolution and the ongoing war in Ukraine, among other things. Marina Weisband is a politician, psychologist, and participation educator. Together with Frido Mann, she is the co-author of the book Was uns durch die Krise trägt. Ein Generationengespräch (2023).

    56 min

  4. 10/19/2023

    Lynne Thompson on the Role of Poetry in Democracies

    "There is an understanding that between humans we have this one thing called language and it brings us - or can bring us - together." Writer and poet Lynne Thompson talks with hosts Aida Baghernejad and Tom Zoellner about her journey to becoming a poet, the role of "truth" in poetry and its meaning for democracy. Lynne Thompson is the 2021-2022 Poet Laureate for the City of Los Angeles, and her poetry collections include Beg No Pardon (2007), Start With A Small Guitar (2013), and Fretwork (2019). Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, Poetry, Poem-A-Day (Academy of American Poets), New England Review, Colorado Review, Best American Poetry, to name a few.

    27 min
  5. Bill Wiggins on African-American History & Historically Black Colleges and Universities

    03/23/2023

    Bill Wiggins on African-American History & Historically Black Colleges and Universities

    Host Tom Zoellner sat down with professor William Wiggins to discuss the ongoing importance of African-American history within the larger context of US history. Professor Wiggins has written on numerous subjects dealing with revolutionary figures and movements in U.S. history. He has taught at the University of Connecticut, St. Olaf and Allegheny Colleges, Hampton University and Columbia University, where he also served as an Assistant Dean.

    32 min
  6. Teresa Bücker on Time as a Political Resource

    03/02/2023

    Teresa Bücker on Time as a Political Resource

    "Time is a political resource. How time is distributed is a question of structures we find within a society. It's structured by the economic system we have; it's structured by gender, by race," states journalist and author Teresa Bücker. In this conversation, Bücker describes her vision for a feminist and just approach to time. Her book on the topic, "Alle_Zeit. Eine Frage von Macht und Freiheit" was published in German in 2022. Bücker has been a regular contributor to Süddeutsche Zeitung, and is a sought after voice in conversations on politics, gender, and social change in Germany.

    31 min
  7. Roberto Lovato on the Tenderness that Survives the Terror

    02/16/2023

    Roberto Lovato on the Tenderness that Survives the Terror

    "I've been through war. I've witnessed the workings of genocide. I have gone to mass graves across the entire continent (…) We have to un-forget to get past the present fear." In this episode, writer and journalist Roberto Lovato speaks about overcoming personal and collective trauma. Lovato's work has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Der Spiegel, and other national and international media outlets. In 2020, he published his first book, Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs and Revolutions in the Americas. Lovato is a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and received a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

    38 min
  8. Antonia Juhasz on the Impact of Fossil Fuels on Democracy

    01/05/2023

    Antonia Juhasz on the Impact of Fossil Fuels on Democracy

    "Part of what has led the movement against fossil fuels is the increased number of people being confronted with the effects of oil drilling and fracking," argues energy analyst and investigative journalist Antonia Juhasz. The Senior Researcher in the Environment and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch talks about how our dependency on fossil fuels impacts the environment, politics, social justice and human rights worldwide. What can be done to bring about a just transition to renewable energy more quickly? Juhasz regularly writes for outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian and National Geographic, and is the author of Black Tide: the Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill (2011), among others.

    34 min
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How can democracy be renewed and defended today? A collaboration of the Thomas Mann House, the Goethe Institute, Wunderbar Together, and the Los Angeles Review of Books.

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