How to Fix Democracy

Bertelsmann Foundation
  • 4.9 (18)
  • POLITICS
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Since its origins, democracy has been a work in progress. Today, many question its resilience. How to Fix Democracy, a collaboration of the Bertelsmann Foundation and Humanity in Action, explores practical solutions for how to address the increasing threats democracy faces. Host Andrew Keen interviews prominent international thinkers and practitioners of democracy.

  1. Maury Giles: Courageous Citizenship — Practicing Resilience in an Age of Outrage

    MAR 6

    Maury Giles: Courageous Citizenship — Practicing Resilience in an Age of Outrage

    As How to Fix Democracy opens its seventh season on democratic  resilience, host Andrew Keen welcomes Maury Giles, the new CEO of Braver Angels, for a candid conversation about whether American democracy can withstand what Giles calls the "industrial outrage complex." In a year marking the nation's 250th anniversary, Giles argues that resilience is not something institutions deliver from above, but something citizens practice from below.  Drawing on his experience leading one of the country's largest cross-partisan civic movements -and on the lived reality of raising a political divided family of ten- he makes the case for "courageous citzenship", the discipline of choosing to act rather than react.  Together Keen and Giles explore why polarization in 2026 may feel more toxic than a decade ago, how performative politics and social media have eroded trust, and why dialogue alone is no longer enough without collaborative local action. They confront hard questions about government incentives, declining institutional trust, and whether putting down our devices might be a precondition for rebuilding civic culture. Yet the tone remains cautiously hopeful: if the pain of division is finally high enough, Americans may be ready to change. In the end, this episode suggests that democratic renewal will not come from one side defeating the other, but from citizens rediscovering their agency, and practicing resilience as a daily civic habit.

    36 min
  2. Richard Edelman | From Polarization to Insularity: Can Trust be Rebuild

    MAR 2

    Richard Edelman | From Polarization to Insularity: Can Trust be Rebuild

    For 26 years, Richard Edelman has measured the world's trust levels through the Edelman Trust Barometer. In this final episode of our trust series, he joins Andrew Keen to diagnose a new and troubling phase: insularity. After years of polarization, grievance, and activism, societies are hardening into self-contained camps, "turtles in shells", as Edelman puts it, trusting only those who share their values, media and worldview. Governments are faltering, media credibility is shrinking, and a widening mass class divide is fueling pessimism about the future. Yet amid AI disruption, nationalism, and economic anxiety, Edelman argues that trust can still be rebuilt, from the bottom up. Employers, local institutions, and "poly-national" businesses may hold the key. The question is whether democracies can restore optimism before insularity becomes permanent. Is trust the missing ingredient in democratic, or its final casualty?

    30 min
  3. Rebuilding Trust: Can We Fix America's Social and Political Fractures? | Featuring Dr. Michael Neblo and Frederick J. Riley

    FEB 19

    Rebuilding Trust: Can We Fix America's Social and Political Fractures? | Featuring Dr. Michael Neblo and Frederick J. Riley

    In this episode of How to Fix Democracy, host Andrew Keen explores America's deepening crisis of trust, both social and political. Joined by Frederick Riley of Weave at the Aspen Institute and Dr, Michael Neblo of the Ohio State University, the conversation examines rising isolation, collapsing confidence in institutions, and the growing divide across communities. From neighborhood-level connection to large-scale democratic reform, they discuss practical, evidence-based ways to restore trust, and why small, everyday actions may be the key to saving democracy.

    45 min

  4. 12/02/2025

    Cynthia Miller - Idriss | How Distrust Fuels Extremism

    In this episode of How to Fix Democracy, host Andrew Keen sits down with Cynthia Miller-Idriss - scholar of extremism, founder of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL), and author of Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism. Together they explore one of democracy's most fragile foundations: trust. From gender polarization and the rise of the "manosphere", to the declining institutional confidence, to why young men are increasingly vulnerable to online radicalization, Miller-Idriss explains how mistrust is reshaping politics, culture, and everyday relationships. She also discussed what might work to rebuild trust - from community level engagement to national service models - and why belonging, meaning and purpose might be the most powerful antidotes to extremism. A wide-ranging, urgent conversation about loneliness, democracy and whether America can restore trust before it is too late. Miller-Idriss offers a note of cautious optimism: most people, she argues,  don't actually want to live this way.

    38 min

  5. 10/30/2025

    From FDR to AI: Derek Leebaert on Trust and Democracy

    In this episode of How to Fix Democracy, host Andrew Keen speaks with Derek Leebaert - historian, technologist and author of Unlikely Heroes - about the shifting foundations of trust in democracy. From Franklin D. Roosevelt's efforts to rebuild confidence in government during the New Deal era to today's rapid rise of articifical intelligence, Leebaert traces how accelerating technological change has shortened the lifespan in trust in institutions, leaders, and even truth itself. As AI transforms knowledge, work and power, is it a threat to democracy or a chance to renew it? Leebaert explores what "responsible AI" might look like - and why transparency, accountability, and common-sense regulation are vital in restoring trust in a digital age.

    38 min

  6. 09/29/2025

    Burt Neuborne | Law, Trust, and the American Constitution

    Can democracy survive without trust in the law? In this episode of How to Fix Democracy, host Andrew Keen speaks with Burt Neuborne, founding legal director of the Brennan Center for Justice and professor of law at NYU, about the complex relationship between law and trust in America. From Hobbes and Rousseau to Madison, Lincoln, and the U.S. Constitution itself, Neuborne explores how law can both deter or worst instincts and inspire our better angels.

    39 min
  7. Richard Kreitner | Trust, Mistrust, and the Myth of American Unity

    09/09/2025

    Richard Kreitner | Trust, Mistrust, and the Myth of American Unity

    Is mistrust a defining feature and flaw in American democracy? Or is it a manifestation of basic opposition against long-term democratic and aspirational concepts such as "all men are created equally"? In this thought provoking conversation author and historian Richard Kreitner joins Andrew Keen to explore the deep mistrust in U.S. political life. Drawing on themes from his book Break it up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union. Kreitner traces the fractured origins of the American project, argues that national cohesion may be neither possible nor desirable at the continental scale, and makes the provocative case, that mistrust - even secessionist thinking - can sometimes be a rational response to genuine democratic failures. A timely conversation that challenges prevailing narratives about unity and the Constitution in an age of polarization and rising political anxiety.

    32 min

  8. 07/01/2025

    Joan Williams | Outclassed: Rebuilding Trust Between Political Elites and the Working Class

    Legal scholar and author Joan Williams joins How to Fix Democracy to unpack the breakdown of trust between political elites and the American working class. Drawing from her new book Outclassed, Williams explores how class-blindness, cultural signaling, and economic inequality have shaped political divides - and what the left must do to win back working class voters. From language to long-term coalition-building, this episode offers a sobering but essential roadmap for restoring trust.

    33 min
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4.9
out of 5
18 Ratings

About

Since its origins, democracy has been a work in progress. Today, many question its resilience. How to Fix Democracy, a collaboration of the Bertelsmann Foundation and Humanity in Action, explores practical solutions for how to address the increasing threats democracy faces. Host Andrew Keen interviews prominent international thinkers and practitioners of democracy.

Information

  • Creator
    Bertelsmann Foundation
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    How to Fix Democracy

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