Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen Burt Cohen

It’s not high on people’s reason to choose a president, but the power of pardons today is often corrupt and the promise of a pardon has been known to encourage crimes. In this discussion of her forthcoming book, Law Professor Kimberly Wehle says though pardons were meant to have good intent, what we see is a patchwork of justice and injustice. She explains why your vote in November so greatly affects our system of justice.

Unions have achieved some historic victories recently. But though many workers are curious, there’s still reluctance to joining a union. As co-author of a new report called “Union Curious,” UC San Diego’s political economy professor John Ahlquist explains on this show, winning is not easy, there’s often harsh resistance from employers (and sometimes the federal government). He tells how younger people are leading the way. Not only do unions improve working conditions but today they also address the epidemic of loneliness

Today, more than ever, politics is theater. On today’s big stage we see Biden as an old weakened man, and then we have Trump with blood on his face, standing strong, defiant, fist in the air. On today’s show national political columnist Jill Lawrence asks, after the shooting drama: “Is he unbeatable now?” Does it remind you of a Roy Orbison song?

In 21st Century Western Culture, there’s a variety of impressions average white people get when you say the word Muslim. Most of them wrong. On this edition of Keeping Democracy Alive, Toronto author Saqib Qureshi brings some needed clarity to the subject in his new book: Being Muslim Today: Reclaiming the Faith from Orthodoxy and Islamophobia.

Today’s guest is Dr. Rachelle Winkle-Wagner, author of the new book The Chosen We. She’s a professor of Educational Leadership and Policy a U.Wisconsin-Madison. Over a period of ten years she interviewed 105 Black women from five selected cities about their experiences in both primarily White institutions and historically Black colleges and universities. She found lessons we can all learn: about community and what liberation and educational success really means. In the book she shows how it is communities that build individual strength.

Many still think “We don’t have to deal with it now,” but a new report from the Union of Concern Scientists is titled “Looming Deadlines for Coastal Resilience” for a reason. As co-author Dr. Rachel Cleetus explains on this show, short term profits can’t match the reality that for every one dollar invested in resilience and long term planning, we save as much as 31 dollars. As she explains, with so much critical infrastructure at serious risk from flooding in the near future, the national economy faces a severe risk. Yet there are opportunities for new jobs and a stronger economy, If we get on it now!