Explore every episode of the podcast How to Save Democracy
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meet Jon | 01 Jul 2025 | 00:23:50 | |
In this episode, co-host Omezzine Khelifa turns the mic on her fellow presenter, Jon Alexander. Before founding the New Citizenship Project and writing Citizens, Jon spent a decade in the world of advertising â helping big brands sell more stuff. So how did he make the leap from marketing to reimagining democracy? Omezzine asks the thoughtful (and tough) questions as we trace Jonâs journey from consumer culture to citizen action â as they explore what it really means to tell a hopeful new story about democracyâs future. | |||
| Meet Omezzine | 01 Jul 2025 | 00:30:44 | |
Weâre figuring out how to fix democracy. Not by talking about it from a distance, but by meeting the people doing the work. In this episode, you have the chance to get to know co-host, Omezzine Khelifa â someone whoâs lived every facet of this fight: reformer, revolutionary, politician, and practitioner. Omezzine proudly calls herself French-Tunisian, and her story begins in the heart of the 2010 Tunisian Revolution â what would become known to the world as the Arab Spring. From the frontlines of protest to the halls of parliament, from activism to tech, and even acting, Omezzine brings a rare mix of insight, experience, and conviction. Chapters
| |||
| Citizen is a Verb | 01 Jul 2025 | 00:58:00 | |
Back in September 2024, as the US election took an unexpected turn, we gathered at the Conduit Club in London with Baratunde Thurston and Elizabeth Stewart â the powerhouse duo behind How To Citizen. Since launching their project in 2020, theyâve been telling the stories of the ânext democracy,â spotlighting people who are already reimagining civic life. In this episode, we explore their radical, hopeful idea: that being a citizen is something we do, not something we are. Itâs a call to action and a reminder that democracy is not a product, but a practice. Chapters
| |||
| Facing the Menace | 01 Jul 2025 | 01:00:42 | |
In this episode, weâre not looking away. Weâre acknowledging the cracks in our democracies and asking what can still be done. Recorded live at the Conduit Club in early 2024, this powerful conversation brings together two sharp, prescient voices: political strategist and pollster Paul Hilder, and author and journalist Ece Temelkuran. Paul has worked on elections across Europe, uncovering the deeper trends shaping our politics. Ece, whose book How to Lose a Country warned of creeping authoritarianism back in 2019, draws urgent lessons from Turkey and beyond. Their insights feel even more vital now than they did then. Chapters
| |||
| The Irish Citizensâ Assembly | 04 Nov 2025 | 01:04:37 | |
In September 2025, Jon hosted a live event in Dublin exploring the past, present and future of one of the most exciting democratic experiments of recent times. Over the last 15 years, Ireland's Citizens' Assembly has brought nearly 600 randomly selected citizens together to deliberate on issues from abortion to marriage equality to biodiversity, before making recommendations to elected officials. Join us as we delve into what happened, how, and why - and ask whether this approach could help save democracy all over the world. David Farrell is Chair of Politics at UCD and was part of the original We The Citizens project that preceded the Irish Constitutional Convention and the Citizensâ Assembly.Art O'Leary is chief executive at An CoimisiĂşn ToghchĂĄin, the Electoral Commission of Ireland, the management and oversight organisation for electoral and wider democracy matters, and Secretary to the Citizensâ Assembly. Louise Caldwell is one of the randomly selected citizens to have taken part in the Assembly, and has since joined the board of People Powered, the global advocacy organisation for participatory democracy. Chapters
| |||
| Taiwanâs Transformation | 14 Nov 2025 | 00:54:05 | |
Trust in government has been collapsing all over the world over the last decade - but one country has bucked the trend. Fewer than 10% of the population trusted government in 2014, but by 2024, that figure had climbed above 70%. Spurred on by a collective of civic hackers calling themselves âGov Zeroâ, Taiwan has trusted its people, opened its institutions, and even crowdsourced what was arguably the worldâs most successful Covid response. In this episode, we draw out the lessons every nation can learn from this story with the help of one of its key actors, Audrey Tang. Audrey is Taiwanâs âCyber Ambassadorâ and former Minister of Digital Affairs. A prominent member of the Gov Zero collective, she became a reverse mentor to Minister Jaclyn Tsai in the aftermath of the peaceful Sunflower Revolution in 2014, before joining government herself in 2016 - and becoming the worldâs first transgender minister in the process. Chapters
| |||
| Nation of Strangers | 09 Mar 2026 | 00:56:41 | |
For our first live recording, we host Turkish writer and political commentator Ece Temelkuran to discuss her brave and beautiful new book, Nation Of Strangers. In a world unmaking our sense of safety and belonging, Ece offers something we desperately need: a vision of the future we can create together and requiring all of us. Her most powerful insight? The unhomed among us aren't simply victims of our times. They're pioneers, already carrying the know-how we need to build our new home together. Chapters
| |||
| Neighbourhood Power | 23 Mar 2026 | 01:05:30 | |
Radical architect Indy Johar and renowned community leader Immy Kaur share their understanding of the vital importance of neighbourhood-scale work in the face of the realities of our time. Sometimes brutal in their realism, they force us to stare hard at the challenges and not shy away from painful truths. But they're also insistent about what becomes possible when we work at a human scale: the scale of our lives and the places we live, where we all have a role to play in building the future we need. Chapters
| |||
| What Art Can Do for Democracy | 13 Apr 2026 | 01:08:14 | |
We host legendary artist Brian Eno and his co-author Bette Adriaanse to explore the ideas in their book, What Art Does. Feelings are not luxuries, they're powerful forces that can nurture democracy or, in the wrong hands, unmake it entirely. Even at its most intimate and personal level, art invites us to imagine alternatives, experiment, and find grounding, a sense of stability, and forward momentum in a world of increasing uncertainty. Chapters
| |||