The Art of Association – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

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The Art of Association

AEI Podcasts

Business

Government

Frequency: 1 episode/30d. Total Eps: 6

The Art of Association is a monthly podcast on big themes spanning philanthropy, civil society, and democracy in America – and the interplay between and among these areas. Following Tocqueville, the podcast presumes that the health of democracy depends far more than we realize on our ability to associate with each other in constructive ways. Doing this helps us solve problems we face together and, at the same time, become citizens more capable of self-government.

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

🇩🇪 Germany - nonProfit
12/08/2026
#100
🇩🇪 Germany - nonProfit
09/08/2026
#94
🇩🇪 Germany - nonProfit
08/08/2026
#77
🇩🇪 Germany - nonProfit
07/08/2026
#65
🇩🇪 Germany - nonProfit
06/08/2026
#48
🇺🇸 USA - nonProfit
06/08/2026
#61
🇩🇪 Germany - nonProfit
05/08/2026
#42
🇺🇸 USA - nonProfit
05/08/2026
#83
🇩🇪 Germany - nonProfit
04/08/2026
#32
🇩🇪 Germany - nonProfit
03/08/2026
#28

Spotify

No recent rankings available

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https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/669326/undivided-by-hahrie-han/
2 shares
https://www.newcivicfuture.org/letter
2 shares
https://keseb.org/
2 shares

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RSS feed quality

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Score global : 52%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

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Charlie Brown on Supporting Civic Life in Rural and Small Town America

Episode 1

Tuesday, February 24, 2026 • Duration 45:28

Charlie Brown, Executive Director of the Trust for Civic Life, joins The Art of Association podcast to talk with host Daniel Stid about the Trust’s work. Three years into this initiative, the Trust is off to a great start in pooling funds from national philanthropic funders and in turn regranting them to support bottom up civic renewal efforts, with a special emphasis on rural and small town America. The Trust’s support for “civic hubs” in communities across the country in the form of flexible, multiyear grants makes a point of keeping the initiative with local leaders. These leaders and their organizations are uniquely positioned to use their local knowledge, networks, and accountability to determine priorities, expand participation, and help solve problems in their communities in ways that national funders cannot. The Trust holds that durable civic renewal grows through collaborative action, focusing on small practical wins while avoiding national controversies that have limited local salience. This approach holds great promise for improving our communities and ultimately, as progress accumulates, the civic life of the nation as a whole.

Chapters

(00:35): The Trust for Civic Life’s mission, origins, funders, and initial development

(11:00): Why the Trust focuses on rural and small town America

(15:20): How the Trust goes about its work

(21:19): The aspirations and career path that brought Charlie to the Trust

(23:47): The Trust’s work to navigate divisions and address shared priorities

(26:30): What the Trust is learning from its work to date

(32:00): How the Trust shares promising ideas and approaches across its network

(34:49): How the Trust is fine-tuning its efforts

(40:37): Charlie’s vision for the Trust’s impact over the long run

(42:56): Who Charlie learns from

Resources

“Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century” (American Academy of Arts and Sciences)

Trust for Civic Life website

Investing in America’s Civic Hubs (Trust for Civic Life’s 2025 Annual Report)

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Brian Hooks of Stand Together on Practicing Pluralism in Philanthropy

Episode 2

Wednesday, March 25, 2026 • Duration 45:37

Brian Hooks is Chairman and CEO of Stand Together and the President of the Charles Koch Foundation. He joins The Art of Association podcast to talk with host Daniel Stid about Stand Together’s efforts to advance pluralism and human flourishing through a vibrant, entrepreneurial civil society. They reflect on Brian’s long partnership with Charles Koch and a new edition of their co-authored book, Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World. The conversation also explores Be the People, a major new initiative that Stand Together is launching with a broad network of partners. Timed to launch during the nation’s 250th anniversary, Be the People will be a ten-year campaign. Its goal is to strengthen and highlight bottom-up civic renewal. Brian also discusses his cross-ideological collaboration with fellow philanthropists on what he calls “Team Liberalism” to defend pluralism and philanthropic freedom from illiberal critics on both the Left and the Right.

Chapters

(0:58): Stand Together’s vision, mission and methods for using philanthropy to empower people

(3:53): How and why Brian came to work at Stand Together

(9:03): Brian’s working relationship with Charles Koch and their principle based approach to management in civil society

(13:28): Why Brian and Charles Koch wanted to bring out a new “America at 250” edition of Believe in People

(21:20): Purpose and plans for the Be the People initiative and problem-solving platform

(31:13): Brian’s spirited defense of philanthropic freedom and pluralism – and the growing threats to them from illiberalism on both the Left and Right

Additional Resources

Heather Gerken of the Ford Foundation on Supporting Democracy and the Rule of Law

Episode 3

Wednesday, April 22, 2026 • Duration 28:52

Heather Gerken is the new President of the Ford Foundation. She joins The Art of Association podcast to discuss her leadership journey and her vision for how the Ford Foundation and other philanthropic organizations can promote democracy and the rule of law. Addressing critiques of large philanthropic organizations for being overly political, Heather emphasizes that philanthropies must be allowed to be independent in their giving decisions and guided by their mission-driven “North Star,” while also remaining open and responsive to criticism. Drawing on her years of experience in election law, Heather stresses that philanthropy must remain nonpartisan, adhering to not only the letter but also the spirit of the law’s ban on electioneering. She and Daniel close by discussing the importance of ideological and viewpoint diversity—and how engaging with people who see things differently strengthens one’s own judgment and helps one become a more effective leader in civil society.

Chapters

(01:46): Heather’s work as a legal scholar on federalism, democracy, and elections

(05:14): Leading Yale Law School at a charged moment in time

(07:51): What drew Heather to her role as President of the Ford Foundation

(09:23): Drawing on early guiding principles and the historical legacy of the Ford Foundation

(14:00): Responding to critiques of the Ford Foundation—and philanthropy more broadly

(19:51): Supporting liberal democracy, elections, and the rule of law on a nonpartisan basis

(23:21): Engaging across the ideological spectrum and cultivating viewpoint diversity

Additional Resources

Heather Gerken, The Democracy Index: Why Our Election System is Failing and How to Fix It (Princeton University Press, 2009)

Hahrie Han of Johns Hopkins University on What Moves People to Act Together

Episode 5

Wednesday, June 24, 2026 • Duration 44:33

Hahrie Han is the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University, where she served as the Inaugural Director of the SNF Agora Institute and is the Faculty Director of the P3 Research Lab. She joins The Art of Association podcast to talk with host Daniel Stid about her research on belonging, civic action, and transformational community organizing. Hahrie shares how she became interested in understanding why people engage in civic life and what she has learned in her research. She also reflects on the story behind her latest book, Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church. Through years of embedded research among participants in an evangelical megachurch’s racial justice initiative, Hahrie gained deeper insight into the principles of transformational civic life — both for communities and for the individuals invested in the work. Hahrie and Daniel also consider how artificial intelligence might advance research on civic initiatives. They conclude by discussing some interlocutors upon whom Hahrie draws to challenge her assumptions.

Chapters

(1:48): Hahrie’s experience receiving the MacArthur Fellowship

(4:37): What first drew Hahrie to study why and how people engage in civic life

(10:32): Key takeaways from Hahrie’s early research, including “belonging comes before belief” and its relationship to transactional and transformational organizing

(16:16): The Agora Institute’s Mapping the Modern Agora project and what it has found

(20:46): The story of Crossroads Church and its Undivided racial justice initiative

(25:25): Three core ideas supporting Crossroads Church’s Undivided initiative — and effective civic engagement more broadly

Liz Joyner of The Village Square and Ash Hanson of Department of Public Transformation on “An Invitation to a New Civic Future”

Episode 4

Wednesday, May 27, 2026 • Duration 01:02:56

Episode Summary

Liz Joyner is the Founder and President of The Village Square and Ash Hanson is the Creative Executive Officer for the Department of Public Transformation. They join Daniel Stid to talk about “An Invitation to a New Civic Future,” a public letter that the three of them co-signed with nine other colleagues earlier this year. The invitation focuses on shifting from top-down, technocratic interventions to bottom-up civic renewal that is more participatory, proximate, relational, generational and alive. Liz and Ash describe their work and the importance of irresistible, creative, place-based activities to connect with neighbors and cultivate a more enduring sense of membership and engagement in one’s community. Liz and Ash also explain the need for and promise of practicing the letter’s principles and give examples of how they have applied them in their own organizations’ work.

Chapters

(01:45): Background on The Village Square and Department of Public Transformation.

(06:27): The uniqueness of communities across the country–including rural America.

(11:45): The process that led to “An Invitation to a New Civic Future”

(22:25): A diagnosis of our current problems

(31:01): Five design principles for a new civic future:

(31:47): Participatory
(34:30): Proximate
(38:26): Relational
(42:56): Generational
(45:44): Alive

(52:22): Why artists and creatives have an essential role to play in civic engagement

(58:32): How curating organic communities is key for sustaining long-term change

Additional Resources

Yordanos Eyoel of Keseb on Democracy Entrepreneurship

Episode 6

Wednesday, July 22, 2026 • Duration 47:17

Yordanos Eyoel is the Founder and CEO of Keseb, a nonprofit helping to build a transnational civil society ecosystem that advances inclusive and resilient democracies. She joins host Daniel Stid on The Art of Association podcast to talk about democracy entrepreneurship, the power of taking a transnational approach to democracy field-building, and the need to defend civil society while also reimagining it. Their conversation begins with Yordanos sharing how her experience growing up in Ethiopia amid civil war and ethnic strife, and then finding refuge with her family in the United States, shaped her commitment to renewing democracy in this country and around the world. Yordanos and Daniel also explore her experience as a venture philanthropist supporting democracy entrepreneurs at New Profit, what led her to become one herself and launch Keseb, the strategy and theory of change guiding the organization’s work, and what she and her colleagues have learned along the way about what it takes to strengthen democracy and civil society across borders.

Chapters

(1:17): Yordanos’s early life and how her migration story shaped her commitment to democracy

(4:17): New Profit’s venture philanthropy approach and support for democracy entrepreneurship

(9:58): What led Yordanos to launch Keseb and its global network of democracy entrepreneurs

(15:54): Keseb’s transnational strategy and theory of change

(23:30): Does scarce funding spur more creativity among democracy entrepreneurs?

(27:32): Why do illiberal populists and nationalists seem better able to learn from and reinforce one another's efforts than democracy advocates advancing universal values?

(32:24): What Keseb has been learning from its work to date

(40:23): How Keseb navigates the tension of defending civil society while also seeking to reimagine it

The Art of Association – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

The Art of Association – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Other48

Amazon2

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Other48

Amazon2

LinkedIn1