Future Hindsight
Future Hindsight is a weekly podcast that takes big ideas about civic life and democracy and turns them into action items for everyday citizens.
Fighting for Good Governance: Anna Eskamani
Thursday, May 25th, 2023 Representative Anna Eskamani serves on behalf of Florida’s 42nd district of Orange County in the state House of Representatives. We discuss her victories at the ballot box and her work to represent her constituents. Her campaign slogan is “Working for you. Fighting for us.” When serving in the minority of the Florida state legislature, you only pass legislation by working across the aisle. Anna is a firm believer in calling people in before calling them out, …
People Power and AI: Chris Wiggins & Matt Jones
Thursday, May 18th, 2023 Chris Wiggins and Matthew L. Jones are co-authors of How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms. Chris is an associate professor of applied mathematics at Columbia University and the New York Times’s chief data scientist and Matt is a professor of history at Columbia. Together, they taught a course called “Data: Past, Present, and Future," and their book is an extension thereof. We discuss the history of how …
Dignity and Justice: Judge Victoria Pratt
Thursday, May 11th, 2023 Judge Victoria Pratt was Chief Judge in Newark Municipal Court in New Jersey and the author of The Power of Dignity. She is currently the Executive Director of Odyssey Impact, an interfaith non-profit driving social change through innovative storytelling and media. We discuss procedural justice, municipal court reform, and increasing the public's trust in the justice system. Tough-on-crime laws are ineffective. Punishing people for wrongdoing does not change behavior. Judge Pratt asserts her authority when she …
Civic Information Media: Craig Aaron
Thursday, May 4th, 2023 Craig Aaron is the Co-CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action. We discuss the civic information bill in New Jersey and the promise of centering civic information in the media. A vibrant multiracial democracy requires civic information media, which delivers the information that helps us live better lives in our communities. Journalism or civic media are a public good, and the public needs to invest in media along those lines. In New Jersey, bipartisan legislative …
A Slow Civil War?: Jeff Sharlet
Thursday, April 27th, 2023 Jeff Sharlet is a journalist, best-selling author, and longtime observer and investigator of the Christian right. His latest book is The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War. We discuss America's democratic bankruptcy, the martyrdom of Ashli Babbit, and the rightward shift of the mainstream. The notion of civil war was a fringe idea, but in recent years it has become mainstream. It was just a question of time and for some, it was already happening. …
Reclaiming Rural Power: Chloe Maxmin & Canyon Woodward
Thursday, April 20th, 2023 Chloe Maxmin and Canyon Woodward are the co-authors of Dirt Road Revival: How to Rebuild Rural Politics and Why our Future Depends on It. We discuss the importance of winning rural races in America. When Chloe ran for office in rural Maine, she knocked on over 20,000 doors and discovered that constituents feel a lack of representation in their daily lives. Democrats really stopped showing up and investing in strong organizing infrastructure in rural places, but …
Winning Messages: Anat Shenker-Osorio
Thursday, April 13th, 2023 Anat Shenker-Osorio is a renowned communications researcher and campaign advisor, the host of Words to Win By, and the Principal of ASO Communications. We discuss how to empower voters, the impact of repetition, and the importance of being clear on what you stand for. All candidates should repeatedly state what they stand for because repetition is an essential ingredient in making sure a message is heard. Negative messaging can often be counterproductive because when you’re negating …
Drilled: The Boom
Thursday, April 6th, 2023 We’re sharing an episode of Drilled, a true-crime podcast about climate change, hosted and reported by award-winning investigative journalist Amy Westervelt. Four years ago, the Drilled podcast asked a question that changed how people thought about climate stories: What if we stopped acting like the climate crisis was inevitable and instead treated it like it truly is… the crime of the century? Now, the original true crime podcast about climate change is back with a new …
Bail Reform’s Success: Alana Sivin
Thursday, March 30th, 2023 Alana Sivin is the New York State Director of Criminal Justice Reform at FWD.us. We discuss the history of bail reform legislation, the subsequent roadblocks, and the truth behind the efficacy of this policy. Bail reform was passed to end a system of wealth-based detention of people who have not been convicted of a crime. Many of them are Black and brown. Verified public data shows that bail reform is not leading to a rise in …
Holding Police Accountable: Joanna Schwartz
Thursday, March 23rd, 2023 Joanna Schwartz is a professor of law at UCLA, where she teaches civil procedure and courses on police accountability. Her new book is Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable. We discuss the multiple levels of protection for police offers and how local and state laws can break us out of the qualified immunity maze. There is a broad systemic problem with holding police accountable when they abuse their power or violate the law. The Supreme Court …