How to Win Friends and Save the Republic

Stephen B. Walker is a law enforcement veteran and lifelong activist in the areas of child protection and crime prevention. He is currently the director of Governmental Affairs for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA). Prior to this, he worked within the California Youth Authority for 26 years as a youth correctional officer. He also served as a jet mechanic and plane captain in United States Marine Corp. Stephen currently serves as vice chair for Protect, a national non-profit dedicated to protect children from physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, is the President and founding member of Minorities In Law Enforcement 4 Kids (Mile4kids), is a board member of Child Abuse Prevention Center (CAPC) and is a founding member of the Governor’s Cup Foundation. He is also the host of Reason 55, a podcast that brings together diverse and determined people doing incredible work that helps to affect our world for the better.  (Originally aired 08/07/2023)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael Mascioni is a writer, futurist, and conference producer focusing on digital media, technology, and innovation. His most recent book, entitled Reinventing Government through Political Entrepreneurship and Exponential Innovation, discusses programs and strategies of various non-partisan policy organizations and think tanks.  (Originally aired 07/21/2023)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bill Shireman is a social entrepreneur, environmental policy innovator, and rare San Francisco Republican. He’s also the founder of Future500, a non-profit consultancy that builds trust between companies, advocates, investors, and philanthropists to advance business as a force for good. (Originally aired 07/14/2023)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aaron Hamlin is the co-founder and executive director of The Center for Election Science, a nonprofit that is probably best known as a champion of an alternative voting method called Approval Voting. Aaron’s educational background and career experience have spanned the gamut, but through it all, as he explains in this episode, he has tried to use math and statistics to help make the world a little bit better.  (Originally aired 4/6/2022)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re joined by Nate Allen, founder and Executive Director of Utah Approves, to discuss Approval Voting and his perspective on changing the incentives of our elections.  (Originally aired 3/18/2022)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Issac Saul has written about just about everything as a journalist, but politics is a bit more personal. In 2019 he founded Tangle, an independent, ad-free, nonpartisan politics newsletter that summarizes the best arguments from the left and the right on the news of the day. We sat down with Issac to discuss his career, his feelings about bias in the media, and how he copes with covering difficult issues.  (Originally aired 3/11/2022)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katie Fahey led Voters Not Politicians’ anti-gerrymandering campaign to successfully amend the Michigan state constitution. In this episode, we visit with her about her experience transitioning from being a grassroots advocate to a national leader for democracy reform at The People. (Originally aired 12/17/2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

America’s election structure was designed more than 250 years ago and a few tweaks have been made along the way, but it’s time for some real innovation. Enter Katherine Gehl, a businesswoman with political chops who realized that we could remake our electoral system so that the success of elected officials is tied to the success of the lives of their constituents. Gehl founded the Institute for Political Innovation and recorded a compelling TED Talk about the topic. (Originally aired 11/19/2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Gable has worked with national political leaders and helped create a doorway to the internet; now he and his team at AllSides are helping Americans contextualize the news they consume and promote conversation without division. (Originally aired 12/03/2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve all heard that “children are our future,” but few organizations have connected that sentiment to democracy building like Generation Citizen. Their CEO Elizabeth Clay Roy shares with us her passion for education, civics, and the power of “action civics” to build a better democracy for tomorrow by starting with students of today.  (Originally aired 11/12/2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every campaign is a learning opportunity, and the 2018 Voters Choice Massachusetts campaign was no exception. Nathan Lockwood and his colleagues took the lessons learned during that race and compiled them into a toolkit that can be used around the country to build the infrastructure needed to win reforms. We visit with Nathan and his colleague Monica Burke to discuss how that’s playing out at Rank the Vote. (Originally aired 11/05/2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From looking at the coalition behind More Choice San Diego, you might assume things came together effortlessly and overnight. Truth is, it took years of hard work and patient negotiation - as all good coalitions do. Chad Peace joins us to share his experience of working with the group and where they’re at now. (Originally aired 10/29/2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Benjamin Singer, CEO of Show Me Integrity in Missouri, shares his compelling story finding purpose in democracy reform, not just for himself but quite literally for the lives of his friends, family, and neighbors. (Originally aired 10/22/2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Following the Citizens United v FEC decision in 2010, attorney Jeff Clements began to strategize how to correct the mistakes that had been made. The ruling had opened the door to limitless money flowing unchecked into American politics. A decade later, Jeff and his colleagues at American Promise are well on their way to winning the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and ensuring that every American has an equal vote and an equal voice.  (Originally aired 9/24/2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Debilyn Molineaux’s name is synonymous with cross-partisan bridge building and the importance of civil dialogue in a democratic society. In this episode, we visit with Debilyn about her path from advertising to being a candidate for public office to co-founding some of the most influential bridging organizations in the democracy ecosystem. Visit the Bridge Alliance website for more information.  (Originally aired 9/17/2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Palmer works in finance; his friend, Bruce Goldberg, works in health care. Although their careers have little to do with politics or political reform, over time they came to realize that the American democracy was broken and the only way to save it was to reform the system. We sat down with John and Bruce to better understand why they believe reform is necessary and hear what their experience has taught them about the community.  (Originally aired 9/10/2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Special guests technology gurus Sarah Gifford and Victor Allis tell us about their app, ActiVote, which helps people increase their civic engagement by completing meaningful, daily tasks  (Originally aired 8/20/2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A reformed political operative himself, John Pudner founded Take Back Action Fund to work on reforming American democracy so that politicians are incentivized by good governance rather than foreign money and by Fair representation rather than special interests. we visit with John about his roots as a paperboy and a diverse Richmond neighborhood to an education in journalism and a career in politics, including how he stopped helping candidates win and started creating a system worth winning. (Originally aired 8/27/2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From his run for class president in 3rd grade to forming a third-party political party in New York state, John Opdycke is no stranger to disrupting the political system. In this episode, we hear from John about the value of independent voters and how open primaries - in its many forms - can be a catalyst for improving not just our politics but our government as a whole.  Visit Open Primaries to learn more. (Originally aired 8/13/2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amber McReynolds is an elections expert, author, leader, and mother. She is currently the CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute and was recently appointed to the US Postal Service Board of Governors, where she is the only female member and the first person with voting and elections expertise to serve on the body. We visited about her experience reforming Denver’s election system, the importance of having an equitable and accessible electoral system, and the role women can (and should) play in reforming our democracy.  (Originally aired 8/6/2021)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.