democracy

Our Democracy - Episode 3: How Are We Doing, Next Steps? 01/24/2020

In this third episode of Our Democracy, based on Rick Hubbard's lifetime of research, moderator Alex LaVin and Rick outline effective reform initiatives on the horizon for a constitutional republic whose representative legitimacy is in a long-brewing, deeply rooted crisis.

Host: Alex LaVin, Literate Commoner

Guest: Rick Hubbard, Democracy Activist

Ali's Corner: The New American Voting Event and the Non-Citizens Voting Ballot Item 01/20/2020

Diversity is our gift and our future. What does is mean to engage New Americans in our democracy by providing what is needed for equity and access?

Host: Ali Dieng

Guests:

Mohamed Jafar - Community Activist, Project Manager for NAVE
Lal Pradhan - Nepali Multilingual Liaison for BSD

Operation City on a Hill: Democracy in America 12/10/2019

This month's show is a follow up to the last show on "The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority." The title is taken from Alexis de Tocqueville's famous examination of American Democracy. He saw the future threat to modern democracy coming more from subtle "soft despotism" than from an obvious tyranny. In his opinion, Europe had already caught this disease and he sought the cure in American Democracy. If we had paid more attention to his warning, we would not be so surprised by our current "crisis."

Operation City on a Hill: The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium 11/12/2019

The title is taken from a book by Martin Gurri. This episode deals with the phenomenon behind why a certain segment of the public is sticking behind Donald despite the mounting evidence of corruption surrounding his administration. It then focuses on the question of Liberal Democracy's survival.

"All over the world, elite institutions from governments to media to academia are losing their authority and monopoly control of information to dynamic amateurs and the broader public. This book, until now only in samizdat (and Kindle) form, has been my #1 handout for the last several years to anyone seeking to understand this unfolding shift in power from hierarchies to networks in the age of the Internet." --Marc Andreessen, co-founder, Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz

"We are in an open war between publics with passionate and untutored interests and elites who believe they have the right to guide those publics. Gurri asks the essential question: can liberal representative democracy survive the rise of the publics?" --Roger Berkowitz, Founder and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center, Professor of Politics and Human Rights at Bard College.

Education and Enrichment for Everyone: The Importance of Public Access TV to Democracy 10/25/2019

Lauren-Glenn Davitian, Executive Director, Center for Media and Democracy

Part of the Education and Enrichment for Everyone series in South Burlington, Vermont. For more information visit EEEVermont.org.

Burlington Democrats: Youth Engagement in our Communities 09/11/2019

Grace Viscito, from the Vermont Democratic Party, speaks with Skyler Nash, student activist, and Hannah King, Deputy Executive Director of College Democrats of Vermont, about youth engagement in our communities and the electoral process.

Wendell Potter Forum - Medicare for All: What's Stopping Us? 06/12/2019

Wendell Potter is a former insurance company executive who found his conscience, quit his job, and is now working for universal health care and bringing awareness to the impact of money on the health care industry and democracy through his investigative reporting on the issues. For this forum he focuses on the impact of money on health care reform.

Presented by Vermont Health Care for All and VBSR.

Episode 2: Our Democracy with Rick Hubbard 03/29/2018

The strategy of pressing Congress to enact broad reform has failed in the past and is continuing to fail, yet hundreds of nonprofit advocacy organizations are currently pressing Congress to pass legislation and to propose a 28th constitutional amendment that would overturn Citizens United and rid politics of the corrupting influence of money.

Even if Citizens United were overturned, it will not rid politics of the corrupting influence of money. Political contributions from the few, raised the old way, have been corrupting Congressional outcomes for decades, well before Citizens United further opened the floodgates.

Defending Our Democracy: Transparency, Cyber Security, and Voting 03/20/2018

A panel discussion with Deputy Secretary of State Chris Winters, Senator Chris Pearson, and Cyber Expert Justin Fimlaid, moderated by Terri Hallenbeck. After Russian interference in our national election, what can we do to protect our democracy and voting process? Vermont experts share what's being done. Hosted by Shelburne Democrats.

The State of Our Democracy 03/17/2018

Independent researcher and The Democracy Amendments author Rick Hubbard hosts a special interactive session with an audience at South Burlington, Vermont's Community Library to explore the changing landscape of democracy in the United States.

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Applications Now Open for the Spring 2025 Cohort of the Neighborhood Community Media Internship Program

Town Meeting TV is excited to announce that applications are now open for the Spring 2025 cohort of the Neighborhood Community Media Internship program. Join up to 8 other youth to engage in interesting media making projects! This paid media internship opportunity is designed for youth aged 16-20 who are eager to gain professional experience in the audio-visual field and develop a deeper understanding of their local community. The group will meet under the leadership of Town Meeting TV's Travis Washington from the end of January 2025 to the beginning of June 2025, on a schedule agreed upon by the whole cohort. Click here to apply!