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The Gray Area with Sean Illing

An inspiring conversation about democracy

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, News Commentary, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.511.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2019

⏱️ 90 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Danielle Allen directs Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. She’s a political theorist, and a philosopher, and the principal investigator of the Democratic Knowledge Project. I talk about democracy a lot on this show, but it’s her life’s work. I've tried a bunch of different descriptions here, but they fail the conversation. I loved this one. Don’t make me cheapen it by describing it. Just download it. References: Talking to Strangers by Danielle Allen "Building a Good Jobs Economy" by Dani Rodrik and Charles Sabel Book recommendations: "Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell "What America Would Be Like Without Blacks" by Ralph Ellison Men in Dark Times by Hannah Arendt Want to contact the show? Reach out at ezrakleinshow@vox.com News comes at you fast. Join us at the end of your day to understand it. Subscribe to Today, Explained We are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes no more than five minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

When you drive a Chevy electric vehicle, you're getting more than a way to get from point A to point B.

0:06.0

You're saying goodbye to gas stations and how low to open roads.

0:09.0

With the growing network of public charging stations, you'll be able to charge your EV while you shop, work, or do whatever you want to be doing with your time.

0:17.0

Chevy is making EVs for everyone, everywhere. Go to chevrelay.com slash electric to learn more.

0:24.0

Support for this podcast comes from Slack. You have to get your work done. But what if you and your team could do it better?

0:35.0

Slack is a productivity platform that connects all your team members together instantly.

0:40.0

It's built to help your team with a host of features like huddles for quick check-ins and clips for recording and sharing video.

0:46.0

Slack also makes it easy to search and find the right information you need.

0:50.0

You can even integrate the apps you use in your normal workflow, like your calendar or product management tools.

0:56.0

So you stay focused on the work that matters and get more done. Learn more at Slack.com slash productivity.

1:04.0

It's the love of democracy that has to compensate for the pain and conflict of the actual contests of democracy.

1:11.0

It's the love of democracy that has to sort of remodivate a person to reach out and incorporate the losers.

1:17.0

And to ask the question of, okay, we'll give in your loss. What's the way of acknowledging that or what's the way of thinking about what question comes next for you?

1:25.0

Hello, welcome to the box Media Podcast Network. This episode is so good. It is so good.

1:43.0

Not saying anything about me, but Daniel Allen. She's the director of Harvard's Edmund Safra Center for Ethics.

1:49.0

She is a political theorist, a classicist, a philosopher. She is the lead investigator on the Democratic Knowledge Project.

1:55.0

She's the author of a bunch of amazing books, including recently Art Declaration and Cuzz.

2:01.0

But a couple years back, this amazing, amazing book called Talking to Strangers, which we're going to talk about a lot here.

2:07.0

This is going to be Talking to Strangers Week on the Isle of Client Show. We have another author of a book called Talking to Strangers coming in just a couple of days.

2:13.0

I've been following a bunch of threads in the past couple months about democracy on the show, about political democracy, who can vote, and how we participate, about economic democracy, about what kind of control we have over our economic lives, and then also about democratic practice.

2:26.0

How do we live in a democratic way? How do we relate to each other inside of a democracy? How do we see each other as fellow members of a democracy? What does that mean to do?

2:35.0

And Alan just somehow was able to bring these together for me in a way that just clicked a bunch of stuff into place in a really lovely way.

...

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