from WNYC studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Friday, May 5th.

So you're frustrated about gridlock and democracy in Congress these days, right? How many days

do we talk about that on this show?

The Senate is permanently stuck because of the filibuster in Joe Manchin

and the fact that small conservative states get the same two senators as New York and California.

In fact, the Brookings Institution says, California alone, listen to this stat, California alone

has the same population as the 21 smallest states combined.

But California gets two senators, those smaller states get 42.

So Congress needs reform, right?

Well, yes.

My first guest today is one of the country's leading thinkers on democracy, and she has a Washington

post op-ed that proposes one way to reform Congress, but here's the surprise.

It's not about changing the Senate.

It's about changing the House.

Danielle Allen is a professor of political philosophy,

ethics, and public policy at Harvard. She is former chair of the Mellon Foundation and the

Pulitzer Prize Board, the author of books including Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus

and a Washington Post columnist, where her latest piece is called The House

was supposed to grow with population. It didn't. Let's fix that. I'll say that again. The House

was supposed to grow with population. It didn't. Let's fix that. It's part of a series in which

she's exploring ways to stop our country from pulling apart

with ways to come together. Professor Allen, thanks so much for coming on with us. Welcome to WNYC.

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