Richard Gephardt: "Democracy: Old School vs New Reality"
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens
4.8 • 558 Ratings
🗓️ 12 January 2022
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode we welcome the Honorable Richard A. Gephardt to explore the challenges and opportunities present in our modern democracy.
In his first-ever podcast appearance, Leader Gephardt details what he believes to be the primary challenges facing the United States today. He explains the conflict of interest between the business plans of social media platforms, civil society, and functioning democracy. He contrasts 9/11 and the Iraq war to current polarization and Jan 6 episode, as well as discusses what he's doing to help work toward solutions.
Gephardt additionally explains the importance of civic engagement, the importance of public service, and why he feels encouraged by the care that younger generations display for climate change and democracy.
About Richard Gephardt
Richard Gephardt is an attorney, author, lobbyist, and politician who served served 28 years in the United States House of Representatives. He is the President and CEO of the Gephardt Group, where he works to inspire a new understanding of citizenship based on activism to bring about economic, social, and political change.
Gephardt previously served as the United States House Majority Leader (1989-95) and House Minority Leader (1995-2003). He is the author of three books, including An Even Better Place and The American Immigrant: The Outsiders.
For Show Notes and Transcript visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/01-dickgephardt
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the Great Simplification with Nate Higgins. |
| 0:15.8 | That's me. |
| 0:17.5 | On this show, we try to explore and simplify what's happening with energy, the economy, the environment, and our society. |
| 0:26.7 | Together with scientists, experts, and leaders, this show is about understanding the bird's eye view of how everything fits together, where we go from here and what we can do about it as a society |
| 0:39.4 | and as individuals. |
| 0:42.5 | Today's guest is Richard Gephart, a retired politician who was a member of U.S. Congress |
| 0:48.3 | for 27 years. |
| 0:50.1 | He was House of Representatives Majority and Minority Leader from 1989 to 2003. |
| 0:56.3 | He also ran for president of the United States twice in 1988 and 2004. |
| 1:02.3 | Dick has had a storied career in public service and afterwards in lobbying. |
| 1:07.0 | Today he's working on issues of democracy, social media, polarization, and climate change. |
| 1:12.9 | We work together on a project called Advanced Policy, which is trying to look two or three |
| 1:17.4 | steps ahead at the macro policy interventions that our society and leadership will need in |
| 1:22.7 | the coming decade. |
| 1:24.0 | In this podcast, we had a heartfelt discussion highlighting the differences between the political |
| 1:29.2 | system 30 years ago versus today and the critical importance of civic engagement and leadership. |
| 1:36.5 | I hope you enjoy and are inspired by the conversation. Leader Gephardt. Good to see you. |
| 1:54.4 | Good to be with you, Nate. |
| 1:55.5 | So you are 80 years young. |
| 1:58.3 | You have a long, successful career in public service in politics. You ran for |
| 2:05.5 | president twice. You were house majority leader, house minority leader for almost 15 years. |
| 2:12.0 | Why aren't you golfing and, uh, playing with your grandchildren? I've known you for a few years and you are working |
... |
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