The Jackpod: Democracy by lottery
On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti
WBUR
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On Point news analyst Jack Beatty has been reading “Politics without Politicians” by political theorist Hélène Landemore, in which she makes the case that randomly selected citizens can make for better government than elected politicians.
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Transcript
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| 0:20.2 | Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken? |
| 0:23.7 | A podcast from the Marotra Institute at BU Questrum School of Business. |
| 0:28.4 | In a recent episode, the show explores how artificial intelligence is transforming healthcare |
| 0:33.6 | and what that means for patients, providers, and the business of care. Stick around until |
| 0:39.4 | the end of this podcast to preview the episode. WBUR Podcasts, Boston. |
| 1:00.0 | I'm Megna Chakra-Bardi, and this is the Jack Pod, where on-point news analyst, Jack Beatty, |
| 1:06.7 | helps us connect history, literature, and politics in a way that brings his unique clarity to the world we live in now. |
| 1:07.5 | Hello there, Jack. |
| 1:09.1 | Hello, Megna. |
| 1:11.6 | We are at episode 115. |
| 1:12.6 | What's your headline? |
| 1:16.0 | Democracy by lottery. |
| 1:18.1 | Democracy by lottery. |
| 1:23.2 | There I had you thinking, you had me thinking, that you were going to talk about President Trump's threat to annihilate a civilization, but that doesn't sound like what this headline is |
| 1:27.8 | hinting at. |
| 1:29.6 | No, but it gets at why it might be a better idea than democracy by elections since election |
| 1:35.6 | has put Mr. Trump in office. |
| 1:38.6 | So, you know, the argument for politics without politicians, the case for citizen rule, is made by Helene Landemore, |
| 1:47.9 | political theorist and professor of political science at Yale. |
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