In this, part 2 of our conversation with Professor Nicholas Jacobs, Associate Professor of Government at Colby College and Director of the Public Policy Lab, we explore the deep disconnect between democratic ideals and political reality in the U.S. Drawing from his acclaimed book The Rural Voter and his forthcoming Subverting the Republic, Jacobs challenges popular narratives about Trumpism, executive power, and rural America. We discuss how state power is being strategically redeployed, why the liberal imagination fails to grasp rural discontent, and whether our current system is structurally incapable of true representation. This conversation is essential listening for anyone serious about reimagining democracy from the ground up.

In this, the first episode of the third season of The TRM Podcast, we sit down with Professor Nicholas Jacobs, Associate Professor of Government at Colby College and Director of the Public Policy Lab, to explore the deep disconnect between democratic ideals and political reality in the U.S. Drawing from his acclaimed book The Rural Voter and his forthcoming Subverting the Republic, Jacobs challenges popular narratives about Trumpism, executive power, and rural America. We discuss how state power is being strategically redeployed, why the liberal imagination fails to grasp rural discontent, and whether our current system is structurally incapable of true representation. This conversation is essential listening for anyone serious about reimagining democracy from the ground up.

In this follow-up conversation, the dialogue deepens around the urgency of action and the ineffectiveness of traditional protest without a strategic political aim. The host, representing the True Representation Movement (TRM), calls for moving beyond awareness and outrage—toward seizing political power. They critique decades of erosion in democratic responsiveness due to corporate influence, war-making without accountability, and the enduring grip of disproven ideas like trickle-down economics.Professor Lisa Silvestri affirms that many Americans feel morally and emotionally disturbed by the state of politics but are disconnected from meaningful political engagement. Her book Peace by Peace urges people to begin from what bothers them, identifying local issues as entry points to action. Together, they argue that anger, when paired with strategic goals—like running for office or reclaiming budget priorities—can convert despair into progress.They also explore why mass protests, like those surrounding Gaza, often fail to produce systemic change: not due to lack of energy, but due to lack of political education, clear goals, and pathways to structural engagement. The solution, they agree, is not just more talk, but tangible local action—grabbing seats, not just protesting policies. Silvestri shares how personal grievance (bike lanes, oversized trash bins) can propel people into city council meetings—and from there, into positions of power.Ultimately, they call for an ethos of action: citizens recognizing their lack of representation, reclaiming agency, and taking steps—from the modest to the bold—to build a just and peaceful society from the ground up.

In this conversation, Professor Lisa Silvestri discusses her book Peace by Peace: Risking Public Action, Creating Social Change, emphasizing the vital yet overlooked role of risk in public engagement. She explains that creating real change—especially in today’s climate of precarity—demands personal courage and a willingness to step into the public sphere. Together with the host from the True Representation Movement (TRM), they explore how most working-class Americans, though deeply affected by policy, are often unable to take such risks due to economic and psychological constraints. They discuss how direct democracy, grounded in the lived experience and practical wisdom (phronesis) of ordinary people, can harness collective decision-making more effectively than elite-led structures. Silvestri argues that genuine social change requires not just energy or moral conviction, but also structural understanding and strategic action—a blend of community, education, and political engagement. The conversation touches on issues like precarity, structural injustice, the false promises of elite expertise, and the importance of building bottom-up, justice-oriented civic movements that empower people to act within their means and conditions.

In this powerful, wide-ranging conversation, Dr. Ndindi Kitonga critiques the commodification of education and describes her school, Angels Workshop School, as a working-class, community-rooted democratic alternative that fosters critical consciousness, empathy, and civic courage. She contrasts her approach with elitist models like Elon Musk’s Ad Astra, which, despite good intentions, devolved into exclusionary and performative education. Dr. Kitonga underscores the importance of real-world engagement—like public transit use, protest participation, and discussing taboo topics like Palestine—to nurture students who are not only informed but also morally grounded. She advocates for scaling out through networks of small, autonomous schools rather than scaling up into centralized institutions, emphasizing humility, lived practice, and trust in the collective intelligence of everyday people.

In this episode of the Tiara Podcast, Dr. Ndindi Kitonga discusses the founding and mission of Angels Workshop School, a micro democratic school in Los Angeles that empowers youth to participate fully in shaping their learning environment and engaging with society. Rooted in humanistic and critical pedagogy, the school replaces top-down authority with shared decision-making, collective problem-solving, and curriculum shaped by both student interest and social relevance. Dr. Kitonga critiques traditional and even "progressive" schools for offering only surface-level autonomy, and emphasizes that true democratic learning must cultivate not only freedom but responsibility, self-assessment, and political consciousness. The school operates on a pay-what-you-can model, supports marginalized students (including neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ youth), and actively involves students in real-world issues such as homelessness and Palestine. Alumni stay connected, often becoming teachers or activists, reflecting the school's success in fostering lifelong civic engagement.

In this conversation, the speakers explore how citizens' assemblies—randomly selected groups of everyday people who deliberate on key policy issues—can be protected from manipulation by powerful interests as they grow in prominence. Brett Hennig of the Sortition Foundation explains safeguards like open-source lottery algorithms, citizen-chosen experts, and OECD-backed standards that ensure transparency and legitimacy. They discuss the risk of co-optation by groups like the NRA, emphasizing the need for clear principles to distinguish genuine assemblies from manipulated ones. The conversation then shifts to strategy: why Hennig's team targets the UK House of Lords for reform, and how movements like Belgium's Agora Party already field candidates who commit to vote based on assembly outcomes. The host outlines a vision for electing independent representatives in the U.S.—rooted in democratic tech tools and public disillusionment with both parties—and Hennig agrees that lasting reform will require mass social movements and local experiments to scale up. The conversation closes with reflections on democratic cooperatives as a more sustainable alternative to corporate oligarchy.

In this conversation, Brett Hennig, co-founder of the Sortition Foundation, discusses the growing global movement to replace elections with democratic lotteries—sortition—to select citizens for political decision-making. He explains how sortition-based citizens’ assemblies, grounded in informed deliberation and representative diversity, can bypass the corrupting influence of money, lobbying, and partisanship inherent in electoral systems. Drawing examples from Ireland, Belgium, and elsewhere, he illustrates how these assemblies have already advised on complex issues like assisted dying and climate policy. While most are currently advisory, his organization campaigns to institutionalize these bodies—such as replacing the UK’s House of Lords with a House of Citizens—to give them real power. He emphasizes the assemblies’ legitimacy not just in producing sound decisions, but also in visibly representing the public’s will, making it harder for elected officials to ignore or override them.