Episode 318: Talking Democracy in the Era of COVID-19

Talk Policy To Me

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought America to a screeching standstill, with most non-essential businesses shutting down, events being cancelled and postponed, school systems going virtual, and skyrocketing unemployment. And on top of it all, we’re technically in the midst of an election season, which has also been severely disrupted by the shelter-in-place measures implemented across the country.

In this Q&A-style episode of Talk Policy To Me reporter Reem Rayef interviews former Labor Secretary and economic inequality scholar Robert B Reich on the subject of democracy in the era of COVID-19.

In other episodes for this series on democracy, we discuss barriers to the voting booth and distortions in our electoral system that suppress the will of the people -- particularly black and brown people, and young people. In this episode, we dive deep into what happens when a pandemic is layered over these persistent issues. What happens when candidates can’t campaign? When polling places are shut down due to a lack of volunteers willing to risk their health on election day? When governors cancel primaries in the interest of discouraging big gatherings? When the sitting president demonstrates flagrant disregard for public health, and a single-minded goal of securing a second term? What happens if a candidate dies of COVID-19?

Can we even call what remains a democratic election?

This episode was made possible by the curiosity and generosity of members of the GSPP community, who contributed their questions and/or voices to this project. A heartfelt thanks to you all! Voices heard on this episode are: Larry Rosenthal, Molly McGregor, Lily Nienstedt, Mai Sistla, Justin Lam, and Maiya Zwerling.

For more on inequality, democracy, and Twitter beef with Elon Musk, tune into Professor Reich’s Youtube series, The Common Good.

See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/episode-318-talking-democracy-in-the-era-of-covid-19