55 Voices | Los Angeles Review of Books

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55 Voices

Inspired by Thomas Mann’s impassioned defense of democracy in the face of Hitler and totalitarianism during WWII, 55 Voices for Democracy brings significant voices from all fields to the discussion of democracy as idea and ideal. Produced by LARB and the Thomas Mann House.

Marina Weisband on What Gets us Through the Crisis
Going through a crisis and having a positive vision of the future are not the same thing. You need to have a positive vision of the future to get...
Nov 30
Lynne Thompson on the Role of Poetry in Democracies
There is an understanding that between humans we have this one thing called language and it brings us - or can bring us - together.” Writer and poet...
Oct 19
Bill Wiggins on African-American History & Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Host Tom Zoellner sat down with professor William Wiggins to discuss the ongoing importance of African-American history within the larger context of...
Mar 23
Teresa Bücker on Time as a Political Resource
Time is a political resource. How time is distributed is a question of structures we find within a society. It’s structured by the economic system we...
Mar 2
Roberto Lovato on the Tenderness that Survives the Terror
I’ve been through war. I’ve witnessed the workings of genocide. I have gone to mass graves across the entire continent (…) We have to un-forget to...
Feb 16
Antonia Juhasz on the Impact of Fossil Fuels on Democracy
Part of what has led the movement against fossil fuels is the increased number of people being confronted with the effects of oil drilling and...
Jan 5
Raul Krauthausen on Inclusion and Accessibility
I realized that everything I learned in terms of communication, creativity, strategy and planning at university can also be used for goodfor the...
Dec 8, 2022
Sarah Jaffe on Working Conditions & Labor Movements
Until we start thinking about what people’s lives are really like and not just shame them for how they vote, we’re not going to have a healthy...
Nov 22, 2022
Geraldo Cadava on the 2022 Midterm Elections & 'the Latino Vote'
One of the things that is so fascinating about last night‘s midterm elections is how young people really showed up,” states Geraldo Cadava, professor...
Nov 10, 2022
Boris Dralyuk on Poetry, Translation and Émigrés
While politics can involve seemingly abstract decisions, “literature can remind us of the stakes at human level,” argues Boris Dralyuk. In this...
Oct 20, 2022
LaTosha Brown on Fighting Voter Suppression
Some of the tension and voter suppression we are experiencing right now is not a result of us losing, it is a result of us winning,” states LaTosha Br...
Oct 6, 2022
Doris Kleilein on Changing Definitions of Urban Architecture
What makes a city a home for people with different backgrounds? How has the pandemic impacted city planning and urban architecture? In this episode...
Sep 22, 2022
Christoph Bieber on Hate Speech, Deep Fakes and Other Challenges of the Internet
What can be done against online hate speech and deep fakes? Host Tom Zoellner talks to the political scientist & 2022 Thomas Mann Fellow Dr...
Aug 25, 2022
Veronika Fuechtner on Thomas Mann's construction of "Germanness"
The Brazilian origins of his mother Júlia were initially a source of shame for Thomas Mann, but that changed in the 1920s “as his understanding of...
Aug 11, 2022
Ulrich J. Schneider on Libraries as Democratic Spaces
Today, when politicians think you can close down libraries because everything is available online, you have to remind them that libraries are not...
Jul 28, 2022
Rosecrans Baldwin on Los Angeles as a City-state
This episode focuses on what novelist and writer Rosecrans Baldwin calls "the city state Los Angeles.” In his recent best-selling book Everything Now...
Jul 14, 2022