An architectural historian considers the way walls real and imagined have shaped belonging, exclusion and citizenship across time — starting with the walls erected by enslaved laborers at the University of Virginia.

On stage from the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, Emily and Siva speak with the author of a new book about the American dream. He has some advice for progressives about how to bring together a broad electorate: it’s the economy, people. And more.

Is the United States a “nation of immigrants”? Depends whom you ask. But one thing is certain: who counts as worthy of being American has always been contingent and politicized. Amanda Frost takes Will, Siva and their class on a journey through immigration history.

Four years ago, ethnographer Emily Van Duyn embedded herself in a group of covert progressives in rural Texas. Does their story tell us what’s wrong with America’s political climate — or what might save it?

You’ve heard us gripe about conspiracy theories and disinformation flooding the online ecosystem. But this time, Will and Siva speak with a colleague who argues that Americans need more and better internet access — not less.

In the wake of Vietnam, the United States pared its global aspirations — and often fell short on humanitarian values. Then came two disastrous national-building efforts. In Part II of our post-Afghanistan reality-check, our guests consider how America might get off this seesaw.

Despite new regulations, Facebook groups and Twitter bots are still luring naive users into a world of suspicion, lies and terrorism, says social media researcher Renée DiResta.

Populist regimes are gaining ground across the world, and perhaps nowhere have the consequences been more dramatic than in Brazil. Under the chaotic leadership of president Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil has become a major hot spot in the coronavirus pandemic. In this episode, Will and Siva talk to historian Federico Finchelstein about the rise of populism in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America. For someone who grew up during Argentina’s Dirty War, these current populists trends echo fascist regimes of the past.

Government by the people can’t work without getting reliable information in the hands of the people. So when disinformation artists hijack the media, democracy itself is put at risk. On this debut episode of Democracy in Danger, political historian Nicole Hemmer joins hosts Will Hitchcock and Siva Vaidhyanathan to explore the roots of the powerful right-wing media in America, and their influence on Republican politics. How did the party of Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt become the house of Trump and Breitbart?