“We cannot take democracy for granted,” our guest says on this next show in our occasional series “The Power of Many.” He should know. He worked under Nicaraguan administrations that disappointed. Then the next one threw him in jail.

For all the fans, haters and closet admirers — we bring you our Taylor Swift episode. Siva sits down with a few Swifties, while Emily chats with Tressie McMillan Cottom. Together they hash out the pros and cons of T-Swift’s influence on American political culture. And, yeah, lots of good music.

Musicians and artists of the Anataban movement in South Sudan have been mobilizing to demand free elections and an end to the cycle of violence. A leader of the movement joins us on the show to talk about his work and his music.

The FBI ran covert surveillance programs in its earlier history against civil rights activists like Martin Luther King Jr. It also went after the KKK and white hate groups. An acclaimed writer assesses the bureau’s mixed past and its ambiguous present.

The Supreme Court may dismantle the constitutional right to abortion found in Roe v. Wade. Either way, journalist Rebecca Traister says, abortion rights have never been secure in America.

A new bipartisan redistricting commission has broken down in the Old Dominion, and is on the verge of throwing a key function of democracy to the commonwealth’s Supreme Court. A former delegate and an advocate who championed redistricting reform join Will to talk Virginia politics.

If people aren’t counted in a representative democracy, it’s as if they don’t exist. And for politicians or parties banking on minority rule, that’s just fine. Until they meet Dale Ho — who defends citizens’ voting rights for the American Civil Liberties Union.

America incarcerates more people than any country: nearly a quarter of the world’s prison population. And U.S. inmates are disproportionately Black and Latino. Elizabeth Hinton explains how we got here, while Siva and Will consider what hope there is for truth and reconciliation.