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.

In Nevada, a secretary of state struggles against election denialism, political apathy and threats against poll workers. A legal scholar in Virginia, meanwhile, says the surest way to address political and economic inequality in America is by making it easier for poor people to vote.

Evgeniya Chirikova got a knock at the door of her home in Moscow from the FSB, Russia’s national security service. They wanted to take her children away. It only supercharged her activism. And, in Ukraine, a teenager struggles to stay sane and do her part for her country.

The core safeguards of the Voting Rights Act are unraveling. We’ve been here before, historian Carol Anderson tells Will and Siva. But Americans won’t sit by as their ballots are shredded.