How To Citizen with Baratunde

About How To Citizen with Baratunde

How To Citizen with Baratunde reimagines the word “citizen” as a verb and reminds us how to wield our collective power. So many of us want to do more in response to the problems we hear about constantly, but where and how to participate can leave us feeling overwhelmed and helpless. Voting, while critically important, simply isn’t enough. It takes more to make this experiment in self-governance work! Listen in to learn new perspectives and practices from people working to improve society for the many. Join writer, activist, and comedian Baratunde Thurston on a journey beyond politics as usual that will leave us all more hopeful, connected, and moved to act.

Publisher

iHeartPodcasts

Category

news · society & culture · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

20 Aug 2020

Latest episode

12 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

2 of 71 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   12 Jun 2026

   We're Gonna Need Some Builders — Live in London with Jon Alexander

   Recorded live at The Conduit in London in September 2024, Baratunde and Elizabeth Stewart sit down with their friend and longtime collaborator Jon Alexander, author of CITIZENS and co-host of the podcast How To Save Democracy, for a conversation about citizen as a verb: the radical, hopeful idea that democracy isn't something we have, it's something we do. They get into the story we inherited about independence, the older and truer story about interdependence, the four pillars of citizening, and why a moment when so much feels like it's collapsing is exactly the moment to start building. The timing is no accident. On Saturday, June 13, 2026 Jon takes the TED Democracy stage in Philadelphia at the birthplace of American independence, during America's 250th, to make the case for interdependence. A British man crossing the Atlantic to tell us the move is getting back together. Keep practicing democracy. The verb, not the noun. CHAPTERS 00:00:00 "We're gonna need some builders" (cold open) 00:02:11 Welcome to How To Save Democracy 00:02:45 How this London night came together 00:03:40 Citizen as a verb, and the shift from head to heart 00:05:40 Latent love: citizen, not consumer 00:07:25 Story as the most powerful technology we have 00:09:45 Consumer democracy and the only restaurant in town 00:10:59 Why the vote still matters 00:12:06 Head, heart, and gut 00:16:24 Co-authors of this world: nature, each other, machines 00:20:29 The four pillars, one at a time 00:21:00 Pillar 1 - Invest in relationships (including with yourself) 00:29:45 Pillar 2 - Understand power (and your attention) 00:33:35 Pillar 3 - Commit to the collective (Bahrain and Broadband Bruce) 00:44:10 Pillar 4 - Show up and participate 00:44:25 Questions from the room 00:46:42 Belonging, authoritarianism, and the case for builders 00:49:38 Burnout, rupture, and repair 00:52:35 Doomsday Preppers: two ways to survive 00:54:10 How might we live together, period 00:56:35 Citizens, not just consumers LINKS How To Save Democracy with Omezzine Khelifa & Jon Alexander: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-save-democracy/id1823945285 American Indigenous Democracy: A Call for Interdependence — the book from Haudenosaunee elders and wisdom keepers: https://americanindigenousdemocracy.com Jon Alexander / CITIZENS: https://jonalexander.net See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.

2. 

   4 Jun 2026

   Sacred Lessons in Masculinity, AI, and Democracy (with Mike de la Rocha)

   Masculinity, AI, and Democracy with Baratunde Thurston & Mike de la Rocha

3. 

   26 Nov 2025

   When the Military Is in the Streets w Gen. Stan McChrystal

   Baratunde returns to the How To Citizen feed with a conversation that sits right at the intersection of character, democracy, and what it means to citizen in this moment. This episode features Baratunde in a live discussion with retired U.S. General Stanley McChrystal at the 2025 Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco. The two dig into the responsibility of leaders in a time of democratic crisis, the historic norms around deploying the U.S. military inside American cities, and why character is not something we simply “have” but something we practice. They talk about the pressures facing the country, the role of national service, and how AI is changing the speed and stakes of decision-making in military and civic life. Stan shares candid reflections from his own experiences, including moments when he fell short of the character he expected from himself, and what it takes to recover and stay aligned with one’s convictions. This conversation originally aired on the Rapid Response podcast from the Masters of Scale network. Special thanks to their team for allowing it to run here. Baratunde closes with reflections on the polycrisis we’re living through, the people who continue to speak up for what’s right, and the power we still have to shape the next chapter of this country. For more from Baratunde, see his substack newsletter (https://newsletter.baratunde.com). See omnystudio.com/listener (https://omnystudio.com/listener) for privacy information.

Inside a recent episode

A Podcast-Sized History of Tech (with Scott Galloway)

Published 28 Oct 2021 · Transcript excerpt

[…] And that is we show up at shareholder meetings and we get one share, one vote, and we vote for who the board is. And the board gets to make decisions around governance. whether or not the CEO gets fired, if they sell the company. So essentially, the notion is that the wisdom of crowds and ownership is linked to accountability and responsibility. And until Google, very few companies had dual class shareholder structures. Now, dual class shareholder structure means that Mark Zuckerberg, even though he controls less than half of the company, he has control. So that is a total departure or a fissure from what you call democratic governance. […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

3.8 / 5

2,135 ratings

Spotify

4.8 / 5

74 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 48 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

65

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

75

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