Democracy is in trouble. Around the world, trust is breaking down, systems are creaking, and people are walking away. But we still believe in it. Not as something we have, but as something we do.
How To Save Democracy is a podcast about repairing our relationship with democracy, hosted by Omezzine Khelifa and Jon Alexander, with producer Jo Barratt. We hold space for the hard conversations — the ones we all know we need to have.
We'd love to know what you think when you've had a listen. If you want more, we need your help. Sign up, spread the word, and if you can, support us. Let’s rebuild democracy together.
I Eat the Stars: How to Live Fully and Beautifully in a Collapsing World
How should we understand the moment we're living in? Sarah Wilson is an author, podcaster and philosopher who argues we need to accept that this is a time of profound and inevitable collapse - and that while there is no hope, there is something else happening. Jon hosted Sarah at the Conduit in London for a live conversation that wasn't about elections or citizens' assemblies, but was absolutely about how we save democracy - by showing up, connecting with one another, living fully and beautifully, and building from there.
24 Sept 2026
The House Of Wonder And Disagreement
In April this year, Jon was invited to help launch a new community-centre-cum-democracy-hub in the city of Stavanger, Norway, with the brilliant name of The House Of Wonder And Disagreement - and of a world-first project to create a standing citizens’ assembly as part of a city’s governance from outside of government…
As part of the launch, Jon hosted a conversation with Jan Inge Reilstad of KÅKÅ, the organisation running the project, and leading Norwegian journalist Hilde Sandvik, to find out more - and ask whether democracy needs saving everywhere, even in the Nordics.
10 Sept 2026
Dena Heals
When the Eaton fire ripped through Altadena, Pasadena, in January 2025, a whole neighbourhood was virtually burned to the ground. One of the many to lose their home was Carola Secada. In this episode, we hear what happened next: the creation of Dena Heals, a mutual aid marketplace and wellness centre that has since supported over 7000 people from 1500 families as they have rebuilt their lives.
27 Aug 2026
Regenerating Melbourne
At the end of 2020, a combination of Covid lockdowns and “Black Summer” bushfires across the Australian state of Victoria meant that Melburnians were confined to their homes for weeks on end. But instead of staring into crisis, a group of citizens came together determined to start reimagining and rebuilding their city out of it. Jon sat down with Kaj Lofgren and Charity Mosienyane to hear the story of Regen Melbourne, an organisation born in that moment to catalyse work across the city towards three “earthshot” goals, including making the Birrarung river swimmable from source to sea.
13 Aug 2026
From Street Protests to Building Democracy: Lessons From the Tunisian Experience
Working with political theorist Jonny Benson, Omezzine has been looking back over her experiences in the politics of her native Tunisia - first as an activist in the Tunisian Revolution, and then as a politician in the aftermath. Their aim? To reflect on the role democratic innovations such as citizens’ assemblies might have played, and draw out lessons that could help the world. Jon takes the role of interviewer to see what they’ve found.
30 Jul 2026
The DOCE Proposal
Jon has spent much of the last year based at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, as a Visiting Fellow on the “Reimagining Democracy” programme. As part of this, he published an essay calling for the creation of Departments of Citizen Empowerment at every level of government, everywhere in the world. In this episode, Omezzine interviews Jon about the ideas in the essay, with the help of our new friend from the University of Manchester, political theorist Jonny Benson.
16 Jul 2026
Double Take Debate: How to Save Democracy
Jon took the hot seat for this episode of award-winning comedian Robin Clyfan’s new current affairs podcast, Double Take Debate. This discussion pits the politics of deliverism, where politicians try to fix the problems of the world for us, against our vision of a more participatory democracy, where people hold the solutions to our own problems. The politics of England’s new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, get a mention or two along the way…
9 Jul 2026
It Takes a City
Our friends Flavio and Stefania have brought together stories of participation and democracy from across four continents. In this episode, they interview the pioneering Portuguese politician Graça Fonseca about her time as Deputy Mayor of Lisbon - and about that city’s participatory budget, which every years sees millions of euros directly allocated to citizen ideas by citizen vote.
2 Jul 2026
A Democracy of Doing
Jon found himself in Perth, Western Australia, with the team from the DoingCo. This social enterprise supports a growing movement of “town teams” across the country and beyond: local doers coming together to shape their places, their way. This is a joyful, powerful movement - as you’ll hear from nightclub-promoter-turned-community-organiser Jimmy Murphy, and all-round citizen powerhouse Kendell Terrell.
13 Apr 2026
What Art Can Do for Democracy
We host legendary artist Brian Eno and his co-author Bette Adriaanse to explore the ideas in their book, What Art Does. Feelings are not luxuries, they're powerful forces that can nurture democracy or, in the wrong hands, unmake it entirely. Even at its most intimate and personal level, art invites us to imagine alternatives, experiment, and find grounding, a sense of stability, and forward momentum in a world of increasing uncertainty.
23 Mar 2026
Neighbourhood Power
Radical architect Indy Johar and renowned community leader Immy Kaur share their understanding of the vital importance of neighbourhood-scale work in the face of the realities of our time. Sometimes brutal in their realism, they force us to stare hard at the challenges and not shy away from painful truths. But they're also insistent about what becomes possible when we work at a human scale: the scale of our lives and the places we live, where we all have a role to play in building the future we need.
9 Mar 2026
Nation of Strangers
For our first live recording, we host Turkish writer and political commentator Ece Temelkuran to discuss her brave and beautiful new book, Nation Of Strangers. In a world unmaking our sense of safety and belonging, Ece offers something we desperately need: a vision of the future we can create together and requiring all of us. Her most powerful insight? The unhomed among us aren't simply victims of our times. They're pioneers, already carrying the know-how we need to build our new home together.
14 Nov 2025
Taiwan’s Transformation
Trust in government has been collapsing all over the world over the last decade - but one country has bucked the trend. Fewer than 10% of the population trusted government in 2014, but by 2024, that figure had climbed above 70%. Spurred on by a collective of civic hackers calling themselves “Gov Zero”, Taiwan has trusted its people, opened its institutions, and even crowdsourced what was arguably the world’s most successful Covid response. In this episode, we draw out the lessons every nation can learn from this story with the help of one of its key actors, Audrey Tang.
Audrey is Taiwan’s “Cyber Ambassador” and former Minister of Digital Affairs. A prominent member of the Gov Zero collective, she became a reverse mentor to Minister Jaclyn Tsai in the aftermath of the peaceful Sunflower Revolution in 2014, before joining government herself in 2016 - and becoming the world’s first transgender minister in the process.
4 Nov 2025
The Irish Citizens’ Assembly
In September 2025, Jon hosted a live event in Dublin exploring the past, present and future of one of the most exciting democratic experiments of recent times. Over the last 15 years, Ireland's Citizens' Assembly has brought nearly 600 randomly selected citizens together to deliberate on issues from abortion to marriage equality to biodiversity, before making recommendations to elected officials. Join us as we delve into what happened, how, and why - and ask whether this approach could help save democracy all over the world.
David Farrell is Chair of Politics at UCD and was part of the original We The Citizens project that preceded the Irish Constitutional Convention and the Citizens’ Assembly.
Art O'Leary is chief executive at An Coimisiún Toghcháin, the Electoral Commission of Ireland, the management and oversight organisation for electoral and wider democracy matters, and Secretary to the Citizens’ Assembly.
Louise Caldwell is one of the randomly selected citizens to have taken part in the Assembly, and has since joined the board of People Powered, the global advocacy organisation for participatory democracy.
1 Jul 2025
Meet Jon
Host Omezzine Khelifa interviews Jon Alexander about his transition from advertising to citizen engagement, exploring hopeful narratives for the future of democracy.
1 Jul 2025
Meet Omezzine
Omezzine Khelifa, French-Tunisian reformer, revolutionary, and politician, shares her experiences from the Tunisian Revolution to parliamentary activism, offering insights into democratic reform; this is an interview episode.
1 Jul 2025
Citizen is a Verb
Baratunde Thurston and Elizabeth Stewart discuss how being a citizen is an active practice that requires participation, not just a passive identity, in this interview episode.
1 Jul 2025
Facing the Menace
Political strategist Paul Hilder and author Ece Temelkuran analyze the vulnerabilities of democracies and discuss potential solutions, drawing from European elections and global trends in authoritarianism in this interview.
Who has been a guest on How to Save Democracy
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Jon Alexander
Omezzine Khelifa
Paul Hilder
Ece Temelkuran
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
13 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 40 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
80
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
0
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