RevDem Podcast

Anubha Anushri speaks with Gulnar Nikpur about her book on modern prisons and public life in Iran.

This episode features researchers Ashton Kingman and Barsha Lubarda discussing their paper on how far-right movements co-opt environmental discourse from anarchist and left-leaning groups.

Historian Ádám Mézes discusses how vampire panics in the 18th-century Habsburg Empire influenced early scientific inquiry, revealing how plague-fearing administrators shaped the contagious vampire myth and how vampire exhumations provided rare opportunities for forensic research that wouldn't become mainstream until modern body farms.

Fabian Holt discusses his book on the Democratic Socialists of America in New York, exploring how grassroots socialists are mobilizing for climate action and democratic renewal.

The panel looks back at 2025 through democracy.

Aleksandra Kardos speaks with Jeremy De Waal about Heimat, a term that is disputed and famously difficult to render in English.

The episode looks at Poland's rule-of-law crisis after the June 1, 2025 presidential election.

Konstantin Kipp begins by asking whether Germany is moving through an authoritarian turn.

Democratic danger and institutional defense still drive the episode.

Honduras's election did more than produce a winner.

Maya Tudor argues in the Review of Democracy’s Journal of Democracy special that democracy is not a guarantee of prosperity, but a system that protects against “the worst possible outcomes.” She says the evidence across infant mortality, schooling, GDP per capita, and political violence shows democracy outperforms autocracy on average, including a 1.3-year schooling gain and a 10 to 20 percent long-run GDP per capita increase after democratization.

RevDem Podcast’s “Stiliagi and Soviet Masculinities- A Conversation with Alla Myzelev” focuses on Stilyagi, a Soviet youth movement first heard about in 1948, and on how their colorful ties, jazz, and foreign-looking language challenged official norms.

John Blair discusses Killing the Dead, Vampire Epidemics from Mesopotamia to the New World, from Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets in the 7th and 8th centuries BC to a 2004 Romania case recorded on video.

Adrian Matus and Anuba Anushri close the year by shifting from reflection to forecast.

RevDem Podcast’s "An Authoritarian Turn in Contemporary Germany?

RevDem Podcast hosts Ferenc Lotzl, Erika Chenoweth, and Matthew Cebul on the article “Why Gen Z is Rising,” which compares protests in Nepal, Indonesia, Peru, Morocco, the Philippines, Iran, and Bangladesh.

The conversation opens on the rise of new radical right-wing forces across Latin America.

Krzysztof Sombaty opens by situating Nate Schenken's work on transnational repression within the Review of Democracy's monthly collaboration with the Journal of Democracy.

Gabriel Pereira speaks with Galo Mayorga and Kay Taylor about Ecuador, where violence has multiplied sevenfold since 2018 and 80% of Daniel Noboa's time in office has been under states of emergency.

Gabriel Pereira turns to a hard question about democracy under stress.

Benjamin Gedan and Elias French discuss their Journal of Democracy article, “The Threat to Latin American Term Limits,” published in the October 2025 issue.

Minxin Pei traces three phases in his view of China: optimism in the 1990s, deepening pessimism in the 2000s, and stronger alarm under Xi Jinping.

Democracy depends on an uneasy balance.

Review of Democracy welcomes Raluca Radu, a professor of journalism and communication studies at the University of Bucharest, for a conversation about media in an age of misinformation.

Ece Özbay hosts Daron Acemoglu on the Review of Democracy podcast to assess 2025 through democracy, delivery, and technology.

October 7, 2023 anchors the discussion.

RevDem Podcast’s conversation with Tara Zahra and Peter Judson centers on their book, The Great War and the Transformation of Habsburg Central Europe, published by Oxford University Press.

This episode discusses how cultural productions like exhibitions and board games mediate memories of socialism, exploring the intersection of trauma and nostalgia in post-socialist Europe.

Discussion about Gen Z's political engagement in Romania with founders of a civic project.

An academic interview discussing why populist leaders undermine state institutions, based on a Journal of Democracy article.

An interview exploring the dangers of AI for democracy, comparing its impact to social media.

An interview with Professor Zsolt Boda about the MORES project on moral emotions in politics, part of a series on EU-funded democracy research.

An interview with political scientist Rachel Myrick about how partisan polarization affects foreign policymaking and global stability.

Discussion of the failure of liberal international order and the rise of authoritarian collaboration globally, based on a new book.

Host Ferenc Lotso interviews Richard Weick about his article on growing global dissatisfaction with democracy, particularly in high-income countries.

An interview with historian Manan Ahmed discussing his book on the history and memory of Lahore.

Interview with Tejas Parashar about his book Radical Democracy in Modern Indian Political Thought, exploring alternative models of democracy and representation.