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Preamble

New Ideas Shaping a More Perfect Union

In this urgent moment for our nation, we can strengthen democracy—together. Raj Vinnakota, President of the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, sits down with diverse leaders to learn about their work and hear their ideas for shaping a more perfect Union. Raj hosts uplifting conversations that transcend partisan discourse, instilling a renewed sense of optimism in the future of our democracy. With each episode, listeners are inspired to become civic role models in their own communities.

Sharon McMahon

Raj sits down with Sharon McMahon, “America’s Government Teacher,” to discuss her new book, The Small and The Mighty, combatting online misinformation, and the value of conversations across differences.
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Baratunde Thurston

Raj talks with Baratunde Thurston, Emmy-nominated host, producer, writer, and public speaker, about what it means to be a good citizen, resisting divisiveness, and why our democracy’s “soil” needs tending.
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Eboo Patel

Raj catches up with Eboo Patel, president and founder of Interfaith America, to discuss pluralism, the need for more architects versus arsonists in creating social change, and the power of youth sports in civil society.
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Condoleezza Rice

Raj talks with Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State and current director of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, about the role of higher education in preparing effective citizens and how civic education and civic learning must expand to include a fuller range of perspectives.
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Jason Grumet

Raj sits down with Jason Grumet, co-founder and immediate past president of the Bipartisan Policy Center and CEO of the American Clean Power Association, to talk about the power of compromise and what is and isn’t working in the U.S. Government.
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Roslyn Clark Artis & Jonathan Holloway

Raj hosts a conversation with Roslyn Clark Artis, president of Benedict College, and Jonathan Holloway, president of Rutgers University. They discuss the role of higher education in strengthening democracy and efforts on their individual campuses to develop young people into effective citizens.
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“We are educating a mountain of people and we are laying the groundwork for their future improvements, their family’s future improvements, and we’re laying the foundation for their preservation of an idea, which is the democratic ideal.”

–Jonathan Holloway, Preamble No. 3

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