David Daley is a senior fellow at FairVote, where his work focuses on electoral reform, voting rights, and the structural dynamics of American democracy. He is the author of the national bestseller Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count, a widely cited examination of partisan gerrymandering that helped catalyse renewed public debate on redistricting reform. His…
This episode hosts David Daley to examine the accelerating role of gerrymandering in shaping American democracy and what it reveals about the pressures facing modern electoral systems. The conversation explores his argument that democratic strain is driven not only by electoral cycles or individual political choices, but by the deliberate drawing of electoral maps that…
Gerrymandering has long been a fixture of American political life, but recent developments suggest it is entering a more volatile and potentially destabilising phase. What was once largely confined to the decennial redistricting process following the census is now evolving into a continuous, fluid arena of partisan competition. This shift has been reinforced by the…
Civil-military coordination is posited as a communication problem. Post-crisis analyses largely attribute failure to fragmented information flows, weak liaison structures, or ineffective reporting architectures between military and civilian actors. As David Higgins argued in a recent episode of The International Risk Podcast, this interpretation is incomplete. Coordination rarely fails because institutions are unable to communicate….
This episode hosts David Higgins to explore the complex and often misunderstood boundary between military operations, humanitarian action, and political stabilisation in modern conflict environments. Drawing on two decades of experience across the British Army, the United Nations, and geopolitical advisory work, we look at how different institutions operating in the same space can interpret…
David Higgins is Head of Humanitarian Access and Civil-Military Coordination in Somalia for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), where his work focuses on the practical and political challenges of operating at the intersection of military, humanitarian, and stabilisation actors in complex conflict environments. His experience spans two decades of work…
Erez Levin is an advertising technologist and former Google employee whose work focuses on the intersection of digital media systems, online advertising, and the health of public discourse. He has become a vocal critic of the incentive structures underpinning the modern attention economy, particularly the way engagement-driven platforms can amplify polarising and sensational content at…
This episode hosts Erez Levin to examine the shifting boundaries of acceptable public speech and what this reveals about the health of modern democratic societies. The conversation explores his central argument that liberal democracies depend not only on formal legal frameworks, but also on informal social guardrails, shared moral taboos that limit the public acceptability…
Democracies are judged by their visible institutions. Elections, constitutions, courts, legislatures and a free press are treated as the cornerstones upon which democratic systems stand. When coming to assess democratic health, they tend to focus on voter turnout, constitutional protections, judicial independence, or the conduct of political leaders. Many of the rules that sustain democratic…
This episode hosts John Goedschalk to examine the relationship between environmental sustainability, economic development, and long-term climate resilience in the Amazon rainforest and the Guiana Shield. The conversation explores why the forests of Suriname are disproportionately important to global climate stability, regional rainfall systems, and food production across South America. Drawing on the science behind…
