Epilogue /  by Helena Swanson-Nystrom

We end our series by touching on why we started the project and with one final interview: a conversation with Noah Feldman, professor of law at Harvard Law School, on the history of the American social contract and why it’s a powerful tool to organize around.

  • Noah Feldman, The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President (Random House 2017).
  • Mark Hulliung, The Social Contract in America: From the Revolution to the Present Age (Univ. Press of Kan. 2007).

This episode was produced by Mareva Lindo.

Thanks to Doctor Turtle for the music:
"Lullaby for Democracy" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/The_Double-Down_Two-Step/lullaby_for_democracy)
"Go Tell It On the Molehill" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Flush_Your_Rolex_1416/go_tell_it_on_the_molehill_2)

Sound effects downloaded from freesound: https://freesound.org/

Democracy /  by Helena Swanson-Nystrom

The final episode in our series discusses how citizens can rewrite the social contract through participation in the democratic process.  We hear from Larry Lessig, professor of law at Harvard Law School and 2016 presidential candidate; Eric Liu, founder and CEO of Citizen University; Charlotte Alter, national correspondent at TIME Magazine; and Amanda Nguyen, founder and CEO of Rise.

For additional information on the issues we briefly examine, we recommend the following resources:

This episode was produced by Mareva Lindo.

Thanks to Doctor Turtle for the music:
"Lullaby for Democracy" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/The_Double-Down_Two-Step/lullaby_for_democracy)
"Go Tell It On the Molehill" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Flush_Your_Rolex_1416/go_tell_it_on_the_molehill_2)

Service /  by Helena Swanson-Nystrom

Our series continues with a discussion about the service that is required to uphold a social contract. We hear from Ray Mabus, former Secretary of the Navy and Governor of Mississippi; Alan Khazei, co-founder of City Year and longtime leader in the movement for national civilian service; and Stanley McChrystal, retired four-star general, former U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and chairman of Service Year Alliance.

This episode was produced by Mareva Lindo.

Thanks to Doctor Turtle for the music:
"Lullaby for Democracy" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/The_Double-Down_Two-Step/lullaby_for_democracy)
"Go Tell It On the Molehill" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Flush_Your_Rolex_1416/go_tell_it_on_the_molehill_2)

Taxes /  by Helena Swanson-Nystrom

The series continues by considering how to pay for the social contract, in particular through taxation.  We hear from Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots and current President of Citizens for Self-Governance; Raúl Carrillo and Danny Sufranski, leaders of the Modern Money Network; and Michele Oberholtzer, a housing advocate in Detroit and candidate for State Representative of Michigan’s 4th District.

For additional information on the issues we briefly examine, we recommend the following resources:

This episode was produced by Mareva Lindo.

Thanks to Doctor Turtle for the music:
"Lullaby for Democracy" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/The_Double-Down_Two-Step/lullaby_for_democracy)
"Go Tell It On the Molehill" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Flush_Your_Rolex_1416/go_tell_it_on_the_molehill_2)

Housing /  by Helena Swanson-Nystrom

We continue our series with a discussion about the consequences of a social contract that intentionally excluded, separated, and segregated. We hear from Michele Oberholtzer, a housing advocate in Detroit and candidate for State Representative of Michigan’s 4th District; Sarah Schindler, professor of law at University of Maine School of Law; and Rebecca Elliott, assistant professor of sociology at London School of Economics.

For additional information on the issues we briefly examine, we recommend the following resources:

This episode was produced by Mareva Lindo.

Thanks to Doctor Turtle for the music:
"Lullaby for Democracy" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/The_Double-Down_Two-Step/lullaby_for_democracy)
"Go Tell It On the Molehill" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Flush_Your_Rolex_1416/go_tell_it_on_the_molehill_2)

Employment /  by Helena Swanson-Nystrom

This episode explores what a social contract of employment looks like, given the changing nature of work in the 21st century economy. We hear from Tom Kochan, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management; Oren Cass, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute; Steven Pedigo, an assistant professor at the NYU School of Professional Studies; and Sharon Block, Executive Director of the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School.

You can learn more about enrolling in Tom Kochan’s edX course, Shaping the Future of Work, here.

For additional information on the issues we briefly examine, we recommend the following resources:

  • Thomas A. Kochan, Shaping the Future of Work: A Handbook for Action and a New Social Contract (MIT Press 2017).
  • Oren Cass, American Workers Need a New Kind of Labor Union, Wall St. J. (Aug. 31, 2017), https://www.wsj.com/articles/american-workers-need-a-new-kind-of-labor-union-1504220896.
  • Richard Florida, What the New Urban Anchors Owe Their Cities, CityLab (Sep. 21 2017), https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/09/what-the-new-urban-anchors-owe-their-cities/540588/.
  • James B. Atleson, Values and Assumptions in American Labor Law (U. Mass. Press 1983).
  • Mark Barenberg, The Political Economy of the Wagner Act: Power, Symbol, and Workplace Cooperation, 106 Harv. L. Rev. 1381 (1993).
  • Jake Rosenfeld, What Unions No Longer Do (Harv. U. Press 2014) 
  • Benjamin Sachs, Agency Fees and the First Amendment, 131 Harv. L. Rev. 1046 (2018).
  • Benjamin Sachs, Despite Preemption: Making Labor Law in Cities and States, 124 Harv. L. Rev. 1153 (2011).

This episode was produced by Mareva Lindo.

Thanks to Doctor Turtle for the music:
"Lullaby for Democracy" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/The_Double-Down_Two-Step/lullaby_for_democracy)
"Go Tell It On the Molehill" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Flush_Your_Rolex_1416/go_tell_it_on_the_molehill_2)

Education /  by Helena Swanson-Nystrom

Our country’s education system challenges a national sense of community. This episode explores what happens when we limit our obligations to those in our immediate neighborhood and shrink our social contract to a local level. We hear from Marta Tienda, a professor of sociology at Princeton University; James Blacksher, a civil rights attorney from Birmingham, Alabama; Jon East, a Vice President at Step Up for Students, a non-profit that administers Florida's school voucher programs; Tressie McMillan Cottom, an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of Lower Ed; and Wick Sloane, an adjunct professor at Bunker Hill Community College and columnist for Inside Higher Ed.

For additional information on the issues we briefly examine, we recommend the following resources:

This episode was produced by Mareva Lindo.

Thanks to Doctor Turtle for the music:
"Lullaby for Democracy" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/The_Double-Down_Two-Step/lullaby_for_democracy)
"Go Tell It On the Molehill" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Flush_Your_Rolex_1416/go_tell_it_on_the_molehill_2)

Health /  by Helena Swanson-Nystrom

We continue our series with a discussion about health as a component of the social contract. We take a step back from the hyper-partisan political debate around health care and instead explore whether there are ways to reimagine and reframe a social contract of health that challenges the status quo, adopts new tools for substantive change, and invites new voices and perspectives to the table. We hear from Lisa Costello, a pediatrician, internist, and assistant professor of medicine; Rebecca Onie, Co-Founder and CEO Emerita of Health Leads; and Anthony Iton, Senior Vice President for Healthy Communities at The California Endowment.

For additional information on the issues we briefly examine, we recommend the following resources:

This episode was produced by Mareva Lindo.

Thanks to Doctor Turtle for the music:
"Lullaby for Democracy" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/The_Double-Down_Two-Step/lullaby_for_democracy)
"Go Tell It On the Molehill" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Flush_Your_Rolex_1416/go_tell_it_on_the_molehill_2)

Safety /  by Helena Swanson-Nystrom

The third episode in our series explores the role of safety in an American social contract. We ask how our country’s debate around guns defines who can keep themselves safe—through both access to and protection from guns in their communities. We hear from Arwen Mohun, a professor and historian of technology; Dean Winslow, a professor of medicine, former Trump nominee, and retired Air Force colonel; Maj Toure, a musician and founder of Black Guns Matter; and Landon Shroder, a security and intelligence specialist.  

For additional information on the issues we briefly examine, we recommend the following resources:

  • Arwen P. Mohun, Risk: Negotiating Safety in American Society (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press 2012).
  • Dean L. Winslow, I spoke my mind on guns. Then my Senate confirmation was put on hold., Wash. Post (Dec. 20, 2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-spoke-my-mind-on-guns-it-torpedoed-my-appointment-in-the-trump-administration/2017/12/20/8f708f6c-e50d-11e7-833f-155031558ff4_story.html.
  • Maj Toure: Living the Solutionary Lifestyle, NRA Blog (Oct. 3, 2016), https://www.nrablog.com/articles/2016/10/maj-toure-living-the-solutionary-lifestyle/.
  • Landon Shroder, Gun Control Isn’t the Answer, Disarmament Is, RVA Mag (Oct. 2, 2017), https://rvamag.com/politics/opinion/opinion-gun-control-isnt-the-answer-disarmament-is.html.
  • Adam Winkler, The Secret History of Guns, The Atlantic (Sept. 2011), https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/09/the-secret-history-of-guns/308608/.
  • Heather Sher, What I Saw Treating the Victims From Parkland Should Change the Debate on Guns, The Atlantic (Feb. 22, 2018), https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/what-i-saw-treating-the-victims-from-parkland-should-change-the-debate-on-guns/553937/.
  • David E. Vandercoy, The History of the Second Amendment, 28 Val. U. L. Rev. 1007 (1994).
  • Joyce Lee Malcolm, The Supreme Court and the Uses of History: District of Columbia v. Heller, 56 UCLA L. Rev. 1377 (2009).

This episode was produced by Mareva Lindo.

Thanks to Doctor Turtle for the music:
"Lullaby for Democracy" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/The_Double-Down_Two-Step/lullaby_for_democracy)
"Go Tell It On the Molehill" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Flush_Your_Rolex_1416/go_tell_it_on_the_molehill_2)

Dissent /  by Helena Swanson-Nystrom

Our second episode explores dissent—as both a shaper and a component of the social contract. We hear from Tim McCarthy, an educator, historian, and citizen-activist; Charlene Carruthers, founding national director of Black Youth Project 100; Nate Boyer, former Seattle Seahawks long snapper and United States Army Green Beret; David McCraw, vice president and deputy general counsel of The New York Times; and Stas Walker, a blogger, essayist, and scholar.

This episode is marked explicit due to brief strong language describing an incident of hate speech.

For additional information on the issues we briefly examine, we recommend the following resources:

  • Protest Nation: Words That Inspired A Century of American Radicalism (Timothy Patrick McCarthy & John McMillian eds., The New Press 2010).
  • Charlene A. Carruthers, Remnants of Survival: Black Women and Legacies of Defiance, in The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery (Rochelle Riley ed., Wayne St. Uni. Press 2018).
  • Nate Boyer, An Open Letter to Colin Kaepernick, from a Green Beret-Turned-Long Snapper, Army Times (Aug. 30, 2016), https://www.armytimes.com/opinion/2016/08/30/an-open-letter-to-colin-kaepernick-from-a-green-beret-turned-long-snapper/.
  • Nate Boyer, Ex-Green Beret Nate Boyer Writes Open Letter to Trump, Kaepernick, NFL and America, ESPN (Oct. 13, 2017), http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/21003968/nfl-2017-ex-green-beret-nate-boyer-writes-open-letter-president-donald-trump-colin-kaepernick-nfl-united-states-america.
  • David McCraw, I Hardly Expected My Letter to Donald Trump’s Lawyer to Go Viral, N.Y. Times (Oct. 17, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/18/insider/i-hardly-expected-my-letter-to-donald-trump-to-go-viral.html.
  • David McCraw & Stephen Gikow, The End to an Unspoken Bargain? National Security and Leaks in a Post–Pentagon Papers World, 48 Harv. C.R.C.L. L. Rev. 473 (2013). 
  • Anastasia Walker, Cleveland State and the Degradation of “Free” Speech in the Trump Era, Huffington Post (Nov. 29 2017, 9:33 PM), https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cleveland-state-and-the-degradation-of-free-speech_us_5a11dd0ee4b0e30a9585082a.

This episode was produced by Mareva Lindo.

Thanks to Doctor Turtle for the music:
"Lullaby for Democracy" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/The_Double-Down_Two-Step/lullaby_for_democracy)
"Go Tell It On the Molehill" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Flush_Your_Rolex_1416/go_tell_it_on_the_molehill_2)

Community /  by Helena Swanson-Nystrom

We start our series with a conversation about how we define the boundaries of an American community—legally, politically, and practically—and how our perception of community may be shifting today. In this episode, we hear from Jin Park, a college student and DACA recipient, Jenny Beth Martin, a co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, Clint Smith, a writer and educator, and Marc Dunkelman, an author and research fellow.

For additional information on the issues we briefly examine, we recommend the following resources:

  • Mark Hulliung, The Social Contract in America: From the Revolution to the Present Age (Univ. Press of Kan. 2007).
  • Goodwin Liu, Education, Equality, and National Citizenship, 116 Yale L. J. 330 (2006). 
  • Jin Park, Illegal Alien, Harv. Crimson (Sept. 12,2016), http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/9/12/park-illegal-alien/.
  • Mark Meckler & Jenny Beth Martin, Tea Party Patriots: The Second American Revolution (Henry Holt & Co. 2012).
  • Clint Smith, Counting Descent (Write Bloody Publ'g 2017).
  • Marc J. Dunkelman, The Vanishing Neighbor: The Transformation of American Community (W. W. Norton & Co. 2014).
  • Gordon S. Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (Vintage 1993).

This episode was produced by Mareva Lindo.

Thanks to Doctor Turtle for the music:
"Lullaby for Democracy" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/The_Double-Down_Two-Step/lullaby_for_democracy)
"Go Tell It On the Molehill" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Flush_Your_Rolex_1416/go_tell_it_on_the_molehill_2)

Introducing Breached /  by Helena Swanson-Nystrom

Each episode of Breached highlights a different issue that has been traditionally framed as an essential element of any American social contract. Over ten episodes, the podcast explores areas of American life where some sort of bargain between us – either explicit or implicit – no longer seems to stand.

This promo was produced by Mareva Lindo.

Thanks to Josh Woodward for the music: "Once Tomorrow (Instrumental)" (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_Woodward/Breadcrumbs/JoshWoodward-Breadcrumbs-NoVox-09-OnceTomorrow)