Podcast: How to Save a Country
Now more than ever, America needs big ideas. On Felicia Wong and Michael Tomasky’s podcast “How to Save a Country,” you’ll meet the people imagining—and building—a stronger economy and better democracy for all of us.
How to Save a Country—hosted by Felicia Wong (Roosevelt Institute) and Michael Tomasky (The New Republic)—ran for two seasons and 31 episodes from September 15, 2022, to June 29, 2023.
Throughout both seasons, listeners were introduced to the people and ideas moving America forward in uncertain times. In season one, How to Save a Country connected the dots across economics, law, history, and politics—with guests like Heather Cox Richardson, Brian Deese, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren—to answer some of the most pressing challenges facing our economy and democracy and discuss ideas to solve them.
In season two, How to Save a Country explored how these ideas are taking shape in the real world, with the people putting them into action, and included guests like Thomas Piketty, Gary Gerstle, and Maurice Mitchell.
Presented by the Roosevelt Institute, The New Republic, and PRX. Generous funding for this podcast was provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Omidyar Network. Views expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of its funders.
In front of a live audience at the Hewlett Foundation’s New Common Sense Conference in March, Felicia and Michael talk to New York Times bestselling author Heather McGhee about her book "The Sum of Us."
Season One
- Season 1 Trailer
- Episode 1: Why the Biden Economy Is Better Than You Think (with Brian Deese)
- Episode 2: Our Democracy Is in Trouble, but We’ve Been Here Before (with Heather Cox Richardson)
- Episode 3: Why Labor Unions Are Back, and How They Can Save Democracy (with Dorian Warren)
- Episode 4: The Supreme Court Is Back in Session. What’s the Progressive Plan? (with Amy Kapczynski)
- Episode 5: An Immigration Plan for the Climate Change Era (with Deepak Bhargava)
- Episode 6: House Leadership: The Next Generation (with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries)
- Episode 7: How the Green New Deal Changed the Conversation (with Rhiana Gunn-Wright)
- Episode 8: Making Meaning of the Midterms
- Episode 9: Why Neoliberalism Is Finally on the Way Out (with Brad DeLong)
- Episode 10: A Tale of Two Recoveries: What’s Changed since the Great Recession (with Joelle Gamble and Heidi Shierholz)
- Episode 11: Good Policy, Good Politics (with Sen. Elizabeth Warren)
- Bonus Episode: Talking Democracy and Oligarchy (with Dorian Warren)
- Bonus Episode: The Future of the House (with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries)
- Bonus Episode: Crypto’s Cold, Dark Winter (with Senator Elizabeth Warren)
- Bonus Episode: Who Really Ended the Cold War? (with Brad DeLong)
Season Two
- Season 2 Trailer
- Episode 1: The Art of Progressive Persuasion (with Maurice Mitchell)
- Episode 2: What Drives Our Political Behavior (with Dr. Lilliana Mason)
- Episode 3: We Can Defeat Zero-Sum Politics (with Heather McGhee)
- Episode 4: How Culture Warriors Seized the Right (with Julie Kohler)
- Episode 5: The Neoliberal Order Is Over. What Comes Next? (with Gary Gerstle)
- Episode 6: Red Nation, Blue Nation (with Michael Podhorzer)
- Episiode 7: An Academic Walks into a Diner (with Danielle Allen)
- Episode 8: How Feminist Economics Brought Us the Care Agenda (with Nancy Folbre)
- Episode 9: In Pursuit of the Climate-Proof City (from the Politics of Everything)
- Episode 10: The Deep[ly Necessary] State (with K. Sabeel Rahman)
- Episode 11: Capital in the 2020s (with Thomas Piketty)
- Episode 12: Fascism Disguised as Freedom (with Jefferson Cowie)
- Episode 13: The Unfinished Business of Saving Democracy
HOSTS
Felicia Wong
President & CEO, Roosevelt InstituteFelicia Wong is the President and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute, whose mission is to advance progressive policies in pursuit of a high-care, low-carbon economy that works for all. She served on the Biden-Harris administration transition advisory board and was the US representative on the G7 Economic Resilience Panel in 2021.
Michael Tomasky
Editor, The New RepublicMichael Tomasky is a longtime liberal writer, commentator, and editor of the New Republic and Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. He is the author of six books, most recently The Middle Out: The Rise of Progressive Economics and a Return to Shared Prosperity.