Returning to play for Team Human today, filmmaker, author, musician, and activist Astra Taylor.

Astra joins Douglas for a conversation that wrestles with the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in democracy. It’s a discussion explored in her latest film, What is Democracy? and her new book, Democracy May Not Exist But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone. (Hudson Books, Indie Bound, Amazon)

Do we really have a clear vision and political imagination of what democracy should look like? How can we both recognize the tensions in democracy and create conditions where these contradictions are more constructive than destructive? In what ways are we empowered in our everyday lives to enact democracy?

Astra and Douglas explore these questions and more as they make the case that democracy is not a “thing” nor a set of procedures, but rather an “unfolding,” a process. Democracy is a verb!

Follow Astra on Twitter here.

Hear Astra discuss her work with the Debt Collective on the very first episode of Team Human.

Today’s episode begins with Douglas looking at Trump as “editor in chief.” Is Trump using a Reality TV show mindset to draw the media into his “production” of reality?

Check out written versions of Douglas’s monologues on Medium. Past Team Human podcast episodes can also be found on Medium.

Team Human is made possible thanks to the generous support of our listeners on Patreon. Your support makes the hours of labor that go into each show possible. You can also help by reviewing the show on iTunes.

On this episode you heard Fugazi’s “Foreman’s Dog” in the intro thanks to the kindness of the band and Dischord Records. Mid-show you heard R.U. Sirius’s President Mussolini Makes the Planes Run On Time. This episode concludes with Mike Watt ’s beak-holding-letter-man.