Looks Like New: What is next for democracy?

We’re in a moment of crisis for democracy around the world. But democracy doesn’t just need defense. Santiago Siri believes it needs a better offense—to evolve in order to address the shortcomings that led to the crisis in the first place. In his native Buenos Aires, he was a founder of Partido de la Red, an internet-based political party that tried to hack the representative system with direct voter participation. Now, he is working with the blockchain technology that underlies Bitcoin to bring democratic practices into everyday life. His latest experiment has been to help the Democratic caucus of the Colorado state House of Representatives choose their priorities for the coming session.

MEDLab’s radio show and podcast, Looks Like New, asks old questions about new tech.

Each month, host Nathan Schneider speaks with someone who works with technology in ways that challenge conventional narratives and dominant power structures. The name comes from the phrase “a philosophy so old that it looks like new,” repeated throughout the works of Peter Maurin, the French agrarian poet and co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement.

You can hear Looks Like New the fourth Thursday of every month at 6 p.m., or online as a podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.