Season 4 - Episode 9: Demystifying Democracy: The Pine State Experiment (Part 1)

23/10/2025 32 min Temporada 4 Episodio 9

Listen "Season 4 - Episode 9: Demystifying Democracy: The Pine State Experiment (Part 1)"

Episode Synopsis

In this episode of The TRM Podcast, we speak with Bowdoin College students Natalie Emerson and Larson Van Horn, creators of the Pine State Politics in Session podcast. What began as an academic project has become a powerful civic experiment in demystifying democracy. Emerson and Van Horn take us inside the process — petitions, ranked-choice voting, clean election funding — the often-invisible machinery that makes democracy work. Their mission is simple but profound: to replace cynicism with understanding by showing how the system actually functions, and how ordinary citizens can engage it with intelligence and purpose. From their experience gathering signatures on a Senate campaign to interviewing figures across the political spectrum, they remind us that democracy is not a spectator sport.A grounded, hopeful conversation with two voices of the next generation who are learning — and teaching — what democratic participation really means.

More episodes of the podcast The True Representation Movement Podcast