Historian Thomas Zimmer explains why he’s not terribly worried about the far-right in Germany, even though the xenophobic Alternative for Germany party now leads the opposition in parliament. And Constanze Stelzenmüller, an expert on foreign relations, credits Angela Merkel for holding democratic ideals together in Europe with a firm hand.

Sayra is from Mexico. Alejandro from Bolivia. Their journeys are different but the limbo they’ve experienced growing up undocumented in America has shaped them in parallel ways. Also on this episode, American University law professor Amanda Frost reflects on how the hidden history of citizenship-stripping can inform naturalization policy in the present.

Gema Kloppe-Santamaría, a sociologist and historian of Latin America, studies the long and painful arc of extralegal violence in the region — from vigilante justice to the dirty wars and the drug wars. And, she says, the United States should play a role in solving the regional problems it has helped create.

Science can tell us why the climate is changing (it’s people, people). But it can’t tell us what to do about it. That’s where politics and a sense of community come in, climate writer Kendra Pierre-Louis says.

According to Syracuse University media scholar Whitney Phillips, information pathways run as deep and interwoven as the roots of redwood trees, and when they’re contaminated it threatens the whole forest.

In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Congress moved to regulate internet content and gave tech companies wide latitude, setting the stage for a Wild West of data flow — along with abuses of privacy. UVA law professor Danielle Citron says it’s time to rein in cyberspace.

Nonviolent protests have taken down dictators and protected civil rights. But very often they fail instead. Renowned Serbian activist Srdja Popovic outlines the key characteristics of successful movements.

Degrowth. In classical economic circles the idea is heretical. For economic anthropologist Jason Hickel, dialing down production in rich countries — and canceling debt for poor countries — is the only path to real democracy and, by the way, saving the planet.

If people aren’t counted in a representative democracy, it’s as if they don’t exist. And for politicians or parties banking on minority rule, that’s just fine. Until they meet Dale Ho — who defends citizens’ voting rights for the American Civil Liberties Union.