This podcast has been increasingly hearing about the extraordinary outcomes that can stem from deliberative democratic processes.
Professor Nicole Curato is with the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. She’s also a prominent journalist, particularly in her former home country of the Philippines. She’s written op-eds for the New York Times, The Guardian & Al Jazeera. And she regularly collaborates with CNN Philippines, occasionally serving as a television presenter, and has hosted documentaries and produced podcasts.
Nicole explores how democratic innovations unfold in the aftermath of tragedies, including disasters, armed conflict, and urban crime. To that we might add increasing stresses like climate change, housing and political polarisation. Nicole is the author of Demoracy in a Time of Misery: From Spectacular Tragedy to Deliberative Action. Which might just as well have been sub-titled, from spectacular tragedy to spectacular deliberative action, such is the nature of some of the stories she has to share - in terms of their outcomes in the world, and their life-changing effects on those involved. And in a context right now where democracy itself is on the line, and with it the possibility of coming together to produce more of the extraordinary outcomes we know we can, Nicole was the person I needed to speak with.
