I am pleased to bring you the first episode of The ELB Podcast, a new project in which I will offer occasional interviews with those making news or conducting research on election issues in the run-up to the 2016 elections. The podcast is now available on Soundcloud, with subscriptions via iTunes coming shortly. I welcome your feedback on whether you like this new feature, what you’d like to see changed, and topics to potentially cover. (Here is the RSS feed.)
For my first episode, I interview author Ari Berman about his new book, Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America. As I wrote at Slate, Berman’s book masterfully tells the story of the five-decades of the Voting Rights Act, which turns 50 next week.
Among the topics we discussed: how do voting rights pioneers like John Lewis see today’s fights over voting rules? How much have things changed since 1965? Are today’s voting wars more about race or party? Why has the struggle for Latino voting rights received comparatively little attention? What is the potential for court intervention and political change over restrictive voting rules?
You can read excerpts of Ari’s book here and here, and check out his recent NY Times oped.
Listen here or click below.