Friday, January 16, 2026
LWV-Downeast
We'll talk about how wealth and income inequality undermine democracy. Does extreme income inequality lead to right wing authoritarianism? How does that work? Is that playing out in the U.S. right now? In Maine?
Special guests:
- Garrett Martin, President & CEO, Maine Center for Economic Policy
- Susan Stokes, the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Chicago. She is the author of the new book, The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies | Princeton University Press, September 2025
To read more about this topic:
- Big Money and Big Consequences | Stay Tuned, Preet Bharara with Barbara McQuade, December 2025
- America’s affordability crisis for middle-class families | Brookings, December 2025
- State of Working Maine 2025: Strengthening Economic Opportunity in Rural Communities and Beyond | MECEP, December 2025
- Economic divide widening between Portland area and rest of Maine, report finds | Maine Public, December 2025
- It’s getting harder to live in rural Maine | The Maine Monitor, November, 2025
- A new wave of rural Maine towns considers disbanding | Bangor Daily News, October 2025
- How the Democratic Brand Turned Radioactive in Rural America | The New York Times, Ezra Klein with Susan Mettler, October 2025
- ‘The Game Is Rigged’: Elizabeth Warren on America’s Next Story | The New York Times. David Leonhardt with Elizabeth Warren, September 2025
- The Backsliders | Princeton University Press, Susan Stokes, September 2025
- Inequality has risen from 1970 to Trump − that has 3 hidden costs that undermine democracy | The Conversation, July 2025
- The US Constitution was not made to protect against Trump | Aljazeera, February 2025
- Income inequality has led to an erosion of democracy in countries around the world, January, 2025
- Income inequality and the erosion of democracy in the twenty-first century | PNAS, Eli G. Rau and Susan Stokes, December 2024
Tune into the broadcast at 4:00 p.m., Friday, January 16, on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, streaming at weru.org. If you miss the broadcast, check back here for the audio archive. Subscribe to our podcast: iTunes | Spotify | Android.