The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding (with Osita Nwanevu)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Extreme inequality and democratic decline aren’t separate crises—they’re the same crisis. This week, Osita Nwanevu joins Paul and Goldy to explain how America’s constitutional design, corporate power, and decades of upward redistribution have eroded both political and economic freedom. He outlines what real democratic governance would mean inside government and at work, why the concentration of wealth threatens stability, and how a long-term movement for a more representative system could finally deliver the policies most Americans want.

Osita Nwanevu is a journalist and political writer whose work focuses on democracy, governance, and the intersection of politics and power in America. His reporting and essays have appeared in The New Republic, The New Yorker, Slate, and The New York Times. He is the author of The Right of the People, a sweeping examination of why American democracy is faltering and what it would take to build a more just, inclusive, and genuinely democratic society.


Further reading: 

The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New 

American Founding

By the Workers, for the Workers: Building Economic Democracy

https://www.ositanwanevu.com/

Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com

Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics

Threads: pitchforkeconomics

Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social

Twitter: @PitchforkEcon@NickHanauer@civicaction

YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics

LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics

Substack: The Pitch

More description

Extreme inequality and democratic decline aren’t separate crises—they’re the same crisis. This week, Osita Nwanevu joins Paul and Goldy to explain how America’s constitutional design, corporate power, and decades of upward redistribution have eroded both political and economic freedom. He outlines what real democratic governance would mean inside government and at work, why the concentration of wealth threatens stability, and how a long-term movement for a more representative system could finally deliver the policies most Americans want.

Osita Nwanevu is a journalist and political writer whose work focuses on democracy, governance, and the intersection of politics and power in America. His reporting and essays have appeared in The New Republic, The New Yorker, Slate, and The New York Times. He is the author of The Right of the People, a sweeping examination of why American democracy is faltering and what it would take to build a more just, inclusive, and genuinely democratic society.


Further reading: 

The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New 

American Founding

By the Workers, for the Workers: Building Economic Democracy

https://www.ositanwanevu.com/

Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com

Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics

Threads: pitchforkeconomics

Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social

Twitter: @PitchforkEcon@NickHanauer@civicaction

YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics

LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics

Substack: The Pitch

2025-12-16 43 min
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