What Civic Renewal Actually Looks Like
A conversation with Charlie Brown of the Trust for Civic Life (225 Words / 1-minute read).
A central aim of this newsletter is to highlight promising efforts in civil society that strengthen democracy in America, enabling others to learn from and build on them. In that spirit, I’m pleased to share the launch of The Art of Association podcast, produced under the auspices of the American Enterprise Institute, where I serve as a senior fellow.
This first episode reflects the animating question behind the show: what does civic renewal actually look like in practice?
I kick things off in a wide-ranging conversation with Charlie Brown, Executive Director of the Trust for Civic Life. We explore the origins and initial development of the Trust, why and how it has focused on rural and small-town America, and what the Trust and the organizations it supports have learned from their work together thus far.
You can listen on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, or Pocket Casts.
New episodes will drop on the fourth Wednesday of each month. I’ll preview and link to each one here. My upcoming conversation partners include Brian Hooks of Stand Together, Heather Gerken of the Ford Foundation, and several co-authors of the “Invitation to a New Civic Future” that I recently shared.
I hope you’ll give the first episode a listen. And if it strikes you as worthwhile, please subscribe and pass it along to others who care about the future of our civic life.