It is no secret that democracy is in trouble in the United States, and Hahrie Han is a leading thinker and researcher trying to make sense of how people can work well with others – especially across difference and polarised divides.
The Three Circles diagram (set out in Chapter 4 of Conscious Tribes) makes the argument that the size and connections across our collective civil society “community” are a source of our power in public life. But today our collective and individual communities are struggling. That is a problem for all of our tribes as they seek to contest the power of the state and the market. So what do we do?
In this chat, undertaken in partnership with the UCL Policy Lab in the UK, Hahrie talks to Amanda about how her recent work on organising offers insights for rebuilding our tribes – especially in the context of populist political parties like MAGA, Reform UK and One Nation. She points to the power of local action as a source of hope, and shares what she learnt writing Undivided, which tells the story of one of the largest evangelical churches in the United States and its multi-year program to build relationships and understanding across racial differences.
Episode description (2026, Season 10, Episode )
Democracy is in trouble right now. In the US, Trump’s authoritarian impulses are closing over the checks and balances that used to make space for people to participate. In the UK the success of Reform in May’s local government elections reveal that people are increasingly seeing politics as elite sport – choosing to attack the system as a whole. In Australia, the success of One Nation in recent bi-elections suggests that it is also not immune from this anti-democratic movement.
In this chat with democracy academic Hahrie Han we explore this challenge, and some seeds of hope that are emerging at the local scale. Recorded ahead of the UCL Policy Lab’s Ecosystem Project gathering in May 2026 (where Hahie and Amanda are both speaking), they talk about source of hope that lie in the practices of a politics that can build spaces that can invite and explore people who are different, and have different opinions to work together.
Things might be grim, but we are never without power. This conversation seeks to make practical where collaboration across our differences can make a difference.
For more on Hahrie visit: https://www.hahriehan.com/
PS. Amanda also talked to Hahrie back in 2019, you can listen to that episode here.
