371. Aziz Rana with Michael Hardt and Jaleh Mansoor: The Constitutional Bind

371. Aziz Rana with Michael Hardt and Jaleh Mansoor: The Constitutional Bind

Author: Town Hall Seattle September 9, 2024 Duration: 1:30:47

Some Americans fear the Federal Constitution falls short in addressing democratic threats, yet it's long been revered for its ideals of liberty and equality. Join us at Town Hall Seattle for a discussion with Aziz Rana, Michael Hardt, and Jaleh Mansoor about Rana's book, The Constitutional Bind, exploring how this flawed document gained mythic status and its impact on society.

Rana contends this reverence emerged in the 20th century alongside US global dominance, shaping both domestic and foreign policy. Discover how this cultural phenomenon has hindered meaningful change while silencing an array of movement activists — in Black, Indigenous, feminist, labor, and immigrant politics — who struggled to imagine different constitutional horizons. Gain insights into alternative constitutional futures at this thought-provoking event in collaboration with Red May.

Aziz Rana is an American legal scholar and author who currently serves as Richard and Lois Cole Professor of Law at Cornell University specializing in American constitutional law.

Michael Hardt teaches political theory in the Literature Program at Duke University. He is co-author, with Antonio Negri, of the Empire trilogy and, most recently, Assembly. He is co-director with Sandro Mezzadra of The Social Movements Lab.

Jaleh Mansoor is an associate professor of art history at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, where she teaches modern and contemporary art history with an emphasis on Post WWII European art.


Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Red May.

Red May logo


Recorded live from a historic venue in the Pacific Northwest, the Town Hall Seattle Civics Series podcast brings the stage to your headphones. Each episode captures a vital conversation from Town Hall Seattle's ongoing programming, where experts, activists, and thinkers grapple with the ideas shaping our collective life. You’ll hear historians reframe our past, legal scholars dissect constitutional questions, and community organizers explain the mechanics of emerging movements. This isn't just theoretical discussion; it's a direct engagement with the policies and cultural shifts that touch our neighborhoods and the wider world. Tuning in feels like finding a seat in a thoughtful, often provocative public forum. The series operates on a belief that an informed community is an empowered one, and this audio archive makes that process accessible to anyone, anywhere. By focusing on the substance of live civic dialogue, this podcast provides the context and depth often missing from daily headlines, fostering a deeper understanding of how society functions and changes.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Podcast Episodes
344. Fei-Fei Li with Todd Bishop: Using AI to Empower Humans [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:43
Depending on who you overhear, conversations surrounding the controversial AI Chat Bot, Chat GPT, may be punctuated with terms like, "groundbreaking!" "paradigm-shifting!" "innovative!" or conversely might be filled with…
339. Michael Harriot with Marcus Harrison Green: America Unredacted [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:43
Have you ever wondered if there was another version of this country besides the one that was taught in schools? For many Americans, especially Black Americans, the answer is yes. The backstory that most of us were taught…
338. Rebecca Clarren with Rena Priest: The Cost of Free Land [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:00
Growing up, Rebecca Clarren only knew the major plot points of her tenacious immigrant family's origins. Her great-great-grandparents, the Sinykins, and their six children fled antisemitism in Russia and arrived in the U…
337. Martin Baron with Frank Blethen A Marriage of Press and Politics [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:16
If you've felt like the news cycle has been out of control in the past few years, imagine being the editor of one of the most prominent papers in the US. Martin Baron had over a decade of newsroom experience before he to…