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
325. Simon Johnson: Can AI Power Up Progress? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 57:24
With today's emerging technologies, including things like artificial intelligence, are quickly becoming mainstream. AIs like ChatGPT, the chatbot that can produce answers to questions and write essays and poems, have bec…
325. Raja Shehadeh: A Portrait of a Palestinian Father and Son [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:47
In his life, Aziz Shehadeh was many things — among them a lawyer, a political detainee, and the father of activist and author, Raja Shehadeh. Raja's latest book, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I, is a subtle p…
323. S. C. Gwynne: The Tragic Tale of British Airship R101 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:27
Airships, those airborne leviathans that occupied center stage in the world in the first half of the twentieth century, were a symbol of the future. The British airship R101 was not just the largest aircraft ever to have…
320. Gregory Smithers with Hailey Tayathy: Decolonizing Gender [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:09
Before 1492, hundreds of Indigenous communities across North America included people who identified as neither male nor female, but both. They went by aakíí'skassi, miati, okitcitakwe, or one of the hundreds of other tri…
319. Nate G. Hilger with George Durham: The Parent Trap [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:13
Few people realize that raising children is the single largest industry in the United States. Parents are expected not only to care for their children but to help them develop the skills they will need to thrive in today…
318. Nate Gowdy: The Insurrection in Photos [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:08:19
Nate Gowdy had previously photographed 30 Donald Trump rallies. He thought he was fully prepared for what should have been the grand finale, but the events that unfolded on January 6th, 2021, were more than anyone could…