Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. She is the host of Democracy Decoded, a Campaign Legal Center podcast.

Liz Joyner is the executive director of the Village Square, a nonprofit dedicated to reviving civic connections across divisions inside American communities. She oversees the Village SquareCast, a Village Square podcast.

Corey Nathan started out as a stockbroker by day while studying at a theatre conservatory at night. Corey loves theology, politics and culture and enjoys invigorating conversations with renowned experts of these subjects on his podcast, Talkin’ Politics & Religion Without Killin’ Each Other.

Mila Atmos, a global citizen based in New York City, is the producer and series host of Future Hindsight, a weekly podcast that aims to spark civic engagement through in-depth conversations with citizen changemakers.

Michael Baranowski is a political scientist with a Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. His focus is American political institutions, public policy, and media. He spends most of his time indoctrinating students at Northern Kentucky University.

To learn more about each of the featured podcasts, visit the Shows page at democracygroup.org/shows.

To read the full Q&As with each of the featured podcasts, visit the Meet the Hosts section at democracygroup.org/blog.

This week we bring you a special episode from Maggie LeBeau, one of our 2024 Podcast Fellows.

Maggie LeBeau recently graduated from Glenbard East High School in Lombard, Illinois. Because this is her first podcasting experience, she is excited to learn from professionals and her peers about audio storytelling and exploring youth political engagement. Maggie has been involved in journalism since her freshman year as a writer for her school's newspaper, the Echo, and has served as editor-in-chief for three years. Outside of school, she is a part of the Media Wise Teen Fact-Checking Network, making videos about media literacy and misinformation for young people. In 2022, she was a finalist for the PBS Student Reporting Labs Student Journalism Challenge, and in 2023, she won the Harvard Crimson Journalism Reporting Competition. Maggie also attended the Eastern Illinois University Summer Journalism Workshop in 2022 and the Boston University Summer Journalism Institute in 2023. In December, she was selected as a PBS Student Reporting Labs fellow, attending their winter academy on video storytelling. Next year, she plans on majoring in journalism and political science at the University of Missouri, hoping to spend her career reporting on politics.

Know a student interested in democracy and podcasts? Send them over to our fellowship to apply: https://www.democracygroup.org/fellowship

This week we bring you a special episode from Simran Gupta, one of our 2024 Podcast Fellows.

Simran is a junior in high school. She is passionate about government and politics as well as the education of youth and is excited to explore these interests through The Democracy Group Podcast Fellowship! She believes that life is all about learning new things, but interpreting information in a way that’s meaningful is difficult, especially in this day and age where news is readily available and shared whether it’s accurate or not. That’s why she’s excited to be part of an initiative to offer this upcoming generation information that is 100% trustworthy and impactful.

Know a student interested in democracy and podcasts? Send them over to our fellowship to apply: https://www.democracygroup.org/fellowship