This week we bring you a special episode from Savannah Patterson-Case, one of our 2026 Podcast Fellows. Patterson introduces the show’s focus on how art and democracy intersect, arguing that art fosters empathy, dialogue, and challenges power, which can make it a target through cuts and political attacks. She launches the season’s focus on theater, defining democracy as participation rooted in values like fairness, tolerance, compromise, trust, and inclusion, and tracing theater and democracy to ancient Athens, where performance offered catharsis and an outlet for the politically excluded. She highlights political works such as The Laramie Project, citing dialogue, audience impact, and reported legislative influence, and examines attacks on theater through the New Deal Federal Theatre Project’s rise and dismantling amid Red Scare pressures, alongside concerns about access, commercialization, rhetoric, and entertainment-driven politics. 00:00 Special Episode Intro 00:23 Democracy Meets Art 02:28 Why Theater Matters 04:25 Defining Democracy 06:28 Theater Roots in Athens 08:20 The Laramie Project 10:36 When Theater Gets Targeted 13:06 Access and Defunding 14:43 Is Democracy Theater 16:16 Pitfalls of Performance Politics Know a student interested in democracy and podcasts? Send them over to our fellowship to apply: https://www.democracygroup.org/fellowship Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.