The Great Battlefield

Dmitri Mehlhorn returns to The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about why he thinks the fight against fascism is over and co-founding the Atoll Society, where they hope to rally reason, law and human dignity in the face of rising authoritarianism.

Samantha Hancox-Li joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about hosting the Neon Liberalism podcast and being a writer and editor at Liberal Currents, where they publish writers who promote pluralistic democracy over authoritarianism.

Carol Leonnig joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about leaving The Washington Post to join MS NOW as Senior Investigative Correspondent and her recent book "Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America's Justice Department".

Mari Manoogian, former Michigan state representative and now executive director of The Next 50, builds the pipeline for Democratic leaders under 50. She discusses recruiting and supporting emerging candidates, balancing authenticity with political strategy, and scaling focused candidate services. Conversations touch on suburban shifts, campaign lessons, and pragmatic approaches to polarized politics.

Emily Cherniak, founder and executive director of New Politics who trains servant leaders for public office, discusses scaling a pro-democracy pipeline and seeding state and local leadership. She talks about remote culture and hiring top talent. Conversations cover fundraising and hands-on campaign support. The conversation highlights innovative campaign tactics and a long-term vision to change how leaders enter politics.

Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United and Let America Vote, is a progressive leader fighting big money and voter suppression. She discusses merging the groups, building small-donor grassroots power, navigating an unsympathetic Supreme Court while pushing disclosure and H.R.1 reforms, and expanding anti-corruption ambitions like court ethics and banning congressional stock trading.

Shripal Shah, Director of Independent Expenditure at House Majority PAC and longtime Democratic operative, reflects on two decades across campaigns, committees, and opposition research. He talks career pivots into digital paid media and creative innovation. He discusses scaling anti‑Trump operations, funding content creators, and strategies for winning House races in 2024 and beyond.

Danny Hogenkamp, entrepreneur who led Grassroots Analytics and now runs dumb.co, explains why he left to build a movement for dumb phones. He discusses product lessons from scaling a political tech company. He describes device-less meetings, experiential marketing like phone-free bars, surprising Gen Z uptake, and how a synced secondary dumb phone can free attention and time.

Yasmin Radjy returns to The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about what she's been up to at Swing Left, where they empower volunteers to help elect Democrats, and managing Vote Forward, where they test the effectiveness of voter turnout programs.

Vinay Orekondy, co-founder of Better Together America and civic organizer, builds local democracy hubs to stitch nonpartisan groups into community networks. He discusses creating ladders of engagement, how hubs reduce polarization by fostering post-partisan identities, and strategies for scaling grassroots civic infrastructure nationally and internationally.