Best-selling author Dave Daley joins C70 CEO David Thornburgh and Civic Engagement Consultant Chris Satullo to discuss his new book, Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy. Get inspired by civic movements taking shape across the nation, and discover the blueprint for action you can take to positively impact your community.The n…

The novel coronavirus disrupted college life in a big way. Amid the chaos of moving out of dorms and transitioning to online learning, college students were uncertain about how and where to vote. In light of the many questions we received, we decided to call in the experts: the PA Department of State's Tiffany Chang Lawson and All In Challenge Exec…

How do we vote safely and securely in the middle of a pandemic? Committee of Seventy CEO David Thornburgh speaks with The National Vote at Home Institute's Amber McReynolds. www.voteathome.orgMcReynolds is one of the country’s leading experts on election administration and policy, and co-author of the book “When Women Vote”. Amber is the CEO for th…

PA's top election official, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar talks with C70 CEO David Thornburgh about the significant changes to how Pennsylvanians will vote in 2020. From the new option to vote by mail, to new registration deadlines, new machines in every county, and the challenges of ensuring every vote counts amid a global pandemic, this wide-…

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1:00: Dennis Lee16:30: Omar Sabir33:30: Kahlil WilliamsWatch all the candidate interviews at https://www.youtube.com/user/pchristmas70/videosVoter resources:ballot.seventy.orgseventy.org/wevoteseventy.org/votesmartThanks to Thomas Skelton Harrison for their generous support that allows us to produce these interviews!…

1:00: Lisa Deeley17:20: Jen Devor33:00: Marwan KreidieWatch all the candidate interviews at https://www.youtube.com/user/pchristmas70/videosVoter resources:ballot.seventy.orgseventy.org/wevoteseventy.org/votesmartThanks to Thomas Skelton Harrison for their generous support that allows us to produce these interviews!…

1:00: Moira Bohannon15:00: Luigi Borda30:30: Carla CainWatch all the candidate interviews at https://www.youtube.com/user/pchristmas70/videosVoter resources:ballot.seventy.orgseventy.org/wevoteseventy.org/votesmartThanks to Thomas Skelton Harrison for their generous support that allows us to produce these interviews!…

1:00: Isaiah Thomas18:50: Fernando Trevino35:40: Matt WolfeWatch all the candidate interviews at https://www.youtube.com/user/pchristmas70/videosVoter resources:ballot.seventy.orgseventy.org/wevoteseventy.org/votesmartThanks to Thomas Skelton Harrison for their generous support that allows us to produce these interviews!…

1:00: Katherine Gilmore Richardson15:00: Mark Ross31:50: Eryn SantamoorWatch all the candidate interviews at https://www.youtube.com/user/pchristmas70/videosVoter resources:ballot.seventy.orgseventy.org/wevoteseventy.org/votesmartThanks to Thomas Skelton Harrison for their generous support that allows us to produce these interviews!…

1:00: Drew Murray19:45: David Oh41:45: Adrian Rivera-ReyesWatch all the candidate interviews at https://www.youtube.com/user/pchristmas70/videosVoter resources:ballot.seventy.orgseventy.org/wevoteseventy.org/votesmartThanks to Thomas Skelton Harrison for their generous support that allows us to produce these interviews!…

1:00: Sandra Dungee Glenn18:30: Derek Green35:00: Asa KhalifWatch all the candidate interviews at https://www.youtube.com/user/pchristmas70/videosVoter resources:ballot.seventy.orgseventy.org/wevoteseventy.org/votesmartThanks to Thomas Skelton Harrison for their generous support that allows us to produce these interviews!…

1:00: Latrice Bryant16:00 Justin DiBerardinis (note: some low sound issues from 17:00-19:24)31:00 Allan Domb47:55 Beth FinnWatch all the candidate interviews at https://www.youtube.com/user/pchristmas70/videosVoter resources:ballot.seventy.orgseventy.org/wevoteseventy.org/votesmartThanks to Thomas Skelton Harrison for their generous support that al…

1:00: City Council At-Large Candidate Fareed Abdullah15:45: City Council At-Large Candidate Erika Almirón32:00: City Council At-Large Candidate Vinny BlackVideos of all of the interviews available at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtTfhYkjLdBwdbIZSzxuhJgVoter resources: www.seventy.org/votesmartwww.seventy.org/wevoteballot.seventy.org Thanks to t…

Committee of Seventy CEO David Thornburgh and Policy Director Patrick Christmas tee up the issues, races and candidates on the ballot in the May 21st PA Primary. Subscribe to receive 9+ hours of bonus interviews with Philadelphia City Council, Commissioner and Register of Wills candidates.Learn about the candidates, create and share your ballots an…

Meet the podcast that's out to slay the gerrymander. Try this 30-minute taste of Season 1, hosted by Chris Satullo. You'll learn in clear terms how how this bug in America's operating system works to rig elections, fuel hyper-partisanship, block policy progress, encourage apathy and foment corruption. Yet this six-episode package is no downer. It t…

Few in Philly have inspired more rumors - or fear - than legendary union boss John Dougherty. Two top political journalists - Dave Davies of WHYY and David Gambacorta of philly.com - join us to talk through the twisty implications of the corruption indictment of one of the city's main power brokers.بقلم Committee of Seventy

Hear from two rumored 2020 presidential candidates, former Governors John Hickenlooper (D-CO) and John Kasich (R-OH) who were the keynote speakers at Seventy’s 114th Anniversary Luncheon. Their conversation was moderated by Marty Moss-Coane, host and executive producer of Radio Times. CEO David Thornburgh and Civic Engagement Consultant Chris Satul…

C70's CEO David Thornburgh and Civic Engagement Consultant Chris Satullo share their favorite non-fiction books of 2018. (These also happen to make perfect gifts for the politicos and policy wonks in your life.)Michael Lewis, The Fifth Riskhttps://know.freelibrary.org/Record/2424774Doris Kearns Goodwin, Leadership in Turbulent Timeshttps://know.fre…

Join our CEO David Thornburgh and Civic Engagement Consultant Chris Satullo as they discuss what happened in the 2018 Elections and what it means for Pennsylvania. Plus, a consideration of our love/hate relationship with the "I Voted" sticker.بقلم Committee of Seventy

And we're back! Committee of Seventy CEO David Thornburgh talks with two of our new Buchholz Fellows - Harper Seldin of @cozen_oconnor and Kalie Wertz of @UACoalition . David also chats with @YIPhilly 's Bekah Gable and Kate McGlinchey about the State of Young Philly #SOYP Conference. In our final segment, David and C70's Civic Engagement Consultan…

What's new in Maine and unheard-of in much of America is old hat in Ireland. Ranked-choice voting lets voters express how they feel about multiple candidates, rather than just settling for the least-bad option. Here, it's just gaining a hard-won foothold in places like Maine and San Francisco. But it's been the norm for decades in Ireland. In this …

After years of waiting, Philadelphia has regained control of its school system and sworn in a new board of education. One of its nine members, Lee Huang, talks in-depth with Chris Satullo about the boot-camp-like training and the energetic "listening tour" of the city that board members experienced to get ready. Huang explains how he's thinking abo…

The old Philadelphia Democratic machine is clearly wearing out. But what might revive or supplant it? In this podcast, David Thornburgh talks to Ali Perelman of Philadelphia 3.0 about efforts to bring fresh blood into the old party committee structure. And Chris Satullo chats with Asian-American leader Andy Toy about what it might take to get the c…

Pennsylvanians went to the polls on May 15. Depending on where you sit, the results could be seen as a depressing show of apathy, a sign that 2018 will be the true "Year of the Woman" in politics, or an indicator that the so-called "blue wave" is mostly hype. In this episode, the dean of Harrisburg journalists, columnist John Baer of the Inquirer a…

On his last day in office as a U.S. congressman - and as one of the last GOP moderates on Capitol Hill - Charles Dent (R., Pa.) sat down with Chris Satullo to talk about his time in office, the plague of hyper-partisanship, the fight over Obamacare and other adventures. The setting was the 10th anniversary celebration of the Penn Project for Civic …

For the first time in a very long time, Philadelphia's diverse 184th House District will be getting a new state representative. Competing to replace the retiring Bill Keller are Nicholas DiDonato Jr., Elizabeth Fiedler and Tom Wyatt. Each stopped by 20 by Seventy to chat with David Thornburgh about their credentials, their sense of the district, wh…

In this episode, we dig into the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania's 177th House District, where long-time incumbent John Taylor has resigned, leaving an open seat. Host Chris Satullo interviews contenders Dan Martino, Maggie Borski and Joseph Hohenstein about what they've done, what they'd fight for and what they'd never support. If you live in t…

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Kristen Graham joins host Chris Satullo to talk about a topic she knows as well as anyone: the ins and outs of the Philadelphia schools, now poised to go back under city control after years of state oversight. The changeover puts a $1 billion budget shortfall squarely in the lap of city taxpayers. Then Seventy CEO …

Lawsuits. Dueling maps. Weird terms like "efficiency gap." Talk of impeachment. And endless partisan sniping. Want to be able to decipher what's going on in the fight over Pennsylvania's congressional map? Jonathan Lai of the Philadelphia Inquirer explains it all calmly and crisply in a conversation with host Chris Satullo. This is the one road map…

David Thornburgh chats with Jeremy Nowak (at right in photo) and Bruce Katz, authors of a new book called "The New Localism." Their thesis: Many American cities have more things going for them than they seem to realize - untapped wealth and assets that could enable them to address many of their challenges. Those cities just have to stop behaving in…

Host Chris Satullo talks with David Daley, author of "Ratf**ked." Daley literally wrote the book on gerrymandering, how it went nuclear in the digital age, and the damage it does to democracy. And the first chapter in his book was about Pennsylvania. It's a pretty grim read. But all is not lost! Today, Daley sees more than one glimmer of hope acros…

Philadelphia's head wonk, Seventy CEO David Thornburgh, runs down his list of indispensable nonfiction books that you should consider buying for the serious readers on your Christmas list. Along the way, he and host Chris Satullo discuss, among other things, gerrymandering, hopefulness,Robert Moses vs. Jane Jacobs, the Pittsburgh Penguins, purple s…

Philadelphia's head wonk, Seventy CEO David Thornburgh, runs down his list of indispensable nonfiction books that you should consider buying for the serious readers on your Christmas list. Along the way, he and host Chris Satullo discuss, among other things, gerrymandering, hopefulness,Robert Moses vs. Jane Jacobs, the Pittsburgh Penguins, purple s…

It’s time for the holidays. Are you looking ahead to the table talk over the cranberries and turkey with anticipation or dread? Or to put it another way: What to do about Uncle George, who, after that first glass of wine, always begins spouting opinions that make you crazy? The Committee of Seventy is ready with your holiday “survival through civil…

Philadelphia is the rare "Rust Belt" city that's growing. That's thanks in part to success in hanging onto recent college graduates. But, as much as these Millennials might love the city, they aren't sure they can stay. In this episode, three young professionals discuss the three main reasons why even some fans of Philly sometimes reluctantly decid…

Everybody complains about their local airport, but the Committee of Seventy decided to do something about it. The good government group recruited a team of 18 wicked-smart Philadelphians to help Philadelphia International Airport tackle some of its customer service issues. In this episode, we review this adventure in civic consulting, which was cal…

Meet Amanda Holt, the Joan of Arc of Pennsylvania politics. Hear about this Allentown-area piano teacher's stubborn, inspiring and victorious (well, partially) quest to stop her state's politicians from gerrymandering. Hear Ben Geffen of the Public Interest Law Center in Philadelphia make the case for the center's lawsuit against the state's notori…

Six months ago, few could have predicted the results of the recent Philadelphia Democratic primary, which produced upset winners in the district attorney and controller races. Both results suggest to some that the city Democratic organization may be tottering on the brink of collapse, a zombie party. In this episode, we test that hypothesis with tw…

Confused by the crowded field for the office of chief prosecutor in Philadelphia? We rounded up two of the smartest guys in the city - Dave Davies of WHYY and Solomon Jones of WURD - to survey the issues, size up the candidates and their maneuverings and, most important, explain why this election means so much. Plus a rundown of all the election re…

We take a look at how tech concepts such as data-mining, crowd-funding and network effects are disrupting the settled arrangements of politics (which, Lord knows, could do with some disrupting). TJ.Hurst of Jefferson's List explains how he hopes to disrupt the world of political consulting, and an underdog who used crowdfunding to upset a candidate…

What do you get when you bring dozens of students from an Ivy League university together with dozens of students from a Christian college to talk about the election? Well, in a recent experiment in civil dialogue, what you got were insights gained and friendships made. Call it a tendril of hope in a sour time. Continuing the hopeful theme, hear fro…

Thanks to the iconic film, the term "Groundhog Day" has become code for living the same lousy experience over and over again. To figure out how to avoid Groundhog Day syndrome in policy and politics, the 20 by 70 podcast takes a rollicking tour through ... the wit and wisdom of Bill Murray, the South Park underpants gnomes, something called "logic …

While last year's election left some people bruised and apathetic, it has made others feel a call to political renewal. Committee of Seventy head David Thornburgh talks about how his nonprofit will try to heed the call, including a campaign against gerrymandering. Alison Perelman of Philadelphia 3.0 talks about efforts to recruit millenials into th…

The "Election Hangover" episode of 20 by 70. After what we just went through, why would anyone think of running for political office? Well, listen to some of the 270 young Philadelphians who attended the recent Born To Run event because they are thinking of doing just that. Hear 70's head honcho, David Thornburgh, lay out the ways Philly has to tig…

Donald Trump claims massive voter fraud will happen next week in Philadelphia in a bid to steal the election from him. David Thornburgh, president and CEO of Philadelphia's chief civic watchdog, the Committee of Seventy, explains crisply and thoroughly why this claim is a bunch of hooey. Also, in this episode, Seventy's guide to the new array of el…

This election season has left many people unhappy with the choices on the menu. So the Committee of Seventy podcast proposes some new ingredients: open primaries for more compelling elections; rapid-response digital polling to capture the public voice; a grassroots uprising against complacent corruption. Plus jerk chicken and crabcakes, too. (Pictu…

In a sour election year, what does hope sound like? Hear it percolating in this episode taped at the American Experiments event in Philadelphia on the Democratic National Convention's first day. Civic tech and election reform leaders gathered to compare ideas for improving our politics, while showing off apps and handing out swag to a steady stream…

Philly is to civic tech what Nashville is to country music. Or so it once was said. Lately, though, sounds of discord emanate from City Hall. Juliana Reyes of Technical.ly Philly shares her reporting on an exodus of tech talent from the new Kenney administration. Producer Sophie Reid listens in as a new city resident struggles with the city website…

OK, so we had some audio problems with Episode 3, which prevented some of you from hearing the cool conversation with Mark Dent of Billy Penn about who Philly's Millennials are and what they care about, or to hear David and Chris rant about how corruption could cost Philly its current momentum. The audio snafu is not totally fixed, but somewhat. He…