39 - Join a Club, Save Our Democracy (No Really) with Rebecca Davis

About this episode

Meg Hamlin-Black interviews Rebecca Davis about the importance of joining clubs for civic engagement and the implications for democracy, referencing the documentary 'Join or Die'.

Civic engagement correspondent Meg Hamlin-Black talks to Rebecca Davis, co-director and producer of the 2023 documentary Join or Die , a film about why you should join a club, and why the fate of America depends on it. The doc follows the story of America's civic unraveling through the journey of Robert Putnam, whose legendary "Bowling Alone" research into American community decline may hold the answers to our democracy's present crisis. They also discuss the joy of re-reading a book and the physicality of objects. During the Last Chapter they discuss: what is a book that you hated? Overdueing It is a project funded by the Rhode Island Office of Library and Information Services and is produced by library staff around the Ocean State. We are proud to be a resident partner of the Rhode Island Center for the Book . The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speakers' own and do not represent those of the Overdueing It podcast, its sponsor organizations, or any participants' place of employment. The content of Overdueing It episodes are the property of the individual creators, with permission for Overdueing It to share the content on their podcast feed in perpetuity. Any of…

People in this episode

Host: Sarah Bouvier

Guest: Rebecca Davis

Topics covered

• civic engagement
• documentary
• community
• democracy
• books

Keywords

• Bowling Alone
• Robert Putnam
• civic unraveling
• re-reading

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Join or Die

Books & works: Join a Club, Save Our Democracy, Join or Die, Bowling Alone, the Last Chapter, Overdueing It, Camera Lucida, The Memory Palace

Places: America, the Ocean State

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