About this episode

Ralph discusses the V-Dem Democracy Report and the impact of the Trump Administration on democracy in the US with Dr. Marina Nord and Dr. Ralph Estes.

Ralph speaks to Dr. Marina Nord of the V-Dem Institute about this year's V-Dem Democracy Report and how the Trump Administration is dismantling democracy in the US. Then, Ralph welcomes Dr. Ralph Estes to discuss corporations' shady accounting practices. Dr. Marina Nord is a postdoctoral research fellow at the V-Dem Institute. She is co-author of V-Dem’s Democracy Report 2026: “Unraveling The Democratic Era?” . Only six countries during the 21st century have registered larger one-year drops on the aggregate Liberal Democracy Index [than the United States] —and all of them are coups. If you look at the last almost 250 years (so for which we have data going back to 1789), there were only thirty-five instances of more rapid dismantling of democracy—almost all of them were either military coups or international interventions. Dr. Marina Nord We do not measure [Trump’s] words. We measure how institutions function de facto. And what is a lot more important for us is not only what he says, but how other institutions (checks and balances) function to constrain him. And one of the things that we see, for example, is that Congress is not constraining him in any way. And this is very, very…

More episodes of Ralph Nader Radio Hour

• The Assault on Lebanon · May 30, 2026 · 1h 21m
• Unions Hiding/A Solution to Gerrymandering · May 23, 2026 · 1h 52m
• Race, Class & Gerrymandering · May 9, 2026 · 1h 45m
• It’s On You · April 25, 2026 · 2h 6m
• Bad Company · April 18, 2026 · 1h 17m
• Meta Pays Up/Impeachment Symposium · April 11, 2026 · 1h 21m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour podcast page.