UNCUT | Riz Ahmed Wants To Abolish Elections

UNCUT | Riz Ahmed Wants To Abolish Elections

From SubwayTakes with Kareem Rahma by SubwayTakes

September 3, 2025 · 17 min

About this episode

Riz Ahmed discusses the idea of abolishing elections and the potential of a randomized lottery system for leadership.

Actor, rapper, and activist Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal, Rogue One) rides the subway with Kareem to drop one of the wildest takes yet: abolish elections and pick leaders the way we pick juries. Riz explains why he thinks politics attracts the wrong kind of people, how a randomized lottery system could change who gets power, and what democracy might look like if we stripped away ambition. Along the way, he opens up about identity, belonging, and the role of storytelling in changing culture. SubwayTakes Uncut is like SubwayTakes, but longer, looser, and with more stops, more takes, and more room to go deeper. Host: Kareem Rahma Guest: Riz Ahmed Creators: Kareem Rahma & Andrew Kuo Camera: Anthony DiMieri & Tian Sippel & Ramy Shafi Editor: Tyler ChristieMixer: Dale Eisinger Associate Producer: Ramy Shafi Artwork: Andrew Lawandus Theme Music: Tyler McCauley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Kareem Rahma

Guest: Riz Ahmed

Topics covered

  • politics
  • democracy
  • identity
  • storytelling
  • randomized lottery system

Keywords

  • Riz Ahmed
  • abolish elections
  • politics
  • democracy
  • lottery system
  • identity
  • storytelling

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: SubwayTakes, Talkhouse

Books & works: Sound of Metal, Rogue One

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