Is democracy in decay? That's the central question animating a [http://democratic-erosion.com/] designed by Robert Blair, a political scientist at Brown University's Watson Institute, and colleagues in universities across the United States. The course, which has garnered [https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/trumps-presidency-has-prompted-a-new-nationwide-college-course-on-why-democracies-collapse/2018/03/19/0b483652-165b-11e8-b681-2d4d462a1921_story.html?utm_term=.6dc9e68cbc25] national attention, is designed to go beyond the dire headlines and partisan positions and determine whether or not the threats to democracy are real--and if they are, what can be done about it. Blair is joined by Minch Cerrero, a PhD student from the University of the Philippines, and Aidan Calvelli '19, a political science (theory) concentrator at Brown, both of whom took the course and attended the conference. You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://watson.brown.edu/files/watson/imce/news/podcast/trending-globally/transcripts/E59_Rob%20Blair%20_%20Students_mixdown2.pdf]