Sortinista Experts: Be a Guest on Talk Radio

Posted on October 13, 2018 by Roger Knights

To spread our “mini,” or “demi,” message, I urge notable advocates of citizen juries to appear on one or more of America’s numerous talk-radio shows. (These are probably rarer in other countries.)

I Googled for “talk radio guest application” and dozens of places or ways to apply came up; if you Google for that phrase, you will get them too. (I wasn’t able to capture the results-page’s URL and post it here for you to click.)

A four-hour show that usually gives guests a two-hour segment (40 minutes per hour—the rest is news and ads) is “Coast to Coast AM.” It has a large audience—about three million. It often has guests from the UK and Australia. It specializes in heterodox topics (including a fair amount of “woo”). Its downside is its late-night hours: 1 to 5 AM in the East; 10PM to 2AM on the Pacific coast. Here’s its website: https://www.coasttocoastam.com. Here’s its request for guests, on its “Contact” thread:

Be Our Guest

Have you ever wondered how to become a guest on Coast to Coast AM? It’s easy. Just send an e-mail to the Producer stating your name, phone number, the area of your expertise or the nature of your experience. If it sounds like something worth talking about on Coast to Coast AM, the producer will call you. It’s that easy. Write to: CoastProducer@aol.com

The most desirable guests on any show, I suspect, would have one or more of these qualifications, among others: An academic post; a publishing record; a speaking-to-audiences record; a good speaking voice and a smooth presentation; a “common touch,” a lengthy period in the field, … I think it would be best if two or even three guests appeared, for the sake of variety and balance, so maybe you should have a name or two to suggest as your sparring partner.

I have been aware of its guest lists for the past 20 years; AFAIK, it’s never had a show on sortition before. From my familiarity with its host’s interests and his frustration with standard politics, I am pretty sure he’d like to have speakers on this topic, and he might even offer subsequent guest appearances. (He has about a score of “regulars” who appear about once a year.)

PS: Please avoid the word “Kleroterians”; it sounds cultish and sci-fi comic-ish. “Sortinistas” is better. Or “citizen jury proponents.” Or “Demiocrats” (always capitalized)—my coinage—who advocate “Demiocracy.”

PPS: It’s common for guests on hot topics to appear on many shows, so feel free to make multiple applications.

PPPS: If you aren’t in America, you should Google for “American talk radio guest application” to get the American list.

Filed under: Action, Sortition |

2 Responses

A.R.Teleb, on October 14, 2018 at 7:30 am said:

Has everyone heard this from Brett Henning? It was on VA public radio station on the Ted Radio Hour yesterday: http://www.apr.org/post/brett-hennig-should-we-replace-politicians-random-citizens

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Roger Knights, on November 4, 2018 at 8:59 pm said:

Here’s an email I just sent to the producers at Coast to Coast AM, a late-night talk-radio show with millions of listeners. Anyone who wants to be a guest on some other show (see link to Google list above), or even a subsequent guest on Coast to Coast AM, may copy and adapt what I’ve written below.
———–

I suggest that you schedule guests on the topics of “Citizen Juries” and “Sortition” (election by lot). These are becoming “hot” (e.g., endorsed by former UN Secretary Kofi Annan) following the publication of Belgian David van Reybrouck’s influential 2016 book, Against Elections: the Case for Democracy, on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Against-Elections-David-Van-Reybrouck/dp/1847924220 for $16. About 25 books on the topic are offered by Amazon on its Sortition search-results page at https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=sortition

One of several websites on the topic is https://equalitybylot.com. One of the regular commenters there (whose work is praised by van Reybrouck on pages 138–50) is author and former Vermont legislator Terry Bouricius, whose Wikipedia page is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Bouricius. He can be reached at web@sevendaysvt.com. He could suggest names of other pro-sortition activists in N. America.

A long-time activist for citizen juries and “deliberative democracy” is James Fishkin of Stanford. His Wikipedia page is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_S._Fishkin. He can be reached at the Center for Deliberative Democracy at cdd@dp.stanford.edu.

Lots of basic info on sortition can be found on its long Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition

I don’t want to be a guest, but my own sortitionistic proposal, “Demarchy—Small, Sample Electorates Electing Officials,” can be found at https://equalitybylot.com/2018/10/20/demarchy-small-sample-electorates-electing-officials/

The name I’ve come up with for a political system that makes some use of sortition is “Citocracy,” meaning a system in which unelected mere citizens play a role in government (either advising, or electing, or approving/rejecting, or initiating, or overseeing). It is named thus in contrast to our current system of “polocracy,” or government by “pols” (politicians). (Another term I’ve invented for our current system is Demockery.)

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