Aired on Apr. 6, 2025

• New Authoritarianism, Technology, Trump

History professor Dr. James Wood shares two titles that highlight how Latin America and the U.S. have slid from democratic rule. “How Democracies Die” (2018) and the follow-up “The Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point” (2023) both by Harvard University political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt study how populists take power and gradually subvert the democratic process to increase their power. Listen as host Randy Voller, welcomes Dr. Wood, currently Professor of Latin American and modern world history at North Carolina A&T State University. He is the author of “The Society of Equality: Popular Republicanism and Democracy in Santiago de Chile, 1818-1851” and the co-editor of “Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations”, now in its fifth edition with Rowman and Littlefield. As a Fulbright scholar for Chile in 2016 he was a visiting professor at the Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago (where he observed Chilean student activism up close).

“On The Porch” is hosted by Randolph ”Randy” Voller. He is also the publisher of Chatham County Line. Randy welcomes guests to the show who are from the communities of art, academia, business, and politics for friendly and informative conversations. “On The Porch” airs every Sunday at 11:06 AM, and repeated at 5:06 PM and 8:06 PM on WCHL-FM 97.9. The show also streams on ChapelBoro.com
More than 125 conversations are posted as on-demand, ad-free podcasts at ChapelBoro.com

To be a guest on the show or send us a comment, email: ontheporch@wchl.com