Helena Steinhaus | „You shouldn’t actually be able to cut the minimum subsistence level any further.“

In this episode, we talk to US academic John Austin about the state of democracy in the United States and the growing authoritarian and anti-democratic currents that are increasingly shaping politics and society there. John Austin worked for many years in Michigan, in the heart of the American Rust Belt, and studied Public Administration at Harvard University. From this perspective, he analyses the structural causes of political radicalisation: the decline of industrial regions, the disintegration of local communities and the loss of prospects for the future, which has become deeply inscribed in the political self-image of many people. In our discussion, we draw parallels between the Rust Belt and the Ruhr region. We discuss why structurally weak regions in the USA and Germany are becoming politically alienated in a surprisingly similar way - and why economic decoupling, institutional mistrust and cultural insecurity are preparing the ground for authoritarian proposals. An episode about democracy under pressure, about regional inequality as a human rights issue - and about what it takes to strengthen democratic resilience in times of profound upheaval.

In this episode, we speak to Anna di Bari, board member of the civilian sea rescue organisation Sea-Eye. For ten years, civilian crews have been rescuing people who risk their lives fleeing across the Mediterranean - filling a gap that European states deliberately leave open. Anna di Bari reports on why civil sea rescue is indispensable today, how the situation at sea has changed dramatically and why the criminalisation of rescue missions is an attack on fundamental human rights. We talk about political responsibility, about the shifted debates surrounding migration - and about why the simple stance "people must not drown" should actually be a matter of course. Photo Credit Dominik Butzmann

Sibylle Heilbrunn, a sociologist living in Israel, is an astute observer of politics there and a committed volunteer in various NGOs. In the podcast, she comments on the current international approaches to a peace process and the role of civil society in Israel's political future. On 27 January 2026, Prof. Dr Sibylle Heilbrunn will be a guest at the Fritz Bauer Forum in Bochum to pay tribute to the development of Israeli civil society in a lecture