Art by Raven Jiang for Henry Luce Foundation.

In this episode of Luce Change, host Sean Buffington speaks with Richard Young, Executive Director of CivicLex in Lexington, Kentucky, about the power of place, and why local democracy is the most underestimated front in the fight to rebuild civic life in America. Young traces Lexington’s distinctive political DNA and argues that the specificity of place is not a limitation of local civic work but its greatest strength. 

At the center of the conversation is CivicLex’s first-ever civic assembly: 36 randomly selected, demographically representative Lexington residents convening across six sessions to deliberate on proposed changes to the city charter. Like the concentric rings of a public square, the assembly draws people inward toward a shared decision–Young believes that is exactly how civic repair begins.

Listen to Luce Change wherever you get podcasts!

 

Articles & Organizations Mentioned:

CivicLex: civiclex.org

American Academy of Arts and Sciences: amacad.org

Everyday Democracy (Martha McCoy): everyday-democracy.org

Harvard Kennedy School / Archon Fung: hks.harvard.edu

Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange: kyrux.org

Oak Ridge Periodic Tables (David Allred, Oak Ridge, TN): oakridgeperiodictables.com

Black Yarn (Lexington, KY): blackyarn.com

Outlier Media (Detroit, MI): outliermedia.org

People’s Budget Office / Mural Arts Philadelphia: muralarts.org

North Carolina Local News Lab Fund: nclocalnews.org

Panelot (sortition software): panelot.org

The Austin Common (Austin, TX): theaustincommon.com

The Village Square (Liz Joyner, Tallahassee, FL): tlh.villagesquare.us

Good Neighbor Week (San Francisco, CA): sfgoodneighborweek.org

Department of Public Transformation: publictransformation.org

Knight Foundation: knightfoundation.org

Bluegrass Community Foundation: bgcf.org