The Renovator
Danielle Allen, Jennifer Pahlka, Angela Glover Blackwell, Julie White, Ed Shoemaker, Beth Fukumoto, Micah Weinberg, Joanna Kenty, Zachey KligerThe Renovator is a Substack for everyone who wants to help renovate our democracy.
| Platform |  | Pricing | Freemium | Publishes | Daily |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues | 254 | Founded | a year ago | Last Issue | 4 days ago |
| Active | |||||
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democracyrenovator.comLatest Issues
Renovating America's Universities
Last week, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon unveiled a new strategy for driving reform in higher education from the White House. Rather than issuing threats or demands, she extended an invitation backed by moral exhortation. She “call...
August 10 Tech and Democracy Roundup: KOSA’s Big Week, and America’s Two Playbooks for Protecting Kids Online.
It’s Monday, August 10 — welcome back to your Tech & Democracy roundup.
Let’s kick things off with 3 big stories:
- The White House finalized its voluntary AI oversight framework, but hasn’t released it publicly. The framework exempts o...
As America Turns 250, We’re Forgetting the Declaration’s Most Fundamental Right
America’s national and state governments collectively spent hundreds of millions of dollars to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence this July 4. Beneath the festivities ran a highly controlled, safe educat...
Kansans Kill a Judicial Power Grab, Maryland Bets on November, and Five States Open the Primaries
Photo by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash
It’s Friday, August 7, 2026, and time for your Democracy in the States’ Weekly Roundup.
Washington’s fight over control intensified this week. Todd Blanche’s nomination to lead the Justice Department...
People Power
This fall Oakland, California, will do something U.S. politics has forgotten how to do: trust the people.
Forty residents selected by public lottery from 20,000 randomly-invited households will serve as delegates to Oakland’s first civic a...
Key Facts
Audience Metrics
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| Subscribers | Engagement | 80 | Monthly Web Visits | ||
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| Accepts Sponsors | Estimated Cost per Ad | ||||
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Authors
The writers behind this newsletter.
The founder of The Renovator, Danielle Allen, is a Harvard prof and democracy advocate working on democracy renovation 24-7.
Author, Recoding America. Founder, Board Chair, and Advisor to the Recoding America Fund. Affiliated with the Johns Hopkins School of Government and Policy. Founder and former ED of Code for America. Helped start the US Digital Service.
Founder in Residence at PolicyLink. Host of the Reimagining Democracy for a Good Life podcast
Community college advocate, citizen, creative. (Profile photo credit: Matthew Campbell, @softfrost on IG)
Executive Director of Voter Choice Massachusetts. Writing about democracy, electoral reform, civic trust, and the people building a more representative politics—one conversation, campaign, and community at a time.
Apolitical’s “100 Future Leaders: The World’s Most Influential Young People in Government.” 3-term State Legislator. Once, the youngest woman to lead a major party in a US legislature. Now, political columnist & strategic comms consultant.
Dr. Weinberg is a nonresident scholar at Carnegie California. He is a Senior Strategic Advisor to the Goldman School at the University of California at Berkeley. And he is CEO of the research and policy consulting firm, Healthy Systems Project.
Roman empire nerd, random fact generator, kitchen wizard, proud Philadelphian
Policy writer and communications professional covering tech, AI, and democracy.
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