‘Under Pressure’: American democracy’s future gets debated in its birthplace

The most compelling topic around America’s contemporary democracy is the one that never came up at Philadelphia’s Wilma Theater on Thursday night, during the inaugural event of the city’s TED Democracy Speaker Series: Under Pressure.

That would be the six-week old-presidency of Donald Trump, whose rash of executive orders and toppling of longstanding norms and alliances has raised widespread concerns over the fragility of American democracy.

While the president’s name was never mentioned on stage at the Wilma, the capacity crowd – there was reportedly a lengthy wait list – suggested an urgent interest in democracy that went beyond the theoretical.

But the speakers – social psychologist Dannagal Young, urban revitalization strategist Majora Carter and self-described “digital disruptor” Sofia Ongele – took a bigger-picture view of the topic, focusing on more general themes like political polarization and the racial roots of our long-standing divisions, as well as practical strategies such as grassroots organization.

The only reference to the current political moment came from moderator Kelly Stoetzel, who – without mentioning Trump or his controversial, unelected billionaire adviser, Elon Musk, by name – said the recent presidential election had “deepened the fractures in our American democracy ... testing our institutions, testing our norms, and testing the very foundations of governance,” before pivoting to the global erosion of democracy.

Perhaps that’s because, as Stoetzel explained, “This isn’t a conversation about politics. It’s a conversation about the future of free society.” Indeed, the TED series kicks off Philadelphia’s 2026 commemoration of the nation’s semiquincentennial – the 250th anniversary of its 1776 founding – in the city where American democracy was first hammered out by the Founding Fathers (the Declaration of Independence was penned and adopted here, as was the Constitution).

Visit Philadelphia CEO Angela Val, who introduced the event, commented via email that TED Democracy was envisioned as a series of “vital conversations fostering dialogue about democracy’s past, present and future” and “one of many events planned next year that will examine Philadelphia’s role in the founding of our nation.”

Young, who specializes in the psychological underpinnings of political differences, shared her findings that psychological traits like open-mindedness and a need for order tend to correlate with political affiliation – and that both approaches complement each other to make a pluralistic democracy possible. “Tragically, though, for reasons related to power and profit, our media environment has to weaponize these differences to get us angry, to get clicks, to get our attention,” she said. “And it really works.”

For her part, Carter – a MacArthur Fellow – offered historical context for the inequities whose glaring disparities resonate in America’s political fractures. She also lamented the historic role of predatory capitalism in the erosion of so-called “third spaces” – the communal settings where people of different perspectives come together.

Stoetzel concluded by hosting a roundtable riff on ways to combat “the most urgent threats to democracy” and asking each panelist to identify those threats. In a sign of how anything and everything can feel polarizing, technology – with its potential to both inform and mislead – was the clearest example.

Ongele, who offered personal examples of how social media deepened her own civic engagement, warned of the internet’s dangerous potential, but concluded on a positive note: “Democracy is just more fun and inviting when you can take it into your own hands.” 

For those wishing to explore democracy further in this format, the city plans two more TED Democracy talks in spring and fall 2025 and, to kick off the semiquincentennial year, a flagship TED Democracy event in February 2026.