Building a Culture of Citizenship with Eric Liu

We exist in challenging times. Deep, generational problems have surfaced as very real, present pain and terror. Where do we go from here? On this season of Luce Change, we ask: what comes after a crisis? What will it actually take to bend the arc of history? And where do we start? Host Sean Buffington sits down with Eric Liu, co-founder and CEO of Citizen University, to explore the tools we have, and which we might want to cultivate, to bend the arc of history toward justice—not in the next election cycle, but over generations.

The conversation moves beyond headlines to examine something deeper: the slow erosion of civic culture and our weakening faith in shared institutions. From the corridors of Washington, DC, to community-rooted work in Seattle, Liu has discovered that real civic renewal happens through relationships and local engagement, not national political theater.

Organizations mentioned:

• Citizen University: https://citizenuniversity.us/
• Civic Nebraska: https://civicnebraska.org/
• Trust for Civic Life: https://trustforciviclife.org/

Articles mentioned:

• Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship: https://www.amacad.org/ourcommonpurpose/report
• “We Need a New Great Awakening” by Paul Brandeis Raushenbush and Ian Bassin: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/we-need-a-new-great-awakening