Brad Rourke

Brad Rourke’s Blog

  • Welcome to The Stakes

    Over the past few months I have had the honor of hosting a number of interviews for the Kettering Foundation with high-profile newsmakers where we talk about an important and timely aspect of inclusive democracy. I’m happy to announce that we have named this series The Stakes and collected them all at our website. We…

  • The Power of Daily

    Since May 4, I have been practicing yoga every day without fail. A longtime yoga practitioner (I started in 2010), I’ve pursued a very wide variety of approaches to fitness and wellness — but I always come back to yoga because it makes me feel amazing, clear, and present. I have always gone through more…

  • Luttig and Katyal: Trump v. US Unconstitutional

    I have had the honor over the past few months to do a number of interviews with newsmakers on key topics in democracy (Ilyse Hogue on the Supreme Court and abortion; Christine Todd Whitman on the rule of law). Most recently, I featured Kettering senior fellows Neal Katyal and Judge J. Michael Luttig talking about…

  • Abortion the Tip of the Spear for Antidemocrats

    The recent Arizona Supreme Court ruling upholding a near total ban on abortion reminded me of a recent interview I had the opportunity to conduct for the Kettering Foundation with former NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue, now a senior fellow at New America. Ilyse was in the room during oral arguments in the U.S.…

  • Interview: Countering Authoritarianism with Maria J. Stephan and V Fixmer-Oraiz

    An interview with Maria J. Stephan, co-director of the Horizons Project, and V Fixmer-Oraiz, county supervisor of Johnson County, Iowa. I interviewed the two after a particularly moving panel today at #NCDD2023 in Atlanta. I have the privilege of serving on the board of NCDD, which is a network of dialogue and civic practitioners. At…

  • Sharon L. Davies at the Emerging Issues Conference: Bending the Moral Arc

    I have the privilege of working closely with the president and CEO of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Sharon L. Davies. In office since April 2022, she has shown herself to be a force of nature. As moderator of our recent Emerging Issues Conference in Washington, DC, I sat with her to ask her a…

  • Promoted at the Kettering Foundation

    I am honored and delighted to report that I have been promoted at the Kettering Foundation, to the newly-created role of Director of External Affairs and DC Operations. This move is part of a larger set of promotions along with good colleagues and friends: Paloma Dallas is Senior Program Officer for International Programs; Joni Doherty…

  • Joining the Board of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation

    I am pleased to share that I have joined the board of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD), joining a group of stellar practitioners and thinkers in the democracy space. I am excited to try to add what I can to help lead NCDD into its next level of development. NCDD is one…

  • Strategy and Tactics

    Often, one will hear someone in the workplace telling someone else to think or act “strategically” — when what they really mean is “be smarter.” Like the term “leadership,” it is a shorthand for a larger idea — but for most people this idea is ill-defined. What is “strategy?” I learned strategic planning from one…