Stories - Joe Mathews

Courtesy Mathews family

COLUMN 'If Your Mother Says She Loves You, Check It Out'

Learning journalistic and democratic skepticism through my mother-editor.

Photo by Joe Mathews

Driving Through Fire in My Hometown

Our local fires aren't unbelievable. We are.

Photo by Joe Mathews

New Year's Resolution: Give Up Elections to Focus on Democracy

2024's "Year of Elections" damaged democracy. Let's stop devoting so many resources to voting.

Elon Musk Picked on the Wrong Local Agency

Voter-created commission to protect California's coast could be a planetary model.

Why Trumpism Had Already Won

Protecting democracy requires futuristic vision, not co-opting authoritarian ideas.

'Local Democracy Is Freedom'

Assessing your own local democracy. 'Evil Does Not Exist' Outside Tokyo. A Caution from Bratislava. Bono for...

COLUMN: Bono for Mayor

An elected Dublin mayor could change world

Photo Credit: George M. Groutas via Flickr CC BY 2.0 Deed

What is 'Smart Democracy'?

Also: how to meet me; summer school, vampires, comparing French and Nepali towns

I Wrote the Magna Carta

And You Can Too, Democracy Cities!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:West_Sacramento_from_the_Waterfront_Wheel-2.jpg#/media/File:West_Sacramento_from_the_Waterfront_Wheel-2.jpg

How a Small City Won Big

Why you should root for small and smart West Sacramento, not its new home team.