University of Lisbon

Hello, and welcome back to Democratic Innovations, the podcast where we explore how democratic innovations are reshaping the way citizens engage with power in response to the challenges faced by representative democracy.

I'm Roberto Falange, a researcher at the University of Lisbon, and I'll be your host.

Today, I'm delighted to host this podcast with Janina Welp and Melissa Ross, who will explore with us democratic innovations in Latin America.

Let me briefly remind you that the previous nine episodes are all online, with other distinguished guests such as Mark Warren and Tammy Pogrebinski, Brigitte Geisel and Francesco Verri, Graham Smith and Oliver Escobar, Stephen Elstap and Ricky Dean, Sonia Busu, Adrian Bua, Petra Guasti, Donatella Della Porta and Andrea Felicetti, as well as Tiago Peixoto and Alvaro Oleart.

This is the 10th episode organized by the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Lisbon with the support of the European Commission-funded projects Inside Them and Inspire, as well as the Caluste Gulbenkian Foundation-funded project on democratic innovations in Portugal.

By way of introduction, Janina Welp is principal investigator of the new ERC Synergy Grant project, Popular Government in Global History, Principles, Institutions and Experimentations at the University of Girona in Spain, and a research fellow at the Albert Hirschman Center on Democracy at the Geneva Graduate Institute.

She is also a co-founder of Red de Politologas.

It's become such a major problem that countries all over the world are trying to come up with a solution that not only protects people but is also fashion-friendly and easy to wear.

At the weekend, 5,000 wristbands that were developed by researchers at Lisbon University in collaboration with the University of Valencia and the Spanish company Celentes were handed out at a DJ Carl Cox concert in Lisbon, and there are plans to distribute thousands more at other events in Portugal.

So how does it work? Well, all you have to do is put a tiny amount of liquid from your glass onto a spot on the wristband.

If it turns orange, everything's fine.

You're going to absolutely adore him as I do.

So he graduated from the University of Lisbon, Portugal in 2012, which means he's 10 years younger than me.

This is disgusting.

Now that means I graduated 10 years after you.

Really was a little bit crazy.

[laughs] So w- this program that they start in the Lisbon University, I was the first to apply, and still I, I think I was the, the only one to finish it.

It's too heavy, too difficult.

But at that time, what, what really moved me, um, I, I think to complement our clinical practice, we need, uh, also to, to get together with some research and some, uh, educational field.

It's, it's cool.

Everyth- I, I see the same now.

I'm, I'm going to the Lisbon University to teach, uh, ophthalmology, and it's hard to find a man.

It's hard to find a man.

So to discuss where the Brazilian Congress stands today, uh, we have invited Beatriz Rey.

She is a political scientist and a researcher at the University of Lisbon.

Beatriz is an old friend of this show.

She wrote a column for the Brazilian Report for years, and she recently coordinated a policy paper with Sérgio Fausto for the Fernando Henrique Cardoso Foundation on how to improve the way Congress operates.

But, uh, I would like also to take this opportunity and put you on the spot and say that James and I will have a live broadcast on election day, and you would be more than welcome, especially, to comment on the outlook of the next Congress that will, uh, take office in February 2027.

And then, uh, we should also have you, uh, at that moment to talk about how the next government will be able to negotiate or not with the next Congress.

Bia Hay, a researcher at the University of Lisbon, thank you very much for joining us.

Thank you.