Ian Bassin is an American lawyer and democracy advocate best known as the co-founder and Executive Director of Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan, anti-authoritarianism organisation that combines litigation, policy, research, communications, and technology to defend democratic institutions - protectdemocracy.org 
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https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/TGF5832559661.mp3
Yascha Mounk and Ian Bassin on The Good Fight podacts, also report on what they got right—and wrong—over the past decade - persuasion.community
Before co-founding Protect Democracy, Bassin served as Associate White House Counsel in the Obama administration (2009–2011), where his work included advising on administrative and constitutional law and helping ensure executive-branch compliance with the laws, rules, and norms intended to keep government accountable - obama.org
Bassin’s public work is often framed around a simple claim: democracy is not “self-executing” and needs active defence through the institutions already available (courts, legislatures, the press, civil society, and the private sector) - votebeat.org
Through Protect Democracy, he has helped build a model that treats authoritarianism as a cross-ideological risk and focuses on strengthening democratic “guardrails” (for example: Elections, Rule of Law, Checks and Balances, and Fact-Based Debate) - protectdemocracy.org
Bassin has also been recognised for this work with major awards and public honours, including being named a 2023 MacArthur Fellow (the “genius grant”) - macfound.org
In recent years he has been profiled as part of a cohort pushing technical but high-impact democratic reforms and accountability efforts (including work connected to election-law reform and major disinformation-related litigation) - time.com
For a deeper sense of his thinking and the “why” behind Protect Democracy’s strategy, a good listening start-point is his long-form conversation on Lawfare about what litigation can (and cannot) do in democracy protection - lawfaremedia.org
# See - Twilight of the Elites