Roe v. Wade was overturned last week — and the ripple effects will be enormous for the country, the justice system, and democracy as a whole. “I can’t think of anything bigger than this Supreme Court decision in my lifetime,” Mary Ziegler says. As one of the foremost nonpartisan authorities on the Constitution and our reproductive rights, Mary is uniquely positioned to make sense of this moment of great uncertainty, and give us a realistic way out of deepening polarization. 

Mary is a law professor at the University of California, Davis, as well as the author of four books on the history of Roe v. Wade, and how it’s affected our laws, our justice system, and our politics. She has a thorough understanding of the tangible consequences of the fall of Roe, like inter-state politics and data privacy concerns, as well as the intangible consequences such as how Americans view our institutions. 

Mary believes we can still move beyond polarization to build a kinder, more nuanced dialogue around our democracy. “More people are talking across differences on this issue,” she says. “That’s often the way you begin to get to a less polarized, potentially more promising, solution.”

Watch Mary discuss how this moment of instability is pushing people to create a better dialogue for us and our future: