In this episode of VideoNation, John Nichols tells the story of the Wisconsin uprising: how it transformed and democratized American politics, why it revived an “immense amount of hope,” even in an era in which money and corporations disproportionately influence politics, and how it proved that exercising one’s fundamental rights can effect major change.

To learn more, read John Nichols’s latest article, “America’s Youth Uprising,” and his new book, Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street.

—Elizabeth Whitman