Town Hall Seattle Civics Series

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New York Times bestselling author and former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade offers an exposé on what she frames as an escalating threat of far-right politics to both national security and American democracy. In The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government,McQuade draws on her decades of legal experience to argue how systems of organized crime and political opportunism exploit the levers of power — using corruption, cruelty, and chaos as tools to dominate institutions and eliminate accountability. McQuade exposes government tactics like information warfare, aggressive retribution, conformism enforced by fear, and pervasive dismantling of legal checks and balances, thereby attacking public interest and undermining justice in the process.

Weaving together courtroom stories, political analysis, and cautionary lessons from history, McQuade makes the case that the threats we face are not merely possibilities — they're already here. The Fix is not just a warning, however. The book is also a call to action. McQuade offers reforms and strategies that she believes can reclaim the rule of law and recenter democracy with the power of the people. The Fix is for everyone concerned about America and for those prepared to take a stand.

Barbara McQuade is a professor from practice at the University of Michigan Law School, her alma mater, where she teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, national security, and data privacy. She is also a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and co-host of the #SistersInLaw podcast. From 2010 to 2017, McQuade served as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. She was appointed by President Barack Obama and was the first woman to serve in her position. Earlier in her career, she worked as a sportswriter and copy editor, a judicial law clerk, an associate in private practice, and an assistant US attorney. McQuade is the author of the national bestseller, Attack from Within. She and her husband have four children and live in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Debora Juarez has built a 35-year career focused on legal advocacy and economic development for the most marginalized communities in our state. Debora is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Nation. After growing up on the reservation, she became the first member of her family to go to college. She completed her undergraduate degree at Western Washington University before attending the Seattle University School of Law. After five years as a public defender, she began working at Evergreen Legal Services (currently The Northwest Justice Project). She served for two years as a pro-tem judge for the King County Superior Court and City of Seattle Municipal Court. Debora was later appointed to serve as a full-time King County Superior Court Judge by Washington State Governor Mike Lowry and later by Governor Gary Locke, as Executive Director of the Governor's Office of Indian Affairs. Eventually, Debora joined a major Wall Street investment firm and created a first-rate Tribal Practice Group. and ultimately partnered with the Williams Kastner law firm, who welcomed her vision of focusing economic empowerment and development beyond tribal lands.

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The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government (Hardcover) Elliott Bay Book Company

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As the Gaza war stretches into its third year, journalism professor and MSNBC analyst Peter Beinart claims that, as a Jew, he must reckon with the intense moral and theological tensions that not only he holds, but what he sees as challenges for Judaism as a whole. Because of these tensions, Beinart believes the Jewish community must build a new answer to the question: What does it mean to be a Jew? From his book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, MSNBC analyst Peter Beinart imagines a world where Israeli Jews have the right to equality, not supremacy, and in which Jewish and Palestinian safety are not mutually exclusive but intertwined. In Beinart's view, one story dominates Jewish communal life: that of persecution and victimhood. It is a story that erases much of the nuance of Jewish religious tradition and warps our understanding of Israel and Palestine. Beinart claims that, as a Jew, he must reckon with the intense moral and theological tensions that not only he holds, but what he sees as challenges for Judaism as a whole. Because of these tensions, Beinart believes the Jewish community must tell a new story and build a new answer to the question: What does it mean to be a Jew? From his book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, Beinart offers a path toward resolution.

A frequent contributor to The New York Times and an MSNBC analyst, Peter Beinart is a professor of journalism and political science at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. He is also the editor at large of Jewish Currents and writes The Beinart Notebook, a weekly newsletter. He lives with his family in New York City.

Professor Smadar Ben-Natan is a professor of human rights at the School of Global Studies and Languages, University of Oregon. A legal scholar of human rights, criminal justice, and armed conflict, she is an expert on Israel/Palestine. She is working on two books: Citizen-Enemies: Military Courts and the Construction of Citizenship in Israel/Palestine; and The Carceral State in Conflict: Between Reconciliation and Radicalization. Professor Ben-Natan received her PhD in law from Tel Aviv University and a master's in international human rights law from the University of Oxford. She also served as a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and Harvard, and as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington.

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Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning (Hardcover) Third Place Books

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By way of structured academia or outspoken social commentary, the work of Kimberlé Crenshaw can be found woven throughout the fabric of modern American sociopolitical discourse. Through establishing the concepts of intersectionality and critical race theory, Crenshaw helped lay a foundation for decades of discussion and activism around race and gender across the world. In her upcoming memoir Backtalker, Crenshaw recounts the personal journeys that shaped her as someone who champions taking notice and speaking up.

With intimate and compelling storytelling, Crenshaw takes readers back to her roots as a little girl in Canton, Ohio, who saw and said things that others didn't. As the daughter of a strong-minded teacher and pathbreaking public servant and the sister of a protective, yet bullying older brother, she starts to talk back. When she is denied a role in the kindergarten school play. When she is escorted to the back door of a private club. When Anita Hill is exiled for testifying against Clarence Thomas. When OJ Simpson goes on trial. When Obama launched My Brother's Keeper, a movement focused on boys of color only. When the movement against police violence overlooks Black women. Crenshaw keeps talking back. From classroom to courtroom, as the years go by – with new context and critique, but always the same fervor for challenging the structures that were never built for her.

Backtalker presents an immersive, defiant, and deeply personal portrayal of a life spent fighting to be heard. Evoking emotions and revelations with each instance, Crenshaw transports readers to the moments that not only shaped her, but motivated her to work towards reshaping the world. Combining insight, intention, and impact, Backtalker details the path Crenshaw carved to establish herself as a pioneering voice in American civil rights– and a force to be reckoned with.

Kimberlé W. Crenshaw is a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, Black feminist legal theory, race, racism, and the law. She was a founder and has been a leader in the intellectual movement called Critical Race Theory and is also known for introducing and developing the concept of intersectionality. She is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and the cofounder and Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum. Crenshaw writes regularly for The New Republic, The Nation, and Ms., hosts the podcast Intersectionality Matters!, and has appeared as a commentator on media outlets including MSNBC and NPR.

Angela Rye is an award-winning host, lawyer, social justice advocate, and Principal/CEO of IMPACT Strategies. Rye is also the co-creator of State of the People, a coalition of 200 local and national organizations providing resources, education, empowerment, and relief to thousands of citizens. She is co-host of the award–winning podcast Native Land Pod and co-founder of Reasoned Choice Media. With more than two decades of experience in political strategy, coalition building, and advocacy, Rye previously served as Executive Director and General Counsel to the Congressional Black Caucus and as Senior Policy Advisor and Counsel for the House Homeland Security Committee.

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Backtalker: An American Memoir Estelita's Library

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Do you bike in Seattle — or want to? Join Cascade Bike Club for Town Hall Seattle's 2nd annual Bike Month Bash.

Seattle's bike network and transit connections are expanding as the city prepares for the FIFA World Cup and a flood of visitors this summer. But gaps remain, and more work is needed to make people of all abilities feel safe biking in our city. There are also many opportunities to support better biking in Seattle, such as the Pedaling Relief Project that rescues and delivers food on behalf of multiple food banks. Bring your enthusiasm and questions for our panel of speakers representing Cascade Bicycle Club, the Seattle Streets Alliance, and the Seattle Bike Blog. Learn about opportunities to push progress and participate in a Summer of Seattle Cycling!

Paul Tolmé is an award winning environmental journalist, former Associated Press staff reporter, and winner of the Ted Scripps Fellowships in Environmental Journalism whose work has appeared in Newsweek, the New York Times, Audubon, National Wildlife, Salon, Ski, High Country News, and more publications than he can remember over a 30-year career. In 2020, following his move to Seattle, he switched careers to engage in direct advocacy on climate, transportation safety, and transportation equity as the spokesperson and content strategist for Cascade Bicycle Club, the statewide nonprofit that helped defeat the effort to repeal Washington's Climate Commitment Act. He lives with his wife on a tiny houseboat on Lake Union and bikes, walks, and uses mass transit to reach nearly all of his Seattle destinations.

Tom Fucoloro is the Founder of SeattleBikeBlog.com and author of Biking Uphill in the Rain: The Story of Seattle from behind the Handlebars (2023, UW Press). An independent journalist originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Tom has been reporting about bicycling in Seattle since 2010. He is a car-free parent and received Cascade Bicycle Club's 2023 Doug Walker Award "for outstanding leadership in improving lives through bicycling." He was a finalist for the 2024 Washington State Book Award.

Clara Cantor (she/they) is a community organizer with Seattle Streets Alliance, advocating for safety and accessibility for people walking, rolling, biking, and accessing transit, and with Whose Streets? Our Streets! advocating for transportation justice. Clara is an artist, maker, and community builder who believes in the power of grassroots organizing, the importance of equity in our movement, and the incredible value of befriending neighbors. Clara lives and bikes in the Rainier Valley with her wife and two young kids.

Tyler Vasquez is a dedicated transportation advocate with experience in policy development, public engagement, and project management. Growing up in a frontline community impacted by inequitable infrastructure decisions, he is committed to ensuring that transportation investments are transparent, accountable, and prioritize historically underserved communities. As an advocate with Cascade Bicycle Club, he works to improve bike infrastructure and safety, ensuring that no one's right to mobility comes at the cost of their safety.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Cascade Bicycle Club.

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Red May, a month-long spree of red arts, red theory, and red politics based in Seattle, Washington, gathers each spring to discuss a world beyond capitalism. For this year's event at Town Hall Seattle, Red May brings together a panel to discuss policing in the age of ICE.

"Counterinsurgency has come home. Since the end of the Vietnam War, innovations in militarized policing have come one after another. No knock raids. AI surveillance. Clear and hold neighborhoods. Each new tactic or strategy has been rubber-stamped in Congress by both Democrats and Republicans under the guise of a never-ending War on Crime. Now, the Trump administration has fashioned its own masked Gestapo; it has taken an existing organization designed for border control (ICE) and built it into a private army serving at the prerogative of the President, most egregiously for assaults on Democrat-run cities like Portland, and Chicago and the murder of protestors, reclassified as 'domestic terrorists.' How did we get here? How do we get out of here?"

Join Red May and a panel of scholars to guide us through the labyrinth.

Stuart Schrader is Associate Professor of History at Johns Hopkins and the Director of the Chloe Center for the Critical Study of Racism, Immigration, and Colonialism. He is the author of Blue Power: How Police Organized to Protect and Serve Themselves, to be published by Basic Books in April 2026.

Charmaine Chua is a Singaporean communist, and a professor of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley. Her interdisciplinary research is interested in the socio-spatial reconfigurations of global capitalism from the late twentieth century to the present through a focus on global supply chains, the Transpacific logistics industry, and policing. Her first book, The Logistics Counterrevolution, is forthcoming from University of Minnesota press in April 2027. Her work has been published in Society and Space, Review of International Studies, the Socialist Register, Theory and Event, Antipode, The Boston Review, The Nation, and Jacobin, among other venues. She co-directs the Marxist Institute of Research, serves as the Chair of Labor Organizing with the Council of UC Faculty Associations, and organizes with the Logistics Workers League, the communist caucus of the DSA, and No Harbor for Gencoide. In 2023, she was named a Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholar.

Dan Berger is a Professor at the University of Washington Bothell. He is an interdisciplinary historian of activism, Black Power, and the carceral state in twentieth-century U.S. history. His latest book is Stayed on Freedom: The Long History of Black Power Through One Family's Journey, which is a biography of the modern Black freedom struggle through the lives of Zoharah Simmons and Michael Simmons.

Angélica Cházaro is a Professor at the University of Washington Law School. She teaches Critical Race Theory, Poverty Law, Professional Responsibility, and courses on Immigration Law. Professor Cházaro served as a chief negotiator during a 56-day hunger strike at the Northwest Detention Center, representing immigrant detainees. She is a member of the Blue Ribbon Commission convened by the National Day Laborer's Organizing Network to provide the Executive Branch with recommendations on administrative relief for undocumented people.

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Blue Power: How Police Organized to Protect and Serve Themselves (Hardcover) Elliott Bay Book Company

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Black people are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause, a harrowing statistic that reproductive advocate and author Khiara M. Bridges has been dedicating efforts towards examining for years. The heightened issues facing Black people in maternal healthcare have deep roots in the history of racial inequality in the US and — as Bridges' most recent work unpacks — persist now even across income levels. In her newest book, Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans, Bridges brings attention to the stories and studies that demonstrate how racism in maternal healthcare is not reserved for the poor.

After previously researching how race compounded the politics of healthcare for low-income women of color, Bridges continues her work on the links between race and quality of care in medicine. Presented with expertise and empathy, Bridges offers readers a new case study that depicts how these heightened risks and gaps in maternal care exist across income levels. Focusing on a San Francisco obstetrics clinic that caters to the affluent, Expecting Inequity looks at the choices around prenatal care and childbirth that class-privileged, pregnant Black people are making in order to survive what has been called the "Black maternal health crisis."

Bridges casts a critically important light on the extensive impacts of racism across class divides, arguing that these systemic issues persist despite the privileges of wealth and access. Drawing on two years of participant-observation research and the impassioned stories of real women and families, Expecting Inequity presents a keen critique of racial issues throughout the maternal medical system and the struggles of the most vulnerable – regardless of wealth or status.

Khiara M. Bridges, JD, PhD, is an author, researcher, and scholar specializing in the intersections between race, class, and reproductive rights. She is currently the Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at UC Berkeley, and her scholarship has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, and the Columbia Law Review, among others. Her previously published books include Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization, The Poverty of Privacy Rights, and Critical Race Theory: A Primer.

Dr. Karen A. Scott, MD, MPH, FACOG (she/her), proudly stands as the Chief Black Feminist Physician Scientist, Founding CEO, and Owner of Birthing Cultural Rigor, LLC. She developed the first and only validated Patient Reported Experience Measure of obstetric racism© (the PREM-OB Scale® Suite), which is now available for implementation, spread, and scale as prevention and mitigation against obstetric racism. Dr. Scott is also the author of SACKRED Birth: Mobilizing A New Quality Paradigm in Obstetric Care.

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Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans Elliott Bay Book Company

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At a moment when national politics are testing the boundaries of constitutional protections and human dignity, local communities are asking a vital question: What can we do to protect one another?

Town Hall Seattle and The Stranger present the March 19 edition of the Speaking of Seattle civic conversation series, an evening focused on immigrant rights, community responsibility, and the everyday actions that help safeguard our neighbors.

This timely conversation explores how federal immigration enforcement policies ripple through local communities — and how ordinary people can respond with care, courage, and solidarity. Together, we examine what it means to treat immigrant rights as human rights, and how community members can act lawfully, safely, and effectively when confronted with fear-based tactics and unconstitutional overreach.

Host Marcus Harrison Green is the publisher of Hinton Publishing, the founder of the South Seattle Emerald, and a columnist with The Stranger. Growing up in South Seattle, he experienced first-hand the impact of one-dimensional stories on marginalized communities, which taught him the value of authentic narratives. After an unfulfilling stint in the investment world during his twenties, Marcus returned to his community with a newfound purpose of telling stories with nuance, complexity, and multidimensionality with the hope of advancing social change. This led him to become a writer and found the South Seattle Emerald. An award-winning journalist, he was awarded the Seattle Human Rights Commissions' Individual Human Rights Leader Award for 2020 and named the inaugural James Baldwin Fellow by the Northwest African American Museum in 2022.

Panelists Angelina Snodgrass Godoy is Helen H. Jackson Endowed Chair in Human Rights and Director at the Center for Human Rights at the University of Washington. She is Associate Professor of International Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School, Associate Professor of Law, Societies, and Justice, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Sociology. A sociologist by training, her research focuses on human rights in Central and Latin America. Godoy teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in human rights in both the Law, Societies, and Justice program and in the Jackson School of International Studies.

Roxana Norouzi is a longtime immigrant rights leader with 20 years of experience in organizing, advocacy, and social justice work with immigrant and refugee communities. She currently serves as Executive Director of OneAmerica, where she first began as an organizing intern 12 years ago and later led education policy efforts that won major state and local victories and secured millions in funding for multilingual education. Over the past decade, she has helped guide OneAmerica through a transformational shift toward deeper grassroots organizing, strategic policy campaigns, and building political power.

Roxana is also a clinical instructor at the University of Washington School of Public Health. She earned her MSW from UW and was awarded the Bonderman Fellowship, which took her to 20 countries to study post-conflict regions, migration, and identity. As a first-generation American, her work is grounded in a deep commitment to racial equity and immigrant justice.

Erika Evans is the first African American and first person of color to serve as Seattle City Attorney. A graduate of the University of Washington and Seattle University School of Law, Erika began her career in the Seattle City Attorney's Office before serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Department of Justice's Terrorism and Violent Crimes Unit and as Civil Rights Coordinator until March 2025, when she resigned following federal policy changes she opposed. She has also served as a pro tem municipal court judge in three Washington jurisdictions. Erika is a past president of the Loren Miller Bar Association and co-chair of the Washington Leadership Institute.

Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck is known for bringing people together around practical solutions and delivering results. A graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, Rinck built her career as a community organizer and policy leader. She has advanced campaign finance reform, supported public health and human services policy across 38 cities during COVID-19, and held leadership roles at the Sound Cities Association and the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. As a councilmember, she created a dedicated Committee on Federal Policy Changes to respond to federal threats to Seattle and has championed union-built social housing, immigrant rights, and progressive revenue solutions.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and The Stranger.

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As we cascade further into the digital age, concerns over privacy and data security continue to rise with increasing urgency. As artificial intelligence expands its reach, vast aggregates of personal data are constantly being mined to refine future models. But, the fight for digital privacy is as old as the digital age itself. In Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance, author and Digital Rights Activist, Cindy Cohn, chronicles her career-long battle to preserve our right to privacy online.

Part memoir and part legal history for a general audience, Privacy's Defender reminds the reader just how hard-won the privacy rights we enjoy today were. Cohn stresses the societal importance of digital privacy, citing its role in combatting authoritarianism, organizing public protests, and reinforcing other human rights as well.

Dismantling the myth that our digital landscape was the sole work of several male charismatic tech founders, Cohn instead paints a fuller picture of our technological history. Through weaving her own story with the history of Crypto Wars, FBI gag orders, and the post-9/11 surveillance state, Cohn reveals how she became a seasoned leader in the early digital rights movement, even helping her to discover her birth parents and a life partner. Along the way, she also details the development of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which Cohn grew from a ragtag group of lawyers and hackers into one of the most powerful digital rights organizations in the world.

As we all know, advancements in technology never cease. Reckoning with its impact on our basic human rights is a conversation that Cindy Cohn has been having for over 30 years. Join Cohn at Town Hall Seattle, for a night of education, storytelling, and a reinvigoration in our fight to protect our rights in the digital age.

Cindy Cohn is Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. From 2000 to 2015, she served as EFF's Legal Director as well as its General Counsel. Today, she spearheads a team of more than 120 lawyers, activists, and technologists who are dedicated to ensuring that technology supports speech, privacy, and innovation for all the people of the world.

Buy the Book Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance Elliott Bay Book Company

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Are you ever overwhelmed with politics and trying to figure out how and where to channel your resources to make a difference? Or, worse, have you thrown up your hands in disgust and opted for the couch?

Join an empowering conversation on "How to be a strategic political donor," where you will learn that you have agency and can make a difference in determining the future of our Democracy.

Based on her decades-long journey in this arena, U.S. Ambassador (ret) Suzi LeVine will paint the landscape of the political ecosystem and decode their acronyms; provide a roadmap with key elections and milestones between now and 2032; and share specific ideas on how to build your political investment portfolio so you can maximize your precious 4Ts – your Treasure, Time, Talent, and Team.

She wants participants to go from being tactical, opportunistic, and worried to being strategic, effective, and determined (from worried to warrior). For example, you will learn how to process the flood of texts and emails coming from well-meaning politicians and organizations asking for your support and sharing how they're the most important entity in which to invest.

Her goal is for you to leave feeling empowered, engaged, and equipped to jump in and to get others you know off the couch and onto the field. Link to Slide Presentation HERE

Ambassador Suzi LeVine, a professor of practice at both the University of Washington and Brown University on The Power of the States, has over 30 years of experience leading global organizations across government, corporate and non-profit sectors. She serves on for-profit and not-for-profit boards primarily focused on workforce development and patriotism. Civically, she volunteers to help people channel their resources to restore Democracy.

She was President Obama's US Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Governor Inslee's Commissioner for the Employment Security Department, and President Biden's Acting Assistant Secretary for the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration. These followed her private sector career as a Director at Microsoft and a Vice President at Expedia with highlights like the Windows 95 launch and Expedia's IPO.

Joe Nguyễn is the Seattle Metro Chamber President and CEO. He joined the Chamber after serving as Director of the Washington State Department of Commerce, where he oversaw statewide efforts to support employers, strengthen key industries, expand workforce capacity, and improve Washington's competitiveness. He previously served in the Washington State Senate representing Seattle's 34th Legislative District and has held private-sector leadership roles at Microsoft and Expedia.

Nguyễn is a lifelong Washington resident and graduate of Seattle University, where he earned degrees in finance and humanities. His career spans technology, economic policy, and organizational leadership, giving him a deep understanding of the intersection between business growth and public decision-making.

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Whether or not you call yourself religious, there's no denying that religion has an impact on society across the continents. And there is no faith more dominant than Christianity in the United States today. Washington State University professor and historian Matthew A. Sutton can show you just exactly how evangelical Christianity entwines itself with all aspects of the country. Drawing from his book, Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity, Sutton chronicles Christians' five-hundred-year endeavor to turn the U.S. into their version of the kingdom of God.

In the centuries after Christianity first arrived on American shores, colonizers (and the colonized) practiced many varieties of the faith. Throughout the nation's history, Christianity has maintained influence and power through new and evolving strains of its faith. As U.S. Christianity has fractured and adapted to changing times, the religion has shaped everything from the promise of Manifest Destiny to Ronald Reagan's approach to the Cold War, the rise of the Southern Lost Cause narrative, to the triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement.

Through Sutton's research, he explains how faith affects human behavior, which ultimately shapes the world we make. Tracing the faith's major figures and currents, Sutton pinpoints how U.S. Christianity — always both steadfast and precarious — lives at the center of the nation's shared history.

Matthew Avery Sutton is the Claudius O. and Mary Johnson Distinguished Professor and department chair in History at Washington State University. He is the author of five other books on the history of American Christianity, including Double Crossed and American Apocalypse, and the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship. He lives in Pullman, Washington.

Bill Radke hosts Week In Review at KUOW. Before that, he created and hosted the NPR humor show Rewind and hosted the Marketplace Morning Report, covering the day's national/international business news. He's been a KUOW reporter, news director, and interview host; also, a stand-up comedian and Seattle P-I newspaper columnist.

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Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity Third Place Books

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Have you ever wondered what really goes on in our country's criminal courts? Many want to believe in the hallowed halls of justice, with ethical and equitable legal processes that pursue truth and enforce the law fairly. But one author argues that this perception hides the reality that the system is broken.

Emily Galvin Almanza, also a former public defender, presents her latest work The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender's Search for Justice in America. The text takes us behind closed doors of America's criminal courts, arguing that the institutions that claim to protect us are doing the exact opposite. Examples include data showing that jails actually increase future crime, police corruption in overtime pay, an example of a man incarcerated for decades because scientists mistook dog hair for his own, incentives that push prosecutors to seek convictions, and even how judges may decide cases differently after lunch.

Almanza presents examples and offers a blueprint for fixing these issues at their core, and by engaging the general public in helping to shape our collective future.

Emily Galvin Almanza is the co-founder and executive director of Partners for Justice, a nonprofit creating a new collaborative model of public defense designed to empower defenders nationwide. Prior to founding PFJ, Emily fought for clients inside the L.A. County Public Defender's Office, the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office, and the Bronx Defenders, and with the Stanford Three Strikes Project. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, and Time, among other publications.

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The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender's Search for Justice in America Elliott Bay Book Company

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Blue City Blues leads a conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, as she addresses the escalating global threats to democratic institutions and explores pragmatic strategies to counter the rise of authoritarianism. Drawing on her extensive research, Applebaum discusses findings from her critically acclaimed works, including Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism and her latest book, Autocracy, Inc., offering insight into how free societies can prevent the worst-case scenarios now unfolding across the world.

Anne Applebaum is a prize-winning historian, a staff writer for The Atlantic, and a senior fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Her history books include Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine; Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956; and Gulag: A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. Her most recent books are the New York Times bestsellers Twilight of Democracy, an essay on democracy and authoritarianism, and Autocracy Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Rule the World. She was a Washington Post columnist for fifteen years and a member of the editorial board. She has also been the deputy editor of the Spectator and a columnist for several British newspapers.

For nearly two decades, David Hyde worked for NPR-affiliate KUOW in Seattle, most recently as a Murrow-award-winning politics reporter. He departed in 2024 to dedicate himself full-time to podcasting and other journalism and writing projects. Blue City Blues builds on the success David had creating the Seattle Nice podcast. Each week, Blue City Blues takes a deep dive into the many shared issues facing blue cities.

Sandeep Kaushik is a political and public affairs consultant in Seattle. In addition to his extensive strategic advisory, public relations, and political communications work for elected officials leading businesses, associations, governments, and non-profits, he has worked on multiple political campaigns in the Northwest, including numerous issue and ballot measure campaigns. Prior to forming his firm, Sound View Strategies, Sandeep worked as deputy communications director for then-King County Executive Ron Sims, and prior to that as a political columnist/writer for Seattle's alt-weekly, the Stranger, and as the Washington State correspondent for Time Magazine and the Boston Globe. He currently co-hosts two podcasts: Blue City Blues and Seattle Nice.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle, Blue City Blues, UW Office of Public Lectures, and UW Evans School of Public Policy & Governance.

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Like many universities nationwide, the University of Washington is facing threats to federal funding, which they rely on for fundamental research and development. The erosion of federal support means universities like UW are facing decisions on how to survive and move forward, especially as today's social and political climate becomes more divisive. UC Davis law professor Brian Soucek explores this pivotal moment in his book, The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education.

One could argue that universities must remain neutral in society's contentious issues in order to uphold the neutrality of truth and knowledge. But can a university ever truly be neutral in today's social and political climate? Soucek argues that this promise is doomed to fail—universities can't help being opinionated, and neutrality is an unattainable myth.

Soucek takes a deep dive into several prominent campus controversies, including diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and restrictions on campus speech and protest. Each issue forces universities to choose a side in what they do and say. Soucek argues that those pushing for neutrality are only preventing universities from standing up for their long-held values, whether in today's current moment of crisis or in periods of political calm.

Drawing from his conclusions in The Opinionated University, Soucek calls on universities like University of Washington to forget neutrality as a governing principle and focus instead on what their mission should be—and who should determine it. Their very existence may depend on it.

Brian Soucek is a Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis. A scholar of free speech and equality law, Soucek has shaped national policy on academic freedom, nondiscrimination, and campus speech through his work with the American Association of University Professors' "Committee A" on Academic Freedom and Tenure and the University of California's Academic Senate.

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The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education Third Place Books

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Seattle loves to think of itself as an informed, engaged, "I-read-the-footnotes" kind of city. But what happens when the institutions we rely on to tell our stories are shrinking, consolidating, or vanishing altogether?

Join Marcus Harrison Green with Florangela Davila, Hannah Murphy Winter, and Naomi Ishisaka for a candid, no-spin conversation about the state of local media— and what it means for the future of civic life in Seattle. We'll dig into questions like:

Who gets covered, and who only shows up in the news when something goes wrong?
What does it mean when neighborhoods lose beat reporters, but gain police press releases and political mailers?
How are grassroots, BIPOC-led, and community media stepping in where legacy outlets have stepped back—and what support do they actually need to survive?
And how do everyday readers and listeners move from consuming the news to co-creating it?

Alongside Florangela Davila, of the South Seattle Emerald, Hannah Murphy Winter of The Stranger, and Naomi Ishisaka from The Seattle Times, Marcus will explore how we rebuild trust in news, fund coverage that actually reflects our communities, and resist the slide into a city where the loudest voices are the best-funded ones.

This won't be a nostalgia tour for the "good old days" of print. It's a conversation about what comes next—and how Seattle can choose a media ecosystem that serves people, not just profit.

Host:

Erica C. Barnett is a longtime journalist covering local news and politics, co-founder of PubliCola, and author of Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery.

Panelists:

Florangela Davila is the Executive Director of the South Seattle Emerald and a longtime Seattle journalist whose work has centered on both race and the creative community. She's the former race and immigration reporter at The Seattle Times, former arts reporter at KPLU, former managing editor and host at Crosscut/Cascade PBS, and most recently, the news director at KNKX Public Radio, where she led the newsroom to more than two dozen regional and national awards during her four-year tenure.

Hannah Murphy Winter is The Stranger's Editor-in-Chief and writes about queerness, justice, the climate crisis, and the intersection between politics and the arts, usually not all at once.

Naomi Ishisaka is the social justice columnist and assistant managing editor for diversity, inclusion, and staff development at The Seattle Times.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and The Stranger.

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Across the water from Seattle, you can visit the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial. It's a place to honor and learn from the past. Evelyn Iritani, a longtime Seattle resident and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, wants to remember – and learn from – another, lesser-known story from World War II. In her book, Safe Passage, she reveals the dramatic, behind-the-scenes efforts to bring U.S. and Japanese citizens home from enemy land.

In 1943, during some of the Pacific theater's bloodiest battles, the United States and Japan coordinated the exchange of civilians caught on the wrong side of the battlefield after Pearl Harbor. Nearly fifteen hundred Allied civilians trapped in Asia, mostly U.S. citizens, sailed through dangerous waters to India, where they were traded for Japanese immigrants sent from the U.S. The fate of the more than ten thousand U.S. civilians left behind in Asia rested on the success of this endeavor.

Engineering these wartime exchanges was fraught within and outside the U.S. government. The U.S. uprooted and repatriated Japanese citizens of Latin America, sometimes against their will. People imprisoned in camps like Bainbridge Island, many of them American citizens, were forced to choose between expulsion to a war zone in Japan or an uncertain future behind barbed wire. Through these stories, Iritani explains how messy humanitarian efforts can be in wartime and illuminates the lasting effects of racism throughout U.S. history.

Evelyn Iritani is the author of An Ocean Between Us: The Changing Relationship of Japan and the United States, Told in Four Stories from the Life of an American Town. She is a former reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Los Angeles Times, where her reporting garnered numerous awards, including the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for a series she coauthored on Walmart.

Frank Abe is lead author of the graphic novel, WE HEREBY REFUSE: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration, a Finalist in Creative Nonfiction for the Washington State Book Award, and co-editor with Floyd Cheung of a new Penguin Classics anthology, THE LITERATURE OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION. He won an American Book Award as co-editor of JOHN OKADA: The Life & Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy, and wrote and directed the award-winning PBS documentary CONSCIENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION." He is currently developing a new stage adaptation of Okada's NO-NO BOY.

Buy the Book Safe Passage: The Untold Story of Diplomatic Intrigue, Betrayal, and the Exchange of American and Japanese Civilians by Sea During World War II Elliott Bay Book Company

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Celebrate the 234th anniversary of the Bill of Rights and the historic December 15, 1941, radio broadcast of We Hold These Truths with a live performance and radio event at Town Hall Seattle.

Known as the poet laureate of American radio, Norman Corwin wrote We Hold These Truths months before its original airing. But after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, the program—created to honor the Bill of Rights on its 150th anniversary—took on new emotional depth and national significance.

This production commemorates both the Bill of Rights and Corwin's landmark broadcast, featuring a cast of prominent local broadcasters and public figures.

Feliks Banel is an award-winning broadcaster and historian based in Seattle.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle, SPACE 101.1 FM, and Cascade of History.

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As political violence, mass shootings, and the actions of radical extremists continue to be a devastating presence in our news cycle, academics and experts are compelled to look for connections. What things do most mass shooters, terrorists, or violent extremists have in common? In her newest book, educator and scholar of extremism Cynthia Miller-Idriss expands upon the roles of gender in this conversation – that not only are these violent acts almost always carried out by men and boys, but that evidence of aggressive misogyny, homophobia, or transphobia occurs at nearly the same rates within the perpetrators of these crimes.

Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism seeks to shed light on an increased presence of gender-based violence across a range of incidents and forms extremist groups. Through extensive research and five distinct case studies, Man Up draws attention to violent events where motivations of racism, antisemitism, or xenophobia are still supported by throughlines of misogynistic aggression. From the misogynistic language in the plot to kidnap and execute Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer to the prior reports of stalking, harassment of women, and domestic violence by the men behind the mass shooting events at Virginia Tech and Pulse nightclub. Miller-Idriss also provides her analysis on the centering of gendered discrimination within far-right and male supremacist culture – a rising misogynistic force that has resulted in increasing numbers of attacks internationally, specifically targeting women and citing feminism or sexual frustration with women as motivation.

Miller-Idriss posits that these interconnected threads of misogyny have been underrepresented in the media and with experts in a way that leaves us vulnerable to hate-fueled violence of all forms, both online and out in the world. From interpersonal instances of sexism to extreme far-right ideologies and mass violence events, Miller-Idriss explores how an epidemic of misogyny and a patriarchal backlash can act as driving factors in this rise in violence. Man Up aims to give insight on how this culture shift has developed, how to recognize the misogyny in our everyday lives, and presents strategies that everyone – including parents, teachers, and counselors – can use to push back against these forms of violence.

Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss is an internationally recognized scholar, speaker, and author on the subjects of extremism and radicalization. She is the founding director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at the American University in Washington, DC, where she is also a Professor in the School of Public Affairs and in the School of Education. She regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress and works with agencies globally on trends in domestic violent extremism and strategies for prevention and disengagement. Her work and expertise have been featured by MSNBC, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and more. Her previously published books include Hate in the Homeland and The Extreme Gone Mainstream.

Jen Barnes is the CEO and founder of Rough & Tumble. She is an advocate, entrepreneur, and life-long athlete committed to building community around gender equity and visibility for women's sports.

Buy the Book Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism Elliott Bay Book Company

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Three voices at the intersections of art, education, and social critique come together for an evening of readings and conversation. Jesse Hagopian will share from his forthcoming book Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education, while Martellus Bennett (MR. TOMONOSHi) and Michael Bennett will read from their own works, including Black Thoughts and Things That Make White People Uncomfortable. Together, they'll engage in a wide-ranging conversation on race, creativity, justice, and liberation, offering perspectives that draw from literature, design, sport, and activism.

Martellus Bennett (MR. TOMONOSHi) is a multidisciplinary author and the founder of TOMONOSHi! Publishing, the home of his ceremonial philosophy, the TOMONOSHi Gospel. His work is a celebration of the fantastical whimsy of Black life, a poetic exploration of ancestral memory, and a form of Black American Futurism.

Michael Bennett is an interdisciplinary designer whose work translates the forms and languages of the African diaspora into spatial practice. His approach moves across architecture, sculpture, and furniture, engaging design through structure, material, and scale. Michael is beloved in Seattle as a Super Bowl champion with the Seahawks and has also made a name for himself as a sharp cultural critic. His New York Times bestselling book, Things That Make White People Uncomfortable, offers an honest and often humorous critique of racism, sports, and power in U.S. society.

Jesse Hagopian is the descendant of African ancestors who endured and resisted enslavement in Mississippi and Louisiana, and Armenian ancestors who survived genocide. Today, Jesse is a Seattle-based educator and the author of Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education. He is an editor at Rethinking Schools magazine, a columnist for Truthout, a founding member of Black Lives Matter at School, and the Director of the Zinn Education Project's Teaching for Black Lives campaign. Jesse is also the co-editor of Teaching Palestine: Lessons, Stories, Voices, Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice, Teaching for Black Lives, and Teacher Unions and Social Justice, as well as the editor of More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High-Stakes Testing.

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How much do you know about Black history? From African women's rebellions on slave ships to a former enslaved man whose account of the first Juneteenth differs from what we hear today, to Benjamin Banneker's life, to how Islam found its way into American popular music in multiple genres, there is a lot of information that doesn't necessarily make it into your average curriculum.

In A High Price for Freedom: Raising Hidden Voices From the African-American Past, author and historian Clyde W. Ford addresses these and other topics, seeking to illuminate and amplify little-known figures from the past, from Elizabeth Key's court case in the 1600s to the true mission of the marches in Selma to more modern accounts. The title of the book takes its name from a young man named Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was killed in 1965 by an Alabama state trooper. As he lay dying in the only hospital that would treat Black people, Jimmie Lee whispered to his nurse, a nun, "Sister, isn't this a high price for freedom?"

Ford's latest release includes factual accounts about people and events in the African-American past that teach things many of us never learned and may challenge the stories we thought we knew.

Clyde W. Ford is the author of fifteen works of fiction and nonfiction, and is a psychotherapist, an accomplished mythologist, and a sought-after public speaker. In 2006, Ford received the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Award in African American fiction. In 2019, he was named a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Award in African American nonfiction. In 2021, Clyde received the prestigious Washington Center for the Book Award, the Nautilus Book Award in Social Justice, and was a finalist for the Goddard-Russo Prize in Social Justice for Think Black. Clyde was honored as a "Literary Lion" by the King County Library System in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2019. He was voted "Best Writer of Bellingham, Washington" in 2006 and 2007 by readers of Cascadia Weekly and received the 2007 Bellingham Mayor's Arts Award in Literature. Ford is currently a speaker for Humanities Washington, an affiliate of the NEA, where he presents a program entitled, "Technology, Race and Social Justice," around the state. He is also the Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library Publishing Project at HarperCollins. Clyde has participated in hundreds of media interviews and has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, New Dimensions Radio, and NPR. He lives in Bellingham, Washington, where he founded the city's annual Martin Luther King Day commemoration in 1991, and enjoys walking the mountains and cruising the waters of the Pacific Northwest.

Buy the Book A High Price for Freedom: Raising Hidden Voices from the African American Past Third Place Books

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Our region is facing tremendous setbacks for salmon populations and Northwest tribal treaty rights. Fish runs continue to fall short while Indigenous communities bear the brunt of climate change, political polarization, and existential threats to their way of life. Tribes can't overcome these issues alone, but it's not just a matter of finding allies — it's how to get them in the game.

The Billy Frank Jr. Salmon Coalition, formed by Salmon Defense, has taken an innovative approach to protect salmon, restore ecosystems, and build climate resilience by uniting unexpected allies, who have often been at odds in the past. This diverse coalition includes tribal leaders, scientists, state and local officials, fishers, attorneys, conservation groups, and local industries.

Join us on Indigenous Peoples' Day, for a conversation offering a timely reminder that Indigenous knowledge systems are not only vital to climate resiliency but must also be centered in policy-driven solutions. See how cross-cultural dialogue can help foster creativity and how lasting alliances are strengthened by collaboration amongst groups with different viewpoints.

Peggen Frank (SeiiNiiSeii) is a leader in salmon conservation, tribal advocacy, and treaty rights protection. Since joining Salmon Defense in 2011, she has helped grow the nonprofit into a powerful conservation organization focused on education, advocacy, and litigation. Her key projects include the Billy Frank Jr. curriculum, a sčədadxʷ (salmon) education video, and the Salmon Warriors campaign. Peggen is an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe, born and raised on the Wind River Indian Reservation, and now lives in the homelands of the Nisqually Indian people. As Executive Director of Salmon Defense, Peggen manages the likeness and legacy of Billy Frank Jr., ensuring his influence inspires future generations.

Kadi Bizyayeva is the Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians vice-chairwoman, fisheries director, and Northwest Indian Fisheries commissioner. She was also appointed to the Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board by Gov. Jay Inslee. Kadi is passionate about her role protecting and conserving tribal treaty rights and believes in honest co-management and finding common ground. Her experience includes assisting with project oversight and policy guidance, as well as accounting and administration in several roles within the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission and the Stillaguamish Tribes' Natural Resources Department, where she has worked since 2013. Along with her professional roles and achievements, Kadi is also a wife, mother, and a tribal fisher and hunter.

Ron Garner is president of the Puget Sound Anglers State Board, a member of the Billy Frank Jr. Salmon Coalition and a key member of the Western Washington sportfishing community. In 2018, he had the rare honor for a nontribal member – let alone a sportfisherman – of attending a Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission meeting. Ron is passionate about advocating for habitat restoration and reconnection in the Stillaguamish River watershed to promote healthy salmon populations, particularly endangered Chinook. His experience also includes serving on several Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife advisory committees and task forces related to marine wildlife. Along with his sportfishing community leadership experience and advocacy, Ron is a self-employed commercial construction business owner.

William Frank III served on the Nisqually Tribal Council for many years in several roles, including chairman, and currently serves as chairman of the Wa He Lut Indian School and the Salmon Defense board. He also runs Medicine Creek Tribal Strategies, an independent consulting firm. William is the son of the late Billy Frank Jr., a nationally recognized leader and activist for tribal rights and protecting salmon. His father helped tribes win the landmark 1975 court case that recognized treaty rights and made tribes co-managers of the salmon resource. This court decision completely changed the landscape in Washington after the Fish Wars or 'fish-ins' of the 1960s and 1970s, a series of civil disobedience protests where tribal fishers were arrested, beaten, and jailed for fishing off reservation in their 'usual and accustomed fishing grounds' – as granted by the treaties negotiated in the mid-1800s. As a leader, fisher, and member of the Billy Frank Jr. Salmon Coalition, he carries on his father's legacy of bringing together diverse groups of experts to advocate for salmon and the environment.

Cecilia Gobin (dzahdzah'lahk) is a member of the Tulalip Tribes, based in Tulalip, Washington. She is an experienced Policy Analyst, currently working with the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission (NWIFC) where she focuses on the protection and advancement of tribal treaty rights and resources, including habitat protection and salmon recovery. Prior to NWIFC, Cecilia worked in cultural resources for the Tulalip Tribes, and also for the U.S. House of Representatives' House Natural Resources Committee's Office of Indian Affairs, working with policy and legislation related to natural resources and the effects for tribes in Indian Country. She is also a lifetime commercial fisher and remains deeply connected to her community and traditional lifeways.

Lisa Wilson has extensive experience in fisheries policy and treaty rights protection. She earned a bachelor's degree in Native Environmental Science from Northwest Indian College, where she produced the documentary Time Immemorial: A Fishing History of the Lummi People as her capstone project. Lisa primarily serves as an elected member of the Lummi Indian Business Council and as vice chair of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission. She is also on the Salmon Defense board, co-chairs the Natural Resources Committee for the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians and the Lands and Natural Resources Committee for the National Congress of American Indians and is the former Endangered Species Act manager for Lummi Natural Resources.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and the Billy Frank Jr. Salmon Coalition.

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Just weeks after Seattle's November elections, Town Hall Seattle kicks off a timely, can't-miss series hosted by Marcus Harrison Green. The panel features political strategist Crystal Fincher, The Stranger's news editor Vivian McCall, and the South Seattle Emerald's political columnist Tobias Coughlin-Bogue. Together they'll cut through the noise to unpack what the results really mean—from who's setting the agenda at City Hall to what's looming in Olympia, and connect it all to the turbulent political currents in Washington, D.C.

Expect an unflinching, illuminating conversation about what's next for Seattle, the state, and our role in shaping the national story.

Panelists Crystal Fincher is the Executive Director of KVRU 105.7 FM, an independent non-profit community radio station in South Seattle that she and her business partner recently acquired. She also publishes and hosts Hacks & Wonks, the region's premier podcast about local politics and policy. Crystal led an award-winning political consulting firm for 15 years, helping elect state and local candidates and pass ballot measures across the West Coast. Crystal's work has always been rooted in community mobilization and economic development, serving on the City of Kent Land Use & Planning Board, as a Deputy on the Washington Roundtable, and on the boards of Kent Youth and Family Services, the Northwest Association of Financial Professionals, Tabor 100, and the Washington Institute for a Democratic Future. She currently serves on the boards of Progress Alliance of Washington and The Urbanist.

Vivian McCall is The Stranger's News Editor. In her private life, she is a musician and Wii U apologist. If you're reading this, you either love her or hate her.

Tobias Coughlin-Bogue is a writer, editor, and restaurant worker who lives in South Park. He was formerly the associate editor of Real Change News and has since covered politics for The Stranger and the South Seattle Emerald.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and The Stranger.

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Town Hall Seattle, Juneau Street Resilience Pod, and the City of Seattle's Office of Sustainability and Environment hosts an evening with climate justice leaders who are reimagining our climate future in Seattle and beyond; discussing how community leaders, local government and academia can use joy and storytelling to build relationships and actualize climate resilience strategies, and sharing more about the upcoming One Seattle Climate Action Plan Update, including how you can get involved!

Moderator Nancy Huizar (they/them/theirs) is an environmental justice activist, facilitator, and consultant. They believe that everything we are doing to further environmental justice needs to address and connect to how people — particularly people of color — are impacted. Because the environmental movement has historically shut out communities of color, their work focuses on tending to, understanding, and centering the needs and health of communities of color.

Panelists Lylianna Allala is Interim Deputy Director for the City of Seattle's Office of Sustainability and Environment. Previously she served as the Climate Justice Director in the Office of Sustainability & Environment. In her current role, she provides strategic leadership and direction on policies and programs that address the root causes and impacts of climate change including citywide implementation of Seattle's Equity & Environment Initiative and Seattle's Green New Deal. Prior to joining the City of Seattle, Lylianna led climate & environmental policy & outreach for U.S Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. She began her career in habitat restoration and ecology focusing on upland and urban forests, and wetlands. She is a co-creator of the Growing Old podcast, a 2019 Henry M. Jackson Foundation Leadership Fellow, and an alumna of the 2024 Obama Foundation Leaders USA program. She currently serves as a co-facilitator for the Obama Leaders Climate Community of Practice.

Debolina Banerjee (she/hers) is a Senior Climate Policy Manager at Puget Sound Sage. Her work includes research-based analysis of climate policies, campaign support on climate justice issues, and building power within Sage's local and statewide climate coalitions. Debolina has research experience in transit-oriented development, the environmental impacts of unorganized industries and project management for real estate development. In addition, she has extensive experience working with grassroots activists and marginalized communities in India, organizing for social justice around food, sustainable agriculture, clean environment, community development, and women's empowerment.

Aya de León is the Poet Laureate of the City of Berkeley, and she teaches creative writing at UC Berkeley. Kensington Books publishes her novels for adults, including the "Justice Hustlers" series and several standalone novels. Candlewick Books publishes Aya's "Factory" series for younger readers. Aya has appeared in the New York Times' "By the Book" and has received acclaim in the Washington Post, the Village Voice, and SF Chronicle. Her words have also appeared in Harper's Bazaar, The Guardian UK, and on Def Poetry. A graduate of Harvard College, with an MFA in fiction from Antioch University Los Angeles, Aya has been an artist in residence at Stanford University, a Cave Canem poetry fellow, and a slam poetry champion. In spring 2022, she organized an online conference entitled Black Literature vs. the Climate Emergency (available on YouTube). She's also on Instagram. In 2025, she kicked off her new project, Formation, an intergenerational community organizing project through the arts. She organizes with the Black Hive, the climate and environmental justice formation of the Movement for Black Lives. She is also involved with the Working Families Party and writes and choreographs social justice line dances to bring joy to political movements.

Dr. Esther Min received her PhD in Environmental and Occupational Hygiene from the University of Washington and her Master of Public Health with emphasis in community health from Touro University, California. Her focus is to build research processes and projects that uplift the voices of Black, Indigenous and people of color, and frontline communities and organizations are elevated, and their priorities and goals of environmental justice are supported by academic researchers and practitioners. Esther is the Director of Community Innovation, Evaluation, and Learning at Front and Centered, a coalition of frontline community organizations working on environmental and climate justice policies in the state of WA. She is also a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Washington's School of Public Health where she teaches an environmental justice course for undergrad and graduate students, and conducts research-to-action type projects.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle, Juneau Street Resilience Pod, and the City of Seattle's Office of Sustainability and Environment.

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In relationship with Se'Si'Le, Braided River is celebrating the launch of their newest project, In the Spirit of Right and Respectful Relations: Conversations about Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being in Nature. As told to Kurt Russo, with a foreword by Jay Julius Xw'tot lhem, and illustrations by Fiorella De La O (Quechua), this book invites readers into a conversation rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing and being in nature. The vision of the project is to draw on ancestral knowledge to further empower and inspire Indigenous-led environmental campaigns with non-Indigenous allies and partners to the benefit of Mother Earth and all her relations down to the seventh generation.

Come be a part of the celebration of this inaugural project, with a night full of powerful Pacific Northwest speakers. Facilitated by Jeff Renner, engaging public speaker and meteorologist, the talk will include Jay Julius Xw'tot lhem (President and founder of Se'Si'Le, previous Lummi Nation Chairman), Lynda Mapes (Pacific Northwest Journalist, reported with the Seattle Times for 27 years), and John Vechey (Cofounder of groundbreaking technology companies, and board member of Se'Si'Le).

Jeff Renner holds degrees in Atmospheric Sciences and in Journalism and Political Science. He is a polished and engaging public speaker with a passion for the Pacific Northwest and a deep love of the natural world. In addition to his public speaking, Jeff is a meteorologist for the King 5 television station in Seattle.

Jay Julius Xw'tot lhem (Lummi) is the President of Se'Si'Le. A fisherman, Former Chairman and Councilman at Lummi Nation, Jay was a leader in the fight to protect Xwe'chi'eXen (Cherry Point). He has organized and executed Tribal, local, regional, and national campaigns. A bridge-builder, he uses empathy and storytelling to bring people together. Principal at Julius Consulting LLC.

Lynda Mapes is a journalist, nature writer, and author based in Seattle. A full-time daily newspaper reporter since 1985, Maps worked at the Seattle Times for 27 years before her recent retirement to focus on writing books and long-form journalism.

John Vechey is a board member of Se'Si'Le and is based on the San Juan Islands. In Right and Respectful Relations, Vechey is highlighted under the chapter about technology. As the co-founder of groundbreaking technology companies, including Pluto VR and PopCap Games,Vechey has helped conceive of and produce popular video games like Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies.

Se'Si'Le is an Indigenous led, Bellingham-based non-profit that works to protect Indigenous areas, resources, and sacred sites.

Buy the Book In the Spirit of Right and Respectful Relations: Conversations about Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being in Nature Mountaineers Books

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Braided River.

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How can one person fight for social justice? Can everyday people actually make changes in systemic, structural inequality? Social psychologist and author of the book Change the Wallpaper, Nilanjana Dasgupta offers science-driven answers to these questions, arguing that social shifts start with small changes to our “wallpaper,” or the things that we experience in our daily lives. In other words, we need to revise the hyperlocal cultures we live in to make broader change.

Dasgupta believes that these small shifts in our cultural “wallpaper” are far more effective in producing structural change than through popular movements such as bias awareness training, symbolic proclamations, or even just relying on people’s good intentions. By integrating a wide range of studies in psychology, neuroscience, education, sociology, economics, public health, urban studies, cultural geography, and even landscape architecture, Dasgupta shows how attitudes and beliefs are based on what we see and hear every day. They nudge our behavior to create or reinforce small inequalities that go unnoticed and ultimately accumulate over time. So, how do we change our wallpaper?

By consciously disrupting these patterns and habits, Dasgupta argues, we can create opportunities for social mixing across lines of differences, allowing new relationships to form, and promoting a better understanding of others’ experiences. These actions lead to organizing and larger social shifts. It’s through these small changes in our daily lives, Dasgupta explains, that we can all work toward justice.

Nilanjana Dasgupta, author of Change the Wallpaper, is Provost Professor of Psychology and inaugural Director of the Institute of Diversity Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of many articles, the winner of the Hidden Bias Research Prize from the Kapor Foundation, and the recipient of multiple U.S. government research grants. Her work has been featured in the New York Times and other major outlets.

Paula Boggs is the founder of Boggs Media LLC. A TEDx speaker, U.S. Army veteran, and musician, she previously served for a decade as Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary at Starbucks Corporation. Her career spans roles as Vice President Legal at Dell, law firm partner, Assistant U.S. Attorney, and U.S. Army captain. Appointed by President Obama to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, she actively serves on multiple nonprofit and corporate boards.

Buy the Book Change the Wallpaper: Transforming Cultural Patterns to Build More Just Communities Third Place Books

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As founder of Moms Demand Action — the nation’s largest grassroots movement against gun violence — author Shannon Watts has helped thousands of women find their voice and take action. In her new book, Fired Up, Watts outlines a practical and inspiring framework for reigniting purpose, confidence, and ambition. With real-life stories from women across generations and backgrounds, Fired Up offers tools to help readers identify what sparks them and live with greater intention and impact.

Watts seeks to challenge the negative narrative that many women hold, asserting that empowerment begins where expectations end. In a world that often pressures women to shrink themselves, choosing to embrace desire and step outside prescribed roles becomes a powerful, even radical, act.

Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action, the nation’s largest grassroots group fighting against gun violence. Known as the ‘summoner of women’s audacity,’ she spent more than a decade leading one of the world’s largest field experiments for mobilizing women. She has been named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People, a Forbes 50 over 50 Changemaker, and a Glamour Woman of the Year. She is an active board member of Emerge America, one of the nation’s leading organizations for recruiting and training women to run for office. She is the author of the 2019 book Fight Like a Mother, and she writes regularly for Substack and outlets like The Washington Post, Elle, TIME, and more.

Brooke Baldwin is a TV host, award-winning journalist and bestselling author. She writes a weekly Substack entitled “Unraveling, with Brooke Baldwin.” It’s inspired by her bombshell first person essay published in Vanity Fair entitled: “Leaving CNN Was How I Found My Voice.” For more than a decade, Brooke anchored her own live daily news show on CNN and was renowned for her versatility, authenticity, and humanity at the news desk. After CNN, Brooke hosted a popular social experiment show on Netflix called The Trust. Brooke is the author of the bestselling book Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power, redefining the word ‘huddle’ to explore how women lean on one another to provide support, empowerment, inspiration, and the strength to enact meaningful change. Brooke now lives in Los Angeles after a ten-year run-in New York City. She is a proud graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Buy the Book Fired Up: How to Turn Your Spark into a Flame and Come Alive at Any Age (Hardcover) Elliott Bay Book Company

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Did you know that private equity firms have a hand in many U.S. industries, including hospitals, daycare centers, supermarket chains, local newspapers, and prison service providers? They also manage highways, municipal water systems, fire departments, emergency medical services, and a growing swath of real estate. In her new book, Bad Company, journalist Megan Greenwell illuminates how ingrained private equity is, and how it’s preying on the most vulnerable people in our society, controlling congress, and causing destruction in communities around the country.

Private equity is a system of finance that pools money from outside investors and huge bank loans to acquire companies that hold a lot of debt. The company retains their debt, which makes it difficult for the company to recover and protects the investors from those debts. This might sound like a lot of finance jargon, but Greenwell wants to show how this industry is affecting all of our lives. Entire communities are ruined as a result of their buyouts. Workers lose their jobs. Communities lose their institutions. Only private equity wins, Greenwell argues.

Greenwell shares personal experiences of four workers and how private equity upended their employers and communities: a Toys R Us floor supervisor, a rural doctor, a local newspaper journalist, and an affordable housing organizer. Throughout these stories, Greenwell highlights how private equity executives are among the wealthiest people in the United States and are reshaping the economy, disrupting communities, and hollowing out the very idea of the American dream.

Megan Greenwell is a journalist who has written or edited for publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, WIRED, and ESPN. She is also the deputy director of the Princeton Summer Journalism Program, a workshop and college access initiative for students from low-income backgrounds. A California native, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their pug.

Jay Willis is a writer who covers courts, politics, and democracy. He is the editor-in-chief at Balls & Strikes, and was previously a staff writer at GQ magazine and a senior contributor to The Appeal. Before his journalism career, he practiced law at large firms in Washington, D.C. and Seattle.

Buy the Book Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream (Hardcover) Elliott Bay Book Company

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One guiding principle for resisting the patriarchy in the United States is to demand equal rights for men and women. Yet, author and multidisciplinary expert Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs argues that fighting patriarchal culture is more complicated than that. Tubbs believes that this fabricated hierarchy became so deeply ingrained over time that it now goes unnoticed. She outlines the history of patriarchy in the United States along with everything it intentionally conceals.

Pulling from her latest book, Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us, Tubbs highlights how the United States has its own unique gendered hierarchy. From the founding fathers to the current Supreme Court justices, from enslaved women to maternal health crises, from the exclusion of women in the Constitution to the continued lack of an Equal Rights Amendment, Tubbs brings together academic research, the stories of freedom fighters, and her own experiences to reveal what is erased. She goes further, showing a patriarchal system that has survived by hiding the tools that are necessary to dismantle it.

Resisting a patriarchal system, Tubbs believes, is more complicated than once thought. She argues that humanity in the United States is determined by gender in a limited and flawed binary that is also always tied to whiteness. The first step to dismantling patriarchy is to understand how deeply ingrained it is. The next step, Tubbs says, is telling a different story that highlights everything the patriarchy shrouds, and bringing it back into the narrative.

Anna Malaika Tubbs is a New York Times bestselling author and multidisciplinary expert on current and historical understandings of race, gender, and equity. With a Ph.D. in Sociology and a Masters in Multidisciplinary Gender Studies from the University of Cambridge in addition to a Bachelors in Medical Anthropology from Stanford University, Anna translates her academic knowledge into stories that are clear and engaging. Her articles have been published by TIME Magazine, New York Magazine, CNN, Motherly, the Huffington Post, For Harriet, The Guardian, Darling Magazine, and Blavity. Anna’s storytelling also takes form in her talks, including her TED Talk that has been viewed 2 million times, as well as the scripted and unscripted screen projects she has in development. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their three kids.

Florangela Davila is a newsroom leader and journalist who has been working in Seattle media for more than two decades. She’s earned regional and national awards for her own work as the former race and immigration reporter for The Seattle Times, and has led teams at Crosscut/Cascade PBS and at KNKX Public Radio to accolades, including the 2024 national Edward R. Murrow award for Overall Excellence in the large market radio category. In February, she joined the BIPOC-led and focused online journalism outlet The South Seattle Emerald as executive director. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, the child of immigrants from Colombia and Peru.

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Is Seattle on the cusp of a biking Renaissance? From Beacon Hill to SODO to the Waterfront and Downtown, the next few years will bring major improvements to Seattle’s growing network of connected and separated bike lanes and bike paths. That’s good news for people who want a safer, healthier, more equitable and climate-friendly city.

Join Cascade Bicycle Club on Bike Everywhere Day for a conversation with climate journalist and bike advocate Paul Tolme, Biking Uphill in the Rain author and Seattle Bike Blog founder Tom Fucoloro, and Cascade Bicycle Club Policy Manager Tyler Vasquez. Learn about the history of Seattle’s bike advocacy movement, how the passage of Proposition 1 last November is a gamechanger for biking, and how building a Bikeable Seattle is an act of love and compassion.

Paul Tolmé is an award winning environmental journalist, former Associated Press staff reporter, and winner of the Ted Scripps Fellowships in Environmental Journalism whose work has appeared in Newsweek, the New York Times, Audubon, National Wildlife, Salon, Ski, High Country News, and more publications than he can remember over a 30-year career. In 2020, following his move to Seattle, he switched careers to engage in direct advocacy on climate, transportation safety, and transportation equity as the spokesperson and content strategist for Cascade Bicycle Club, the statewide nonprofit that helped defeat the effort to repeal Washington’s Climate Commitment Act. He lives with his wife on a tiny houseboat on Lake Union and bikes, walks, and uses mass transit to reach nearly all of his Seattle destinations.

Tom Fucoloro is the Founder of SeattleBikeBlog.com and author of Biking Uphill in the Rain: The Story of Seattle from behind the Handlebars (2023, UW Press). An independent journalist originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Tom has been reporting about bicycling in Seattle since 2010. He is a car-free parent and received Cascade Bicycle Club’s 2023 Doug Walker Award “for outstanding leadership in improving lives through bicycling.” He was a finalist for the 2024 Washington State Book Award.

Tyler Vasquez is a dedicated transportation advocate with experience in policy development, public engagement, and project management. Growing up in a frontline community impacted by inequitable infrastructure decisions, he is committed to ensuring that transportation investments are transparent, accountable, and prioritize historically underserved communities. As an advocate with Cascade Bicycle Club, he works to improve bike infrastructure and safety, ensuring that no one’s right to mobility comes at the cost of their safety.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Cascade Bicycle Club.

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What if everything you thought you knew about crime and punishment was shaped by those who profit from it? Join us for a discussion with civil rights attorney and author Alec Karakatsanis as he examines “copaganda”—the deliberate manipulation of public perception by police, prosecutors, and the media. Despite historically low crime rates, the United States imprisons far more people than it did just decades ago, driven by a sprawling and profitable punishment industry. Karakatsanis will explore how media narratives fuel fear, distort public policy, and divert attention from systemic harms, challenging us to reconsider who truly benefits from these widespread misrepresentations.

Recognized by Teen Vogue as “one of the most prominent voices” on the criminal legal system and a featured guest on shows like The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and The Breakfast Club, Karakatsanis brings his legal expertise, trenchant political analysis, and humorous personal storytelling to delve into one of the most critical topics in our society today.

After beginning his career representing people accused of crimes who could not afford an attorney, Alec Karakatsanis founded the Civil Rights Corps, an organization that challenges systemic injustices in the U.S. legal system. In the last decade, the organization’s work has freed hundreds of thousands of people from illegal confinement in jail cells, reunited hundreds of thousands of families, returned tens of millions of dollars to marginalized communities, and advanced inspiring alternatives to punishment as a means of preventing and addressing social harm. He was named the 2016 Trial Lawyer of the Year by Public Justice for designing and litigating landmark constitutional challenges to cash bail and modern debtors’ prison practices across the United States. The author of Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Injustice System and Copaganda (both from The New Press), he lives in Washington, DC, with a community of wonderful friends, family, weird paintings, a garden, and his rock collection.

Erin Papworth, MPH, is a serial entrepreneur, executive, and ex-fintech founder, with a robust background in healthcare, finance, and technology. After leading multi-million dollar health programs in West and Central Africa, Erin co-founded Nav.it, a U.S.-based AI-driven financial wellness app. Nav.it was acquired by The Fintex Group (TFG) in Q1 2025. She is now the CEO of luupo, Inc, a subsidiary of TFG, bringing the mission of more inclusive consumer banking to TFG’s global banking and payments network. Erin is an avid traveler, startup advisor, and maintains connections to research institutes, primarily documenting the outcomes of investing in diverse entrepreneurs and social enterprise.

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America is facing an epidemic of loneliness and isolation, with troubling effects on our mental and physical health. We live in one of the most divisive times in our history, one in which we tend to work, play, and associate only with people who think as we do. How do we create spaces for people to come together — to open our minds, understand our differences, and exchange ideas?

In his new book, Meet Me at the Library, Shamichael Hallman argues that the public library may be our best hope for bridging these divides and creating strong, inclusive communities. Public libraries are increasingly playing an essential role in building social cohesion, promoting civic renewal, and advancing the ideals of a healthy democracy. Many are reimagining themselves in new and innovative ways, actively reaching out to the communities they serve. Today, libraries are becoming essential institutions for repairing society.

Drawing from his experience at the Memphis Public Library and his extensive research and interviews across the country, Hallman presents a rich argument for seeing libraries as one of the nation’s greatest assets. He includes examples from libraries large and small — such as the Iowa’s North Liberty Library’s Lighthouse in the Library program to bring people together to discuss important topics in a safe and supportive space, to Cambridge Cooks, an initiative of the Cambridge MA Public Library that fosters social connection by bringing people together over shared interest in food.

As an institution that is increasingly under attack for creating a place where diverse audiences can see themselves, public libraries are under more scrutiny than ever. Meet Me at the Library offers us a revealing look at one of our most important civic institutions and the social and civic impact they must play if we are to heal our divided nation.

Shamichael Hallman serves as the Director of Civic Health and Economic Opportunity at Urban Libraries Council, an innovation and action tank of North America’s leading public library systems. In this role, he’s working to advance conversations about public libraries as essential city and county infrastructure, including their value as physical spaces and a connector of diverse lived experiences. From 2017 – 2022 he served as the Senior Library Manager of the historic Cossitt Library (Memphis Public Libraries), tasked with overseeing the multi-million-dollar renovation of this space which reimagined the roles that a branch library could play in the community. During his tenure with Memphis Public Libraries, the library system was awarded the 2021 National Medal for Museum and Library Science by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and was recognized as the Nation’s Most Innovative Public Library by Smithsonian Magazine in November of 2021. His 2020 TEDx talk “Reimagining the Public Library to Reconnect the Community” garnered international attention among librarians and social innovators.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Seattle Public Library.

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From bestselling authors and journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Abundance is a call to renew a politics of plenty, face the failures of liberal governance, and abandon the chosen scarcities that have deformed American life.

To trace the history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history of unaffordability and shortage. After years of refusing to build sufficient housing, America has a national housing crisis. After years of limiting immigration, we don’t have enough workers. Despite decades of being warned about the consequences of climate change, we haven’t built anything close to the clean-energy infrastructure we need. Ambitious public projects are finished late and over budget — if they are ever finished at all. The crisis that’s clicking into focus now has been building for decades — because we haven’t been building enough.

Abundance explains that our problems today are not the results of yesteryear’s villains. Rather, one generation’s solutions have become the next generation’s problems. Authors Klein and Thompson contend that progress requires facing up to the institutions in life that are not working as they need to. It means, for liberals, recognizing when the government is failing. It means, for conservatives, recognizing when the government is needed.

In a book exploring how we can move from a liberalism that not only protects and preserves but also builds, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and propose a path toward a politics of abundance. At a time when movements of scarcity are gaining power in country after country, this is an answer that meets the challenges of the moment while grappling honestly with the fury so many rightfully feel.

Co-author Derek Thompson joins us at Town Hall for a talk about his book, our current challenges,and the path forward.

Derek Thompson is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the host of the podcast Plain English. He is the author of the national bestseller Hit Makers and On Work, an anthology of his writing on labor and technology. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Clayton Page Aldern is a senior data reporter at Grist. A neuroscientist turned environmental journalist, he holds a master’s in neuroscience and a master’s in public policy from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He is also a research affiliate at the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at the University of Washington. With Gregg Colburn, he is the author of Homelessness Is a Housing Problem. His book The Weight of Nature, on the effects of climate change on brain health, is out now from Dutton.

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In Part Two of our Queering Talks series with Dr. Jen Self, we will center the voices of those who have always led the way in liberation movements, claiming the spotlight for those who have consistently been “out in front” of struggles for justice, love, and equity, demonstrating that the margins have always been the source of radical change.

Queering leadership is not just about reclaiming lost stories; it’s about futurism — imagining and building new realities. Leaders who live at the intersections of power systems have long envisioned new possibilities and turned them into reality. They’ve led us beyond the dismantling of oppressive systems and into the creation of new spaces where power is shared, community is centered, and liberation is a lived practice. Queer futurism taps into the resilience and creativity of those who dream beyond the status quo, moving us from inclusion to transformation, and inviting us to build new worlds rooted in radical imagination and collective care.

From the beginning, Town Hall has been a space for meeting the needs of our city—hosting concerts, book talks, and new ways to connect. This bold new series reimagines the traditional lecture format through a queer lens, challenging ideas about who speaks, who listens, and who is centered. Built around three themes — In Between (exploring fluid identities and spaces), Out in Front (centering changemakers leading justice and equality movements), and Always Been (highlighting the historic contributions of queer visionaries)—this series promises to inspire, expand perspectives, and celebrate inclusivity. Join us in sparking meaningful conversations and building a community that values growth and connection.

Dr. Jen Self (they/them) is a therapist, educator, performer, and writer whose work lives in the third space—the liminal zone where identities, systems, and possibilities collide and transform. As the founding director of the University of Washington’s Q Center, Jen reimagined what it means to create community healing spaces by centering a queer intersectional praxis. Jen knows that macro changes take place in our everyday decisions and actions. Their career spans decades of racial and gender justice work as a therapist, educator, strategist, program innovator, and truth sayer, navigating—and disrupting—institutions to make them more humane and transformative. Jen’s current projects include writing everything from maps on napkins to a memoir, co-leading The Racial Healing Project, and co-creating the Queer Leadership Lab.

Ariyah Jané is a Black Trans-Woman from Montgomery, Alabama. Deeply rooted in her diverse background, her artistry spans Musical Theatre, Gospel, and Blues. She has performed in celebrated productions like Ain’t Misbehavin’, graced the iconic stage of Carnegie Hall, and shared the stage with top contestants on the 2019 Sunday’s Best Tour. In 2024, she released her debut EP, Dear Ariyah. Beyond her musical achievements, Ariyah is the founder and CEO of Muses and Moguls, a creative support network for independent and emerging artists navigating the challenges of the entertainment industry. She is a passionate advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community and focuses on public service, housing, and healthcare advocacy for queer and gender non-conforming individuals.

Bryanna Jenkins (she/her) is the Policy Director at Lavender Rights Project. Ms. Jenkins received her B.S. from Morgan State University, her M.A. from the University of Baltimore, and her J.D. from DePaul University College of Law. Ms. Jenkins also published Birth Certificate with a Benefit: Using LGBTQ Jurisprudence to Make the Argument for a Transgender Person’s Constitutional Right to Amended Identity Documents in the CUNY Law Review. Prior to law school Bryanna founded and led The Baltimore Transgender Alliance and organized the cities first Baltimore Transgender Uprising March in 2015. Bryanna is also the Vice Chair of the National Bar Association’s LGBTQ Division.

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Is there a current law on the books that you disagree with? How about ten?

In Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America, New York Times bestselling author and legal analyst Elie Mystal argues not only that ten pieces of legislation are making life worse for millions of Americans but that they should be repealed completely.

On topics ranging from immigration to gun rights to abortion and religious freedom, Mystal asserts that these are the worst of our ordinances and that the laws by which our nation is governed do not always reflect the will of the people. Dissecting these laws through a critical lens, Mystal also addresses how these laws intersect with and impact race, class, gender, and other social identities.

Even though people in power made these laws, Mystal reasons that these laws can — and should — be unmade. Bad Law aims to examine the status quo and serve as a clarion call for future reform.

Elie Mystal is the New York Times bestselling author of Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution (The New Press) as well as The Nation’s legal analyst and justice correspondent, and the legal editor of the More Perfect podcast on the Supreme Court for Radiolab. He is an Alfred Knobler Fellow at Type Media Center, and a frequent guest on MSNBC and Sirius XM.

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Around the world and throughout history, bitter political adversaries have put aside their differences and worked together to create peace.

In a conversation moderated by Jillian Youngblood, Executive Director of Civic Genius, hear two extraordinary leaders tell how they helped transform South Africa into a multiracial democracy, and what their experiences can teach us. Roelf Meyer is renowned for his pivotal role as the South African government’s chief representative in the negotiations to end Apartheid. Mohammed Bhabha was on the African National Congress team at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), and later part of the agreements on the final South African Constitution. They’ll offer hard-won lessons on working across profound differences, and inspiration for healing divides at home.

Roelf Meyer (South Africa) is renowned for his pivotal role as the South African government’s chief representative in the negotiations to end apartheid and establish a multiracial democracy. His influence in persuading the National Party and the Afrikaner community to embrace negotiations and pursue a more just society is credited as crucial to South Africa’s peaceful transition. Meyer’s significant contributions extend to his involvement in the cabinet of former President Nelson Mandela, co-founding the United Democratic Movement, and consulting on international peace processes in various countries.

Mohammed Bhabha (South Africa) is a former Member of Parliament, attorney, and experienced negotiator. He was part of the African National Congress (ANC) team at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), and later as part of the agreements on the final South African Constitution. Mohammed has worked on transitional and constitutional support projects in Kenya, South Sudan, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Palestine, Bahrain, and Zimbabwe.

Jillian Youngblood (United States) is the executive director of Civic Genius, a program of the National Civic League. She has nearly 20 years of experience in politics, government, and civic action with a focus on deliberative democracy and solutions-oriented public engagement. Jillian is a frequent speaker and trainer on innovative processes that help governments and communities work better together. She sits on the board of the Seattle City Club and is a 2024 fellow of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle, William D. Ruckelshaus Center, and Civic Genius.

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Seattle home prices are notoriously sky-high, making this city a difficult place to afford and move to. How did Seattle and other U.S. cities become that way? Or, as historian and journalist Yoni Appelbaum puts it, how did the U.S. cease to be the land of opportunity? Pulling from his book, Stuck, Appelbaum explores how housing affects the very fabric of our society.

For 200 years, people in the U.S. moved to new places for economic and social opportunity. But, Appelbaum argues that not only is this American Dream becoming more inaccessible, it hasn’t been available to many for a long time. He explains how zoning laws stopped people from moving, including the legal segregation of Jewish workers in New York’s Lower East Side and the private-sector discrimination and racist public policy that trapped Black families in Flint, Michigan. These efforts, Appelbaum says, have raised housing prices, deepened political divides, emboldened bigots, and trapped generations of people in poverty. And now, he argues, we are stuck––literally unable to move.

While Seattle may be an expensive place to live, it’s a common story all over the country. Appelbaum describes what caused these problems and lays out ways to get people moving again.

Yoni Appelbaum is a deputy executive editor of The Atlantic and a social and cultural historian of the United States. Before joining The Atlantic, he was a lecturer on history and literature at Harvard University. He previously taught at Babson College and at Brandeis University, where he received his PhD in American history.

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“If you want to make change, you’ve got to make noise.”

A call to action in the political sense conveys boldness and focus. It’s about drawing attention and speaking loudly about one’s convictions, with a sense of urgency and persistence. To longtime outspoken advocate and US Senator Ron Wyden, that’s what you’d call chutzpah – and his upcoming book sets out to inspire that same quality of action-driven audacity in Americans of all ages.

It Takes Chutzpah: How to Fight Fearlessly for Progressive Change acts as a reflection of Wyden’s decades of public service and as a motivational manifesto to push people forward. Noted throughout his career in government for championing civil rights, sensible ideas, and strategic alliances that strive to get pressing bills passed, Wyden understands the importance of strong, loud community and charting new pathways. In It Takes Chutzpah, Wyden explores the long history of the Yiddish word chutzpah, the many interpretations of it across Jewish culture, and how he sees the trait as a tool to reclaim idealism and enact positive change.

Wyden compels individuals and groups alike to look at the objectives before them with this boldness in mind, as well as conviction in their values. Wyden touches on the importance of free speech, healthcare, reproductive rights, a clean environment, and regulating the impacts of Big Tech throughout his political tenure. He explores how campaigning for the preservation of those values has been bolstered over the years– and even offers “Ron’s 12 Rules of Chutzpah” as a guide to defying convention and achieving progress. It Takes Chutzpah stresses that unapologetic volume and the nerve to keep fighting can prove crucial in accomplishing goals, creating allies, and moving brazenly forward together.

Ron Wyden is an American politician and longtime advocate in the areas of civil rights, internet freedom, healthcare, and more. He currently serves as the senior United States senator from Oregon and Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance. He has previously held positions in the U.S. House of Representatives and as the Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

State Representative Liz Berry represents Washington’s 36th Legislative District, located in the shadow of Seattle’s Space Needle. She is a passionate advocate for ending gun violence, combating plastic pollution, and standing up for working families and consumers against powerful special interests. A lifelong champion for women in leadership and reproductive justice, Rep. Berry served as president of the National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington and as a board member for Pro-Choice Washington. She is the former Legislative Director to U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords. Rep. Berry lives with her husband and two young children in Queen Anne.

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You’ve probably been there: doomscrolling or otherwise distracted by devices. Many of us have lost focus before as our addictive phones consume our time or interfere with social situations. People bump into one another on the street, look down at their phones at restaurants, or check their mobile devices while spending time with the kids as continuous pings sound off in their pockets and purses. New York Times bestselling author, political commentator, and MSNBC news anchor Chris Hayes posits that these phenomena are part of a larger issue of attention capitalism, and show how attention itself has been taken from us and turned into a commodity.

His latest release, The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource, charts how the deliberate harvesting of human attention by wealthy companies has fundamentally changed news, politics, and leisure time. As society grows increasingly unable to concentrate, the consequences can be serious, and hold implications for what lies ahead.

The Sirens’ Call aims to provide a holistic framework as well as steps people can take to regain control of their own lives and futures, overcoming what Hayes refers to as “the little attention box” that continues to dominate much of our existence.

Chris Hayes is the Emmy Award–winning host of All In With Chris Hayes on MSNBC and the New York Times bestselling author of A Colony in a Nation and Twilight of the Elites. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and children.

Luke Burbank hosts the public radio variety show “Live Wire” as well as the daily podcast “TBTL” and is a Correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning. He grew up near Greenlake in Seattle and jumps at any opportunity to come visit his hometown.

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Step into the in-between. This segment dives into the rich, transformative power of liminal spaces—those borders and boundaries where identities and experiences defy tidy categories. Our speakers will share deeply personal stories of hybridity, multiplicity, and fluidity, offering insights from lives lived beyond the binary. These talks challenge conventional thinking and celebrate the voices of those who have always thrived in the margins. Don’t miss this bold exploration of the spaces where possibility begins.

About Queering Talks

From the beginning, Town Hall has been a space for meeting the needs of our city—hosting concerts, book talks, and new ways to connect. This January, we’re thrilled to launch Queering Talks: In Between, Out in Front, Always Been, curated by Dr. Jen Self (they/them), founder of the UW Q Center. This bold new series reimagines the traditional lecture format through a queer lens, challenging ideas about who speaks, who listens, and who is centered. Built around three themes—In Between (exploring fluid identities and spaces), Out in Front (centering changemakers leading justice and equality movements), and Always Been (highlighting the historic contributions of queer visionaries)—this series promises to inspire, expand perspectives, and celebrate inclusivity. Join us in sparking meaningful conversations and building a community that values growth and connection.

Read more on our blog: https://townhallseattle.org/queering-talks/

Darrow Brown lives at the crowded intersection of Black, gay, male, spouse, parent, and friend. Public service employee, therapist, DJ and recent East Coast transplant are some of the busy and sometimes pothole-filled intersecting streets. Darrow gnaws, perhaps chronically, on what it means to embrace and sit with perfect imperfection. He uses storytelling – his self-proclaimed superpower – to build connections and help develop fertile relationships and thriving human beings.

Thai Nguyen was born and raised in the 206 in West Seattle, occupying the straight mess of being a queer-cis male. Thai works as a peer counselor and an aspiring social worker. He focuses on lived experience as a means to break down barriers and reimagine social norms. Thai seeks to spotlight authentic community experiences and needs to diversify our dreams for the world we could build for each other.

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Did you know that the Seattle Public Library offers any U.S. resident, ages 13-26, a free “Books Unbanned Card,” which allows you to check out any e-books or e-audiobooks from the Library’s digital collection, no matter where you live? This is just one example of how people are resisting new restrictions on information and education across the country. In his new book, Teach Truth, Seattle educator and author Jesse Hagopian discusses these restrictions and offers advice on how to defend antiracist education.

Hagopian outlines how numerous states and school districts in recent years have enacted policies or laws mandating how to teach about systemic racism and oppression—policies that impact nearly half of all students in the U.S. Thousands of books have been banned from schools. Teachers face termination, attacks, and disciplinary action. You can be punished, including jail time, for providing access to a banned book. These new changes have old roots in McCarthyism’s Red Scare and Lavender Scare. They have strongholds in U.S. history.

But there is also strong pushback. Hagopian shows how the fight against them also has a rich legacy, from the resistance to anti-literacy laws for enslaved people to the Black Lives Matter at School movement today. Hagopian calls to defend antiracist education, showing how to reclaim suppressed history by creating beloved classroom communities and healthy social movements.

Jesse Hagopian has taught in public schools for over 20 years, serves on the Black Lives Matter at School steering committee, organizes for the Zinn Education Project, and founded the Ethnic Studies course at Seattle’s Garfield High School. He is an editor for Rethinking Schools magazine, the co-editor of Black Lives Matter at School and Teaching for Black Lives, and the editor of More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing.

Dr. Ayva Thomas is a P-12 education and systems leader in and beyond her local community. She has been a speaker, panelist, and thought partner for events like the Zinn Education Project’s Teaching for Black Lives campaign, the City of Bothell’s DEI work, and the City of Kenmore’s Juneteenth Celebration.

Wayne Au is Dean and Professor in the University of Washington Bothell School of Educational Studies, and he is an editor for the social justice teaching magazine, Rethinking Schools. A former public high school teacher, he writes and speaks about racial justice in education. Au’s most recent book is Asian American Racialization and the Politics of U.S. Education.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Seattle Public Library.

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After the U.S. elected Barack Obama its first Black president in 2008, some assumed that this signaled a post-racial America. However, subsequent and serious incidents suggested this was not the case, inciting what some came to know as a second civil rights movement.

Political correspondent, journalist, and historian Juan Williams explores this phenomenon in his latest release New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America’s Second Civil Rights Movement. Who are the heroes of this movement? Where is it headed? What distinguishes it from its predecessor? Williams aims to answer these questions, exploring demographic changes, the rise and role of social media, and other critical shifts in the economic and cultural landscape.

The author traces the arc of this new civil rights era, touching on subjects like the Obama presidency, Charlottesville, January 6th, and a Confederate flag in the Capitol. Exploring both past and present, New Prize for These Eyes will be of interest to historians or anyone concerned about America’s future. It encourages citizens to learn about the progress the nation has made, as well as obstacles that have yet to be overcome.

Juan Williams is is a prizewinning journalist and historian. He is the author of the bestselling civil rights history Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954–1965, which accompanied the PBS series of the same name. He also wrote the landmark biography of the first African American on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary, as well as the New York Times bestsellers Enough and Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate. Williams worked for The Washington Post as a celebrated national political correspondent, White House correspondent, and editorial writer. His NPR talk show took ratings to a new high. He has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Ebony. He is currently senior political analyst for Fox News Channel and a columnist for The Hill.

Enrique Cerna calls himself a recovering broadcast journalist. He worked in Seattle media for more than four decades. Cerna was a reporter, producer and host for KOMO Radio and Television, KING Television and KCTS Public Television. In February 2018, he retired from his role as senior correspondent with KCTS. Still, he remains active as the co-host of the Chino Y Chicano and UNFILTERED podcasts. Cerna has earned ten Northwest Regional Emmy awards. In May 2022, Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication inducted him into its Hall of Achievement. Since March 2020, he has been a member of the WSU Board of Regents. He also serves as vice president for the Seattle Chapter of the National Hispanic Journalist’s Association.

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In America today, reports show that food insecurity is a pressing issue for over 35 million people. With rising grocery prices, inflation, and the lasting impacts of the pandemic—understanding the complexities of hunger has never been more imperative. Mariana Chilton explores this issue in the book, The Painful Truth about Hunger in America: Why We Must Unlearn Everything We Think We Know—and Start Again with some new insights and perspectives.

Mariana Chilton is an author, professor, and founder of the Drexel University — Center for Hunger-Free Communities. In The Painful Truth About Hunger in America, Chilton takes a radical and urgent new approach to addressing hunger and poverty in the US. Where traditionally researchers, policymakers, and advocates have approached providing food through donations or non-profit organizations, Chilton focuses on the fundamental structures which she asserts have a keen interest in maintaining food stratification.

Chilton suggests that the solution to food insecurity lies beyond providing food itself and will have to take both a political and spiritual approach in fixing this crisis. Drawing on 25 years of research, programming, and advocacy efforts, Chilton argues that food insecurity is created and maintained by those in power. To demonstrate her point, Chilton calls back to the original wounds suffered in this country — through a history of colonization, genocide, and enslavement. Drawing on intimate interviews she has conducted with many Black and Brown women, Chilton sheds light on the experience of hunger as linked with trauma and gender-based violence, violence with the natural world, and with ourselves.

The Painful Truth about Hunger in America not only reinvigorates our commitment to uprooting the causes of poverty and discrimination but also points to a more generative and humane world where everyone can be nourished.

Mariana Chilton, PhD, MPH, is a Professor at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health and Director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities, a research and advocacy center focused on addressing hunger and economic insecurity. She founded Witnesses to Hunger, a movement amplifying women’s voices in the fight against poverty, and leads the Building Wealth and Health Network, which promotes entrepreneurship in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Her work on food insecurity, trauma, and human rights has influenced national policies, and she has advised Congress, Sesame Street, and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Chilton’s research has been featured in major media outlets, including The Washington Post and CBS News.

Agueda Pacheco Flores is a Seattle-based freelancer with a focus on culture, arts, Southend communities, and the Latinx diaspora. Her work has been featured in The Seattle Times, The South Seattle Emerald, Remezcla, and more. You can find her on X @AguedaPachecOH.

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If there is one thing on our collective minds these days, it is the issue of politics. But for all the interest it piques, much of it remains a mystery to the American public. Bestselling author and journalist Casey Michel, who tackled the problem of financial corruption in his first book American Kleptocracy, sheds light on an issue that may be unknown to those outside the Capitol.

In Michel’s new book Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World, he details how one group has worked as foot soldiers for authoritarian, repressive regimes. In the process, they’ve not only established dictatorships and spread kleptocratic networks, but they’ve successfully guided U.S. policy without the rest of America being aware. And now, Michel asserts, some of them have begun turning their sights on American democracy itself.

These Americans are known as foreign lobbyists, and many of them spent years laundering reputations and getting cozy in Washington with dictatorships. Michel writes of foreign lobbyists throughout history–including those who built alliances with Mussolini and the Nazis, but also contemporary Americans: in law firms and consultancies, among PR specialists and former lawmakers, and even within think tanks and universities. Foreign Agents illuminates these figures past and present and determines that they pose a threat to the future of American democracy.

Casey Michel is an author, journalist, and director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program with the Human Rights Foundation. He is the author of American Kleptocracy, named by The Economist as one of the “best books to read to understand financial crime.” His writing on offshoring, foreign lobbying, authoritarianism, and illicit wealth has appeared in Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and The Washington Post, among other outlets, and he has appeared on NPR, BBC, CNN, and MSNBC, among other stations. He has also testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the links between illicit financial networks and national security. He received his Master’s degree in Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies from Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in northern Kazakhstan. Foreign Agents is his second book.

Dr. Katy E. Pearce is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington and holds affiliations with the University of Washington’s Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies and the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public. She is the chair of the Communication and Technology Division of the International Communication Association and is an associate editor at the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Her research focuses on social and political uses of technologies and digital content in the transitioning democracies and semi-authoritarian states of the South Caucasus and Central Asia, but primarily Armenia and Azerbaijan.

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Professor of Political Science Paul Pierson, discusses his new book Partisan Nation. Co-authored with Eric Schickler, this book explores the roots of America’s democratic crisis, highlighting how the mismatch between the Constitution and today’s nationalized, partisan politics has destabilized American democracy. Pierson offers a fresh perspective on contemporary polarization, explaining how it has evolved from past eras and become self-perpetuating. Pierson and Schickler’s work dives into the changing dynamics of state parties, interest groups, and media since the 1960s, showing how these shifts have intensified political conflict. They also caution about the vulnerability of the American political system to authoritarian movements, particularly within the contemporary Republican Party. This talk is for anyone seeking to understand the current challenges facing American governance and democracy.

Paul Pierson is the John Gross Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative. He is the author or coauthor of six books, including Winner-Take-All Politics, Let Them Eat Tweets and Politics in Time.

Megan Ming Francis is the G. Alan and Barbara Delsman Associate Professor of Political Science and an Associate Professor of Law, Societies, and Justice at the University of Washington. Francis specializes in the study of American politics, with broad interests in criminal punishment, Black political activism, philanthropy, and the post-Civil War South.

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What can professional risk-takers — poker players and hedge fund managers, crypto true believers and blue-chip art collectors— teach us much about navigating the uncertainty of the twenty-first century?

In the bestselling The Signal and the Noise, statistician Nate Silver showed how forecasting would define the age of Big Data. Now, in his timely and riveting new book, On the Edge, Silver investigates “The River,” or those whose mastery of risk allows them to shape — and dominate — so much of modern life. People in “The River” have increasing amounts of wealth and power in our society, and understanding their mindset — including the flaws in their thinking — is key to understanding what drives technology and the global economy today. There are certain commonalities in this otherwise diverse group: high tolerance for risk, appreciation of uncertainty, affinity for numbers, skill at decoupling, self-reliance, and a distrust of conventional wisdom. For those in The River, complexity is baked in, and the work is how to navigate it, without going beyond the pale.

Taking us behind the scenes from casinos to venture capital firms, and from the FTX inner sanctum to meetings of the effective altruism movement, On the Edge is a deeply reported, all-access journey into a hidden world of power brokers and risk-takers.

Nate Silver is the founder of FiveThirtyEight and the New York Times bestselling author of The Signal and the Noise. He writes the Substack Silver Bulletin.

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Democracy in a Hotter Time calls for reforming democratic institutions as a prerequisite for avoiding climate chaos and adapting governance to how Earth works as a physical system. To survive in the “long emergency” ahead, the book suggests ways to reform and strengthen democratic institutions, making them assets rather than liabilities. Edited by David W. Orr, this collection of essays proposes a new political order that would enable humanity to thrive in the transition to a post-fossil fuel world.

Orr gathers leading scholars, public intellectuals, and political leaders to address the many problems confronting our current political systems. Few other books have taken a systems view of the effects of a rapidly destabilizing climate on our laws and governance or offered such a diversity of solutions. These thoughtful and incisive essays cover subjects from Constitutional reform to participatory urban design to education; together, they aim to invigorate the conversation about the human future in practical ways that will improve the effectiveness of democratic institutions and lay the foundation for a more durable and just democracy.

David W. Orr is Professor of Practice at Arizona State University and Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics Emeritus at Oberlin College. He is the author of eight books, including Dangerous Years: Climate Change, the Long Emergency, and the Way Forward and Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse. He is a founder of the Atlanta Environmental Symposium, the Meadowcreek Project, the Oberlin Project, the journal Solutions, and of the State of American Democracy Project. He headed the effort to design, fund, and build the Adam Joseph Lewis Center which was named by an AIA panel in 2010 as “the most important green building of the past thirty years.” His current work at Arizona State University is on the repair and strengthening American democracy.

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In his new book, Decade of Disunion, Robert W. Merry explores the critical lessons from the 1850s when the United States faced a growing crisis over slavery.

The Mexican War’s vast new territories sparked debates on expanding slavery, clashing with the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Key events such as the Compromise of 1850, the 1854 repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the 1857 Dred Scott decision, and John Brown’s 1859 raid heightened tensions, leading to violent conflicts and further division between North and South.

Merry focuses on the contrasting roles of South Carolina and Massachusetts. South Carolina, reliant on slave labor, debated secession, while Massachusetts became an antislavery stronghold, questioning the Constitution’s role in abolishing slavery. These states’ actions widened the national divide, making disunion inevitable. In December 1860, South Carolina’s secession following Abraham Lincoln’s election triggered the South’s departure from the Union. Through the lens of key figures, Merry underscores the fragile nature of democracy and the continuous effort required to sustain it.

Robert W. Merry spent 45 years in Washington, D.C., as a Wall Street Journal reporter and executive at Congressional Quarterly, including 12 years as CQ’s president and editor-in-chief. After CQ was sold to the Economist, he also served as editor of the polemical magazines The National Interest and The American Conservative. He is the author of six books on American history and foreign policy, including the forthcoming Decade of Disunion: How Massachusetts and South Carolina Led the Way to Civil War, 1849-1861.

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Sequim––a quiet, coastal community just a couple hours away from Seattle––may seem like an unlikely microcosm for the rise of far-right politics. And yet, political journalist Sasha Abramsky has closely followed small-town communities, including Sequim, and argues that places like these have directly influenced current national politics. How could small-town USA be so instrumental in today’s political climate, including Donald Trump’s 2024 Republican presidential nomination?

Abramsky argues that the far-right have worked to take control, using suspicion, conspiracy, and bigotry, and forming alliances of QAnoners, anti-vaxxers, Christian nationalists, and militia supporters within small towns across the country. Stemming from his latest book, Chaos Comes Calling, he investigates the rise of the far-right, telling the parallel stories of recent years in two communities: Shasta County, California and Sequim, Washington.

The ultimate fates of these two towns were different though. Abramsky shows how Sequim has returned to less extreme political views, while Shasta County has descended further into intolerance and divisiveness. He highlights the differences between the communities, including the efforts to organize against the far-right movement.

Places like Sequim may be small, but they may have huge ramifications in the national political scene. Abramsky believes there’s a path forward from polarization that threatens to break apart communities, and towns as close as Sequim can show us how.

Sasha Abramsky is a long-time political journalist and book author who has spent the last thirty years exploring the American political and social justice landscape. He has written extensively on poverty, criminal justice, immigration, and the rise of hard-right and alt-right political movements.

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Some Americans fear the Federal Constitution falls short in addressing democratic threats, yet it’s long been revered for its ideals of liberty and equality. Join us at Town Hall Seattle for a discussion with Aziz Rana, Michael Hardt, and Jaleh Mansoor about Rana’s book, The Constitutional Bind, exploring how this flawed document gained mythic status and its impact on society.

Rana contends this reverence emerged in the 20th century alongside US global dominance, shaping both domestic and foreign policy. Discover how this cultural phenomenon has hindered meaningful change while silencing an array of movement activists — in Black, Indigenous, feminist, labor, and immigrant politics — who struggled to imagine different constitutional horizons. Gain insights into alternative constitutional futures at this thought-provoking event in collaboration with Red May.

Aziz Rana is an American legal scholar and author who currently serves as Richard and Lois Cole Professor of Law at Cornell University specializing in American constitutional law.

Michael Hardt teaches political theory in the Literature Program at Duke University. He is co-author, with Antonio Negri, of the Empire trilogy and, most recently, Assembly. He is co-director with Sandro Mezzadra of The Social Movements Lab.

Jaleh Mansoor is an associate professor of art history at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, where she teaches modern and contemporary art history with an emphasis on Post WWII European art.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Red May.

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Over the past decade, charitable crowdfunding has exploded in popularity across the globe. Sites such as GoFundMe, which now boasts a “global community of over 100 million” users, have transformed the ways we seek and offer help. When faced with crises—especially medical ones—Americans are turning to online platforms that promise to connect them to the charity of the crowd. What does this new phenomenon reveal about the changing ways we seek and provide healthcare? In Crowded Out, Nora Kenworthy examines how charitable crowdfunding so quickly overtook public life, where it is taking us, and who gets left behind by this new platformed economy.

Although crowdfunding has become ubiquitous in our lives, it is often misunderstood: rather than a friendly free market “powered by the kindness” of strangers, crowdfunding is powerfully reinforcing inequalities and changing the way Americans think about and access healthcare. Drawing on extensive research and rich storytelling, Crowded Out demonstrates how crowdfunding for health is fueled by—and further reinforces—financial and moral “toxicities” in market-based healthcare systems. It offers a unique and distressing look beneath the surface of some of the most popular charitable platforms and helps to foster thoughtful discussions of how we can better respond to healthcare crises both small and large.

Nora Kenworthy is Associate Professor at the University of Washington Bothell. She is the author and editor of several books, and her writing has appeared in the American Journal of Public Health, Social Science and Medicine, PLOS One, Scientific American, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.

Marcus Harrison Green is a columnist for The Seattle Times. A long-time Seattle native, he is the founder of the South Seattle Emerald, which focuses on telling the stories of South Seattle and its residents.

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Traffic, parking, gas prices, miles per gallon- many casual concerns might enter your mind when you get into your car and go out into the world. But what happens when your concerns are not casual but constant, and they start with figuring out whether you can even access where you’re trying to go in the first place?

One-third of people living in the United States don’t have a driver’s license, yet live in a system that doesn’t prioritize people who don’t or can’t drive. In her book When Driving is Not an Option: Steering Away From Car Dependency, Anna Letitia Zivarts sets out to explain why factoring nondrivers into planning decisions and improvements across our transportation system will create a better quality of life for everyone.

Drawing from interviews with involuntary nondrivers from around the United States and from her own lived experience, Zivarts explores the realities nondrivers face in a car-centric society. The majority of involuntary nondrivers nationwide are disabled, lower income, unhoused, undocumented, formerly incarcerated, very young, or elderly. These populations face significant financial and accessibility barriers attempting to navigate a transportation system that suffers from a major blind spot towards them- it’s a system designed and run by people who can drive.

When Driving is Not an Option evaluates the human health, environmental, and quality-of-life costs of our current systems and what changing them to be more equitable and accessible could look like for everyone- car user or not. In conversation with cycling policy leader Barb Chamberlain and fellow disability advocate Tanisha Sepúlveda, Zivarts touches on levels of change that could create expansive impacts- from accessible and affordable transit and housing to promoting diverse leadership, from sidewalk connectivity to creating more opportunities for biking, scooting, and wheeling. By acting on the needs of nondrivers who are frequently excluded from the conversation, Zivarts posits that more supportive structures and healthier, climate-conscious communities could be right around the corner.

Anna Zivarts is an author, organizer, disability advocate, and low-vision nondriver. She launched and currently serves as the Program Director of the Disability Mobility Initiative at Disability Rights Washington. She represents disabled nondrivers on the Washington State Active Transportation Council and previously served as the equity and accessibility expert on NHTSA’s Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Program Assessment teams for Kentucky and Maryland.

Barb Chamberlain is the Director of the Active Transportation Division of the Washington State Department of Transportation. She is a long-time proponent of active transportation safety, equity, and accessibility, previously serving as the executive director of the nonprofit Washington Bikes. Her work has been recognized with regional, state, and national awards.

Tanisha Sepúlveda is a program coordinator for Empower Movement WA, a coalition of BIPOC and disabled mobility advocates supported by Disability Rights Washington and Front and Centered.

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Government-backed guarantees, from bailouts to bankruptcy protection, help keep the private sector in business in our nation’s economic system. What if the same were true not only for businesses but for individuals as well?

In her new book The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy, Natalie Foster, co-founder and president of the Economic Security Project, invites readers to envision a future where things like housing, health care, higher education, family care, inheritance, and an income floor are not only attainable for everyone but guaranteed by our government. The book blends economics, business, public policy, and social justice and calls for a shift from unchecked capitalism to a country that serves all of its people.

The Guarantee examines the changes in government guarantees over the past decade, from student debt relief to the child tax credit expansion. Foster’s vision for a new American Guarantee draws from real-life experiences as well as collaborations with activists and visionaries. The Guarantee argues not only that new policies are possible, but that they are ready to implement in twenty-first-century America.

Natalie Foster is a leading architect of the movement to build an inclusive and resilient economy. She is the president and co-founder of Economic Security Project and an Aspen Institute Fellow, and her work and writing have appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, Time, Business Insider, CNN, and The Guardian. Natalie speaks regularly on economic security, the future of work, and the new political economy. Natalie previously founded the sharing economy community Peers and co-founded Rebuild the Dream with Van Jones, and served as Digital Director for President Obama’s Organizing for America — a leading partner in winning transformative healthcare reform. A daughter of a preacher from Kansas, Natalie draws on the values of community, dignity, and optimism to build a better America. The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy is her first book.

Angela Garbes is the author of Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change, called “a landmark and a lightning storm” by the New Yorker. Essential Labor was named a Best Book of 2022 by both the New Yorker and NPR. Her first book, Like a Mother, was also an NPR Best Book of the Year. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, New York Magazine, and featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noahand Fresh Air with Terry Gross. A first-generation Filipina American, Garbes lives with her family on Beacon Hill.

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Technology pioneers like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft (to name a few) are woven into the fabric of Seattle’s economy. Yet, on a day-to-day basis, how much do you think about what these techno giants mean for the future of our world? With such enormous amounts of influence and money, how are these powers shaping our world today? Economist and journalist Loretta Napoleoni digs into these questions.

At the dawn of the digital revolution, people thought the internet was going to be the great equalizer, a global democratic force. Napoleoni argues that instead, Wall Street funded a new breed of capitalists, the “Techtitans,” who embraced rapid, transformational change while stripping their workers of rights and enriching themselves. Those who control and own the technology are the absolute masters, in Napoleoni’s eye.

In her book, Technocapitalism: The Rise of the New Robber Barons and the Fight for the Common Good, Napoleoni describes how these phenomena are the beginning of a new world model, born in a period of extraordinary change and acceleration––from the FTX collapse to AI, private space companies to the war in Ukraine, from inflation to the environmental impacts of EV car batteries. The ubiquity of techno giants in Seattle makes it easy to forget what kind of power resides in this city. Napoleoni wants to shed light on the kind of power it really is, and how we can fight against it for our common good to address today’s challenges.

In the mid-70s Loretta Napoleoni became an active member of the feminist movement in Italy, and later studied as a Fulbright Scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. She began her career as an economist and went on to work as a London correspondent and columnist for La Stampa, La Repubblica, and La Paîs. Napoleoni is the author of the international bestsellers Rogue Economics: Capitalism’s New Reality and Terror Incorporated: Tracing the Money Behind Global Terrorism. She has served as Chairman of the countering terrorism financing group for the Club de Madrid, and lectures regularly around the world on economics, money laundering, and terrorism.

Ross Reynolds loves conversation and learning. He hosted a public radio news/talk show on KUOW Seattle called The Conversation for 13 years. He’s also been a radio program director, news director, and executive producer of community engagement. He is a public event convener, moderator, and interviewer.

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In April 2020, when the world was in the early months of COVID-19, you may remember the televised concert that Lady Gaga hosted called “One World: Together At Home.”

This star-studded show was put together by Global Citizen, an international social justice organization that used the program to promote and support healthcare workers and the World Health Organization. The program was remarkable in harnessing pop culture to promote social justice issues. Michael Sheldrick, a co-founder of Global Citizen, believes leaders must adopt concepts like this to tackle the challenges in today’s fractionalized culture.

Drawing from real-life examples, Sheldrick shares this strategy in his book, From Ideas to Impact: A Playbook for Influencing and Implementing Change in a Divided World. Sheldrick identifies key characteristics of successful change makers: they are leaders who are practical implementers, connectors, and networkers. Sheldrick also has concrete advice, such as avoiding demands for unwavering loyalty and winning arguments at all costs. He outlines step-by-step tools to foster connections and cooperation and examines past and current movements that have made lasting impacts.

Sheldrick believes that it’ll take huge social changes to make an impact on today’s biggest challenges. Lady Gaga’s online concert in April 2020 was one example of how Sheldrick puts this into action. Now, he wants to share his toolkit with individual changemakers, philanthropists, professionals, corporate foundations, and students. These are the people, Sheldrick argues, who can drive the real solutions in our tumultuous world.

Michael Sheldrick is a policy entrepreneur and Co-Founder and Chief Policy, Impact, and Government Affairs Officer at Global Citizen, where he spearheads campaigns to eradicate extreme poverty by rallying support from governments, businesses, and foundations. With a unique career bridging pop culture and policy, he has collaborated with renowned artists like Beyoncé, Coldplay, Lady Gaga, and political figures including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Sheldrick has co-produced influential social campaigns and events like the Global Citizen Festival in New York and the Guinness World Record-winning virtual concert One World: Together At Home, reaching millions worldwide and securing over forty billion in commitments.

Dr. Paulin Basinga leads the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s work in Africa. Previously, as the foundation’s director of health for Africa, Paulin led a team that developed and implemented country plans to advance the foundation’s health priorities in Africa. Earlier, he was the foundation’s country director in Nigeria, where he re-established critical partnerships and advanced the foundation’s health, nutrition, agriculture, gender, and financial inclusion priorities and aligned them with the Nigerian government’s Human Capital Development Agenda.

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Have you ever thought what #FakeNews might have looked like 200 years ago?

While we may be experiencing a new era of disinformation, the tactics aren’t necessarily original. Drawing from their latest book, Stories Are Weapons, journalist and science fiction author Annalee Newitz traces back in history how disinformation, propaganda, and violent threats — all elements of psychological warfare — have evolved into tools of today’s domestic culture wars.

Newitz argues that America has a deep-rooted history with psychological operations. Beginning with Benjamin Franklin’s Revolutionary War–era fake newspaper, then the nineteenth-century wars on Indigenous nations, Newitz follows disinformation to its peak of today’s online influence campaigns. Newitz zeroes in on conflicts over race and intelligence, school board fights over LGBTQ students, and campaigns against feminist viewpoints to show how damaging our cultural storytelling can be. Newitz argues that, in each case, specific groups of Americans are singled out and treated as enemies of the state.

Newitz also shares their insights from speaking with the researchers and activists who are pushing against these stories, working toward psychological disarmament and cultural peace. Since #FakeNews isn’t a new concept, Newitz believes we can learn from history and build a better story.

Annalee Newitz is a journalist and author of science fiction and nonfiction, including the national best-seller Four Lost Cities. They write for the New York Times and New Scientist and co-host the Hugo Award–winning podcast Our Opinions Are Correct. They live in San Francisco.

Lindy West is the co-host of the NPR podcast Text Me Back and author of the movie newsletter Butt News. She is a former contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, and is the author of Shit, Actually, the New York Times bestselling memoir Shrill, and the essay collection The Witches Are Coming. Her work has also appeared in This American Life, The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, GQ, Vulture, Jezebel, and others. She is the co-founder of the reproductive rights destigmatization campaign #ShoutYourAbortion. Lindy was a writer and executive producer on Shrill, the Hulu comedy adapted from her memoir. She co-wrote and produced the independent feature film Thin Skin.

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Erratic weather, blistering drought, rising seas, and ecosystem collapse now affect every inch of the globe. Increasingly, we no longer look to stop climate change, choosing instead to adapt to it.

Academics call it maladaptation; simply, it’s about solutions that backfire. In his new book, Over the Seawall, Stephen Robert Miller tells us the stories behind these unintended consequences and the fixes that can do more harm than good. From seawalls in coastal Japan to the reengineered waters in the Ganges River Delta, to the artificial ribbon of water supporting both farms and urban centers in arid Arizona, Miller traces the histories of engineering marvels that were once deemed too smart and too big to fail.

In each story, Miller takes us into the land and culture, seeking out locals and experts to better understand how complicated, grandiose schemes led instead to failure, and to find answers to the technological holes we’ve dug ourselves into; urging us to take a hard look at the fortifications we build and how they’ve fared in the past. Miller embraces humanity’s penchant for problem-solving but argues that if we are to adapt successfully to climate change, we must recognize that working with nature is not surrender but the only way to assure a secure future.

Stephen Robert Miller is an award-winning independent journalist, author, and editor who covers climate change, environmental conservation and agriculture from his home in rural Colorado. His work appears in National Geographic, Discover Magazine, Audubon, The Guardian, and many others. Stephen was a 2018-2019 Ted Scripps Fellow. His new book, Over the Seawall, takes a global perspective on natural hazards and the challenges of adaptation to climate change. He has reported from across the U.S. and Canada, Southeast Asia, and the Arctic. He graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Arizona and was previously senior editor of environmental justice for YES! Magazine, as well as editor of a Seattle-based weekly newspaper.

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In 2018, there was a mass shooting with an AR-15 at a Waffle House. The racially charged act of violence led Dr. Jonathan M. Metzl, a Nashville-based gun policy scholar and author, to advocate for gun reform. But how can we stop gun violence in a nation that sees hundreds of mass shootings every year?

As Metzl examined the crime, he began having doubts about continuing to approach gun reform through the lens of public health that he had championed long before. The killings led him to examine the limitations of biomedical frameworks for fully diagnosing or treating the complexities of American gun politics. In his new book What We’ve Become: Living and Dying in a Country of Arms, Metzl discusses the long history of distrust of public health as well as larger forces—social, ideological, historical, racial, and political—that he argues allow mass shootings to occur on a near daily basis in America and become normalized.

What We’ve Become looks closely at the consequences of mass shootings in this country, the meanings of safety and community, and how obstacles like political gridlock impede progress toward ending these violent crimes. Metzl considers mass shootings to be a symptom of our most unresolved national conflicts and offers his views on what can make things right.

Jonathan Metzl is the Frederick B. Rentschler II professor of sociology and psychiatry and the director of the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University. The award-winning author of Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland and other books, he hails from Kansas City, Missouri, and lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Florangela Davila has been a journalist in Seattle since 1992. For 14 years she worked at The Seattle Times, covering race and immigration. She was the managing editor and Crosscut Now host at Cascade PBS. Most recently, she led the KNKX newsroom for four years. The child of immigrants from Colombia and Peru, she was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from UC Berkeley and Columbia University. She’s earned numerous individual and team journalism honors in print, online and broadcast, including a national Edward R. Murrow award for The Walk Home podcast.

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“If you make it trend, you make it true.”

The cycling of new and buzz-worthy information we face on a daily basis is faster than ever before. As new trends in information, politics, and culture are constantly updating, little time is left for critical analysis before the next headline hits the feed. And when those who hold the power to influence audiences and drive opinions in strategic directions stand to benefit, how does the public know what is based on evidence versus algorithm? In her new book Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality, author Renée DiResta sets out to examine the relationship between the people, their government, and the machinations of digital power dynamics.

Invisible Rulers details how public opinion has shifted from being based in belief in the fundamental institutions that make society work to being too easily shaped and sensationalized by the interplay between influencers, algorithms, and online crowds. Adaptation is always challenging but has become more time-sensitive as keener eyes are needed in our information landscape. These alternate systems for engaging with societal realities have become swiftly effective and in the swirling fog of who and what to believe, Renée DiResta advocates for not getting swept up in unexamined messaging. Through original analysis and a distinct voice on the subject of media literacy and trust, Invisible Rulers aims to highlight the risks and consequences of failing to critique leaders and propagandists in the age of rapidly shifting digital information.

Renée DiResta is a noted writer, researcher, and advisor in the fields of information integrity, media misinformation, and STEM education. She has served as the Director of Research at Yonder, a co-founder of Vaccinate California, and is currently the technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory. She is an Ideas Contributor at Wired and The Atlantic. Her writing and analysis can be found through The New York Times.

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Should Democrats be looking to the other side of the aisle for political strategy?

Political scientist and strategist Rachel Bitecofer seeks to explain the intricate dynamics of contemporary politics in her new book, Hit ’Em Where It Hurts. Seeking actionable strategies for Democrats to connect with voters and reclaim the narrative in a pivotal election year, Bitecofer dissects the strategies employed by Republican candidates, offering insights into how to counter these tactics and resonate with voters.

The political landscape often sees Republican candidates capitalizing on sentiments of anger, fear, and resentment, effectively swaying voter preferences away from the carefully articulated platforms of the Left. Bitecofer argues that Democrats should counter this tactic by positioning themselves as champions of freedom, health, wealth, safety, and common sense, presenting a stark contrast to the perceived extremism of the Right.

This politically charged but cautiously optimistic event will encourage voters to think critically about the future of our democracy and the role each of us can play in shaping it.

Rachel Bitecofer is a political scientist and election forecaster turned political strategist. Bitecofer’s interviews and analysis have been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon, Politico, The New Republic, Real Time with Bill Maher, CNN, MSNBC, and many other prominent news sources. She worked with Democratic Party candidates and organizations to implement negative partisanship strategy in the 2022 midterms.

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Delve into the complex tapestry of American politics with Juliet Hooker, the Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence in Political Science at Brown University. Hooker, known for her expertise in racial justice, democracy theories, and Black political thought, will unpack the themes of her latest book, Black Grief / White Grievance and offer a critical examination of white supremacy’s impact on the political landscape.

In her book, Hooker argues that white supremacy creates an environment in which a white majority grows accustomed to civic and political wins, while black citizens are expected to act as lone political martyrs on a long path to justice. For Hooker, the two most important forces driving racial politics in the United States today are Black grief and white grievance. Black grief is exemplified in current protests against police violence — the latest in a tradition of violent death and subsequent public mourning, spurring activism, meanwhile the politics of white grievance imagines the United States as a white country under siege.

Hooker will be joined by Megan Ming Francis, an Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Professor of Law, Societies, and Justice at the University of Washington. She specializes in the study of American politics, expanding into the realm of criminal punishment, Black political activism, and philanthropy. She is the author of the award-winning book, Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State.

Join Juliet Hooker with Megan Ming Francis for a conversation surrounding the expansion of the Black and white political imaginations. Hooker argues that both must learn to sit with loss, for different reasons, and to different ends.

Juliet Hooker is the Royce Family Professor of Teaching Excellence in Political Science at Brown University, where she teaches courses on racial justice, black political thought, Latin American political thought, democratic theory, and contemporary political theory.

Megan Ming Francis is the G. Alan and Barbara Delsman Associate Professor of Political Science and an Associate Professor of Law, Societies, and Justice at the University of Washington. Francis specializes in the study of American politics, with broad interests in constitutional law, Black political activism, critical philanthropy, and the post-Civil War South.

Buy the Book Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss Third Place Books

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Can a parliamentary democracy end America’s constitutional crisis?

It’s starting to feel to some people that American elections aren’t offering us much choice, instead compounding the continued issues of our outdated voting system and showing our lack of capacity to face common issues together.

In Parliamentary America, Maxwell L. Stearns argues that the solution to these complex problems is a parliamentary democracy. Stearns considers alternatives such as ranked choice voting, the national popular vote, and congressional term limits, showing why these can’t solve our constitutional crisis. Instead, three amendments—expanding the House of Representatives, having House party coalitions choose the president, and letting the House end a failing presidency based on no confidence—will produce a robust multiparty democracy. These amendments hold an essential advantage over other proposals: by leaving every member of the House and Senate as incumbents in their districts or states, the amendments provide a pressure-release valve against reforms threatening that status.

Stearns takes readers on a world tour—England, France, Germany, Israel, Taiwan, Brazil, and Venezuela—showing what works in government, what doesn’t, and how to make the best features our own. Genuine party competition and governing coalitions, commonplace across the globe, may seem like a fantasy in the United States, but Stearns offers an optimistic vision, explaining in accessible terms how to transform our troubled democracy into a thriving parliamentary America.

Maxwell L. Stearns is the Venable, Baetjer & Howard Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. He has authored dozens of articles and several books on the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and the economic analysis of law.

Before joining the faculty at the University of Washington in 1997, Mark Alan Smith completed his undergraduate degree in economics at M.I.T. and earned his Ph.D. in political science at the University of Minnesota. He is Professor of Political Science and Adjunct Professor of Communication and Comparative Religion at the UW. Smith’s research and teaching focuses on American domestic politics, including religion, public opinion, political communication, political parties, and public policy. He is the author of four books, most recently Right from Wrong: Why Religion Fails and Reason Succeeds. He is a regular commentator on national and state politics for various media outlets.

Buy the Book Parliamentary America: The Least Radical Means of Radically Repairing Our Broken Democracy

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As we head into another presidential election year, few issues feel as pressing as the spread of political misinformation. How can political campaigns fight back against the barrage of lies and disinformation?

As time, tension, and technology all progress in our world, we’re not always prepared for the acceleration and its impact on the political climate. The public can often be left to weed through a seemingly endless digital news cycle and the task of differentiating between fact, misinformed fictions, and intentional disinformation. As the population faces the high-stakes election season once again, Sasha Issenberg turns a critical lens toward the complicated landscape of the American political institution, rising incentives, and the ever-expanding social media landscape.

A decade after his last dive into social science and modern political analysis in his book The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns, Issenberg returns to expand more on the behind-the-scenes mechanics of politics. His newest book The Lie Detectives: In Search of a Playbook for Defeating Disinformation and Winning Elections urges readers to understand more from a range of high-level journalists, strategists, critics, and political operatives in their efforts to grapple online misinformation. From digital forums of anonymous amateurs to high-visibility government and party officials, the challenges and tactics at play throughout cyberspace have expansive reach and real-world consequences. The Lie Detectives pulls to the forefront the political class striving to tackle these issues as they emerge, and what the threat of disinformation could mean for democracy, especially at pivotal times.

Sasha Issenberg is a journalist and author who has been published in New York, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, and George, where he also served as a contributing editor. He teaches at the UCLA Department of Political Science and is a correspondent for Monocle. His previous books include The Sushi Economy and The Engagement: America’s Quarter-Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage.

Austin Jenkins is a staff writer at Pluribus News, covering tech policy and other issues in state legislatures. He is also the longtime host of “Inside Olympia” on TVW, the state’s C-SPAN network. Previously, Austin spent nearly two decades as the Olympia correspondent for Northwest NPR stations. Buy the Book The Lie Detectives: In Search of a Playbook for Winning Elections in the Disinformation Age Third Place Books

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Anyone who has fallen off the conveyor belt of mainstream health care and into the shadowy corners of illness knows what a dark place it is to land. Where is the infrastructure, the information, the guidance? What should you do next?

In her new book, Rebel Health, Susannah Fox draws on twenty years of tracking the expert networks of patients, survivors, and caregivers who have come of age between the cracks of the healthcare system to offer a way forward. Covering everything from diabetes to ALS to Moebius Syndrome to chronic disease management, Fox taps into the wisdom of these individuals, learns their ways, and fuels the rebel alliance that is building up our collective capacity for better health. Rebel Health shows how the next wave of health innovation will come from the front lines of this patient-led revolution.

Join us for an event that is both proactive and innovative, as Susanna Fox paves the way for a collective capacity for better health and a patient-led revolution in medical care.

Susannah Fox helps people navigate health and technology. She served as Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she led an open data and innovation lab. Prior to that, she was the entrepreneur-in-residence at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and directed the health portfolio at the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project.

Sally James is a writer whose curiosity about people has taken her from jails to hospitals to schools to research labs. Once a staff member on daily newspapers, she has been an independent writer on medicine and science for many years. She has reported stories for the South Seattle Emerald, Parentmap, Seattle Business, and other outlets. She is a former president of the Northwest Science Writers Association, a nonprofit supporting science communication.

Buy the Book Rebel Health: A Field Guide to the Patient-Led Revolution in Medical Care The Elliott Bay Book Company

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Ever wondered how a leader orchestrates large-scale change on a global scale?

In his new book, Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens, Rajiv J. Shah, President of the Rockefeller Foundation and former administrator of USAID unveils his model for driving large-scale change. Drawing on his experiences, from vaccinating 900 million children with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to combating the Ebola outbreak, Shah reveals the secrets behind executing seemingly impossible endeavors.

Through behind-the-scenes stories and reflections on personal growth, Shah shares his philosophy of big bets, emphasizing problem-solving over incremental improvements. Gain strategic insights into the power of bold visions, learning how these approaches attract support, collaborations, and fresh ideas. Trace Shah’s remarkable journey from an Indian-American immigrant family to the Rockefeller Foundation, and be inspired by the global efforts that define his mission to create a better world.

Dr. Rajiv Shah is president of the Rockefeller Foundation, a global institution committed to promoting the well-being of humanity around the world through data, science and innovation. Under his leadership, the foundation raised and deployed more than $1 billion to respond to the COVID pandemic at home and abroad, launched a $10 billion Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet to help secure a just and green recovery, and is currently seeking to advance human opportunity even while reversing the climate crisis. Raj serves on President Biden’s Defense Policy Board and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Buy the Book Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens The Elliott Bay Book Company

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The subject of disinformation is a well-known part of political rhetoric, but it has implications even outside of the sphere of democracy. From the electoral system to schools; from the workplace to hospitals, the consequences of it are far-reaching and dire.

A legal analyst at MSNBC and former U.S. Attorney, Barbara McQuade’s decades of experience in law help inform her authorship of Attack From Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America. The book asserts that disinformation has been used deliberately and strategically to polarize, pushing voters to extremes, and disempowering legal structures while empowering a select few. Technological advancements, including rapid developments in artificial intelligence (AI) exacerbate the issue by amplifying false claims and manufacturing credibility.

From historical examples of disinformation in dictators such as Mussolini and Hitler, to contemporary examples of the tactics alleged of former Presidents Trump and Bolsonaro, Attack From Within seeks to help readers – and voters – recognize disinformation, and offers suggestions on how to combat it. McQuade’s talk at Town Hall may interest those who have concerns about the reality and future of truth in a civil society.

Barbara McQuade is a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, her alma mater, where she teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, national security, and data privacy. She is also a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and a co-host of the podcast #SistersInLaw. From 2010 to 2017, McQuade served as U.S Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. She was appointed by President Barack Obama, and was the first woman to serve in her position. Earlier in her career, she worked as a sports writer and copy editor, a judicial law clerk, an associate in private practice, and an assistant U.S. attorney.

Jenny A. Durkan was the 56th Mayor of Seattle and previously served as US Attorney under President Obama. As mayor, she worked to make Seattle more equitable, by investing $2.5 billion in affordable housing, providing free transit for youth and two years free college for every Seattle’s high school graduate, and investing millions of new funding in communities of color. Durkan served in leadership positions for the US Conference of Mayors and the C40 Mayors, a global organization focused on fighting climate change. As US Attorney, Durkan increased enforcement of civil rights laws. She served as an advisor to former US Attorney General Eric Holder and chaired the US Department of Justice subcommittee on cybercrime and intellectual property enforcement. Durkan is a fellow in the American College of Trial lawyers and taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Washington School of Law.

Buy the Companion Book Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America The Elliott Bay Book Company

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Have you ever wondered how impeachment really works?

As a witness and consultant in the impeachment trials of Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, legal scholar Michael J. Gerhardt has collected a lifetime of scholarly research and firsthand experience. But despite his proximity to such high-profile cases, Gerhardt doesn’t advocate for or against the impeachment of specific presidents. Instead, he illuminates the legal and procedural aspects that govern the process, providing a comprehensive overview of impeachment from its origins to present-day practice. His new book, The Law Of Presidential Impeachment, is a nonpartisan exploration that aims to break down the process and offer readers a deeper understanding of how the Constitution holds presidents accountable.

In The Law Of Presidential Impeachment, Gerhardt guides us through the historical roots of presidential impeachment, tracing it back to the nation’s founding when American colonists, still reflecting on past grievances with their former king, embedded the process in the Constitution. Impeachment recently returned to the forefront of American political discourse during Donald Trump’s presidency, but Gerhardt’s expertise goes beyond contemporary events to provide a timeless perspective on the constitutional mechanism.

If you’ve ever wanted the chance to peek into the process of presidential impeachments, join us as Gerhardt helps to deepen understanding of our executive branch and the overarching governmental system that shapes our democracy.

Michael J. Gerhardt is the Burton Craige Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Scholar in Residence at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and the foremost scholar on impeachment in the United States. He is one of only two legal scholars to testify in three different presidential impeachment hearings and served as Special Counsel to the Presiding Officer in Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. He is the only legal scholar to address the entire House of Representatives on the law of presidential impeachment was the Order of the Coif Distinguished Visitor in 2020-22 (an honor given only to one legal scholar each year in recognition of their scholarship) and received University of North Carolina’s highest award given to a faculty member in recognition of their public service in 2023.

Buy the Companion Book The Law of Presidential Impeachment: A Guide for the Engaged Citizen Third Place Books

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Is it possible to reshape immigration practices to align with the values of inclusivity, justice, and the historical promise of the United States as a welcoming haven for all?

Law professor and immigration lawyer César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández presents a powerful case for divorcing immigration law from criminal law in his book, Welcome the Wretched. He challenges the status quo by advocating for the abolition of so-called immigration crimes, questioning the criminalization of border crossings, and proposing a shift towards allowing migrants, even those accused or convicted of crimes, to remain in the U.S. as residents or citizens.

Delving into the historical context, García Hernández reveals that the perception of immigrants as criminals is a relatively recent development, pointing out that until the late 20th century, crossing the border into the United States did not make one a criminal. Drawing on his own family’s immigration stories, García Hernández explores how immigration law and criminal law became entwined and contends that immigration policies are shaped more by politics than a sense of morality. García Hernández sheds light on the personal stories of individuals whose lives changed due to a single decision and challenges the perception of “criminal aliens” as overblown, inaccurate, and rooted in racism and bias.

Join us for an essential discussion as García Hernández advocates for a reevaluation of immigration policies, calling for a decoupling of immigration and criminal legal systems, and urging America to uphold its promise as a safe and welcoming haven for all.

César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández is the Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and an immigration lawyer. He has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, The Guardian, and many other venues. The author of Crimmigration Law as well as Migrating to Prison(The New Press). You can read more at https://www.ccgarciahernandez.com/

Buy the Companion Book Welcome the Wretched Third Place Books

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Commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Boldt Decision, a pivotal moment in civil rights history and tribal sovereignty. Centered around Charles Wilkinson’s posthumously acclaimed work, Treaty Justice, a panel will discuss the significance of the Boldt Decision and its enduring impact on the tribal sovereignty movement in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Three panelists and a moderator will delve into the historical significance of the ruling, reflecting on its implications and the work that still lies ahead. The panelists include Jeremiah “Jay” Julius, a fisherman, Lummi Nation Tribal member, and advocate for the Salish Sea; Coll Thrush, a noted historian and author of Native Seattle; Lynda V. Mapes, an author and Seattle Times reporter specializing in environmental and Native American issues; and Nancy Shippentower, a respected Puyallup elder.

The event is set to open with Native drummers; remarks from Darrell Hillaire, executive director of the Native-owned production company, Children of the Setting Sun Productions (CSSP); and will also feature a short film clip from CSSP showcasing the treaty tribes as an integral part of the program.

Additional Related Books

Treaty Justice: The Northwest Tribes, the Boldt Decision, and the Recognition of Fishing Rights Jesintel: Living Wisdom from Coast Salish Elders

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Ijeoma Oluo’s #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want To Talk About Race (book tour event at Town Hall in 2019), offered a vital guide for how to talk about important issues of race and racism in society. In Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, she discussed how white male supremacy has had an impact on our systems, our culture, and our lives throughout American history. But now that we better understand these systems of oppression, the question is this: What can we do about them?

In her new book, Be A Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World — and How You Can, Too, Ijeoma Oluo aims to show how people across America are working to create real positive change in our structures. Looking at many of our most powerful systems — like education, media, labor, health, housing, policing, and more — she highlights what people are doing to create change for intersectional racial equity. She also illustrates how readers can find their own entry points for change in these same areas or can bring some of this important work being done elsewhere to where they live.

Oluo aims to not only educate but to inspire action and change. Join us at Town Hall for a discussion on how to take conversations on race and racism out of a place of pure pain and trauma, and into a place of loving action.

Ijeoma Oluo is a writer, speaker, and internet yeller. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race and, most recently, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America. Her work has been featured in the Guardian, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, among many other publications. She was named to the 2021 Time 100 Next list and has twice been named to the Root 100. She received the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award and the 2020 Harvard Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

Michele E. Storms is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington (ACLU of Washington), former Deputy Director of the ACLU of Washington, and previous Assistant Dean for Public Service and executive director of the William H. Gates Public Service Law program at the University of Washington School of Law. Preceding those roles she served as a statewide advocacy coordinator first at Columbia Legal Services and later at the Northwest Justice Project where over a combined five-year period she coordinated civil legal aid advocacy in the areas of family law, youth and education, housing, elder law, Native American and right to counsel issues. She was also previously on faculty at the University of Washington School of Law where she founded what is now the Child and Youth Advocacy Clinic and taught several other courses. In addition to her service on numerous boards and guilds both locally and nationally, Michele served on the Washington State Access to Justice Board for six years and the board of One America. Michele is concerned with equity and justice for all and has dedicated her professional and personal attention to access to justice, preservation of freedom and democracy for all and ensuring that all humxns safely reside in the “circle of human concern.”

https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9780063140189

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In 1990, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Les Payne embarked on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X.

His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become over a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction. Following Payne’s unexpected death in 2018, his daughter Tamara Payne heroically completed the biography.

Presented by the Seattle Opera and Town Hall Seattle, Tamara Payne returns to the Town Hall stage (following her virtual appearance in 2020) to share from the final biography, The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews — with all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world — she traces his life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965. Payne explores how her father corrects the historical record and delivers extraordinary revelations with a biographer’s unwavering determination. She discusses the intensive research process and introduces a riveting biography that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle. In a moment of renewed vigor for the struggle in Black freedom, this presentation is essential viewing.

Tamara Payne is Les Payne’s daughter and served as his principal researcher.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and the Seattle Opera.

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X The Elliott Bay Book Company

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Journalist Tim Schwab is no stranger to investigative journalism that scrutinizes power structures and questions how private interests intersect with public policy.

With funding from a 2019 Alicia Patterson Fellowship, Schwab pursued an investigative series specific to Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation, and his work was published by The Nation in 2020 and 2021.

Now Schwab expands on his reporting in a new book, The Bill Gates Problem. Schwab provides an in-depth analysis of Bill Gates’ philanthropic trajectory, tracing his evolution from a prominent figure in the tech industry to a globally admired individual. Drawing from years of investigation, Schwab highlights concerns related to undue influence on public policy, private markets, scientific research, and media narratives.

Are such philanthropic endeavors truly democratic? Or even effective? By facilitating an open dialogue, Schwab seeks to empower participants to critically evaluate the role of philanthropy in society, encouraging constructive discussions about its impact and implications.

Tim Schwab is an investigative journalist based in Washington, D.C. His groundbreaking reporting on the Gates Foundation for The Nation, Columbia Journalism Review, and The British Medical Journal has been honored with an Izzy Award and a Deadline Club Award. The Bill Gates Problem is his first book.

Ashley Fent is a former research director of AGRA Watch, a campaign of Community Alliance for Global Justice. She co-founded CAGJ’s AGRA Watch campaign while still an undergraduate at University of Washington. She has ten plus years’ experience as a social-environmental researcher, writer, and multimedia content producer. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography from UCLA and a M.A. in Anthropology and African Studies from Columbia University.

Daniel Maingi is a science and development practitioner in Kenya with a 15-year career helping to bring learning on appropriate and sustainable technologies to Civil Society Organizations in Eastern Africa. Daniel is a policy campaigner for CSOs at the Inter-Sectoral Forum on Agrobiodiversity and Agroecology. He is currently researching the digitalization of agriculture in Kenya as a Stanford University Fellow (2023-24) with the Digital Civil Society Lab & The Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS).

Stephen Gloyd, MD, MPH, is a family practice physician who has been a University of Washington faculty member since 1986. Dr. Gloyd is Director of the Global Health MPH Program in the UW’s Department of Global Health where he directs efforts to expand curricular options to address global workforce needs. His work with Health Alliance International is designed to improve approaches to global health assistance and to strengthen primary health care with the Ministries of Health of Mozambique, Côte d’Ivoire, Sudan, and Timor-Leste.

Jesse Hagopian has been an educator for over twenty years and taught for over a decade Seattle’s Garfield High School–the site of the historic boycott of the MAP test. Jesse is an editor for the social justice periodical Rethinking Schools, is the co-editor of the books, Black Lives Matter at School, Teaching for Black Lives, Teacher Unions and Social Justice, and is the editor of the book, More Than a Score.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Community Alliance for Global Justice.

The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire The Elliott Bay Book Company

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It is among the most classically joked about modern grievances, air travel.

Between flight cancellations, delays, lost baggage, increased prices, crammed planes, and the general downtrodden gloom that accompanies flying, there is plenty left to be desired when it comes to the quality of airline service.

The truth is that bankruptcies and mergers have meant that competition has come to a critical ebb. In his new book, Why Flying is Miserable, policy entrepreneur and law professor, Ganesh Sitaraman, identifies the core issues in aviation as he sees them. He points out that the lone four, too-big-to-fail airlines, still are failing to offer reliable services even after receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts during the pandemic.

Sitaraman explains how the 1978 experiment in deregulating airlines ultimately turned out to be the cause of our current discontent. What resulted from deregulation was consolidation, higher prices, loss of service to smaller communities, fewer direct flights, and a more miserable experience overall. But perhaps it’s not all cloudy skies ahead. Sitaraman expresses hope in abandoning the old systems of regulation, instead choosing to learn from the American tradition of regulated capitalism. The entrepreneur champions new solutions with the aim of increasing the reliability and resiliency of commercial air travel.

Come to Town Hall where we can all complain about air travel together! But stick around for expert Ganesh Sitaraman to offer some words of consolation, and deliver actionable plans to better the experience of air travel in the future.

Ganesh Sitaraman is a law professor at Vanderbilt Law School and the director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Political Economy and Regulation. He is the author of several books, including The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution and The Great Democracy. Sitaraman serves on the board of The American Prospect, and is a member of the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee. He was previously a senior advisor to Senator Elizabeth Warren on her presidential campaign. He lives in Nashville.

Paul Constant has written about books, economics, and politics for The Seattle Times, Business Insider, the New York Observer, the LA Times, and many other publications. He is a fellow at Civic Ventures, a public policy incubator in Seattle, and contributes to the Pitchfork Economics podcast.

Why Flying Is Miserable: And How to Fix It Phinney Books

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Starting in 1967, when fewer than 1% of women completed any education beyond four years of college, the Washington State University (WSU) Sociology Department dared to hire three female faculty members who became lifelong friends. Lois B. DeFleur, Sandra Ball-Rokeach, and Marilyn Ihinger-Tallman were role models for many women and paved the way for those who followed.

Four decades later, volume editor Betty Houchin Winfield, who in 1979 was a new assistant professor in communications at WSU, prompted her former mentors to tell their stories, she had benefited immensely from their support and encouragement. In Winfield’s book, We Few, We Academic Sisters: How We Persevered and Excelled in Higher Education, the three women discuss their childhoods, educational and research efforts, personal lives, and career advancements. Though all married professors, they fought to be known as individual scholars, overcoming sexual discrimination and harassment as well as intense societal pressure to follow traditional female roles.

Their impressive careers parallel larger national events and the onset of increasing opportunities for women. Initially, associate or assistant professors, all three became full professors when it was exceedingly rare. Dr. DeFleur later held positions as dean, provost, and university president. Dr. Ball-Rokeach gained international status as a major media sociologist, and Dr. Ihinger-Tallman became WSU’s first female Chair of the Sociology Department.

Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate their inspiring narratives that highlight the importance of community and offer invaluable guidance to the current generation of academics.

Betty Houchin Winfield has deep ties to Seattle, where she raised her children and completed her Ph.D. at the University of Washington. While teaching at various universities, including those in Missouri, North Carolina, and Poland, she maintained her Eastlake condo for summer and holiday stays. Throughout her academic career, Winfield achieved remarkable milestones, such as post-doctoral work at Columbia and Harvard, along with receiving prestigious teaching and research awards. She shares similarities with the subjects of We Few, We Academic Sisters by breaking gender barriers, becoming only the second woman to receive the University of Missouri system’s Thomas Jefferson Award and the first to hold the Curators’ Research Professorship in the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Following her retirement in 2012, she has made Seattle her permanent residence and remains actively engaged in civic projects, including leading the pre-COVID luminaire art project on the Pier 86 Grain Terminal waterfront.

We Few, We Academic Sisters: Our Stories of Persisting and Excelling in Higher Education The Elliott Bay Book Company

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For many people in the Emerald City, sports may be seen solely as entertainment.

We watch the Kraken on the ice, climb the stands for the Seahawks and Sounders, and hold out hands out for a soaring Mariners ball. But what if something came along to challenge the idea of athletics as mere leisure?

In his new book Heartbreak City: Seattle Sports and the Unmet Promise of Urban Progress, author Shaun Scott takes readers through 170 years of Seattle history, chronicling both well-known and long-forgotten events. Examples include the establishment of racially segregated golf courses in the 1920s or the 1987 Seahawks players’ strike that galvanized organized labor.

Scott explores how progressives in urban areas across the U.S. have used athletics to address persistent problems in city life: the fight for racial justice, workers’ rights, equality for women and LGBTQ+ city dwellers, and environmental conservation. In Seattle specifically, sports initiatives have powered meaningful reforms, such as popular stadium projects that promoted investments in public housing and mass transit. At the same time, conservative forces also used sports to consolidate their power and mobilize against these initiatives.

Heartbreak City seeks to uncover how sports have both united and divided Seattle, socially and politically. Deep archival research and analysis fill the pages, guiding us through this account of our city’s quest to make a change, both on and off the field.

Shaun Scott is a Seattle-based writer and organizer. He is the author of Millennials and the Moments That Made Us: A Cultural History of the U.S. from 1982-present.

Jesse Hagopian has been an educator for over twenty years and taught for over a decade at Seattle’s Garfield High School, the site of the historic boycott of the MAP test.

Heartbreak City: Seattle Sports and the Unmet Promise of Urban Progress The Elliott Bay Book Company

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Schuyler Bailar didn’t set out to be an activist, his very public transition to the Harvard men’s swim team put him in the spotlight.

His choice to be open about his transition and share his experience has touched people around the world. As Anti-transgender legislation is being introduced in state governments around the United States in record-breaking numbers Schuyler’s plain-spoken education has evolved into tireless advocacy for inclusion and collective liberation.

Schuyler Bailar’s new book, He/She/They clearly and compassionately addresses fundamental topics, from why being transgender is not a choice and why pronouns are important, to more complex issues including how gender-affirming healthcare can be lifesaving and why allowing trans youth to play sports is good for all kids. With a relatable narrative rooted in facts, science, and history, Schuyler helps restore common sense and humanity to a discussion that continues to be divisively coopted and deceptively politicized.

Schuyler Bailar (he/him) is an educator, author, and advocate. He is also the first transgender athlete to compete in any sport on an NCAA Division 1 men’s team. In addition to being one of the top LGBTQ+ educators and advocates, Schuyler is a leading DEI speaker and advisor who has been featured in countless media outlets. Schuyler also hosts the hit podcast Dear Schuyler on gender and culture and is the creator of the groundbreaking LaneChanger.com gender literacy online learning series. He holds a degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and Evolutionary Psychology from Harvard, and works in four research labs focusing in clinical psychology and public health.

He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why It Matters The Elliott Bay Book Company

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Depending on who you overhear, conversations surrounding the controversial AI Chat Bot, Chat GPT, may be punctuated with terms like, “groundbreaking!” “paradigm-shifting!” “innovative!” or conversely might be filled with calls of “terrifying!” “mistake!” or “too far!” But peering through either lens, it is hard not to imagine that AI will diminish the necessity for human involvement, human experiences, or human ideas in some sense.

Dr. Fei-Fei Li is a computer science professor at Stanford University and founding director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI. If “Human-Centered AI” sounds like an oxymoron to you, you probably maintain a strong conceptual divide between what is considered “human” and what is “machine.” Yet Li is of a group of scientists who envision a future where AI is designed with the intent to enhance the abilities of and empower real human beings.

Li’s own story is one of struggle, passion, and resilience. Immigrating from China, her family faced the difficult transition from their home country’s middle class, into American poverty. Despite struggling to care for her ailing mother, who worked tirelessly to establish a foothold in their new land, Li maintained a passion and natural aptitude for physics. Now Li is releasing her new book entitled, The Worlds I See. In this reflection on life and AI, the Stanford professor presents a clear explanation of the term artificial intelligence, as well as a personal saga that demonstrates the ardor and creativity involved in producing even the most technical scholarship.

Join Dr. Li at Town Hall Seattle, where the AI expert will make a case for human-centric approaches in developing this new technology.

Fei-Fei Li is a computer science professor at Stanford University and founding director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI as well as a founder and chairperson of the board of the nonprofit AI4ALL. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Todd Bishop is GeekWire’s co-founder, a longtime business and technology journalist who reports on subjects including AI, the cloud, startups, and health technology, plus Amazon and Microsoft, in addition to hosting GeekWire’s weekly podcast. A native of Orland, Calif., he has worked as a reporter for publications including The Philadelphia Inquirer, Puget Sound Business Journal, and the Seattle P-I.

The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI The Elliott Bay Book Company

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Can leaders strive for more inclusivity in the workplace and improve outcomes in the process?

Employers invest in and manage their key asset — talent — to be as high-performing as possible. Like a winning stock, it can be argued that successful diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) actions likewise pay back over time: that dividend is paid to the company through higher performance, talent acquisition, training, and other savings — as well as to society in general.

How can leaders make informed choices at the right moments to create lasting change? In Diversity Dividend,scientist, attorney, and Harvard Professor Paola Cecchi-Dimeglio uses a combination of data and real-world application to create a new view of gender and racial equity in the workplace. Aiming to be both empowering and comprehensive, Diversity Dividend seeks to remove the guesswork that naturally arises when some methods work and others fail, thereby giving leaders the tools they need to make more impactful choices.

Joined in conversation by Oriona Spaulding, Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft’s Venture Fund, M12, the two leaders discuss ways to remove the systemic barriers that prevent women and underrepresented groups from advancing in their organizations.

Dr. Paola Cecchi-Dimeglio is a behavioral and data scientist (Big Data and AI), as well as a lawyer. As a decision science, organizational behavior, and gender specialist, she is advising some of the largest for-profit and non-profit organizations in the world by enabling organizations to tap into insights from behavioral science and related fields, allowing senior leadership to make better and more inclusive decisions for themselves and their companies. She works with executives from Fortune 500 firms, governments, and top professional service firms, including Magic Circle law firms and AmLaw 100. She has developed several software and SAAS tools and owns several patents.

As Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft’s Venture Fund, M12, Oriona Spaulding leads the fund’s operating team, including portfolio development, marketing and communications, strategy, and fund operations including finance. Prior to joining M12, Oriona spent 14 years in various capacities within Microsoft after joining as an antitrust attorney. Most recently, she served as Chief of Staff for the EVP of Business Development, Strategy, and Ventures overseeing organizational strategy, operations, and communications and helping manage several international partnerships and market expansions. Her roles have allowed Oriona to spend a great deal of time working closely with Microsoft’s field teams around the world and some of Microsoft’s largest and smallest customers. Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Seattle Arts & Culture for Anti-Racism (SACA).

Diversity Dividend: The Transformational Power of Small Changes to Debias Your Company, Attract Diverse Talent, Manage Everyone Better and Make More Money Third Place Books

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Washington is leading the nation as a model for the transition to a climate-safe future.

People, movements, and politicians across the state have been able to pass landmark policies that benefit local communities, as well as inspire other regions to follow suit. From Seattle’s commercial energy codes, to Whatcom County’s first-ever ban on new fossil fuel infrastructure, to the statewide Climate Commitment Act, Washington continues to set examples for how progressive climate policies can support a thriving region.

As we build on nationwide momentum to reduce carbon emissions, protect our environment, and build community resilience, let’s take stock of our successes and determine the most impactful and equitable pathways forward: Who is leading real climate progress in Washington, and how can we support them in climate action that leaves no one in our state behind?

State Representative Alex Ramel will moderate a panel of activists and experts who are supporting Washington’s diverse communities to build a shared, climate-safe future.

Panelists:

Todd Paglia, Executive Director, Stand.earth

Todd Paglia began his career as an attorney for Ralph Nader, focusing on the environment, consumer protection issues, and holding corporations accountable. As Executive Director of Stand.earth since 1999, his commitment to conservation led a winning campaign to drive Fortune 500 companies including Staples, Williams-Sonoma, 3M, and more to purchase and use recycled paper, and immediately preserve millions more old growth and endangered forests. An avid fisher and skier, Todd’s love for the planet drew him to Washington State. He has called Bellingham home for 16 years.

Nicole Grant, Director of Government Affairs for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 46 in Seattle

Nicole joined 350 Seattle in November 2021 after gaining tremendous strategic grounding and practical knowledge in her 20 years in the labor movement. In her time as Executive Secretary at the Martin Luther King County Labor Council, she led a transition that helped to make the organization more focused on racial, gender, and climate justice — while also invigorating its commitments to the need for working people to have a “great life in greater Seattle.” Nicole is a journeyman electrician with IBEW 46, where she also served as the Executive Director of the Certified Electrical Workers of Washington.

Jay Julius, President and Founder, Se’Si’Le

Jay is the former Chairman of the Lummi Nation, a full-time fisherman, and a father. Jay was a leader in the fight to protect Xwe’chi’eXen (Cherry Point) and has organized and executed Tribal, local, regional, and national campaigns. A bridge-builder, he uses empathy and storytelling to bring people together. Principal at Julius Consulting LLC, he is also the Founder and President of the organization Se’Si’Le, which offers strategies for integrating ancestral knowledge into policies, projects, and partnerships with the will of right and respectful relations.

Moderator:

Alex Ramel, Washington State Representative for the 40th District

Rep. Alex Ramel joined the Washington legislature in January of 2020. Last year he was elected by his colleagues to the leadership role of Majority Whip. A single parent, he was called to public service to help address the climate and housing crises facing current and future generations. He has served as President of the Kulshan Community Land Trust which helps build and preserve affordable housing. He also led the development of the Community Energy Challenge which brings businesses, utilities, non-profits, and government together to help conserve energy, reduce costs, and create good paying jobs. Rep. Ramel has called Bellingham home for over 20 years.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Stand.earth.

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Many parents struggle with the physicality of caring for children, but even more with the growing lack of autonomy new moms may feel in their personal and professional lives.

Join us for an evening with Amanda Montei, author of Touched Out: Motherhood, Misogyny, Consent, and Control, and Kristi Coulter, author of Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career. Moderated by Gemma Hartley, author of Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward, Montei and Coulter will discuss the state of ambition for women, the often hidden labors of both parenthood and gender, emotional labor in the workplace and mental loads at home, and much more.

Amanda Montei is the author of Touched Out: Motherhood, Misogyny, Consent, and Control, out now from Beacon Press, as well as the memoir Two Memoirs, and a collection of prose, The Failure Age. She has an MFA in Writing from California Institute of the Arts and a PhD from the Poetics Program at SUNY Buffalo. Amanda’s work has been featured at New York Times, Elle, The Guardian, The Cut, Slate, Vox, HuffPost, Rumpus, The Believer, Ms. Magazine, and many others. She lives in California.

Kristi Coulter is the author of Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career and Nothing Good Can Come From This, a Washington State Book Award finalist. Her work has also appeared in The Paris Review, New York Magazine, Elle, Glamour, The Believer, and many other publications. She teaches writing at Hugo House and lives in Seattle and Los Angeles.

Gemma Hartley is a freelance journalist, speaker, and author of Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women and the Way Forward. She has spoken on the topic of invisible labor around the world, from corporate conferences to festivals at the Sydney Opera House. Her writing has been featured in outlets including Harper’s Bazaar, Women’s Health, Glamour, The Washington Post, CNBC, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Teen Vogue, and The Huffington Post. She is passionate about creating a more equitable world in which invisible labor is valued and supported by both personal partners and public policy alike.

Touched Out: Motherhood, Misogyny, Consent, and Control Third Place Books

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Although social media may not be a typical source of enlightenment, historian Heather Cox Richardson decided to become an exception to the rule.

It all started during the 2019 impeachment when Richardson launched a daily Facebook essay providing historical background for the daily torrent of news. It soon morphed into a popular Substack newsletter, Letters From an American, and a readership that swelled to more than two million readers dedicated to her take on both past and present.

In Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, Richardson’s narrative explains how over time a small group of wealthy people have, in her view, made war on American ideals and created a disaffected population. She argues that taking our country back starts by remembering the elements of the nation’s true history and principles that marginalized Americans have always upheld.

Richardson condenses the content of news feeds into coherent stories. She aims to pinpoint what we should pay attention to, what the precedents are, and what possible paths lie ahead. Through her rich historical knowledge, Richardson can pivot from the Founders to the abolitionists, from the New Deal to Mitch McConnell, and anywhere in between. Some topics reverberate throughout history, like the lingering fears of socialism, the death of the liberal consensus, and movement conservatism.

Democracy Awakening offers an explanation for how we arrived at this point, what our history really tells us about ourselves, and how this history serves as a roadmap for the nation’s future and shows us what democracy can be.

Heather Cox Richardson is a professor of history at Boston College and an expert on American political and economic history. She is the author of seven books, including the award-winning How the South Won the Civil War. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Guardian, among other outlets. Her widely read newsletter, Letters from an American, synthesizes history and modern political issues. Marcus Harrison Green is a columnist for The Seattle Times. A long-time Seattle native, he is the founder of the South Seattle Emerald, which focuses on telling the stories of South Seattle and its residents.

Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America The Elliott Bay Book Company

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Have you ever wondered if there was another version of this country besides the one that was taught in schools?

For many Americans, especially Black Americans, the answer is yes. The backstory that most of us were taught has been whitewashed and sugarcoated, its truths buried and untold, with many delivered halfway — if at all. Reality rewritten.

In his new book, Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America, columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot presents a retelling of our nation’s history that promises to set the record straight and showcase the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans. The prevailing narratives of history are rife with errors and oversights — after all, history books were written by those in power and from their perspective. In a society that so often devalues and erases the Black experience, Harriot’s book challenges the dominant paradigm, with each page a choice to subvert it.

In Black AF History, Michael Harriot presents a more complete version of American history. It centers Black Americans, combining provocative, witty storytelling with research based on both primary sources and the work of pioneering Black historians, scholars, and journalists. Harriot also enlightens readers with little-known stories: From the African-Americans who arrived before the Mayflower to the unenslavable bandit who inspired America’s first police force. Harriot asserts that Americanhistoryhas been synonymous with white history. But in his book, history is Black AF.

Michael Harriot is a journalist, author and cultural critic. His award-winning journalism has appeared in the Washington Post, The Atlantic, your television, and his mother’s refrigerator. He earned the National Association of Black Journalists Awards for digital commentary, television news writing and magazine writing. He is the author of the book Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America and currently serves as a columnist for The Guardian and theGrio.com, where he covers the intersection of race, politics, and media … and animal attacks.

Marcus Harrison Green is the publisher of the South Seattle Emerald and a columnist with the Seattle Times. Growing up in South Seattle, he experienced first-hand the impact of one-dimensional stories on marginalized communities, which taught him the value of authentic narratives. An award-winning storyteller, he was awarded the Seattle Human Rights Commissions’ Individual Human Rights Leader Award for 2020, and named the inaugural James Baldwin Fellow by the Northwest African American Museum in 2022.

Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Third Place Books

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Growing up, Rebecca Clarren only knew the major plot points of her tenacious immigrant family’s origins.

Her great-great-grandparents, the Sinykins, and their six children fled antisemitism in Russia and arrived in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, ultimately settling on a 160-acre homestead in South Dakota. Over the next few decades, despite tough years on a merciless prairie and multiple setbacks, the Sinykins became an American immigrant success story.

What none of Clarren’s ancestors ever mentioned was that their land, the foundation for much of their wealth, had been cruelly taken from the Lakota by the United States government. By the time the Sinykins moved to South Dakota, America had broken hundreds of treaties with hundreds of Indigenous nations across the continent, and the land that had once been reserved for the seven bands of the Lakota had been diminished, splintered, and handed for free, or practically free, to white settlers. In The Cost of Free Land, Clarren melds investigative reporting with personal family history to reveal the intertwined stories of her family and the Lakota, and the devastating cycle of loss of Indigenous land, culture, and resources that continues today.

Clarren grapples with the personal and national consequences of this legacy of violence and dispossession. What does it mean to survive oppression only to perpetuate and benefit from the oppression of others? By shining a light on the people and families tangled up in this country’s difficult history, The Cost of Free Land invites readers to consider their own culpability and what, now, can be done.

Rebecca Clarren has been writing about the rural West for more than twenty years. Her journalism, for which she has won the Hillman Prize, an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, and 10 grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, has appeared in such publications as MotherJones, High Country News, The Nation, and Salon.com. Her debut novel, Kickdown (Sky Horse Press, 2018), was shortlisted for the PEN/Bellwether Prize.

Rena Priest is an enrolled member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She served as the 6th Washington State Poet Laureate (2021-2023) and was named the 2022 Maxine Cushing Gray Distinguished Writing Fellow. Priest is also the recipient of an American Book Award, an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award, and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and Indigenous Nations Poets. She is the author of three books and editor of two anthologies. Her work appears in print and online at Poetry Magazine, Poets.org, Yellow Medicine Review, High Country News, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.

The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance Third Place Books

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If you’ve felt like the news cycle has been out of control in the past few years, imagine being the editor of one of the most prominent papers in the US.

Martin Baron had over a decade of newsroom experience before he took charge of The Washington Post in 2013. But just seven months into his new job, Baron received unexpected news: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would buy (and own) the Post, marking a sudden end of control by the esteemed family that had presided over the paper for 80 years. Two years after that jarring shift, Donald Trump won the presidency. Baron found himself working for the capital’s newspaper owned by one of the world’s richest men while reporting on a president with an anti-press platform who once referred to them as the “lowest form of humanity.”

In his debut release Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post, Baron provides readers with a personal account of the immense pressure faced by both him and his colleagues. Despite unprecedented circumstances, Baron led the Post‘s staff to award-winning coverage: stories about Trump’s purported charitable giving, misconduct by the Secret Service, and former chief justice Roy Moore’s troubling history. In addition to external challenges, Baron faced internal battles as well, such as changing societal dynamics around gender and race.

Part memoir, part investigation, Collision of Power details the feat of managing the Post’s newsroom while meeting a new owner’s demands, all while simultaneously contending with a president who waged war against the media. The text examines the very nature of power in 21st-century America and how key players like media, money, technology, and politics interact and intersect.

Martin Baron is a longtime journalist and newspaper editor. He ran the newsrooms of The Miami Herald and The Boston Globe before being named executive editor of The Washington Post in 2013. His role in launching an investigation of the Catholic Church’s cover-up of sexual abuse by clergy was portrayed in the Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight.” Baron retired from daily journalism in early 2021 and now splits his time between Western Massachusetts and New York City. Collision of Power is his first book.

Frank Blethen is the publisher of The Seattle Times and the great-grandson of the 126-year-old company’s founder.

Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and THE WASHINGTON POST The Elliott Bay Book Company

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Upon taking the oath, every president is met both with endemic issues that persist over time, as well as a unique set of challenges of the day.

Many presidents step into historically difficult and divisive times, and our current era is no different. When Joe Biden took office in 2021, his economists were already warning him of an imminent financial crisis, and his party, the Democrats, had the barest of majorities in the Senate. On top of this, Americans were still sick with COVID-19 and the country felt more socially divided than ever.

Franklin Foer, an author and staff writer at The Atlantic, has gained unparalleled access to the inner circle of advisers who have surrounded Biden for decades. In his new book The Last Politician, he shows us a president whose arrival comes just as democracy itself seems to be at risk. Among other major events, Foer details the president’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, the COVID crisis, and the reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Join Franklin Foer at Town Hall as he discusses The Last Politician and grants an insider’s look at a pivotal American presidency.

Franklin Foer is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of World Without Mind and How Soccer Explains the World. For seven years, he edited The New Republic.

Katy Sewall is the host and creator of “The Bittersweet Life” podcast. She’s a writer, podcast consultant, and a Public Radio professional frequently heard on 94.9 KUOW. She’s also the former Program Director at Town Hall.

The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden's White House and the Struggle for America's Future Third Place Books

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Throughout history, art has been a vehicle for social change.

Consider the artist’s mural of George Floyd that become an emblem for the fight towards racial equality. The documentary film that helped oust a Central American dictator. The echo of freedom songs that rang throughout the Civil Rights Movement. When artists and organizers join together, new forms of political mobilization are sure to follow.

Despite these and many more examples throughout history, many people are unaware of how much deliberate strategy is involved in propelling this vital work toward a more just society. Behind the scenes, artists, organizers, political activists, and philanthropists have worked together to hone powerful tactics for achieving a more just society for all.

In Art Works: How Organizers and Artists Are Creating a Better World Together, movement leader Ken Grossinger chronicles these efforts for the first time, distilling lessons and insights from grassroots leaders and luminaries such as Ai Weiwei, Courtland Cox, Jackson Browne, Shepard Fairey, Jane Fonda, Jose Antonio Vargas, and many more.

Drawing from both historical and contemporary examples — including Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, the Hip Hop Caucus, and the Art for Justice Fund — Grossinger speaks directly to the challenges, needs, and successes of today’s activists across the artistic and political landscapes.

Ken Grossinger has been a leading strategist in movements for social and economic justice for thirty-five years, in unions and community organizations, and as director of Impact Philanthropy in Democracy Partners. Among other cultural projects, he co-executive produced the award-winning Netflix documentaries The Social Dilemma and The Bleeding Edge. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Carmen Rojas is the president & CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation. Under her leadership, the foundation launched the prestigious Freedom Scholar Award. Prior to MCF, Dr. Rojas was the co-founder and CEO of The Workers Lab, an innovation lab that partners with workers to develop new ideas that help them succeed and flourish. For more than 20 years, she has worked with foundations, financial institutions, and nonprofits to improve the lives of working people across the country.

Art Works: How Organizers and Artists Are Creating a Better World Together Third Place Books

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What do we do when the Supreme Court challenges the entire nation?

The 2021-2022 term of the Supreme Court was arguably one of the most tumultuous in U.S. history. Over three days in June of 2022, the conservative supermajority overturned the constitutional right to abortion, possibly opening the door to reconsidering other major privacy rights. The Court also limited the authority of the EPA, loosened restrictions on guns, and embraced originalism, a legal theory asserting that the constitution should be interpreted by its original intent instead of in the context of current times.

In The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America, attorney and former White House speechwriter Michael Waldman explores what the term means for thousands of cases — and millions of Americans. He examines past, present, and future, drawing deeply on history to examine other times when the Court controversially veered from the will of the majority, inciting anger and backlash among the people. Waldman also analyzes important new rulings and their implications for the law and American society, and argues that these major decisions — and the next wave to come — will have enormous ramifications for everyone in this country.

With the leaked Roe v. Wade opinion, the first Black woman justice sworn in, and the public infighting between justices front and center in our view, Waldman previews the 2022–2023 term and how the Supreme Court is only beginning to reshape politics.

Michael Waldman is president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to revitalize the nation’s systems of democracy and justice. He was director of speechwriting for President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1999 and is the author of The Second Amendment: A Biography and The Fight to Vote. Waldman was a member of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court. A graduate of Columbia College and NYU School of Law, he comments widely in the media on law and policy.

Prof. Porter (or Liz Porter) received her J.D. from Columbia Law School. In 2002-2003, she served as a law clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Supreme Court. Now serving as the James W. Mifflin Professor of Law at the University of Washington School of Law, Prof. Porter teaches and writes about civil litigation and the Supreme Court. She also co-directs UW’s Ninth Circuit Pro Bono Appellate Advocacy Clinic.

The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America Third Place Books

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While people of color have been more widely represented in media in recent years, most of that media is neither created nor consumed by them — white Americans still comprise the majority of content creators and storytellers. But media makers of color are working to amplify long-silenced voices in order to advance a set of different narratives, offering stories and perspectives to counter the racism and disinformation that have dominated America’s political and cultural landscape.

In Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice, award-winning journalist Sonali Kolhatkar focuses on shifting perspectives in news media, entertainment, and individual discourse. Kolhatkar highlights the writers, creators, educators, and influencers who are successfully building a culture of affirmation and inclusion. Rising Up is Kolhatkar’s guide to narrative-setting through the lens of advancing racial justice, advocating for a reallocation of power in the media and entertainment industries to more people of color as well as a shift in public consciousness. Through this text, Kolhatkar offers a timely exploration of how truthful narratives by and about people of color can be used to advance social justice in the United States.

Kolhatkar joins us at Town Hall to discuss her book with Sunnivie Brydum, Editorial Director at YES! Media.

Sonali Kolhatkar is the host and producer of Rising Up with Sonali, a weekly television and radio program that airs on Free Speech TV and on Pacifica Radio station affiliates around the United States. Winner of numerous awards, including Best TV Anchor and Best National Political Commentary from the LA Press Club, she is currently the Racial Justice editor at Yes! Magazine and a Writing Fellow with the Independent Media Institute. Co-author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence with Jim Ingalls, Kolhatkar is Co-Director of the Afghan Women’s Mission. She resides with her husband and two sons in Pasadena, California.

Sunnivie Brydum is the Editorial Director at YES! Media, where she co-leads the editorial team along with Executive Editor Evette Dionne. Prior to joining YES! in 2019, Sunnivie spent most of her career in queer media, including as managing editor of The Advocate, where she led coverage of the nationwide embrace of marriage equality and was one of the few out journalists on the ground covering the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando. She is an award-winning investigative journalist whose work has appeared in outlets ranging from Vox and Bustle to Religion Dispatches, among others. As a former U.S. State Department Professional Fellow with the International Center for Journalists, she co-founded Historias No Contadas, an annual symposium in Medellín, Colombia, which elevates the voices of LGBTQ people in Latin America.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and YES! Media.

Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice The Elliott Bay Book Company

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What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all?

Not long ago, activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had an unsettling experience—she was confronted with an online doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who. Destabilized, she lost her bearings, until she began to understand the experience as one manifestation of a strangeness many of us have come to know but struggle to define. As lifestyles of internet celebrities have caused reality itself to become unmoored, Klein asks, “Is there a cure for our moment of collective vertigo?”

Join us at Town Hall for a trip into what Klein calls the “Mirror World,” a series of reflections on the distorted edges that exist at the borders of our daily lives that we try to unscramble. This deep dive uses a combination of studied critique and reportage along with more personal perspectives to tap into the issues of politics, socio-economics, social media, and identity. Through the endless waves of contradictory claims and AI-generated content that we have access to, Klein aims to reconnect with sturdier foundations of what we believe and how we fight for what matters to us in the sea of environmental and electronic uncertainty.

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, New York Times bestselling author, and regular contributing columnist for The Guardian. Her published works include No Logo, The Shock Doctrine, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate, and more. She is appointed by the University of British Columbia as UBC Professor of Climate Justice (tenured) and is a founding co-director of the UBC Centre for Climate Justice.

Mike Davis is the arts and culture reporter at KUOW, Seattle’s NPR member station. He’s a freelance editor at the Seattle Emerald, where he formally covered arts, culture, and politics. Mike is a Seattle native, a creative storyteller, and a proud member of the Seattle Association of Black Journalists.

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World Third Place Books

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How can we fix the problems in our criminal justice system?

In a feat that can seem insurmountable, a common approach is to leave the solution to experts and technocrats. But what if, instead of deferring solely to their knowledge, some of this much-needed change was carried out by the people?

In her new book Radical Acts of Justice: How Ordinary People Are Dismantling Mass Incarceration, former attorney and law professor Jocelyn Simonson tells the stories of ordinary people joining together in collective acts of resistance: paying bail for a stranger, using social media to inform the public about courtroom proceedings, making a video about someone’s life for a criminal court judge, and other acts. When people join together to contest what we have been taught about justice and safety, they challenge the ideas that prosecutions and prisons make us safer.

Through collective action, these groups seek to create change from within, reframing ideas of what justice can look like and showing the vital role that grassroots efforts and participatory democracy can play in not only balancing power, but in addressing the moral shortcomings of our modern carceral state and transforming the current systems of policing, criminal law, and prisons.

Jocelyn Simonson is a former public defender, professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, and the leading national authority on community bail funds. Her work has been cited by the Supreme Court and discussed in The Atlantic, the New Yorker, and the Associated Press, and she has written for the New York Times, The Nation, n+1, the Washington Post, and others. Radical Acts of Justice (The New Press) is her first book. She lives in New York City.

Emily Thuma is an associate professor of politics and law in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Tacoma. She is the author of the award-winning book All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence.

Radical Acts of Justice: How Ordinary People Are Dismantling Mass Incarceration Third Place Books

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To study history, we often look at court cases as representations of the societal issues and debates of their day. With landmark cases like Plessy v. Ferguson, Roe v. Wade, Brown v. The Board of Education, we see how the trajectory of society’s ethical and legal foundation shifts over time. You might say that major disputes serve as a mirror of sorts, where we see our society and ourselves reflected back.

Federal prosecutor and top defense lawyer James J. Brosnahan takes us into the courtroom in Justice at Trial: Courtroom Battles and Groundbreaking Cases, exploring the disputes that reflect some of the most pressing issues of our time. He traces his career through critical cases like refugees on the Mexican border, the constitutional right to speak and print the truth, sexual taboos on national television, poverty and murder on Native American Reservations, hunger in America, and many others.

Join Brosnahan at Town Hall as he shares his first-hand experience navigating the tensions, excitement, and challenges of the courtroom.

James J. Brosnahan, a member of the California Trial Lawyer’s Hall of Fame, is a federal prosecutor and a defense lawyer who has tried 150 jury trials. He was a senior partner at Morrison & Foerster, a preeminent 1,000-lawyer international law firm based in San Francisco. For 46 years, Brosnahan has lectured internationally for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA). He has authored articles for the American Constitutional Blog, Law 360, The California Historical Society, The Daily Journal (California’s legal paper), the New York Times, Bloomberg Law, and the Los Angeles Times. He has appeared on national radio and television including ABC, CNN, Fox News, Larry King, National Public Radio, and PBS.

Justice at Trial: Courtroom Battles and Groundbreaking Cases Third Place Books

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These days, it feels like customer service has been nearly all digitized. While confusion over ticket orders and lost packages can be frustrating, one space where it feels necessary for technology to hit the mark is health and wellness care.

While online services and rapidly evolving technology should be making this process more fluid, moments like the crash of Healthcare.gov in 2013, as well as the shaky and muddled attempt for online services to provide benefits during COVID, call the effectiveness of this technology into question.

But what is the reason for such outdated and inefficient systems when it comes to providing vital aid for people? Former deputy chief technology officer, Jennifer Pahlka, responds to this query in her new book Re-coding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better. Pahlka argues that the government is stuck in an industrial-era culture, in which lofty goals set by the elite will often take years to be fully set in place.

As time passes, the technology that these policies plan to implement is shockingly out of date. Pahlka makes the case that we must stop trying to move government onto new technology, but instead offer alternative methods to relying on outdated infrastructures.

Join Jennifer Pahlka at Town Hall as she considers what it would mean to truly “recode” American government.

Jennifer Pahlka is the former deputy chief technology officer of the United States and the founder of Code for America, a nonprofit that believes government can work for people in the digital age. Pahlka is the winner of a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, among others, and has been selected by Wired magazine as one of the people who have most shaped technology and society in the past twenty-five years.

Tarah Wheeler is senior fellow for global cyber policy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). She is also an information security executive, social scientist in the area of international conflict, and author of the best-selling book Women In Tech: Take Your Career to The Next Level With Practical Advice And Inspiring Stories.

Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better Third Place Books

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If you consider yourself a Millennial or part of Generation Z, chances are you’ve felt a little jaded by the usual dusty office job. According to bestselling author and Town Hall veteran Chris Guillebeau, you’re not alone. Many of the post-Baby Boomer generations are choosing to rewrite the rules of capitalism.

In his latest book, Gonzo Capitalism: How to Make Money in An Economy That Hates You, Guillebeau details how many of today’s young people are burdened with debt, stagnant wages, and the ever-rising cost of living. Disillusioned with traditional, draining work models, they eschew more conventional ways of earning a living, instead opting to pursue new and creative ways to make money — alternate options to the 9-to-5 lifestyle inherited more readily by generations before.

Enter a new world where creativity is currency and creators have control. Anything goes: from communities of gamers getting paid to play; to armchair pundits betting against bookies in online markets; to TikTok “Sleepfluencers,” AI artists, and others upending rules. As we explore these realms of novelty and innovation, Guillebeau offers wisdom on how others can capitalize on the new tools and platforms at our disposal, discovering our own unconventional ways to turn time and talent — on our own terms — into income.

Chris Guillebeau is the New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup, Side Hustle, The Happiness of Pursuit, and other books. He is a serial entrepreneur, the host of the Side Hustle School podcast and the founder of the World Domination Summit, an event for cultural creatives that has, for the past decade, attracted thousands of attendees to Portland, Oregon every summer.

Gonzo Capitalism: How to Make Money in An Economy That Hates You Third Place Books

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Long-time disability advocate Barry Long and Dave Tatro from Sound Generations share their lives and learning with Rebecca Crichton, ED of Northwest Center for Creative Ageing. They will discuss how we can all learn how to interact with and support people with both visible and invisible disabilities.

Barry Long has faced life-altering challenges that have taught him the value of positive attitude and perseverance. Through his work as a professional speaker, trainer, and leadership coach, Barry has shared his message of motivation with thousands of people; helping them to take action and reach their goals through real conversation, direct guidance, and actionable plans.

Long-time Seattle resident Dave Tatro Dave was diagnosed as a teenager with a hereditary, degenerative eye disease called Choroideremia. It’s the gradual loss of the rod cells in the retina. These cells are crucial to peripheral vision and night vision. As he ages, his range of vision continues to narrow to a type of tunnel vision and night blindness. It’s considered low-vision or ‘legal’ blindness. Luckily, the use of a white blind cane has helped Dave stay relatively independent. He can get around on own own when he take his time and adjusts his expectations. He has great admiration for those with more complicated life challenges

Rebecca Crichton started her “Encore Career” as ED of NWCCA in 2012 after 21 years with The Boeing Company. She refashioned her skills and knowledge as a writer, curriculum designer, and leadership development coach to offer programs related to Creative Aging at many venues in the Seattle area. An active participant in the local aging community, she writes regularly for 3rd Act Magazine.

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If journalism is the lifeblood of our democracy, then why does it feel like its chronically on life support?

Nationally, thousands of news outlets have been crushed under the weight of financial distress. The few that survive are driven by profit motives, rather than seeking to educate and inform.

Locally, we’ve witnessed the closures of the Seattle Chinese Post, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Seattle Weekly, and the Seattle Globalist. While other outlets have been forced to either go exclusively online or operate with skeleton newsrooms.

So, what is to be done to halt the decay of one of society’s most essential organs?

While many bemoan the decline of journalism, there are also solutions being explored for how to ensure that every community both locally and nationally is afforded journalism that is factual, accurate, and accessible.

Join Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen, KNKX News Director Florangela Davila, and South Seattle Emerald Executive Director Michael McPhearson as they discuss a pathway to a vibrant local media ecosystem that is a force for the public. The discussion will be moderated by Deloris Irwin of the League of Women Voters.

Florangela Davila has been a journalist since 1992. For 14 years she worked at The Seattle Times, covering race and immigration. She also served as managing editor and news host at KCTS 9. The child of immigrants from Colombia and Peru, she was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from UC Berkeley and Columbia University. She’s earned numerous individual and team journalism honors in print, online and broadcast, most recently three regional Murrow awards for KNKX.

Jelani Cobb is the Dean of Journalism at Columbia University. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2015. He received a Peabody Award for his 2020 PBS Frontline film Whose Vote Counts? and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary in 2018. He has also been a political analyst for MSNBC since 2019.

Michael McPhearson is the executive director of the South Seattle Emerald. He is the former executive director of Veterans For Peace. As co-coordinator of the Ferguson/St. Louis Don’t Shoot Coalition and leading a delegation to support the people of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, he recognizes the critical role of community media for social change. He has testified before Congress and is currently a board member of the ACLU of Washington.

Frank Blethen is the publisher of The Seattle Times and the great-grandson of the 126-year-old company’s founder.

Delores Irwin is co-chair of the League of Women Voters of Washington committee that produced the 2022 study “The Decline of Local News and Its Impact on Democracy.” She graduated from Cal State University, Fullerton, with a BA in Communications/Journalism, and was a newspaper reporter for several years at Southern California newspapers, including the Orange County Register. She is a former public information officer for a city and also worked for a public hospital and a community college district, all in Southern California. She is the former League president in Kittitas County.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and South Seattle Emerald.

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With today’s emerging technologies, including things like artificial intelligence, are quickly becoming mainstream. AIs like ChatGPT, the chatbot that can produce answers to questions and write essays and poems, have become sensational hits in our culture. What’s the cost of all of these so-called advances?

If you ask economist Simon Johnson, the cost could be astronomical. In his latest book, Power and Progress (co-authored with MIT’s Daron Acemoglu), Johnson believes that we are at a pivotal point in history where technology could either provide widespread prosperity or accelerate the power and wealth gaps in our society. Many people throughout history, and in current today, have assumed that technological advances mean progress for all.

Johnson explores how this assumption actually played out throughout history. The wealth generated by technological improvements in agriculture during the European Middle Ages was captured by the nobility and used to build grand cathedrals while peasants remained on the edge of starvation. England’s first hundred years of industrialization delivered stagnant incomes for working people. And throughout the world today, Johnson argues, digital technologies and artificial intelligence undermine jobs and democracy through excessive automation, massive data collection, and intrusive surveillance. So are we doomed to repeat history?

Johnson would say no. He also demonstrates that the path of technology was once — and may again be — brought under control. The tremendous computing advances of the last half-century can become empowering and democratizing tools, but not if all major decisions remain in the hands of a few powerful tech leaders. Combining economic theory and a manifesto for a better society, Johnson provides the vision to reshape how we innovate and the question of who really gains from technological advances.

Simon Johnson is the Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT and a former chief economist to the IMF. His much-viewed opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Atlantic, and elsewhere. With law professor James Kwak, Simon is the co-author of the bestsellers 13 Bankers and White House Burning and a founder of the widely-cited economics blog The Baseline Scenario.

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In his life, Aziz Shehadeh was many things — among them a lawyer, a political detainee, and the father of activist and author, Raja Shehadeh.

Raja’s latest book, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I, is a subtle psychological portrait of a complicated father-son relationship. Set against the backdrop of continuing political unrest, Raja describes his failure as a young man to recognize his father’s courage as an activist, and, in turn, his father’s inability to appreciate Raja’s own efforts in campaigning for Palestinian human rights. Then in 1985, Aziz Shehadeh is murdered, and Raja undergoes a profound and irrevocable change.

We Could Have Been Friends acts in part as the story of Palestine’s continual fight against multiple foreign powers, but at its core presents a poignant unraveling of a complex father-son relationship, unlike many we have seen before.

Raja Shehadeh is Palestine’s leading writer. He is also a lawyer and the founder of the pioneering Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq. Shehadeh is the author of several acclaimed books including Strangers in the House, Occupation Diaries, and Palestinian Walks, which won the prestigious Orwell Prize.

We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir
Third Place Books

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  ***950,000 years ago a family of five walked along the beach and left their prints behind. Now, we can view that poignant portrait etched in time*** — ***fossils of footprints on the beach*** — ***and think of our own families and what memory we might leave in our wake.***

For award-winning historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, these familiar footprints serve as an inspiration for his latest research in world history — one that is genuinely global, spans all eras and all continents and focuses on the family ties that connect every one of us.

In his book The World, Montefiore chronicles the world’s great dynasties across human history through palace intrigues, love affairs, and family lives, linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, and technology to the families at the heart of the human drama.

These families are diverse and span across space and time. Montefiore tells the stories of the Caesars, Medicis and Incas, Ottomans and Mughals, Bonapartes, Habsburgs and Zulus, Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Krupps, Churchills, Kennedys, Castros, Nehrus, Pahlavis and Kenyattas, Saudis, Kims and Assads. He ties in modern names such as Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, and Volodymyr Zelensky.

These powerful families represent the story of humanity, with bloody succession battles, treacherous conspiracies, and shocking megalomania alongside flourishing culture, moving romances, and enlightened benevolence. Montefiore’s work encourages us to pause and consider our own footprints — and how they might connect to narratives of the future.

Simon Sebag Montefiore is a historian of Russia and the Middle East whose books are published in more than forty languages. Catherine the Great and Potemkin was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar won the History Book of the Year Prize at the British Book Awards, and Young Stalin won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography, the Costa Biography Award, and le Grande Prix de la biographie politique. He received his Ph.D. from Cambridge, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives in London.

The World
The Elliott Bay Book Company

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Airships, those airborne leviathans that occupied center stage in the world in the first half of the twentieth century, were a symbol of the future.

The British airship R101 was not just the largest aircraft ever to have flown and the product of the world’s most advanced engineering — it was also the linchpin of an imperial British scheme to link by air the far-flung areas of its empire from Australia to India, South Africa, Canada, Egypt, and Singapore. No one had ever conceived of anything like it, and R101 captivated the world. There was just one problem: beyond the hype and technological wonders, these big, steel-framed, hydrogen-filled airships were a dangerously bad idea.

Journalist S.C. Gwynne’s book, His Majesty’s Airship, features a cast of remarkable and often tragically flawed characters, including: Lord Christopher Thomson, the man who dreamed up the Imperial Airship Scheme and then relentlessly pushed R101 to her destruction; Princess Marthe Bibesco, the celebrated writer and glamorous socialite with whom he had a long affair; and Herbert Scott, a national hero who had made the first double crossing of the Atlantic in any aircraft in 1919 — eight years before Lindbergh’s famous flight — but who devolved into drink and ruin. These historical figures — and the ship they built, flew, and crashed — come together in a grand tale that details the rocky road to commercial aviation.

S.C. Gwynne is the author of Hymns of the Republic and the New York Times bestsellers Rebel Yell and Empire of the Summer Moon, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He spent most of his career as a journalist, including stints with Time as bureau chief, national correspondent, and senior editor, and with Texas Monthly as executive editor. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife.

His Majesty's Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine Third Place Books

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Home to over 730,000 people, with close to four million people living in the metropolitan area, Seattle has the third-highest homeless population in the United States.

In 2018, an estimated 8,600 homeless people lived in the city, a figure that does not include the significant number of “hidden” homeless people doubled up with friends or living in and out of cheap hotels. In Skid Road, Josephine Ensign digs through layers of Seattle history—past its leaders and prominent citizens, respectable or not—to reveal the stories of overlooked and long-silenced people who live on the margins of society.

Josephine Ensign is a professor in the School of Nursing and adjunct professor in the Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington. She is the author of Catching Homelessness: A Nurse’s Story of Falling through the Safety Net, Soul Stories: Voices from the Margins, and the Washington State Book Award Finalist Skid Road: On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in Seattle.

Anna Patrick is a reporter for Project Homeless, a community-funded team at The Seattle Times dedicated to covering the region’s homelessness crisis. Before joining The Seattle Times, Anna was a journalist in her home state of West Virginia, where she worked as a feature writer at the Charleston Gazette-Mail in Charleston, West Virginia and then later as a freelancer, covering stories throughout Appalachia.

Skid Road The Elliott Bay Book Company

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A primer on police abolition from veteran organizers.

What could it look like to live in a world where, instead of relying on policing and prison to put halt to harm, violence is stopped before it even has a chance to begin? In No More Police, organizer and attorney Andrea J. Ritchie and New York Times bestselling author Mariame Kaba detail why policing doesn’t stop violence and instead perpetuates widespread harm. Outlining the many failures of contemporary police reforms, they explore demands to divest from policing and invest in community resources to create greater safety through a Black feminist lens.

No More Police centering survivors of state, interpersonal, and community-based violence, and highlights uprisings, campaigns, and community-based projects. Part handbook, part road map, the book calls on readers to turn away from systems that perpetrate violence in the name of ending it, and instead turn toward a world where violence is the exception — a world where safe, well-resourced and thriving communities are the rule. Ritchie joins us at Town Hall to make a case for a world where the tools required to prevent, interrupt, and transform violence in all its forms are abundant.

Andrea J. Ritchie is a nationally recognized expert on policing and criminalization and supports organizers across the country working to build safer communities. She is the co-founder of Interrupting Criminalization, the author of Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color, and the co-author (with Mariame Kaba) of No More Police (The New Press). She lives in Detroit.

Professor Angélica Cházaro teaches Critical Race Theory, Poverty Law, Professional Responsibility, and courses on Immigration Law. Professor Cházaro earned her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she received the Jane Marks Murphy Prize for Excellence in Clinical Advocacy and was named a Lowenstein Fellow. She was a Kent Scholar, a Stone Scholar, and an editor of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review. Before attending Columbia, Professor Cházaro earned a B.A. in Women’s Studies from Harvard University.

No More Police Third Place Books

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Before 1492, hundreds of Indigenous communities across North America included people who identified as neither male nor female, but both.

They went by aakíí’skassi, miati, okitcitakwe, or one of the hundreds of other tribal-specific identities. After European colonizers invaded Indian Country, centuries of violence and systematic persecution followed, imperiling the existence of people who today call themselves Two-Spirits, an umbrella term denoting feminine and masculine qualities in one person. Despite centuries of colonialism, the Two-Spirit people are reclaiming their place in Native nations.

Gregory D. Smithers’s book, Reclaiming Two-Spirits, seeks to decolonize the history of gender and sexuality in Native North America. It honors the generations of Indigenous people who had the foresight to take essential aspects of their cultural life and spiritual beliefs underground to preserve their stories.

Drawing on written sources, archaeological evidence, art, and oral storytelling, Reclaiming Two-Spirits spans the centuries from the Spanish invasion to the present, tracing massacres and inquisitions and revealing how the authors of colonialism’s written archives used language to both denigrate and erase Two-Spirit people from history. But as Gregory Smithers shows, the colonizers failed — and Indigenous resistance is core to this story. Reclaiming Two-Spirits amplifies their voices, reconnecting their history to Native nations in the 21st century.

Gregory D. Smithers is a professor of American history and Eminent Scholar at Virginia Commonwealth University and a British Academy Global Professor at the University of Hull in England. His research focuses on Cherokee and Southeastern Indigenous history, as well as gender, sexuality, racial, and environmental history. His books include Native Southerners: Indigenous History from Origins to Removal and The Cherokee Diaspora: An Indigenous History of Migration, Resettlement, and Identity. Follow him at gregorysmithers.com and on Twitter (@GD_Smithers).

Hailey Tayathy is an enrolled member of the Quileute Tribe, a visual artist and Seattle’s premier Coast Salish drag queen. They are a founding member of the Indigenize Productions artist collective and organizer of the Indigiqueer Festival. Tayathy uses their queer Native experiences to inform their unique brand of drag. They aim to bring healing to Indigenous communities and to show everyone that Indigiqueers are still here and are stronger and more beautiful than colonizer minds can imagine.

Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America Third Place Books

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Few people realize that raising children is the single largest industry in the United States.

Parents are expected not only to care for their children but to help them develop the skills they will need to thrive in today’s socioeconomic reality — but most parents, including even the most caring parents on the planet, are not trained in skill development and lack the resources to get help. How do we fix this? The solution, economist Nate Hilger argues, is to ask less of parents, not more. Hilger makes the case that America should consider child development a public investment with a monumental payoff, and suggests that we need a program like Medicare — call it Familycare — to drive this investment. To make it happen, parents must organize to wield their political power on behalf of children — who will always be the largest bloc of disenfranchised people in this country.

In his new book The Parent Trap, Hilger exposes the true costs of our society’s unrealistic expectations around parenting and lays out a profoundly hopeful blueprint for reform.

Nate G. Hilger is an economist and data scientist in Silicon Valley. His debut book, The Parent Trap: How to Stop Overloading Parents and Fix Our Inequality Crisis, was listed as Required Reading for Parents by the Next Big Idea Club and named a Favorite Parenting Book of 2022 by Greater Good Magazine. His work on child development and inequality has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Vox, The Washington Post, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, and many other media outlets.

George Durham is the executive director of Seattle-based Linksbridge SPC. He has experience leading projects and working with teams in global health and development, corporate social responsibility, and global communications. George has led three Seattle-area nonprofit organizations. An avid cyclist, George commutes nearly every day – rain or shine – via bicycle, and aspires to ride across the country one day.

The Parent Trap: How to Stop Overloading Parents and Fix Our Inequality Crisis Third Place Books

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Nate Gowdy had previously photographed 30 Donald Trump rallies. He thought he was fully prepared for what should have been the grand finale, but the events that unfolded on January 6th, 2021, were more than anyone could have expected.

As the event transformed from protest to outright insurrection, Gowdy never stopped photographing. The result is his first monograph, Insurrection — a comprehensive yet intimate account of the events of that fateful day. The 150-page book moves readers through the day in timestamped, chronological order, bringing them a firsthand account of not just the attack on the U.S. Capitol, but what it was like to be a journalist on the front lines.

Juxtaposed are scenes of domestic terrorists kneeling and praying, posing for group photos, eating hotdogs, rampaging against the Capitol’s sworn protectors, and defiling the Inauguration Day stand, historically reserved for the stately pomp and circumstance of our representative government. On assignment for Rolling Stone, Gowdy was deemed “fake news” and assaulted twice for having professional cameras.

Gowdy joins us in the Wyncote NW Forum to share more about that historic day in January.

Nate Gowdy captures the complexities of American politics with striking clarity. Since chronicling Washington state’s fight for marriage equality in 2012, he has traveled the US to photograph pivotal events, figures, and movements across the political divide. His images have been featured in Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, PBS NewsHour, Thom Hartmann, CNN, and TIME, where his Bernie Sanders portrait graced the cover in 2016. As a co-founder of The American Superhero Project and co-author of Our Students, Their Stories, a book celebrating Seattle Public Schools’ LGBTQIA+ students, families, and staff, Gowdy is committed to elevating underrepresented voices. He serves as the official photographer for Seattle Pride, and his documentary fine art is represented at Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe.

INSURRECTION

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The Roaring Twenties – the Jazz Age – has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan.

Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.

Stephenson was a magnetic presence whose life story changed with every telling. Within two years of his arrival in Indiana, he’d become the Grand Dragon of the state and the architect of the strategy that brought the group out of the shadows – their message endorsed from the pulpits of local churches, spread at family picnics and town celebrations. Judges, prosecutors, ministers, governors, and senators across the country all proudly proclaimed their membership. But at the peak of his influence, it was a seemingly powerless woman – Madge Oberholtzer – who would reveal his secret cruelties, and whose deathbed testimony finally brought the Klan to their knees.

Timothy Egan is a Pulitzer Prize—winning reporter and the author of nine other books, most recently the highly acclaimed A Pilgrimage to Eternity and The Immortal Irishman, a New York Times bestseller. His book on the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time, won a National Book Award for Excellence in Nonfiction. His account of photographer Edward Curtis, Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, won the Carnegie Medal for nonfiction.

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them The Elliott Bay Book Company

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Journalist Kathleen McLaughlin knew she’d found a treatment that worked on her rare autoimmune disorder. She had no idea it had been drawn from the veins of America’s most vulnerable.

Blood Money shares McLaughlin’s decade-long mission to learn the full story of where her medicine comes from. She travels the United States in search of the truth about human blood plasma and learns that twenty million Americans each year sell their plasma for profit — a human-derived commodity extracted inside our borders to be processed and packaged for retail across the globe. McLaughlin investigates the thin evidence that pharmaceutical companies have used to push plasma as a wonder drug for everything from COVID-19 to wrinkled skin. In the process, she unearths an American economic crisis hidden in plain sight: single mothers, college students, laid-off Rust Belt auto workers, and a booming blood market at America’s southern border, where collection agencies target Mexican citizens willing to cross over and sell their plasma for substandard pay.

McLaughlin’s findings push her to ask difficult questions about her own complicity in this wheel of exploitation, as both a patient in need and a customer who stands to benefit from the suffering of others. Blood Money weaves together McLaughlin’s personal battle to overcome illness as a working American, with revealing portrait of what happens when big business is allowed to feed, unchecked, on those least empowered to fight back.

Kathleen McLaughlin is an award-winning journalist who reports and writes about the consequences of economic inequality around the world. A frequent contributor to The Washington Post and The Guardian, McLaughlin’s reporting has also appeared in The New York Times, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, The Economist, NPR, and more. She is a former Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT and has won multiple awards for her reporting on labor in China. Blood Money is her first book.

Shaun Scott is a Seattle-based writer and historian. A former Pramila Jayapal staffer and Bernie Sanders 2020 Washington State Field Director, he is currently the Policy Lead at the Statewide Poverty Action Network. His essays about popular culture and late capitalism have appeared in Sports Illustrated, The Guardian, andJacobin Magazine. He is the author of the paperbackMillennials and the Moments that Made Us: A Cultural History of the US from 1982-Present, and the forthcoming hardcover from UW Press Heartbreak City: Sports and the Progressive Movement in Urban America.

Blood Money The Elliott Bay Book Company

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Could the power of story-telling help create a better reality?

Afterglow is a stunning collection of original short stories in which writers from many different backgrounds envision a radically different climate future. Published in collaboration with Grist, a nonprofit media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions, these stirring tales expand our ability to imagine a better world.

Afterglow draws inspiration from a range of cutting-edge literary movements including Afrofuturism, hope-punk, and solar-punk—genres that uplift equitable climate solutions and continued service to one’s community, even in the face of despair. The Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, disabled, feminist, and queer voices in this collection imagine intersectional worlds in which no community is left behind. Whether through abundance or adaptation, reform, or a new understanding of survival, these stories offer flickers of hope, even joy, as they provide a springboard for exploring how fiction can help create a better reality.

Panelists

Sheree Renée Thomas is a New York Times bestselling, two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author and editor. A 2023 Octavia E. Butler Award honoree and a 2022 Hugo Award Finalist, she is the author of Nine Bar Blues: Stories from an Ancient Future, a Locus, Ignyte, and World Fantasy Finalist, Marvel’s Black Panther: Panther’s Rage novel, and she collaborated with Janelle Monáe on “Timebox Altar(ed)” in The Memory Librarian and Other Stories of Dirty Computer. She co-edited Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, a NAACP Image Award Nominee, and is the Editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Sheree lives in her hometown, Memphis, Tennessee, near a mighty river and a pyramid. Justine Norton-Kertson is a genderfluid author of stories and poems as well as a screenwriter, game maker, musician, and community organizer. They’re the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Android Press and Solarpunk Magazine. They’ve been published in magazines such as Utopia Science Fiction and Jupiter Review. Their anthologist debut, Bioluminescent: A Lunarpunk Anthology, was published in January 2023 from Android Press. And their debut nonfiction book, Solarpunk Witchcraft, is forthcoming from Microcosm Publishing in 2024. They live in rural Oregon with their partner, puppies, cats, goats, bunnies, and beehives. Find them at http://justinenortonkertson.com

Andrew Simon is a writer and editor living in Seattle. Simon has been an editorial leader at award-winning media organizations including Grist, Fast Company, ESPN, and Complex Media. He’s launched a journalism fellowship, the annual Grist 50 list, and a podcast, among other projects. He currently works on thought leadership and business solutions. He is co-author of the book ‘Racing While Black: How an African-American Stock Car Team Made Its Mark on NASCAR.’

Tory Stephens creates opportunities that transform organizations and shift culture. He is a resource generator and community builder for social justice issues, people, and movements. He currently works at Grist Magazine as their climate fiction creative manager and uses storytelling to champion climate justice, and imagine green, clean, and just futures. In another life, he owned a kick-butt streetwear company, and he would have gotten away with eating the last cookie too if it weren’t for his three meddling kids.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Its goal is to use the power of storytelling to illuminate the way toward a better world, inspire millions of people to walk that path with us, and show that the time for action is now.

Afterglow Third Place Books

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No matter how we identify, we all have a lot to unpack. While there is a multitude of texts with universal application, community organizer Krista R. Pérez has written a book specifically with a BIPOC audience in mind.

In Unearthing Our Roots, Pérez encourages advocates, activists, and leaders from historically marginalized groups to implement transformative and healing practices within their communities. Pérez extends an invitation to readers to unearth and uproot racist, anti-Black, ableist, and other biases that fracture relationships surrounding their communities.

With decades of lived experience and a multidisciplinary approach, Pérez presents guided journal prompts for examining our own intentions, strategies for unraveling harmful biases and behaviors, and transformative and restorative practices for communities of historically marginalized groups at both micro and macro levels.

Partially funded by the Tacoma Arts Commission, Unearthing Our Roots is a book that doubles as a clarion call.

Krista R. Pérez aims to share her story, all parts of her story, including her softest and strongest parts, her sacred nature, the joy of motherhood, and her deeply rooted cultural values, to create spaces for Women of Color to show up in all capacities. Krista is also a proponent of integrated leadership, in which we bring all parts of ourselves to our professional workspaces. By making our whole selves visible we learn to value our whole selves, and others, as others and community members.

Jasmine M. Pulido is a Filipina American writer-activist, small business owner, and mother. Her written work has been featured in the South Seattle Emerald, International Examiner, The Postscript, and Give Grief a Voice. Her work has been performed through Velasco Arts and Bindlestiff Studio. She recently wrote her first play, “The Master’s Tool” exploring the struggles of BIPOC folks in Equity, Diversity, Inclusion work in white-dominant non-profit workplaces. Jasmine is pursuing her Master’s in Social Change at Starr King School for the Ministry. She writes a bi-weekly substack called “Liberation Library” and is currently working on her first novel.

Unearthing Our Roots Blue Cactus Press

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Why do Americans believe in the “magic of the marketplace”?

The answer, as Erik M. Conway contends in The Big Myth (with coauthor Naomi Oreskes), is a propaganda blitz. Until the early 1900s, the U.S. government’s guiding role in economic life was largely accepted. But then business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies combatted regulation by building a new orthodoxy: down with “big government,” up with unfettered markets. Unearthing eye-opening archival evidence, the authors document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor. They detail the ploys that turned hardline economists Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman into household names, recount the libertarian roots of the Little House on the Prairie books, and tune into the General Electric-sponsored TV show that beamed free-market doctrine (and the young Ronald Reagan) to millions.

Conway argues that by the 1970s, the crusade had succeeded, paving the way for an ideology that would define the next 50 years of Republican and Democratic administrations and fuel housing, opioid, climate, and public health crises. By understanding this history, The Big Myth aims to help us imagine a future where markets will serve, not stifle, democracy.

Erik Conway is a historian of science and technology and works for the California Institute of Technology. He is the author of seven books and dozens of articles and essays. He lives in Pasadena, California.

David Roberts is the proprietor of a newsletter & podcast called Volts, about clean energy & politics.

The Big Myth Phinney Books

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What would the world look like if we shifted political and legislative power to everyday people — on the premise that everyone is worthy and capable of being involved in collective decision-making?

Claudia Chwalisz seeks to answer that question. She believes another democratic future is possible and strives to create a more just, joyful, and collaborative future where everyone has meaningful power to shape their societies.

By researching, implementing, and reporting on new forms of representative democratic institutions, such as permanent citizens’ councils, where representation passes through sortition (selection by lottery), Claudia hopes to enable everyone to explore how institutions can adopt new forms of the democratic process.

Claudia Chwalisz is an author, activist, and entrepreneur. She is the Founder and CEO of DemocracyNext, a research and action institute working to shift political and legislative power to everyday people through empowered Citizens’ Assemblies.

Marcus Harrison Green is the publisher of the South Seattle Emerald and a columnist with The Seattle Times.

Brandi Kruse is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and political commentator. After nearly a decade with the FOX affiliate in Seattle, she left to launch unDivided, an independent political show and podcast that gives a voice to Americans who feel silenced by the fringes of both parties. Brandi is a Minnesota native and graduate of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska.

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Join local writers, musicians, and activists for an evening of songs, poetry, and witness.

Alex Gallo-Brown has worked as a barista, a server, a cook, an organic farmer, a caregiver for people with disabilities, an educator, and a union organizer, among other professions. He has also published two books, The Language of Grief (2012) and Variations of Labor (2019). Called “the poet of the service economy” by author and critic Valerie Trueblood, he has been awarded the Barry Lopez Fellowship from Seattle’s Hugo House, the Walthall Fellowship from Atlanta’s WonderRoot, and the Emerging Artist Award from the City of Atlanta. He holds degrees in writing from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and Georgia State University in Atlanta. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two daughters.

Louis Ramon Garcia is a PNW-native and a Washington State University alumnus, where he double majored in political science and philosophy. He led the unionization of workers at Storyville Coffee in Seattle when he was employed in early 2022. Since then, Louis has begun developing a career within the worker/labor rights movement and seeks to pursue higher education for himself and justice and equity for workers everywhere.

Victory Rose is a PNW based singer-songwriter and former Starbucks barista who worked at the first unionized Starbucks store in Seattle, Broadway and Denny. She found her voice as a chant leader, accompanist and organizer over the past year’s SBWU strike and rally actions.

Paul Hlava Ceballos is the author of banana [ ], a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of the AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry.

He has fellowships from CantoMundo, Artist Trust, and the Poets House. His work has been published in Poetry Magazine, BOMB, and the LA Times, and has been translated into Ukrainian.

He organized ESL teachers’ unions in New York, helping found a union at Kaplan International Colleges, which was the first union at a for-profit English school in America. Working with 99 Pickets, he also participated in campaigns for the NYU Graduate Students Union, Hot and Crusty, and the Laundry Workers Center United.

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As President Vladimir Putin flung threats of nuclear retaliation during Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, we were given an important reminder of the dangers posed by nuclear weapons. This terrifying wake-up call has dominated headlines for a year. President of Ploughshares Fund Dr. Emma Belcher knows the threat looms beyond the physical borders of Putin’s war and how they could easily find purchase on American soil. Join Dr. Belcher for a conversation moderated by The Honorable Gael Tarleton about the current state of global nuclear threats and the proximity of Seattleites to nuclear geopolitics.

Dr. Emma Belcher is president of Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation dedicated to reducing the threat of nuclear weapons. Emma spent nearly a decade at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, where she led the foundation’s Nuclear Challenges grantmaking program. There, she developed and built the foundation’s Nuclear Challenge Big Bet team. She also served as an advisor in Australia’s Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet on national security and international affairs. Emma has been on the TED platform twice, discussing the importance of confronting, humanizing, and ultimately solving the existential threat of nuclear weapons.

The Honorable Gael Tarleton, former Washington State Representative for the 36th legislative district (Seattle) from 2013-2021, began her career as a senior defense intelligence analyst for the Pentagon for a decade. She then ran two international subsidiaries of a Fortune 500 company in Russia, helping rebuild the country after the Cold War collapse by cleaning up nuclear waste and preventing environmental disasters. Tarleton co-founded the Northwest chapter of Women in International Security, was Port of Seattle Commissioner, and served as an advisor for the Institute for National Security Education and Research at UW and technical advisor for PNNL.

About Ploughshares Fund

For over four decades, Ploughshares Fund has supported the most effective advocates and organizations in the world to reduce and eventually eliminate the danger posed by nuclear weapons.

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Do you ever wish you had a manual for what to say in certain situations? Cultural Awareness powerhouses Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow’s Say the Right Thing: How to Talk About Identity, Diversity, and Justice describes itself as “a practical, shame-free guide for navigating conversations across our differences at a time of rapid social change.”

While we navigate a significant time of divisiveness and unrest, conversations about identity are becoming more frequent, but also arguably more complex. When discussing subjects such as critical race theory, gender equity in the workplace, and LGBTQ-inclusive classrooms, many of us with good intentions may find ourselves fearful of saying the wrong thing and hurting someone or being misunderstood. That fear can sometimes prevent us from speaking up at all, which can have the detrimental effect of stalling progress toward a more just and inclusive society.

As founders of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NYU School of Law, Yoshino and Glasgow share a goal of showing potential allies that these conversations don’t have to be so overwhelming. Through stories drawn from social media posts, dinner party conversations, and workplace disputes, they offer seven user-friendly principles that are supported by research and teach skills like avoiding common conversational pitfalls, engaging in respectful disagreement, offering authentic apologies, and better supporting the people in our lives who experience bias.

Say the Right Thing seeks to encourage us away from cancel culture and shame toward more meaningful and empathetic dialogue on issues of identity on both large and small scales. Whether managing diverse teams at work, navigating issues of inclusion at college, or challenging biased comments at a family barbecue, Yoshino and Glasgow may help us move from unconsciously hurting people to consciously helping them.

Kenji Yoshino is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law and the director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. A graduate of Harvard (AB summa cum laude), Oxford (MSc as a Rhodes Scholar), and Yale (JD), he specializes in constitutional law, antidiscrimination law, and law and literature. Yoshino taught at Yale Law School from 1998 to 2008, where he served as Deputy Dean and the inaugural Guido Calabresi Professor of Law. He is the author of three books: Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights; A Thousand Times More Fair: What Shakespeare’s Plays Teach Us About Justice; and Speak Now: Marriage Equality on Trial. Yoshino has published in major academic journals, including the Harvard Law Review, the Stanford Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. He makes regular appearances on radio and television programs, such as NPR, CNN, PBS and MSNBC. He has won numerous awards for his scholarship and teaching, including the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award in 2016 and the Podell Distinguished Teaching Award in 2014.

David Glasgow is the executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging and an adjunct professor of law at NYU School of Law. In his role at the Meltzer Center, he develops and executes educational programs on diversity and inclusion for internal and external clients, coordinates a speaker series and other events on contemporary diversity and inclusion issues, and manages the center’s general operations. He has co-taught courses at the Law School on leadership, diversity, and inclusion, and co-authored a book with Kenji Yoshino, Say the Right Thing: How to Talk about Identity, Diversity, and Justice. David graduated with a BA in philosophy and an LLB (First Class Honors) from the University of Melbourne, and a Master of Laws (LLM) from NYU School of Law, where he received the David H. Moses Memorial Prize and the George Colin Award. Prior to joining the Meltzer Center, he practiced employee relations and anti-discrimination law in Melbourne, Australia, and then served as an Associate Director of the Public Interest Law Center at NYU School of Law.

Jane Park is the CEO of Athena Consumer, an all women founded Special Purpose Acquisition Company, as well as CEO and Founder of Tokki, a social & sustainable giftwrap company. Prior to founding Tokki, Ms. Park was the CEO and Founder of Julep, an on-line first beauty brand now distributed nationally at Ulta stores as well as on QVC and Nordstrom. Ms. Park was also an executive at Starbucks in the New Ventures division where she launched new consumer businesses. She was also a leader at the Boston Consulting Group in the Retail and Consumer Goods practice group, and a founding director of the CEO Forum for Education and Technology with luminaires such as Steve Jobs (CEO Apple) and Eckhard Pfeiffer (CEO Compaq).

Ms. Park serves on the Board of Directors of Athena Consumer, Glo Beauty, and the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship, and regularly appears on television as well as consumer, technology, and women’s leadership conferences. She is a graduate of the Princeton School of Public Policy and International Affairs and Yale Law School.

Say the Right Thing: How to Talk About Identity, Diversity, and Justice Third Place Books

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On February 28, 1993, agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) raided the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. Acting on reports that the group and their leader, David Koresh, were stockpiling illegal weapons, the AFT raid led to a disastrous siege that ended with a lethal fire and the deaths of 76 people, including 25 children.

30 years later, bestselling author and former investigative reporter Jeff Guinn offers a fresh account of the siege at the Branch Davidian compound, featuring never-before-seen documents, photographs, and interviews. In Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage, Guinn’s extensive research captures the voices of a dozen former ATF agents who participated in the initial raids, who speak on the record about the poor decisions of their commanders that led to this deadly confrontation. Why did the FBI choose to end the siege with the use of CS gas? How did ATF and FBI officials try, and fail, to cover up their agencies’ mistakes? Where did David Koresh plagiarize his infamous prophecies? What are the direct links between the Branch Davidian tragedy and the modern militia movement in America? Guinn considers these questions and more, shedding new light on a story that we thought we knew.

Jeff Guinn is the bestselling author of numerous books, including Go Down Together, The Last Gunfight, Manson, War on the Border, and Waco. He was the co-executive producer alongside Leonardo DiCaprio on the TV docuseries Terror in the Jungle, which is based on his book, The Road to Jonestown. He is a two-time Edgar finalist for True Crime and a two-time winner of the Texas Book Award. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame.

Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage The Elliott Bay Book Company

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The Black Power movement is often associated with iconic spokespeople, but its momentum was due, in part, to the work of those with untold stories. University of Washington-Bothell Professor and historian Dan Berger’s new book Stayed On Freedom: The Long History of Black Power through One Family’s Journey focuses on the story of Zoharah Simmons and Michael Simmons: two unheralded, grassroots Black Power activists who dedicated their lives to the fight for freedom.

A love story as well as a movement story, Zoharah and Michael fell in love while organizing tenants and workers in the South. Their commitment to each other and to social change took them on a decades-long journey that first traversed the United States and then the world. In centering their lives through intertwined stories, Berger shows how Black Power brought unity on both a local and global scale, which had an impact across organizations as well as generations. Attendees will likely learn something new about these unsung members of the movement toward civil rights, introducing people besides those typically highlighted during Black History Month.

Based on hundreds of hours of interviews, Stayed On Freedom seeks to reveal a moving and intimate portrait of two people trying to forge a life for themselves while working to make a better world for others.

Dan Berger is professor of comparative ethnic studies and associate dean for faculty development and scholarship in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell. His book Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era won the 2015 James A. Rawley Prize. He lives in Seattle, WA.

Dr. Carmen Rojas is the president & CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation. For more than 20 years, she has worked with foundations, financial institutions, and nonprofits to improve the lives of working people across the country. Dr. Rojas holds a Ph.D. in City & Regional Planning from UC Berkeley, and was a Fulbright Scholar in 2007.

Stayed on Freedom The Elliott Bay Book Company

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Do you recall your earliest memories about managing money? Did you squirrel away pennies in a bank or watch your parents balance the checkbook? Author Tori Dunlap had those memories as a child and was always good with money, but she learned her experience was unusual — especially among her female friends.

After investigating financial literacy and wealth gaps, Dunlap discovered that girls are significantly less likely to receive a holistic financial education and receive radically different messages about money than boys. Women, she contends, are often taught to restrain their spending, while men are taught to invest and are rewarded for pursuing wealth. And when something like, say, a global pandemic happens, women tend to be the first to leave the workforce or experience job cuts, and are the last to re-enter it.

With such disparate outcomes, it’s no wonder money is a source of anxiety and a barrier to equality for so many. In her new book, Financial Feminist: Overcome the Patriarchy’s Bullsht to Master Your Money and Build a Life You Love, Dunlap aims to help women exercise agency over their finances and lives. Through journaling prompts, deep-dives into the financial landscape, and interviews with financial experts on everything money — from predatory credit card companies to the racial wealth gap and voting with your dollars — Financial Feminist* strives to help women be free to live the lives they want.

Dunlap joins us at Town Hall to share her approach to paying off debt, spending mindfully, saving money without deprivation, and investing for the future.

Tori Dunlap is a globally-recognized money and career expert whose work has been featured on Good Morning America, the TODAY Show, the New York Times, People, TIME, Forbes, CNBC, and more. After spending years building Her First $100K on the side of her 9-5 job in marketing, she has turned it into a multi-seven-figure business that changes women’s lives, helping them gain control over their careers and finances. Financial Feminist is her first book.

Aleenah Ansari is equal parts storyteller, creative problem solver, and journalist at heart who’s rooted in the stories of people behind products, companies, and initiatives. She’s written about travel, entrepreneurship, mental health, and wellness, and has representation in media for Insider, The Seattle Times, Byrdie, and more. You can usually find her searching for murals, making an oat vanilla latte, and planning her next trip to New York. You can learn more at aleenahansari.com.

Financial Feminist Overcome the Patriarchy's Bullsht to Master Your Money and Build a Life You Love The Elliott Bay Book Company*

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By the time food politics expert Marion Nestle obtained her doctorate in molecular biology, she had been married since the age of nineteen, dropped out of college, worked as a lab technician, divorced, and become a stay-at-home mom with two children. That’s when she got started.

In her new memoir, Slow Cooked, Nestle reflects on how she achieved late-in-life success as a leading advocate for healthier and more sustainable diets. Recounting how she built an unparalleled career at a time when few women worked in the sciences, she shares how she came to recognize and reveal the enormous influence of the food industry on our dietary choices.

Slow Cooked charts her astonishing rise from bench scientist to the pinnacles of academia, as she overcame the barriers and biases facing women of her generation and found her life’s purpose after age fifty. Nestle’s personal story is sure to be deeply relevant to everyone who eats, and anyone who thinks it’s too late to follow a passion.

Marion Nestle is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University and author of a wide range of books about the politics of food, nutrition, health, and the environment.

Jim Krieger, MD, MPH is Executive Director of Healthy Food America and Clinical Professor at the University of Washington School of Public Health. He previously worked for 25 years at Public Health – Seattle & King County as Chief of Chronic Disease Prevention.

Slow Cooked: An Unexpected Life in Food Politics
Third Place Books

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Over 49 million children attend public school in the United States, with over 52,000 of them here in our Seattle Public Schools alone. The U.S. public school system guarantees every child in every city, town, and rural area in the country, a warm, safe place to grow and learn.

While public schools in the U.S. have been around for well over 150 years, the onset of COVID-19 dramatically interrupted this long-standing institution. Tens of millions of students lost vital support — not just classes, but food, heat, and physical and emotional safety. The cost was enormous.

But this crisis began much earlier than 2020, argues Anya Kamenetz, a longtime education correspondent for NPR. In her recent book, The Stolen Year, she exposes long-running shortcomings that led to the plight of children and families in American life. Kamenetz follows families across the country as they live through the pandemic, facing loss and resilience: a boy with autism in San Francisco who gains a foster brother, and a Hispanic family in Texas that loses a member to COVID, and finds solace when they need it most.

Kamenetz also explores how we got to this point: how the U.S. thrusts children and caregivers into poverty, over-polices families of color, and relies on mothers instead of on infrastructure. She believes that the government, in failing to support children through this tumultuous time, has stolen years of their lives, and calls for a national reckoning to put children at the center of decision-making. While the pandemic may have disrupted our public school system, Kamenetz maintains hope that it can be the beginning of a much better future for children and their families.

Anya Kamenetz has covered education for many years, including for NPR, where she also co-created the podcast Life Kit: Parenting in partnership with Sesame Workshop. Kamenetz is the winner of numerous awards, including the National Awards for Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association (2009, 2010, and 2015), an Edward R. Murrow Award for innovation, along with the rest of the NPR Ed team (2017), the AERA Excellence in Media Reporting on Education Research Award (2022), and several others. Kamenetz is the author of several acclaimed nonfiction books: Generation Debt (Riverhead, 2006); The Test: Why Our Schools Are Obsessed With Standardized Testing, But You Don’t Have To Be (Public Affairs, 2016); and The Art of Screen Time: How Your Family Can Balance Digital Media and Real Life (Public Affairs, 2018), and others. She has appeared in several documentaries and is a frequent speaker on topics related to children, learning and technology. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.

Bonnie J. Rough is a Seattle-based author, journalist, and parent educator whose most recent book is Beyond Birds & Bees: Bringing Home a New Message to Our Kids about Sex, Love, and Equality, a groundbreaking inquiry into how we teach our children about bodies, sex, relationships, and equality. Inspired by modern lessons from the world-famous Dutch approach, Bonnie’s work on topics such as teaching consent, raising kids without sexual shame, LGBTQ+ allyship, childhood crushes, and how comprehensive sex ed underpins social justice has appeared in numerous media outlets including NPR, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Washington Post, Salon, and KUOW Seattle. Explore at www.bonniejrough.com.6

The Stolen Year: How COVID Changed Children's Lives, and Where We Go Now (Hardcover)
Third Place Books

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Are you are frustrated with the political dysfunction our country is experiencing? From unresponsive and unrepresentative government that fails to tackle our largest problems, to extremists undermining free and fair elections, it is easy to be very pessimistic about our country and its politics. There is a way forward.

Please join Joshua Graham Lynn, co-founder and CEO of RepresentUs, who will take you through a fast-paced presentation that lays out how critical this moment is for our future, and what can be done to preserve the sanctity of our elections, restore American democracy, and protect our nation for future generations. Josh will outline a promising effort to help ensure that every vote is cast and counted, extremism is thwarted, sanity returns to our political process, and how you can help. Get excited and intrigued by what you hear and leave the evening with a sense of hope.

RepresentUs is a strictly nonpartisan, highly effective group with a winning track record building the movement to make transformative changes to our political system, and protect our democracy.

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RepresentUs is a strictly nonpartisan, highly effective group with a winning track record building the movement to make transformative changes to our political system, and protect our democracy.

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It can be said that the lifeblood of any free society is persuasion: changing other people’s minds in order to change things. But what happens when people increasingly write one another off instead of seeking to win one another over?

Journalist and Town Hall alumni Anand Giridharadas contends that America is suffering a crisis of faith in persuasion that is putting its democracy and the planet itself at risk. Debates are framed in moralistic terms, with enemies battling the righteous. Movements for justice are building barriers to entry instead of on-ramps, he argues, and political parties are focusing on the mobilization of the faithful rather than wooing the skeptical.

In Giridharadas’ new book The Persuaders, he takes us inside these movements and battles, seeking out the dissenters who continue to champion persuasion in an age of polarization. He introduces us to a leader of Black Lives Matter; a trailblazer in the feminist resistance to Trumpism; white parents at a seminar on raising adopted children of color; Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; a team of door knockers with an uncanny formula for changing minds on immigration; an ex-cult member turned QAnon deprogrammer; and Russian operatives clandestinely stoking Americans’ fatalism about one another.

As the book’s subjects grapple with how to call out threats and injustices while calling in those who don’t agree with them (but one day, just might), they point a way to healing — and changing — a fracturing country.

Anand Giridharadas is the author of the international best-seller Winners Take All, The True American, and India Calling. A former foreign correspondent and columnist for The New York Times for more than a decade, he has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Time, and is the publisher of the newsletter The.Ink. He is an on-air political analyst for MSNBC. He has received the Radcliffe Fellowship, the Porchlight Business Book of the Year Award, Harvard University’s Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award for Humanism in Culture, and the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Naomi Ishisaka is the Assistant Managing Editor for Diversity and Inclusion and the Social Justice Columnist for The Seattle Times. She is an award-winning journalist and photographer who focuses on racial equity and social justice. Her writing and photography have appeared in The Seattle Times, Seattle Magazine, City Arts, ColorsNW Magazine, Seattle Globalist, South Seattle Emerald and other publications. Ishisaka is a frequent speaker at media workshops and community events, and is on the board of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) Seattle chapter.

The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy (Hardcover)
Elliott Bay Books

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The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy (Hardcover)
Elliott Bay Books

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Can the choices you make on a daily basis transform society? Sociologist and Princeton professor Dr. Ruha Benjamin thinks so, and has the research to support the idea.

Dr. Benjamin’s groundbreaking research on race, technology, and justice spanned years and focused primarily on larger, structural changes. But the scourges of COVID-19 and anti-Black police violence inspired Dr. Benjamin to rethink the importance of small, individual actions. Her new book Viral Justice offers a sweeping, deeply personal exploration of how we can shape our world through the choices we make on a daily basis.

Part memoir, part manifesto, Dr. Benjamin vividly recounts her personal experiences and those of her family, showing how decisions that might otherwise go unnoticed can have great impact — even on an exponential scale. Through stories about her father’s premature death, her brother’s experience with the criminal justice system, and her own challenges as a young mother navigating an inequitable healthcare system, Dr. Benjamin shines a light on both the devastating impacts of chronic racism and the passions and strengths of communities driven to demand justice.

Born of a stubborn hopefulness, Viral Justice offers a powerful and practical vision of how small changes can add up to large ones, transforming people’s relationships and communities while inspiring them to build a more just and joyful world.

Ruha Benjamin is an internationally recognized writer, speaker, and professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, where she is the founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. She is the award-winning author of Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code and editor of Captivating Technology, among many other publications. Her work has been featured widely in the media, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, The Root, and The Guardian.

Vivian Phillips, Founder and President of the non-profit organization ARTE NOIR, is a communications professional and arts leader. Vivian’s professional history includes service as the Director of Communications for a Seattle Mayor, Director of Marketing and Communications for Seattle Theatre Group, Seattle University Adjunct Professor (MFA Arts Leadership), television, radio, and live performance producing, public speaking, and numerous arts and strategic communications projects. She served as the Chair for both the Seattle Arts Commission and 4Culture, and co-founded The Hansberry Project and the Historic Central Area Arts and Cultural District.

Jazmyn Scott, ARTE NOIR Executive Director, comes to Arte Noir as a long-time advisor and community organizer. For the past six years, she led programming and community partnerships for LANGSTON Seattle, where she was the organization’s first employee. Her leadership at LANGSTON catalyzed the development of new programs that engaged a wide range of local and national performing artists. Jazmyn is also the co-curator of 50 NEXT: Seattle Hip-Hop Worldwide interactive experience, which includes music from Seattle and Northwest Hip-Hop artists displayed at the Museum of History and Industry. Jazmyn’s community connections are extensive, and she currently serves as board vice president for Earshot Jazz and The Residency and sits on several community arts advisory boards.

Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (Hardcover)
Third Place Books

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Can the choices you make on a daily basis transform society? Sociologist and Princeton professor Dr. Ruha Benjamin thinks so, and has the research to support the idea.

Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (Hardcover)
Third Place Books

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What is it like to be the mouthpiece for the President of the United States? You or I may have found ourselves stressed about writing an essay or sending a letter, but imagine having to craft sentences that the entire nation — and much of the world — will hear.

Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America is the latest release by Cody Keenan, Barack Obama’s chief speechwriter. The book features an account of what were arguably the ten most dramatic days of the presidency: the Charleston church massacre, the fate of marriage equality, the outcome of the controversial Affordable Care Act, to name a few. In response to these events, Keenan composed a series of speeches in rapid succession to contend with these and other challenges — all while facing additional pressures to consistently please the POTUS with his writing.

Grace explores not only the political, but the personal as it paints an intimate picture of White House insiders like Valerie Jarrett, Ben Rhodes, Jen Psaki, as well as the speechwriting team who worked together during this historic stretch during the Obama administration. The writing takes readers behind the scenes, revealing personal details and retracing the rhetorical tightrope walked by the first Black president, culminating with the unforgettable and unprecedented: President Obama’s stunning act as he took a deep breath and led the country in a chorus of Amazing Grace.

This event will be a testament to the power of words: how they help shape the character of our country, and how they are capable of bringing a nation together — or tearing it apart.

Born and raised in Chicago, Cody Keenan rose from a campaign intern in his hometown to become chief speechwriter at the White House and Barack Obama’s post-presidential collaborator. A sought-after expert on politics, messaging, and current affairs, he is now a partner at leading speechwriting firm Fenway Strategies and teaches a popular course on political speechwriting to undergraduates at his alma mater Northwestern University. Cody lives in New York City with his wife Kristen and their baby daughter Grace.

Marcus Harrison Green is the publisher of the South Seattle Emerald and a columnist with The Seattle Times. Growing up in South Seattle, he experienced first-hand the impact of one-dimensional stories on marginalized communities, which taught him the value of authentic narratives. After an unfulfilling stint in the investment world during his twenties, Marcus returned to his community with a newfound purpose of telling stories with nuance and complexity with the hope of advancing social change. This led him to become a writer and found the South Seattle Emerald. Marcus was the Northwest African American Museum’s inaugural James Baldwin Circle Fellow in 2022, honored by the King County Library System Foundation as a Literary Lion, and awarded the Seattle Human Rights Commissions’ Individual Human Rights Leader Award for 2020.

Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America (Hardcover)
Third Place Books

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It was in 2002 that Robin D.G. Kelley published Freedom Dreams, a history of renegade intellectuals and artists of the African diaspora throughout the twentieth century. The book presented a premise that the catalyst for political engagement is not oppression or misery, but hope. From Aimé and Suzanne Césaire, to Paul Robeson and Malcolm X, to Jayne Cortez, the book unearthed histories of these and other Black radicals who dared to dream of a brighter future. It tackled topics such as surrealism, Communism, and feminism and was replete with examples on how these and other movements and mindsets intersected with the Black experience. Two decades later, the work remains a staple in the study of the Black radical tradition.

Town Hall welcomes Kelley as he marks the 20th anniversary of Freedom Dreams with a 2022 edition, complete with a foreword by poet and activist Aja Monet, as well as updated reflections. A new introduction highlights Kelley’s expanded worldview and broadened vision of freedom that includes disability justice, abolition, decolonization, and mutual care. Likewise, a new epilogue explores the visionary organizing of those he deems today’s freedom dreamers.

This classic history of the power of the Black radical imagination, its underpinnings and offshoots, remains as fitting for the present as it was at the time of its initial publication.

Robin D. G. Kelley is Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in US History at UCLA. He is author or co-editor of numerous award-winning books, including Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original, Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional! Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America, and Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class, among others.

Reagan Jackson is a multi-genre writer, artist, activist, and international educator with an abiding love of justice, art, spirituality, and creating community. She is the Co-Executive Director of Young Women Empowered. She is also the co-host and producer of the Deep End Friends Podcast and the cofounder of Blackout Healing.

Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
Estelita's Library

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One of the most profoundly human experiences that most of us share, at some point in our lives, is the feeling that we are living through a monumental shift; the feeling that something socially, culturally, or politically is changing, and we are participating in — and making — history.

In his latest work, distinguished professor and historian Dr. Peniel E. Joseph asserts that the modern-day struggle to attain equality for Black Americans is as momentous as those of the post-Civil War and Civil Rights eras. His book, The Third Reconstruction: America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century, explores the crucible of civil and political unrest that emerged amid the tumult of 2008-2020, framing them within socio-historical contexts.

As the current crusade for justice continues to unfold, Dr. Joseph invites readers to learn the lessons – and limitations – of the undertakings that preceded it. He shares his insight that the zeitgeist of such periods as the 1860s and 1960s helped give rise not only to the existence of The Third Reconstruction, but also its place and shape as they exist today in the national landscape. Joseph draws multiple parallels between past and present, spanning over a century and reaching critical turning points with the election of former President Barack Obama, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the attack on the Capitol.

The text, though critical, is nonetheless hopeful: Although the first and second Reconstructions fell short, this Third Reconstruction conceived by Dr. Joseph believes in an opportunity to achieve full citizenship and dignity for African-Americans.

Dr. Peniel E. Josephis the Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values, Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, and Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of award-winning books on African American history, including The Sword and the Shield and Stokely: A Life. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and the Northwest African American Museum.

The Third Reconstruction: America's Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century
Estelita's Library

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Long before “going green” became a hashtag, people like William O. Douglas were on the front lines of the environmental justice movement. Despite being known for some notable accomplishments — for example, the fact that he was the longest serving U.S. Supreme Court justice, having sat from 1939-1975 — Douglas largely remained an unsung environmental advocate.

Author and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge M. Margaret McKeown’s new book, Citizen Justice: The Environmental Legacy of William O. Douglas explores Douglas’s impact not only during his near forty-year SCOTUS tenure, but the ripple effects that helped shape environmental policy and practice today. Douglas, nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, embraced both a personal and political connection to nature, which fueled his drive to save trees and protect the land. Despite these achievements, he was not without controversy: impeachments, oppositions, and a series of failed marriages marred his public image. Though a complex figure, his commitment to bettering the earth is indisputable.

Joining with McKeown at Town Hall is former U.S. Secretary of the Interior and former CEO of recreational giant REI, Sally Jewell. The two will discuss the ways that Citizen Justice elucidates the tensions that arose from Douglas’s efforts, as well as the contemporary lessons that we can draw from them as we examine one man’s life — and legacy — on the road to achieving environmental justice.

Judge M. Margaret McKeown was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1998. She holds a J.D. and an honorary doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center.Before her appointment, Judge McKeown was the first female partner at Perkins Coie in Seattle and Washington, D.C., and served as a White House Fellow. Judge McKeown has lectured throughout the world on international law, human rights law, intellectual property, litigation, ethics, judicial administration, and constitutional law and has participated in numerous rule of law initiatives with judges and lawyers. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the ABA Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement award, the ABA John Marshall Award, and the Girl Scouts Cool Woman Award, among others.

Sally Jewell served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior from 2013-17, overseeing the nation’s national parks, wildlife refuges, and public lands, working closely with Indigenous peoples during a period when President Obama protected more lands and waters than any other U.S. president. Previously, she was President and CEO of outdoor retailer REI. Jewell currently serves on the board of The Nature Conservancy and other corporate and non-profit boards, and has held fellowships at the University of Washington and Harvard. A lifelong outdoor enthusiast, she has explored our public lands from coast to coast, with a deep appreciation of the people who have stewarded them since time immemorial.

Citizen Justice: The Environmental Legacy of William O. Douglas—Public Advocate and Conservation Champion (Hardcover)
Elliott Bay Books

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On May 25, 2020, the world was indelibly changed by the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Floyd’s death set off a series of protests in the United States and around the world, awakening millions to the dire need for reimagining this country’s broken system of policing. But behind a face that would be graffitied onto countless murals, and a name that has become synonymous with civil rights, there is the reality of one man’s stolen life: a life beset by suffocating systemic pressures that ultimately proved inescapable.

Placing George Floyd’s narrative within the larger context of America’s enduring legacy of institutional racism, His Name is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice is a landmark biography by prizewinning Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa. Drawing on over 400 interviews, including with friends and family who knew him best and those who were with him when he died, the book offers a poignant, empathetically reported, and moving exploration of George Floyd’s America.

Robert Samuels joins us at Town Hall to discuss how systemic racism shaped Floyd’s life and legacy — from his family’s history in the tobacco fields of North Carolina, to ongoing inequality in housing, education, health care, criminal justice, and policing — telling the singular story of how one man’s tragic experience brought about a global movement for change.

Robert Samuels is a national political enterprise reporter for The Washington Post who focuses on the intersection of politics, policy, and people. He previously wrote stories about life in the District for the Post’s social issues team. Samuels joined the Post in 2011 after spending nearly five years working at the Miami Herald.

His Name Is George Floyd: One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice (Hardcover)
Elliott Bay Books

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With its massive economy and military budget, America is the world’s most powerful country. How did the U.S. come to have so much power to affect nations and people around the globe? How did the country achieve this status over the past 250 years?

Michael Mandelbaum helps us understand how the U.S. got here through the evolution of its foreign policy. In his latest book, The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy, he divides U.S. history into four distinct periods, each defined by a consistent increase in American power and each with major events and important personalities at play. He portrays the ascent of the U.S., first as a “weak power,” from 1765 to 1865, followed by a “great power” between 1865 and 1945, next as a “superpower” from 1945 to 1990, and finally as the world’s sole “hyperpower” from 1990 to 2015.

Mandelbaum also identifies three features of American foreign policy that are found in every era: first, the goal of spreading political ideas; second, the use of economic instruments to achieve foreign policy goals; and third, a process for creating and implementing policy that’s shaped by input from the public. American foreign policy, as he puts it, has been unusually ideological, unusually economic, and unusually democratic. He argues that these practices continue today.

In what has been called a “…deeply insightful — and disturbing — analysis of both history and current affairs” (Kirkus Reviews), Mandelbaum sparks readers to think about America’s path to power and what future eras might hold.

Michael Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter Professor Emeritus of American Foreign Policy at The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Before joining Johns Hopkins in 1990, Professor Mandelbaum taught at Harvard University, Columbia University, and at the United States Naval Academy. He also has taught business executives at the Wharton Advanced Management Program in the Aresty Institute of Executive Education at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mandelbaum is the author of sixteen previous books, including Mission Failure (2016), The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth (2019), and, with Thomas L. Friedman, That Used to Be Us (2011). Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers” of 2010. He wrote a regular foreign affairs analysis column for Newsday from 1985-2005, and his Op-Ed pieces on foreign affairs have also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and many more. He has appeared on The CBS Evening News, The News Hour, Face the Nation, Larry King Live and The Charlie Rose Show, among many other programs. A popular speaker for the United States Information Agency for more than two decades, Mandelbaum has explained American foreign policy to diverse groups throughout Europe, East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, India and the Middle East.

Jacqueline Miller has led the World Affairs Council of Seattle since May 2014. She also serves on the Mayor’s International Affairs Advisory Board; is a member of the Civic Council for UW’s Master of Arts in Applied International Studies (MAAIS) program; and serves on the Washington State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. She is chair of the board of Global Ties U.S and is a member of the Board of Advisors of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for U.S.-China Relations. She is also a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

She got her start in think tanks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where she was deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia program. She has also taught at The George Washington University, where she undertook graduate work after earning undergraduate and graduate degrees from Cornell University. She has been a commentator for various news sources including The New York Times, the BBC, CBC, and Voice of America.

The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy: Weak Power, Great Power, Superpower, Hyperpower (Hardcover)
Third Place Books

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The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy: Weak Power, Great Power, Superpower, Hyperpower (Hardcover)
Third Place Books

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With exponential growth in the Seattle area, demand and costs for housing are high and availability is low. Affordable housing is difficult for so many to come by, and the region is feeling more than just growing pains; it’s in crisis. In Seattle, most residential areas are zoned for single-family homes, restricting the ability to increase housing density and provide more affordable housing options. Are there new housing solutions that can accommodate everyone?

As regions across the country grapple with how to solve the growing housing crisis, city planner M. Nolan Gray shared vital insight in his new book, Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It. He contended that it’s time to move beyond zoning and abolish it, which could help U.S. cities address housing shortages, stunted growth and innovation, racial and economic segregation, and car-dependent development.

But the approach is not without controversy. As discussion continues around loosening long-standing zoning rules, some residents worry that zoning changes will impact the “character” of neighborhoods, while others see the current zoning rules as an impediment to much-needed change.

Could our region benefit from a reimagined approach to single-family neighborhoods? Through explanations and stories, Gray showed why zoning abolition could help produce more affordable, vibrant, equitable, and sustainable cities.

M. Nolan Gray is a professional city planner and an expert in urban land-use regulation. He is currently completing a PhD in urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. Gray previously worked on the front lines of zoning as a planner in New York City. He now serves as an affiliated scholar with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he advises state and local policymakers on land-use policy. Gray is a contributor to Market Urbanism and a widely published author, with work appearing in outlets such as the Atlantic, Bloomberg CityLab, and the Guardian. He lives in Los Angeles, California, and is originally from Lexington, Kentucky.

Shaun Scott is a Seattle-based writer and historian. A former Pramila Jayapal staffer and Bernie Sanders 2020 Washington State Field Director, he is currently the Policy Lead at the Statewide Poverty Action Network. His essays about popular culture and late capitalism have appeared in Sports Illustrated, The Guardian, and Jacobin Magazine. He is the author of the paperback Millennials and the Moments that Made Us: A Cultural History of the US from 1982-Present, and the forthcoming hardcover from UW Press Heartbreak City: Sports and the Progressive Movement in Urban America.

Buy the Book: Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It (Paperback) from Third Place Books

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The fight for racial justice within the U.S. criminal legal system — and the call for its reform — has intensified in recent years. Studies show that Black Americans are almost five times as likely to be incarcerated than whites. Can our society be transformed? The story of the formerly incarcerated gang founder and leader, Antong Lucky, reveals how peace, nonviolence, and societal change are possible.

The child of an incarcerated father, Lucky grew up in a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood in East Dallas, Texas, a city experiencing an alarming rise in crack cocaine and heroin use in the 1980s and 1990s. Despite high grades and a passion for learning, Lucky was introduced to gang life. Eventually, Lucky formed the Dallas Bloods gang and played a part in the escalating gun violence and illegal drugs until he was ultimately arrested and sentenced to seven years in prison.

While incarcerated, Lucky turned away from his gang affiliation and quickly rose to become one of the most respected and sought-after mentors in prison. After his early release, he returned to his old neighborhood and became a leading activist, uniting people in challenging systemic issues in U.S. communities. Now chronicled in his new book, A Redemptive Path Forward, Lucky investigates the possibility of prison abolition and the path to societal changes.

While the harrowing account of his transformation is moving, Lucky’s frank discussion about racial inequities is also a call to action. His experience adds to our public examination of the future for the U.S. criminal legal system.

Antong Lucky is an activist, advocate, and public speaker concentrating in the areas of mentoring Black men and boys, bridging the gap between community and police, and developing and launching violence reduction strategies, criminal justice reform, and reentry initiatives for formerly incarcerated people.

Beverly Aarons is a writer, artist, and game developer. She works across disciplines exploring the intersections of history, hidden current realities, and imagined future worlds. She specializes in making unseen perspectives visible and aims to infuse all of her creative work with a deep sense of emotionality. She’s won the Guy A. Hanks, Marvin H. Miller Screenwriting Award, Community 4Culture Fellowship, Artist Trust GAP Award, 4Culture Creative Consultancies Award, and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture smART Ventures grant. She’s currently publishing in-depth artist profiles at Artists Up Close on Substack.

Buy the Book: A Redemptive Path Forward: From Incarceration to a Life of Activism (Hardcover) from Third Place Books

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As a philosophy that means different things to different people and groups, it can be hard to know what liberalism stands for. Traditionally, liberalism is viewed as a political and moral philosophy based on individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise. In the 1990s and 2000s, democracy spread and markets prospered, and it seemed like the continuing expansion of liberal values was assured. But recent years have revealed major challenges to liberalism from both the right and the left.

In his book Liberalism and Its Discontents, political philosopher Francis Fukuyama wrote that classical liberalism is in a state of crisis and asked essential questions about how to move forward. While liberalism was developed to help govern diverse societies and was grounded in fundamental principles of equality and the rule of law, huge inequalities still evolved. And while liberalism emphasizes the rights of individuals to pursue personal happiness, free from encroachment by the government, we still disagree about what those freedoms entail.

Fukuyama wrote about how liberalism hasn’t always lived up to its own ideals. In the U.S., many people have been – and still are – consistently denied equality before the law, including African Americans and other people of color, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, women, and many more. He also examined how, in recent decades, the principles of liberalism have been pushed to new extremes by both the right and the left. The result, Fukuyama argues, has been a fracturing of our civil society and an increasing peril to our democracy.

Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He has previously taught at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University and at the George Mason University School of Public Policy. He was a researcher at the RAND Corporation and served as the deputy director in the State Department’s policy planning staff. He is the author of The End of History and the Last Man, Trust, and America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy.

Eric Liuis the co-founder and CEO of Citizen University and director of the Aspen Institute’s Citizenship & American Identity Program. He is the author of several acclaimed books, most recently, Become America: Civic Sermons on Love, Responsibility, and Democracy — a New York Times New & Notable Book. He has been selected as an Ashoka Fellow and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is featured on the PBS documentary American Creed and is a frequent contributor to The Atlantic. Liu served as a White House speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and as the President’s deputy domestic policy adviser. He was later appointed by President Obama to serve on the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Buy the Book: Liberalism and Its Discontents (Hardcover) from Elliott Bay Books

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In 2015, anthropologist and writer Levi Vonk found himself on a journey filled with twists, turns, and a chance meeting that would forever impact his life. With a desire to report on the dangerous realities faced by Guatemalans as they fled civil and economic instability in their home country, Vonk joined a migrant caravan making its way into Mexico. On the trip, he met Axel Kirschner, a man who grew up in New York but was deported to Guatemala after being identified as undocumented during a minor traffic violation.

The two men became friends, but as they get to know each other, Kirschner’s tale grew stranger. He revealed that he is a computer hacker and claimed he’s being exploited for his skills and prevented from returning home to his family. As the details grew more bizarre, Vonk began to question: Is Kirschner telling the truth? Is he really who he claims to be? And what kind of dark network could he be involved in?

Interwoven with Vonk and Kirschner’s individual narratives, the new book Border Hacker: A Tale of Treachery, Trafficking, and Two Friends on the Run,elevated issues of immigration policy, international computer hacking, and institutional corruption. Vonk joined us to discuss the 4,000-mile journey, his unexpected friendship with Kirschner, and the realities faced by migrants seeking safety and asylum.

Levi Vonk is an anthropologist, writer, and doctoral candidate. He lives between the U.S. and Mexico.

Buy the Book: Border Hacker: A Tale of Treachery, Trafficking, and Two Friends on the Run (Hardcover) from Third Place Books

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Beginning in the 1970s Chicana and Chicano organizers turned to community radio broadcasting to educate, entertain, and uplift Mexican American listeners across the United States. In rural areas, radio emerged as the most effective medium for reaching relatively isolated communities such as migrant farmworkers. And in Washington’s Yakima Valley, where the media landscape was dominated by perspectives favorable to agribusiness, community radio for and about farmworkers became a life-sustaining tool.

Feminista Frequencies unearthed the remarkable history of one of the United States’ first full-time Spanish-language community radio stations, Radio KDNA, which began broadcasting in the Yakima Valley in 1979. Extensive interviews revealed the work of Chicana and Chicano producers, on-air announcers, station managers, technical directors, and listeners who contributed to the station’s success. Monica De La Torre weaved these oral histories together with a range of visual and audio artifacts, including radio programs, program guides, and photographs to situate KDNA within the larger network of Chicano community-based broadcasting and social movement activism. Feminista Frequencies highlights the development of a public broadcasting model that centered Chicana radio producers and documents the central role of women in developing this infrastructure in the Yakima Valley. De La Torre showed how KDNA revolutionized community radio programming, adding new depth to the history of the Chicano movement, women’s activism, and media histories.

Monica De La Torre is an Assistant Professor in the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University. De La Torre’s interdisciplinary research and teaching practices bridge Chicana feminist theory, Latinx feminist media studies, radio and sound studies, and women’s and gender studies. As a critical scholar and practitioner of digital media and radio, she analyzes both media content and production practices to push the analytic edge of scholarship foregrounding modalities of difference such as gender, race, class, and citizenship. She is a former community radio producer and member of the Los Angeles based radio collective Soul Rebel Radio.

Gabriel Teodros is a musician, writer and DJ from South Seattle who first made a mark with the group Abyssinian Creole and reached an international audience with his critically-acclaimed solo debut Lovework. He has released 10 projects since and set stages on fire all over the map from the U.S. to Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Ethiopia, and South Africa; often in combination with workshops on creative writing, music, history, science fiction, and media literacy. Teodros currently hosts the Early show on KEXP Seattle.

Buy the Book—Feminista Frequencies: Community Building through Radio in the Yakima Valley

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Hundreds of public monuments have come down during the social and racial reckoning currently sweeping our country. And while Seattle has not been at the epicenter of the furor over public monuments, there have been heated discussions over the monument to Confederate soldiers in a Capitol Hill cemetery and a statue of Vladimir Lenin in Fremont.

In the United States, the issue of what to do with public monuments has been very polarizing. Why do we care so much about these statues? In her book Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America’s Public Monuments, professor of art crime Erin L. Thompson looked at the turbulent history of American monuments and its abundant ironies — including the enslaved man who helped make the Statue of Freedom that tops the United States Capitol. Monuments have come to mean many things to different people, and the battles over them are a tangle of aesthetic, legal, political, and social issues.

Ultimately, monuments symbolize what we value and keeping them up or removing them sends a message. How do we decide who and what should be represented with new monuments? Which existing statues should stay up, and which should come down? Who should make these decisions — and how should they decide?

Erin L. Thompson, holds a Ph.D. and a J.D. and is a professor of art crime at the City University of New York. In addition to Smashing Statues, she is the author of Possession: The Curious History of Private Collectors from Antiquity to the Present, and her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Smithsonian magazine, and Art in America. She lives in New York.

Sarah Mirk is a comics journalist, teacher, and editor. A former reporter for The Stranger and the Portland Mercury, she is now a contributing editor at comics publication The Nib and a digital producer at The Center for Investigative Reporting. She is the author of several books, including Guantanamo Voices: True Stories from the World’s Most Infamous Prison, which The New York Times named one of the 10 best graphic novels of 2020.

Buy the Book: Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments (Hardcover) from Third Place Books

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In 1972, Richard Nixon made a historic visit to China. The trip broke 25 years of silence between the U.S. and China, paving the way for the establishment of full diplomatic relations later in the decade. Around the same time, second-generation Chinese American Gish Jen started writing; she first visited China with her family in 1979, the experience undoubtedly shaping her identity as both a Chinese American and a writer.

Jen’s latest book, Thank You, Mr. Nixon, collected 11 stories spanning 50 years since Nixon’s landmark visit and meeting with Chairman Mao. Beginning with a cheery letter penned by a Chinese girl in heaven to “poor Mr. Nixon” in hell, Jen embarked on a witty (and at times heartbreaking) journey through U.S.-China relations, capturing the excitement of a world on the brink of change.

The stories paint vignettes of the lives of ordinary people after China’s reopening: a reunion of Chinese sisters after forty years; a cosmopolitan’s musings on why Americans “like to walk around in the woods with the mosquitoes”; and Hong Kong parents who go to extremes to reconnect with their “number-one daughter” in New York.

Together with writer Daniel Tam-Claiborne, Gish Jen discussed stories of culture and humanity sparked by a pivotal era in U.S.-Chinese history.

Gish Jen has published short work in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and dozens of other periodicals, anthologies and textbooks. Her work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories four times, including The Best American Short Stories of the Century, edited by John Updike. Nominated for a National Book Critics’ Circle Award, her work was featured in a PBS American Masters’ special on the American novel and is widely taught.

Jen is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been awarded a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, a Guggenheim fellowship, a Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study fellowship, and a Mildred and Harold Strauss Living; she has also delivered the William E. Massey, Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilization at Harvard University. She is currently a Visiting Professor at Harvard.

Daniel Tam-Claiborne is a multiracial essayist and author of the short story collection What Never Leaves. His writing has appeared in Literary Hub, The Rumpus, SupChina, The Huffington Post, The Shanghai Literary Review, and elsewhere. A 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, he has also received fellowships and awards from the U.S. Fulbright Program, the New York State Summer Writers Institute, Kundiman, the Jack Straw Writers Program, and the Yiddish Book Center. Daniel serves as Director of Community Partnerships & Programs at Hugo House in Seattle and is currently completing a novel set against the backdrop of contemporary U.S.-China relations.

Buy the Book: Thank You, Mr. Nixon

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It’s sometimes easy to forget that the U.S. has reached its present state over decades and centuries of political decision-making, not just a handful of years. Every move builds on the last, doing and undoing the work of former leadership while facing new crises on top of the old. Is it possible to call out poor policy choices of the past, understand how things went awry, and take meaningful steps forward without partisan finger-pointing?

In her new book, Left Behind, political historian Lily Geismer showed how the Democratic Party of the 80s and 90s — particularly during the height of the Clinton years — pushed policy ideas that centered on helping the poor without asking the rich to make sacrifices: doing well by doing good. Micro-lending became a big business, and private programs to promote democracy and equality abroad grew trendy. Geismer contended that as social programs in the private sector boomed, the structure of the government began to weaken, contributing to a crisis of inequality that has now fully arrived. Geismer revealed and critiqued a critical slice of Democratic-party history, discussing how we got into a mess of distrust and good intentions gone wrong and where we can go from here.

Lily Geismer is an associate professor of history at Claremont McKenna College, where she teaches courses on recent urban and political history. She has earned fellowships from the Carnegie Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Charles Warren Center at Harvard University. She is also a member of the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians. Her previous book is Don’t Blame Us: Suburban Liberals and the Transformation of the Democratic Party. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Jacobin, Democracy, and the Los Angeles Review of Books and she has appeared on NPR’s 1A with Joshua Johnson, The Sam Seder Show, WBUR’s Here and Now, and other podcasts.

Margaret O’Mara is the Howard & Frances Keller Professor of History at the University of Washington. She writes and teaches about the history of U.S. politics, the growth of the high-tech economy, and the connections between the two. She is the author of The Code (2019), Pivotal Tuesdays (2015), and other books. She is a frequent contributor to the Opinion section of The New York Times and her writing also has appeared in The Washington Post, Bloomberg Businessweek, Newsweek, and other publications. Previously, she worked in the Clinton White House and served as a contributing researcher at the Brookings Institution.

Buy the Book: Left Behind: The Democrats' Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality (Hardcover) from Third Place Books

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The United States is awash in manipulated information about everything from election results to the effectiveness of medical treatments. Corporate social media is a particularly effective channel for manipulative communication — Facebook being a particularly willing vehicle for it, as evidenced by the increased use of warning labels on false or misleading posts. Not to mention the inconsistent, confusing, and controversy-stirring ways that comments and posts are moderated in social media spaces.

While the methods of distributing misinformation have shifted with technological advancement, the principles of manipulative communication are nothing new. In Social Engineering, authors Robert Gehl and Sean Lawson explored how online misinformation is rooted in earlier techniques: mass social engineering of the early twentieth century and interpersonal hacker social engineering of the 1970s. The two methods converge today into what they call “masspersonal social engineering.” Through a mix of information gathering, deception, and truth-indifferent statements, the practice has one goal: to get people to take the actions desired by the social engineer.

Are there better ways to understand the manipulation methods at play instead of reducing all information to a true/false binary? Together, Gehl and Lawson discussed manipulative communication of the past and present and how we might improve the ways that information is shared and consumed in the future.

Robert W. Gehl is F. Jay Taylor Endowed Research Chair of Communication at Louisiana Tech University and the author of Weaving the Dark Web.

Sean T. Lawson is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Utah, Non-Resident Fellow at the Brute Krulak Center for Innovation & Future Warfare at the Marine Corps University, and author of Cybersecurity Discourse in the United States.

Buy the Book: Social Engineering: How Crowdmasters, Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls Created a New Form of Manipulative Communication from Elliott Bay Books

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There’s no way around it — it’s a challenging time in America. Societies have lived through pandemics and political strife before, but never with powerful tools like social media and the Internet. It makes for a special brand of division that most of us have experienced in some way, from dinner table arguments with relatives to heated interactions at the grocery store. Have we forgotten how to interact and connect, despite our differences?

Journalist Mónica Guzmán knows the struggle all too well. She’s the liberal daughter of Mexican immigrants who voted — twice — for Donald Trump. She’s also the chief storyteller for the national cross-partisan depolarization organization Braver Angels, which works to bring Americans together and strengthen our democratic republic. When the country could no longer see straight across the political divide, Guzmán set out to cut through the fog and discovered the most eye-opening tool we’re not using: our own curiosity. In her new book, I Never Thought of It That Way, Guzmán drew from conversations she’s had, organized, or witnessed everywhere, from the echo chambers on social media to the raw, unfiltered fights with her family on election night. Guzmán shared how to put a natural sense of wonder to work by talking with people — rather than about them — and asking tough, meaningful questions across divides while maintaining openness and curiosity.

Together with political cartoonist David Horsey, Guzmán discussed how to overcome fear, labels, and assumptions and have human conversations with people whose identities and values are different from, or even opposed to, our own.

Mónica Guzmán is a journalist and entrepreneur who lives for good conversation sparked by challenging questions. She’s the cofounder of The Evergrey, an award-winning newsletter and community in Seattle, and serves as an adviser to Braver Angels, a national organization out to depolarize America, and Together Washington, an organization building collaborative local relationships among leaders in Washington state. Mónica is a former columnist at The Seattle Times, GeekWire, and the Columbia Journalism Review. She studied social and political division as a 2019 Henry M. Jackson leadership fellow, and spent the 2015-2016 academic year studying how journalists can evolve to better meet the needs of a participatory public as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard. She is an immigrant, a Latina, a dual U.S.-Mexico citizen, and the mom of two bilingual kids.

David Horsey is a two-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning. Syndicated by Tribune Content Agency, David’s work has appeared in hundreds of media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Politico, and MSNBC.com. After a long career at Seattle Post-Intelligencer and six years as a political commentator for The Los Angeles Times, Horsey is now based at The Seattle Times.

Buy the Book: I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times (Hardcover) from Elliott Bay Books

Presented by Town Hall Seattle, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, and the Western Washington Braver Angels Alliance.

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Each night in the United States, more than 200,000 people incarcerated in state and federal prisons — 1 in 7 prisoners — will go to sleep facing the reality that they may die without ever returning home.

In 1996, criminal justice activist and photographer Howard Zehr published Doing Life, a book of photo portraits of individuals serving life sentences without the possibility of parole at a prison in Pennsylvania. The book gave a voice to the human beings in front of the camera lens, revealing their hidden emotions and painting an otherwise-unseen portrait of incarcerated people.

Twenty-five years later, Zehr revisited many of the same individuals in his new book, Still Doing Life, co-authored by criminal justice professor Barb Toews. Photographed in the same poses, Zehr and Toews presented two side-by-side photos of each individual along with interviews conducted during the two different photo sessions. The resulting work is sobering tableaux of people who, quite literally, have not moved for the past quarter-century.

Together at Town Hall, Zehr and Toews, along with Omari Amili and Freddie Nole, discussed the implications of the American criminal justice system and challenged us to think seriously about the consequences of life sentences.

Howard Zehr is a distinguished professor of Restorative Justice at Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. He is the author of the bestselling The Little Book of Restorative Justice and Doing Life, among other titles.

Barb Toews is associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Washington, Tacoma. She is the author of The Little Book of Restorative Justice for People in Prison, and the co-author, with Howard Zehr, of Critical Issues in Restorative Justice. Toews is the editor of the Little Books in Restorative Justice series and lives in Tacoma, Washington.

Omari Amili is an author, educator, and father of six from Seattle, WA. With a childhood dominated by chronic instability rooted in his parent’s addiction, Omari found himself a product of the school-to-prison pipeline. After serving time on 30 felony convictions for bank fraud, he turned his life around and pursued post-secondary education, climbing from a GED to a Master’s degree. Omari’s journey is evidence that there can be life after incarceration and he has made it his personal mission to change the narrative and introduce new possibilities for individuals from backgrounds similar to his.

Buy the Book: Still Doing Life: 22 Lifers, 25 Years Later (Hardcover) from Elliott Bay Books

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Students today face a barrage of stressors that impact every corner of their lives, from academic and social stress to family dynamics and personal trauma. The added layers of non-inclusive school environments, along with the unique challenges of immigrant and first-generation students, only contribute to students’ stress and anxiety.

In their new book, Education Across Borders, educators and co-authors Patrick Sylvain, Jalene Tamerat, and Marie Lily Cerat contended that the practices and values in the U.S. educational system contribute to stress and put many children and families at a disadvantage — in particular, those with diversity in language, culture, and socioeconomic status. With a focus on Haitian and Dominican students in the U.S., the authors drew on their experiences to address racial inequities in the classroom and shared strategies that can create an inclusive classroom environment. Together, they explored how language policies and social justice intersect, how educators can use culturally-relevant teaching to enrich curriculum, and how teachers can support the needs of immigrant and first-generation students in the classroom.

Patrick Sylvain is a Haitian-American writer, essayist and poet, and instructor of Haitian language and culture at Brown University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He has been published in several anthologies, magazines, and reviews, including African American Review, Agni, American Poetry Review, Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, Haitian Times, and Ploughshares.

Jalene Tamerat is a leader in K–12 education whose work focuses on the preparation of teachers who are able to respond to the instructional and civic needs of diverse urban youth. She began her career in education in 2003 as a classroom teacher in the Boston Public Schools and has most recently served as the dean of a Boston-area residency and master’s program for aspiring teachers.

Marie Lily Cerat is Associate Director of the CUNY Haitian Studies Institute at Brooklyn College and teaches with Africana Studies Department. Prior to her career in higher education, Dr. Cerat served as a Bilingual Haitian Creole educator with the New York City Department of Education and a Resource Specialist with the Haitian Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center (HABETAC) of the New York State Education Department Office of Bilingual Education. She is the co-founder of Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, which was established in 1992 to provide ESL and adult literacy instruction to Haitian immigrants and refugees.

Danielle McKoy is a passionate activist in the national prison reform and racial school integration movements, as well as a lifelong educator. From battling homelessness to excelling at Princeton University, she leverages her exceptional personal story and expertise in advocacy, writing, and leadership development to lead equity movements on a local, national, and global scale. She is a cofounder of New York City’s inaugural Alliance for School Integration & Desegregation.

Buy the Book: Education Across Borders: Immigration, Race, and Identity in the Classroom (Race, Education, and Democracy) (Paperback) from Third Place Books

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Most Americans are well aware that companies like Facebook are harvesting our data, but do we fully understand how their information is being used — and misused? In his new book, The Hidden History of Big Brother in America, radio host and bestselling author Thom Hartmann revealed exactly how the government and corporations track our online moves and use our data to buy elections, employ social control, and monetize our lives.

Hartmann traced the history of surveillance and social control, looking back to how surveillance was used as a way to modify behavior, keep order, and reinforce racism. In his explorations of how we got to this point, he also delved into our Constitutional right to privacy and shared how to restore it.

Thom Hartmann is an award-winning author, radio host, teacher, and psychotherapist. He’s written six books as part of the Hidden History series, covering controversial and important subjects and institutions in the United States like the Supreme Court, Gun Control, and Healthcare. A former journalist, editor, and occasional woodsplitter, he lives in Vermont with his wife, Louise.

Buy the Book: The Hidden History of Big Brother in America: How the Death of Privacy and the Rise of Surveillance Threaten Us and Our Democracy from Elliott Bay Books

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Cryptocurrency has been making steady waves — no doubt because of its almost too-good-to-pass-up promise of fortune that isn’t consistently regulated or controlled by any single authority. And while Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have gone through booms and busts, they aren’t going anywhere: at the time of this writing, the value of all crypto assets is estimated at $3 trillion.

In her new book, The Cryptonians, journalist Laura Shin described how cryptocurrency experienced a downturn until a brilliant new idea changed its fortunes once again: Ethereum. Shin explored this new form of cryptocurrency network, which has enabled users to launch their own new coins — and launch a new kind of crypto fever. She also revealed a more human side to crypto, introducing readers to the personal quests of the idealists, technologists, and opportunists fighting to bring cryptocurrency to the masses.

Laura Shin is a crypto journalist and hosts the crypto podcast Unchained. Formerly a senior editor at Forbes, she was the first mainstream journalist to cover crypto full-time and is author of the forthcoming book, The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze.

Steve Scher is a podcaster and interviewer and has been a teacher at the University of Washington since 2009. He worked in Seattle public radio for almost 30 years and is Senior Correspondent for Town Hall Seattle’s In The Moment podcast.

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Casual political discussions are anything but easy to navigate. Committing each of the 4,500+ words in the U.S. Constitution to memory and interpreting them effectively in conversation is a near-futile effort for the average American. To effectively engage in discussions — and often, arguments — about American politics, we might think we need a law degree; but perhaps what we need is a sharper, more accessible lens through which to interpret the U.S. Constitution.

The Nation contributor and lawyer Elie Mystal offered just that in his book, Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution. Through quick-witted humor and snark, Mystal presented an easy-to-read primer on how to traverse topics from gerrymandering and voter suppression to cancel culture and gun control. Mystal contended that many contemporary constitutional interpretations are racially discriminatory and just plain wrong. Through biting analysis, he offered the rationale to point out hypocrisies and highlights the importance of understanding America’s founding documents if we truly seek liberty and justice for all.

The words political discussion can make pulses quicken at the thought of lively discussion or cause shudders at the idea of confrontation. But however we look at them, Mystal’s pugnacious, humorous approach might help rewire — or at least fine-tune — our arguing techniques.

Elie Mystal is The Nation’s legal analyst and justice correspondent, an Alfred Knobler Fellow at the Type Media Center, and the legal editor of the More Perfect podcast on the Supreme Court for Radiolab. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, the former executive editor of Above the Law, a former associate at Debevoise & Plimpton, and a frequent guest on MSNBC and Sirius XM.

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The inner workings of the Federal Reserve System are an enigma to most of us. But as the early months of 2020 unfolded with a massive public health crisis, huge drops in the stock market, and millions of jobs lost, the actions of the Federal Reserve were critical in preventing sudden economic disaster.

Nick Timiraos, chief economics correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, took readers behind the scenes of the Federal Reserve in his new book, Trillion Dollar Triage. Through extensive research and interviews, he shared a behind-the-scenes look at what chair Jay Powell and his colleagues experienced as the stock market plummeted in early March of 2020. What followed was the largest, swiftest U.S. economic policy response since World War II. In April, the stock market had begun to rebound despite continued drops in the unemployment rate and the continued impacts of COVID-19. Timiraos dived into how Powell kept the economy on life support and faced the subsequent challenges of its recovery.

Nick Timiraos is the chief economics correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, where he covers the Federal Reserve and U.S. economic policy. He joined the Journal in 2006 and previously wrote about the U.S. housing bust and the 2008 election. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and lives with his family in Washington, D.C.

David Wessel is director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution with 30 years of experience as a reporter, editor, and columnist at The Wall Street Journal. He is a New York Times best-selling author and shares two Pulitzer Prizes, one for Boston Globe stories in 1983 on the persistence of racism in Boston, and the other for stories in The Wall Street Journal in 2002 on corporate wrong-doing.

Buy the Book: Trillion-Dollar Triage: How Jay Powell and the Fed Battled a President and a Pandemic--and Prevented Economic Disaster (Hardcover) from Third Place Books

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Bestselling author Erik Larson is widely known for masterful works of narrative nonfiction, and has a particular penchant for drawing a certain richness from historical snapshots — the kinds of topics typically relegated to the footnotes of conventional history books. In a 2020 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Larson said, “My mission is to try to create as rich a historical experience as I can for the reader, so that when they’re done with the book, they come out of it feeling like maybe they lived briefly in a past time.” In his latest nonfiction title, #1 New York Times bestseller The Splendid and the Vile, Larson added rich layers to a pivotal point in world history and inserted readers into the public and personal life of Winston Churchill during WWII.

Churchill faced colossal challenges from the very start: on his first day as prime minister of the U.K., Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium; not long after, Hitler’s bombing campaigns destroyed millions of homes and took tens of thousands of lives. How did Churchill not only keep his country together but also forge key alliances to ensure victory? In The Splendid and the Vile, Larson dove into previously untapped sources — including recently declassified files, intelligence reports, and personal diaries — and offered a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill, his family, and his circle of advisors.

Joined by books writer Mary Ann Gwinn, Larson discussed how Churchill’s persevering leadership bound a country, and a family, together.

Erik Larson is the author of six New York Times bestsellers, most recently The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz. Erik’s The Devil in the White City is set to be a Hulu limited series; his In the Garden of Beasts is under option by Tom Hanks, for a feature film. He recently published an audio-original ghost story, No One Goes Alone, which has been optioned by Netflix. Erik lives in Manhattan with his wife, who is a writer and retired neonatologist; they have three grown daughters.

Mary Ann Gwinn writes about books and authors for Kirkus Reviews, The Los Angeles Times, the Seattle Times, and other publications. A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, she was the book editor of the Seattle Times from 1998 to 2017 and a judge for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in fiction. She’s a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

Buy the Book: The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz (Paperback) from Elliott Bay Books

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In the early ’90s, young Tiffanie Drayton and her siblings left Trinidad and Tobago to join their mother in New Jersey, where she’d been making her way as a domestic worker, eager to give her children a shot at the American Dream. At first, life in the U.S. was idyllic. But chasing good school districts with affordable housing left Tiffanie and her family constantly uprooted – moving from Texas to Florida then back to New Jersey. As Tiffanie came of age in the suburbs, she began to ask questions about the binary Black and white American world. Why were the Black neighborhoods she lived in crime-ridden, and the multicultural ones safe? Why were there so few Black students in advanced classes at school, if there were any advanced classes at all? Why was it so hard for Black families to achieve stability? Why were Black girls treated as something other than worthy?

Drayton’s book, Black American Refugee, expands on her 2020 New York Times piece that details the pain and brokenness she experienced while living in the U.S. and why she ultimately left, returning to Trinidad and Tobago. In her book, she examined the intersection of her personal experiences and the broader cultural and historical ramifications of American racism and global white supremacy. Through the experiences of her family, as well as her own, she illuminated the toll that a lifetime of racism can take and evokes a critical question: Can Black people ever realize true emancipation here in the “land of the free?”

Tiffanie Drayton is a mother, world traveler, and journalist whose work has been featured in The New York Times, Vox, Marie Claire, Playboy, and Salon, among other outlets. She has published two non-fiction young adult books, Developing Political Leadership Skills (2019) and Coping with Gun Violence (2018). She grew up in the United States and currently lives with her family in Tobago.

Krystal A. Sital is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Secrets We Kept: Three Women of Trinidad (2018). A PEN America Literary Award finalist and Hertog Fellow, her work has appeared in ELLE, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, Well, Salon, Catapult, Today’s Parent, LitHub, Brain Child, the Caribbean Writer, and elsewhere. She has taught creative writing, gender and sexuality, business writing, and peoples and cultures of the Caribbean at Fairleigh Dickinson University and at New Jersey City University. She now teaches in the low-residency MFA program at Sierra Nevada College on Lake Tahoe. Krystal was born in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and moved to the United States in 1999. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and three children.

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Freedom of speech or expression is a fundamental element of democracy around the globe. Many countries have adopted constitutional laws that protect free speech; it’s also recognized as an international human rights law by the United Nations. But (and there’s always a but) free speech isn’t cut and dry, and interpretation of the not-so-simple right can vary from region to region and during times of social or political unrest.

Danish lawyer and human rights advocate Jacob Mchangama has been researching and writing about freedom of expression for well over a decade. In his newest book, Free Speech, he traced the fascinating history of the concept from ancient Athenian principles to the civil rights movement to the digital activists of today. Mchangama, in conversation with C.E. Bick, discussed how — and why — free speech is currently on the retreat in both democracies and authoritarian states worldwide. Mchangama explained how freedom of expression is the basis for intellectual achievements; it keeps propelling us forward, generating new ideas, and advancing freedom and equality worldwide. But, he contended, the limits of free speech are often challenged when new voices or voices of dissent enter the scene.

With the relatively new layers of expression added to humankind’s repertoire via social media and other digital tools, Mchangama offered a timely and thought-provoking reminder of the role free speech plays as a foundational human right.

Jacob Mchangama is the founder and executive director of the Danish think tank Justitia and the host of the podcast Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech. His writing on free speech has appeared in the Economist, the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and other outlets. He lives in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Carolyn Bick is a reporter for the South Seattle Emerald. Their work focuses on police accountability and sheds light on the issues surrounding the City of Seattle’s police accountability system.

Buy the Book: Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media (Hardcover) from Third Place Books

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When we think about how the “modern world” came to be, history tends to focus on Eurocentric milestones: The Age of Discovery, which centered the expeditions of seafaring European explorers; the scientific contributions of great thinkers like Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Descartes, and Galileo; and countless other narratives centered on Western achievements. But despite attempts to push an entire continent to the outskirts of global history, as Howard W. French argued in his new book Born in Blackness, Africa and African people are pivotal to our thinking about modernity.

Born in Blackness spans six centuries to reframe the story of medieval and emerging Africa. French revealed how Western wealth, structures of democracy, and ideals of so-called Enlightenment all grew out of Europe’s dehumanizing engagement with the “dark” continent. French elevated a history that has essentially been erased, revealing that it wasn’t Europe’s yearning for ties with Asia that initially spurred maritime exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries, but rather a desire for Africa’s gold. Through this shift in the narrative of global history, French showed just how critical Africa and the African people were to increased growth and wealth in other regions of the world.

Join us in discussion with the author and Drego Little, who reframed how we think about world history and global connections of the past and present.

Howard W. French is a professor of journalism at Columbia University and former bureau chief in the Caribbean and Central America, West and Central Africa, Tokyo, and Shanghai for The New York Times. The author of five books, French lives in New York City.

Buy the Book: Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War (Hardcover) from Elliott Bay Books

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The Olympic Games are no stranger to political controversy; a look back at over a century of modern Olympic history reveals countless boycotts, scandals, and international conflicts. Jules Boykoff, professor of political science, writer, and former professional and Olympic soccer player, is no stranger to writing about the Games through a critical lens. Bolstered by extensive research and first-hand experience, his latest book, NOlympians: Inside the Fight Against Capitalist Mega-Sports in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Beyond, draws attention to the global rise of anti-Olympics activism and the declining popularity of hosting the Games.

The 2022 Winter Olympics are just around the corner, starting on February 4 in Beijing, and sports fans across the globe are anticipating marvelous displays of athleticism and sheer talent. Yet, Boykoff contended that the action on the slopes and rinks will transpire against a controversial backdrop of human rights violations in the Olympics’ host country. In discussion with KUOW’s Bill Radke, Boykoff shared his analysis of how hosting the Olympic Games contributes to trends of displacement, expanded policing, and anti-democratic backroom deals instead of promises of prosperity, upticks in tourism, and increased jobs.

Jules Boykoff is the author of five books on the Olympic Games, including The 1936 Berlin Olympics: Race, Power, and Sportswashing (Common Ground, forthcoming), NOlympians: Inside the Fight Against Capitalist Mega-Sports in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Beyond (Fernwood, 2020) and Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics (Verso, 2016). His writing on the Olympics has appeared in places like The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, The Washington Post, and The Nation. He teaches political science at Pacific University in Oregon.

Bill Radke is the host of Week In Review on KUOW. He has been a host on KUOW’s The Record, and American Public Media’s Weekend America and Marketplace Morning Report. He is also the creator of past show Rewind, a news-satire show heard on KUOW and nationwide on NPR.

Buy the Book: Nolympians: Inside the Fight Against Capitalist Mega-Sports in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Beyond (Paperback) from Elliott Bay Books

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Can we transform our society through unruly resistance, defiant love, and radical care? Two highly respected and widely-published scholars, Diane C. Fujino and Robyn Magalit Rodriguez, think it’s possible. In their new book, Contemporary Asian American Activism: Building Movements for Liberation, they brought together stories of lived experiences, lessons, and triumphs from grassroots Asian American organizers and scholar-activists fighting for transformative justice.

In the struggles for prison abolition, global anti-imperialism, immigrant rights, affordable housing, environmental justice, fair labor, and more, twenty-first-century Asian American activists are speaking out and standing up to systems of oppression. Fujino and Rodriguez came together to celebrate victories, assess failures, reflect on the trials of activist life, examine movement-building in the long term, and inspire continued mobilization for the years to come. Collectively, the stories shape a vision of a more just future that’s forged when many different races — and multiple generations — come together in solidarity.

Diane C. Fujino is professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research examines Japanese and Asian American activist history within an Asian American Radical Tradition and shaped by Black Power and Third World decolonization. Fujino is co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Asian American Studies, and sits on the editorial boards of Kalfou: A Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies and the Journal of Civil and Human Rights. She serves as Faculty Equity Advisory and Associate Dean in the Division of Social Sciences. She is featured in AOKI: A Documentary Film and has spoken on the history of Asian American, Afro-Asian, and Third World liberation struggles on NPR, Democracy Now!, CBSN, NBC Asian America, and many other networks. She is the author of multiple books, and her writing has been published in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and on Al Jazeera Plus, Discover Nikkei, and many more.

Robyn Magalit Rodriguez is professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis. She was the first Pinay (Filipina born in the United States) to serve as chair in the Asian American Studies department’s 50-year history. She is also the founding director of the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies and is a widely published and award-winning scholar. She has written on global migration with a particular focus on Overseas Filipino Workers. She has also written on Asian American (including Filipino American) issues, highlighting Asian American activism in recent years. She was awarded the Excellence in Mentoring Award by the Association for Asian American Studies in 2021.

Buy the Book: Contemporary Asian American Activism: Building Movements for Liberation from University of Washington Press

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It’s not uncommon for commentary about former president Trump’s spending habits to be met with raised eyebrows and stifled chuckles; soundbites about golf resorts and hotel empires induce a special kind of side-eye when they pop in and out of the news. But beyond anecdotes, most Americans probably don’t know the colossal extent of Trump’s spending. How bad was it?

Bad, argued Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston. According to Johnston, Trump’s self-beneficial money machine started churning less than 40 minutes after taking the oath of office and didn’t slow down during his four years of presidency. Johnston’s new book, The Big Cheat, layed out the flow of money in and out of hundreds of Trump’s enterprises. He chronicled the conflicts of interest, the favors, and the entanglement of actions that benefited only the Trump family — but came at a great cost to the American people and jeopardized our national security.

David Cay Johnston is a journalist, author, and winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting. He has been called “One of America’s most important journalists” by The Washington Monthly, and he has acted as an uncredited source of documents and insight for major campaign reports by The Washington Post, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and network television. He has chronicled Donald Trump’s conduct in two other books: Temples of Chance and the New York Times bestseller The Making of Donald Trump.

Sarah Reyneveld is an attorney, community advocate, union member, and parent. Sarah currently serves as a Managing Assistant Attorney General (AAG) in the Washington Attorney General’s Office’s (AGO) Environmental Protection Division and previously served as an AAG representing the Department of Labor and Industries for nine years. Sarah is a proud 15-year state employee who feels blessed to have worked at the AGO, Washington State Governor’s Office, Washington State Senate, and the University of Washington. She received a BA from Smith College, MPA from UW Evans School, and law degree from UW Law School. In 2016, she received the inaugural Evans School Young Alumni Award for her distinguished public service.

Buy the Book: The Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family (Hardcover) from Third Place Books

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In September of 2021, Senate Bill 8 passed in the state of Texas. With it, some of the most restrictive abortion regulations in the country were enacted into law, going against the constitutional rights established in the landmark Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade. Such a critical legal interpretation can prompt review of the perennial question: who should get to decide on major questions of public policy today — the federal government, or state courts and state constitutions?

The Honorable Jeffrey S. Sutton responded to the question in his book, Who Decides? States as Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation. While it is the states’ responsibility to uphold the federal constitution, interpretations vary from state to state; is there danger in the disparities?Judge Sutton argued that for all its variety, American Constitutional Law should account for both the roles of state and federal courts and constitutions together when it comes to assessing the right balance of power. Sutton reminded us that our nuanced and ever-evolving systems must be deeply considered by those who interpret the law, and they must resist the assumption that the Supreme Court holds all the answers to our most complex constitutional questions. After all, the answer to the evergreen question of “who decides” ultimately reveals who governs us.

The Honorable Jeffrey S. Sutton serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Sutton was a partner with the law firm of Jones Day and served as State Solicitor of the State of Ohio. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (Ret.), the Honorable Antonin Scalia, and the Honorable Thomas J. Meskill. In addition to Who Decides: States as Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation, he is the author of 51 Imperfect Solutions.

Sen. Joe Nguyen was born in White Center, raised in Burien, and currently lives in West Seattle. His experiences growing up in an immigrant community, as the son of Vietnamese refugees and raised by a single mother, inform much of his service today. Sen. Nguyen is the vice-chair of the Senate Human Services, Reentry & Rehabilitation Committee, and a member of the Transportation Committee, the Rules Committee, and the Environment, Energy & Technology Committee.

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Rubber is one of those things that goes unnoticed most days, even though our modern lives depend on it for building supplies, medical and industrial equipment, and so many things that help us get around. Despite its tendency to fade into the background, the story of rubber, particularly U.S. rubber, is one worth noticing. In the early 1920s, Americans owned 80 percent of the world’s automobiles and consumed 75 percent of the world’s rubber. At the same time, global demand for rubber skyrocketed as the automobile industry took off. But only a tiny amount of rubber was produced on U.S. soil, and there just wasn’t enough to meet demand. How to ease the rubber bottleneck?

In his new book, Empire of Rubber, Historian and filmmaker Gregg Mitman described the largely unknown story of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, the tiny West African nation of Liberia, and its transformation into America’s rubber empire. Empire of Rubber claimed that Firestone reaped fortunes from stolen land and the labor of the Liberian people and contributed to instability and inequality that eventually led to civil war. Drawn from extensive research, Mitman weaved a narrative through the deeply intertwined realms of ecology, science, commerce, and racial politics — a story that offers both lessons and warnings as we consider the human costs of supply and demand.

Gregg Mitman is the Vilas Research and William Coleman Professor of History, Medical History, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the founding director of the Nelson Institute’s Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE) and is also past president of the American Society for Environmental History. He is the coproducer and codirector of two films, In the Shadow of Ebola, an intimate portrait of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, and The Land Beneath Our Feet, a documentary on history, memory, and land rights in Liberia. Mitman is also the author and editor of several books, including Breathing Space: How Allergies Shape Our Lives and Landscapes, Future Remains, Thinking with Animals, and several others.

Kerri Arsenault is a book critic, teacher, book editor at Orion magazine, and nonfiction editor at the Franco-American journal, Résonance. Kerri’s work has appeared in Freeman’s, the Boston Globe, Down East, the Paris Review Daily, the New York Review of Books, the Washington Post, and many more. Kerri is also the author of the best-selling book, Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains, which won the Maine Literary Award for nonfiction and the Rachel Carson Environmental Book Award from the Society of Environmental Journalists.

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When it comes to Russian politics, public discussion tends to zero in on either Russia’s unique history and culture or the omnipotence of Vladimir Putin, who has held positions of power in the country since 1999. But based on over 30 years of research and first-hand experience, scholar Timothy Frye’s latest book, Weak Strongman, suggests that Russian politics extend far beyond the authority of Putin.

Thanks to decades of experiences that offer a rare glimpse into the many complexities of Russian politics, Frye brought forth a unique understanding of what works and what doesn’t in Russia. He has worked as an “information warrior” for the U.S. government in the Soviet Union, consulted for the Russian Securities and Exchange Commission in the 1990s, bore witness to Russia’s response to the collapse of the Twin Towers in 2001, and has co-headed a research institute at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow since 2011.

In addition to his experiences and research, Frye also drew from a largely untapped body of scholarly work that points to how Russia, while powerful, is not unique; it’s one of many autocracies across the globe, and recognizing this illuminates the inherent limits to Putin’s power. Powerful as Putin’s leadership might appear, Weak Strongman challenged the conventional wisdom and assumptions about Russia and reframed a narrative that leads to a richer picture of contemporary Russian politics.

Timothy Frye writes and teaches about the politics of corruption, autocracy, and economic development usually with a focus on Russia and Eurasia. He is the Marshall D. Shulman Professor of Post-Soviet Foreign Policy at Columbia University and a research director at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. His books include Property Rights and Property Wrongs: How Power, Institutions, and Norms Shape Economic Conflict in Russia and Building States and Markets after Communism: The Perils of Polarized Democracy.

Michael Rawding is the Founding Partner of GeoFusion, a cross-border advisory firm that helps U.S. & European technology companies. He has served as the President of Microsoft Greater China, Microsoft Japan, and Microsoft Asia. Rawding is currently an Executive Committee Member of the Board at the Washington State China Relations Council, a member of the National Committee on U.S. China Relations, and an Executive Committee Member of the Microsoft Alumni Network. He previously served on the Board of Governors at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and as a Board Member of Town Hall Seattle.

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In 2007, Azia Kim pretended to be a Stanford freshman and even lived in the school’s dormitory for several months. In 2010, Jennifer Pan hired a hitman to kill her parents after they found out she had been deceiving them about her educational successes. Why would someone make such an illogical choice? And how do they stage such convincing lies for so long?

erin Khuê Ninh considered what drives people to such extreme lengths in her book, Passing for Perfect: College Impostors and Other Model Minorities. While situations like faking college acceptance or murdering one’s parents are outlier examples, they reveal the cost of the extreme pressure to achieve excellence. Ninh insisted that being a “model minority” is not a myth; it’s a set of convictions and aspirations woven into identities, particularly those of certain groups of Asian Americans, from an early age. But turning children into high-achieving professionals can come at a high price: What happens when failure becomes too difficult to admit?

erin Khuê Ninh is an Associate Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of Ingratitude: The Debt-Bound Daughter in Asian American Literature, which won the Literary Studies Book Award from the Association for Asian American Studies in 2013.

Takeo Rivera is Assistant Professor of English at Boston University, where he is also core faculty in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and affiliated faculty in African American Studies and the Center for Antiracist Research. His book Model Minority Masochism: Performing the Cultural Politics of Asian American Masculinity is forthcoming from Oxford University Press in early 2022. He is also a Stanford alumnus who served as a resident assistant from 2006-2008.

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Fannie Lou Hamer was born in 1917, the youngest of 20 children in a family of Mississippi sharecroppers. Black, poor, disabled by polio, and forced to leave school early to support her family, she lived what seems like a lifetime of oppression by the time she reached young adulthood. As she continued to work and live in the south during the 1950s and 1960s, she became interested in — and later heavily involved in — the Civil Rights Movement. Despite the insurmountable challenges she faced (she experienced racist attacks, was sterilized without her consent in 1961, and was beaten by police in 1963), Hamer was committed to making a difference in the lives of others by advocating for Black voter rights and social justice.

In her new book, Until I Am Free, award-winning historian and New York Times best-selling author Keisha N. Blain shared how Hamer’s ideas still serve as a beacon for a new generation of activists. Blain suggested that there’s much to glean from Hamer as we continue to wrestle with social justice and dismantle systems of oppression. Blain positioned Hamer alongside other key political thinkers like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, and challenges us to listen to a Black, disabled, woman activist as we confront our past, present, and future.

Dr. Keisha N. Blain is an award-winning historian of the 20th-century United States with broad interests and in African American History, the modern African Diaspora, and Women’s and Gender Studies. She is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and the president of the African American Intellectual History Society. She is also a columnist for MSNBC and is currently a 2020-2021 fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. Blain’s published works include: the multi-prize-winning book Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom; To Turn the Whole World Over: Black Women and Internationalism, for which she co-edited; New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition; and Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence. Her latest books are the #1 New York Times Best Seller Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, edited with Ibram X. Kendi; and Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America. Follow her on Twitter @KeishaBlain and on Instagram @KeishaNBlain.

LaNesha DeBardelaben is Executive Director of the Northwest African American Museum and serves as National President of the Board of Directors of the Association of African American Museums. Prior, she was Senior Vice President of Education & Exhibitions at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, Michigan. Her 15+ year career in museums began at the National Museum of Kenya in Africa in 2001, and she has studied museums and libraries internationally in Ghana, South Africa, England, Germany, and Israel. As a historian and museum director, LaNesha has contributed scholarly writings to national publications and has received numerous awards for her community and professional service, including the 2021 Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Committee’s Edwin T. Pratt Community Service Award, 2020 Female Founders Alliance Unsung Heroes Award, 2019 WNBA Inspiring Women Award, and many more.

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In the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade legal case, the United States Supreme Court voted 7-2 to affirm the right to get an abortion. Despite both the colossal impact of the case and her famous pseudonym, few know the full story of Norma McCorvey: the “Jane Roe” in Roe v. Wade.

Joshua Prager, a journalist with a penchant for writing about historical secrets, shared over a decade of meticulous research about McCorvey and a complex cast of characters in his new book, The Family Roe. Prager traced the past 50 years through four key figures: Linda Coffee, the critical but forgotten Texas lawyer who filed the original lawsuit and gave Jane Roe her name; Curtis Boyd, a former fundamentalist Christian who became a leading provider of third-trimester abortions; Mildred Jefferson, the first Black female Harvard Medical School graduate and a founder of the Right to Life Committee; and Norma McCorvey and her family, including the now-adult “Roe Baby” who was unknowingly at the center of the historic case.

McCorvey’s family history is messy and fraught with trauma, but it’s also human. As much as people might try to apply black-and-white thinking to McCorvey’s story, Prager aimed to lead us to a place of empathy and consider ever-evolving questions of family, sex, and religion, with questions of politics and the law evolving right alongside them.

Joshua Prager is a former senior writer for The Wall Street Journal and has written about historical secrets for more than 20 years. In addition to The Family Roe, he is the author of The Echoing Green, which was a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and 100 Years, a collaboration with legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser. Prager has spoken at venues including TED and Google. He was a Nieman fellow at Harvard and a Fulbright Distinguished Chair at Hebrew University. He lives in New Jersey.

Kiana Scott is a strategic communications expert, development leader, and active civic volunteer with more than a decade of experience working at the intersection of politics, policy, and civic engagement. When not volunteering, she leads development and communications for CareerWork$, a workforce development nonprofit advancing economic equality for young adults. Kiana is a board member for the National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington, Vice President of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, and an elected Precinct Committee Officer. She holds a Ph.D. in political communication from UW.

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Ryan Busse is an avid hunter, outdoorsman, conservationist, and gun owner. He built a successful career as a firearms executive and helped grow one of the biggest gun companies in the country. But he claims that something in the gun industry shifted — so much so that Busse walked away from his 30-year career to address the intolerance, internal policing, and secrecy that seemed to be steadily growing in the industry.

In Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America, Busse showed us what he thinks shifted. In the deeply personal account of his own transformation, he discussed the risky, fine line between freedom of speech and acts of treason within the gun industry. Busse encouraged us to consider: Is it still freedom if the culture demands sameness and loyalty? Or is it authoritarianism operating under the guise of freedom? He also argued that the gun industry’s former priorities of decency, safety, and ethics were replaced with hardline conservatism, conspiracy, and fear. What remains, he says, is an industry that fosters extremism, racism, and national division. What went wrong, and can the pendulum ever swing back? Busse suggested that we can, but the nation must decide what’s more important: armed violence, or healing?

Ryan Busse is a former firearms executive who helped build one of the world’s most iconic gun companies, and was nominated multiple times by industry colleagues for the prestigious Shooting Industry Person of The Year Award. Busse is an environmental advocate who served in many leadership roles for conservation organizations, including as an advisor for the United States Senate Sportsmen’s Caucus and the Biden Presidential Campaign. These days, Ryan provides consulting services to progressive organizations with the aim to undo the country’s dangerous radicalization. He remains a proud outdoorsman, gun owner, father, and resident of Montana.

Bill Radke is the host of The Record and Week In Review on KUOW. He has been a host on American Public Media’s Weekend America and Marketplace Morning Report and is the creator of past show Rewind, a news-satire show heard on KUOW and nationwide on NPR.

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Many of our current public institutions are trying to solve today’s problems by using outdated, cumbersome tools of the past. It’s no wonder that many of our public institutions are failing; the tools needed to tackle the complex societal challenges of today, from climate change to systemic racism, require a long-overdue upgrade.

In Solving Public Problems, author Beth Simone Noveck offered a radical but practical rethinking of the tools that public servants, students, activists, and leaders need in a 21st-century world. By taking advantage of technology, data, and the collective wisdom of communities, Noveck showed us that there’s a better way forward to solve contemporary problems.

Noveck drew on lessons learned from decades of advising global leaders, along with original interviews and surveys of thousands of public problem solvers. The result is a useful framework for why and how we can use data and technology to improve the effectiveness of policies, laws, and public institutions working for the people.

Beth Simone Noveck is a professor at Northeastern University, where she directs the Burnes Family Center for Social Change and Impact and its partner project, The Governance Lab (The GovLab) and its MacArthur Research Network on Opening Governance. She is also Core Faculty at Institute for Experiential AI (IEAI) at Northeastern. New Jersey governor Phil Murphy appointed her as the state’s first Chief Innovation Officer and Chancellor Angela Merkel named her to her Digital Council in 2018. Previously, Beth served in the White House as the first United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer and director of the White House Open Government Initiative under President Obama. UK Prime Minister David Cameron appointed her senior advisor for Open Government. In addition to Solving Public Problems, Beth is the author of Smart Citizens, Smarter State: The Technologies of Expertise and the Future of Governing (Harvard Univ Press 2015) and Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger and Citizens More Powerful and co-editor of The State of Play: Law, Games and Virtual Worlds. Her TED talk is here, and she tweets @bethnoveck.

Eric Klinenberg is Helen Gould Shepard Professor of Social Science and Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. He is the author of Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life, Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone, Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media, and Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, as well as the editor of Cultural Production in a Digital Age, co-editor of Antidemocracy in America, and co-author, with Aziz Ansari, of the New York Times #1 bestseller Modern Romance. His scholarly work has been published in journals including the American Sociological Review, Theory and Society, and Ethnography, and he has contributed to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and This American Life.

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The Trump-era Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was passed in December of 2017; the tax code hadn’t seen such a massive overhaul in over 30 years. Bobbing along in a sea of sweeping changes sits the unassuming, pleasant-sounding “Opportunity Zone”— a type of investment with the potential to spur economic growth and job creation in “economically-distressed” communities, rewarding investors in those communities with substantial tax breaks. But, as David Wessel explained in his new book, Only the Rich Can Play, the tax break has done much more to benefit the super-rich and done little to bolster low-income communities.

How did this happen? How did Opportunity Zones quietly slip into the 2017 tax bill with little scrutiny? Wessel provided portraits of the consultants, political influencers, and proselytizers involved in bringing Opportunity Zones to fruition, starting with the silicon valley entrepreneur who developed and arranged for lobbying around the idea. And while Wessel does acknowledge that there are a few places where Opportunity Zones are supporting low-income communities, he argued that a better-designed program would have had a far more positive impact. What we’re ultimately left with is a system that once again leaves out the many in favor of the few.

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The police cannot be reformed. This is the assertion of human rights lawyer Derecka Purnell. Instead, she believes, new systems need to be created to address the root causes of violence. Since the police cannot be reformed, they should be abolished.

In Becoming Abolitionists, Purnell highlighted social movements and activists through time and space, the lessons learned from them, and the elements of policing that no longer serve us. From South Africa to Ferguson, Missouri (where the Black Lives Matter movement was ignited after the police shooting death of the unarmed Black teenager, Michael Brown); from Reconstruction to contemporary protests against police shootings, Purnell looked at the roots of police reform and the ways it has failed and will continue to fail. Instead, Purnell asserted, society needs to eliminate its reliance on policing. The prison-industrial complex must be dissolved. Communities must rebuild labor organizing and disrupt wealth inequality. Laws must be passed around prison labor, voting rights, gun ownership, campaign finance, and decriminalize thousands of behaviors. Social workers and mental health experts need to be on the front lines. This all is a daunting list to get through. It might not be done tomorrow, but, again, a young Black life might be lost tomorrow.

Derecka Purnell is a human rights lawyer, writer, and organizer who works to end police and prison violence by providing legal assistance, research, and training in community-based organizations through an abolitionist framework. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, and Teen Vogue, among many others. Purnell has also appeared on NPR, Democracy Now!, Slate’s What Next, and MSNBC, and is the former Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy. She holds a JD from Harvard Law School.

Nikkita Oliver (they/them) is a Seattle-based creative, community organizer, abolitionist, educator, and attorney. They are the executive director of Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration and a healing, engaged, youth-led, community-based program. Oliver organizes with No New Youth Jail, Decriminalize Seattle, Covid-19 Mutual Aid Seattle, and the Seattle People’s Party. They have been featured on the Breakfast Club, KUOW’s The Week in Review, and The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert, and their work has been seen on the South Seattle Emerald, Crosscut, the Establishment, and more.

Darnell L. Moore is a media maker, educator, writer, and thought leader whose work on marginal identity, equity, and social justice has enabled him to be in community with those creating impact in the U.S. and abroad over the past two decades. A prolific writer, Darnell has been published in various media outlets including the New York Times Book Review, MSNBC, The Guardian, Quartz, Playboy, Huffington Post, EBONY, and many more, as well as in numerous academic journals. He is the recipient of many honors for his work, including the New York Times Notable Book of the Year and the Lambda Literary Award for his 2018 title, No Ashes in the Fire. He is currently Director of Inclusion for Content and Marketing at Netflix.

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Did you get to work on an e-bike? Go to meet your friends at the restaurant on a scooter? Go to your vacation get-away on an air taxi? There are more and more ways to get from point A to point B. But what impact do all these new technologies have? What are the benefits and the costs?

Transportation expert Todd Litman tried to answer these questions in New Mobilities. Litman examined 12 emerging transportation modes and services that are likely to affect our lives: bike- and car-sharing, micro-mobilities, ridehailing and micro-transit, public transit innovations, telework, autonomous and electric vehicles, air taxis, mobility prioritization, and logistics management. What should city planners be aware of before building these out and developing infrastructures for them? With new technologies comes, undoubtedly, new problems. But, Litman noted, so comes new benefits, as well, that can make all our lives better.

Todd Litman is founder and executive director of the Victoria Transportation Policy Institute, an independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative solutions to transport problems.

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According to the U.S. Department of Labor, women still make 82 cents for every dollar earned by a man. The gap is even wider for women of color. Black women were paid 63% of what non-Hispanic white men were paid in 2019. It takes a Black woman 19 months to earn what the average white man takes home in 12 months.

In her new book, Career and Family, renowned economic historian Claudia Goldin traced women’s journey to close the gender wage gap and highlights today’s continued struggles for equality. A hundred years ago, a woman with a college degree would either have a career or have a family, rarely both. Today, there are more women graduates than ever eager for both work and a rich family life. Goldin showed how generations of women have responded to this problem of balancing work and family. Pouring over data, including employment surveys, census records, and more, Goldin noted that even today, equity between dual-career couples is just out of reach.

Claudia Goldin is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University. An economic historian and a labor economist best known for her historical work on women in the U.S. economy, Goldin’s research covers a wide range of topics including the female labor force, the gender gap in earnings, income inequality, and beyond. Most of her research interprets the present through the lens of the past and explores the origins of current issues of concern. Her books include Women Working Longer, The Race Between Education and Technology, The Defining Moment, and Understanding the Gender Gap.

Kiana Scott leads fundraising and communications for CareerWork$, a workforce development nonprofit. She is on the board of the National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington, helping women win elected office.

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Four crises have faced America in the recent past: the Covid-19 pandemic, the sweeping economic downturn because of it, the strengthening Black Lives Matter movement, and the shaky foundations of democracy under the Trump administration. All those crises came to a head in the murder of George Floyd. He was infected with Covid-19 at the time of his death. He had been laid off from the restaurant he worked at. He was a victim of racism in a time when the President all but tried to erase the work done by the president before him, Barack Obama.

In Race Against Time, Keith Boykin broke down the history of systemic racism in our country, something that has transcended political parties and leaders. Boykin contended that America can no longer avoid its long overdue reckoning of its racist past. Ignoring the pleas of Black and brown people, he argued, can no longer be tolerated and, if it continues, the union cannot be saved.

Keith Boykin is a CNN political commentator, New York Times best-selling author, and a former White House aide to President Bill Clinton. He is the co-founder and first board president of the National Black Justice Coalition.

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Horse poop propelled us into automobiles. In the early 20th century there were health concerns over all the manure taking up urban streets. That said, we shifted from an actual horse’s power to shifting into Fords and all sorts of other mechanical personal vehicles. By doing that, we reshaped cities and, further, human society.

In A Brief History of Motion, journalist Tom Standage gave a brisk, entertaining look at how we got from point A to point B throughout history. From the origins of the wheel (likely first made in the Carpathian Mountains during the Copper Age), Standage moved through the eras of horses, trains, bicycles, and the mighty automobile. In each step, he illuminated how we’ve been shaped by these inventions and asks important questions like, “Why does red mean stop and green mean go?” “Why do some countries drive on the left, and some on the right?” and “What might travel in a post-car world look like?” Our relationship with personal transportation has evolved and is ever-evolving (we’re moving into an era of rideshares and electric cars— when are we going to finally get personal jet packs?) and Standage asserted that understanding how the modern world came to be is key in moving forward.

Tom Standage is deputy editor of the Economist and the author of six previous history books. His writing has also appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Wired, and other publications. Standage holds a degree in engineering and computer science from Oxford University.

Mark Harris is an investigative technology reporter based in Seattle, writing regularly for The Guardian, Wired, MIT Technology Review, and TechCrunch. He has a special interest in transportation, breaking stories on giant airships, military drones, GPS attacks, and automated vehicles.

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It took no time at all. In the beginning, we looked at computers and the internet with wide eyes and open arms. It was a technology of liberating potential for us all. Now, it is arguably a dystopia: a dark monolith of algorithms, surveillance, criminality, and job-displacing robots.

Three Stanford professors with long careers in the tech industry, know of the shadows of these tangled webs—they shined a light on them, and offered some hope with System Error. It doesn’t have to be this way. Big tech’s focus on optimization leaves out one key facet: human optimism. Big tech is driving towards deeper riffs of discrimination, further erosions of privacy, and more losses for the working class. What do we hope for in the future? What is it that we value? Should big tech tell us what we value? Or should it be the other way around? Reich, Sahami, and Weinstein offered thoughts, suggestions, and tools to give us some power against that dark monolith.

Rob Reich is a philosopher who directs Stanford University’s Center for Ethics in Society and is the associate director of its new Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.

Mehran Sahami was recruited to Google in its start-up days and was one of the inventors of email spam-filtering technology. He’s been a computer science professor at Stanford University since 2007.

Jeremy Weinstein was a White House staffer for Barack Obama, launching Obama’s Open Government Partnership. Since 2015, he’s been a professor of political science at Stanford University, where he now leads Stanford Impact Labs.

Lauren Sato is the Chief Executive Officer of Ada Developers Academy, a nonprofit, cost-free coding school for women and gender-expansive adults. Creating greater economic power and agency for BIPOC women and gender expansive folks means a better world for everybody.

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We are all connected. We are all far apart. This is our American reality as we all become more and more polarized. Inequities of wealth, class, and culture are pulling us further away as we struggle to define what America is, was, and should be.

In Wildland, Evan Osnos focuses on three places he’s lived in the United States: Greenwich, Connecticut, where Wall Street tycoons gut the heartland’s economy for their own profit; Clarksburg, West Virginia, where opioid abuse is rampant and white identity politics take center stage; and Chicago, Illinois, where violence and poverty run deep. Bookended by the attacks of September 11, 2001, to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Osnos examines the seismic changes in American politics and culture by focusing on the lives of everyday Americans in three cities across two decades. Much has changed. Much has stayed the same. This is our American reality.

Evan Osnos is a staff writer at The New Yorker, a CNN contributor, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. His first book, Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, won the 2014 National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Eric M. Johnson is an American journalist, author, and outdoorsman. His current journalistic focus is aerospace – from Boeing’s 737 MAX crisis to Elon Musk’s SpaceX – and he has covered former President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign, breaking national news, and transportation since joining Reuters in 2011 in Chicago. He has also been a staff reporter for Sun-Times Media Group and covered sports for the Observer, in London.

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Fair housing has never been that fair. In fact, in California at one point, realtors successfully campaigned for a California constitutional amendment that would permanently prohibit fair housing. In the process, they created the script of color-blind freedom that polarizes America on issue after issue today. Realtors helped invent “the American Dream,” while systematically denying it to millions of Americans.

Gene Slater’s Freedom to Discriminate makes note of racial deed restrictions, homeowner associations, redlining maps, and federal rationales for excluding minorities. These were all pioneered by America’s realtors. Focusing on how California’s realtors defended all-white neighborhoods against the Civil Rights Movement, he shows the thread that others followed. Ronald Reagan’s political rise drew, in part, from the arguments the realtors gave to continue segregation. That rise would lay the groundwork for many of today’s conservative narratives.

Gene Slater has served as senior advisor on housing for federal, state, and local agencies for over forty years. Slater cofounded and chairs CSG Advisors, which has been one of the nation’s leading advisors on affordable housing for decades. His projects have received numerous national awards, and in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2009, he helped design the program by which the United States Treasury financed homes for 110,000 first-time buyers. He holds degrees from Columbia, MIT, and Stanford.

Jay Reich is a retired partner of Pacifica Law Group and spent two years as Deputy Chief of Staff at the U.S. Department of Commerce under Secretary Gary Locke. Prior to his time in Washington, D.C, his private law practice in Seattle focused on affordable housing, education, nonprofit and government finance, as well as public/private partnerships and general municipal law, for nearly 3 decades. He served as a White House Fellow in the office of the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Reich has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Washington School of Law and has published and spoken extensively on issues in public finance.

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India’s border meanders over 9,000 miles from Pakistan to Myanmar, crossing desert, fertile plains, rivers, and snow-capped mountains. India’s border is also the site of a massive crisis of statelessness, with hundreds of thousands of people stripped of their citizenship and entangled in the region’s ever-shifting— and often arbitrary— boundaries.

Suchitra Vijayan took us to the thick of it in her book Midnight’s Borders: A People’s History of Modern India, detailing seven years of travel amongst people living in the margins of her home country. Through vivid and painful vignettes, Vijayan captured human stories that would otherwise remain untold; and in doing so, brings the impacts of a legacy of colonialism, state violence, and government corruption into clear view.

Suchitra Vijayan was born and raised in Madras, India. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, GQ, The Boston Review, The Nation, and Foreign Policy. A Barrister by training, she previously worked for the United Nations war crimes tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda before co-founding the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, which gives legal aid to Iraqi refugees. She is an award-winning photographer and the founder and executive director of the Polis Project, a hybrid research and journalism organization. She lives in New York.

Dr. Amrita Ghosh is a research fellow at SASNET (South Asia Center, Sweden) and an associate faculty member at the Brooklyn Institute of Social Research. Ghosh is also co-editor of the coming anthology: Tagore and Yeats: A Postcolonial Reenvisioning (2021), which covers themes of translation, authorship, the Nobel controversy between the two writers.

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Arguably the single most essential aspect of a good education is literacy. “To learn to read is to light a fire,” Victor Hugo wrote. By becoming literate, one develops a whole host of skills that allows one to develop potential and success in society; skills including critical thinking, self-discipline, curiosity, empathy, motivation, and leadership. The fire has been hard to come by for many of our nation’s vulnerable children. Tracy Swinton Bailey knows this all too well and has taken steps to give those children their first sparks.

In Forever Free: A True Story of Hope in the Fight for Child Literacy, Bailey’s memoir offers valuable insights for effecting change in families, communities, and nationwide in our long-standing struggle to adequately educate vulnerable children. With a lifelong love of books and reading, and the power that both imparts, she founded the non-profit organization Freedom Readers. Based in the rural South, it is a one-on-one tutoring program that, she believes, can be modeled and work across the United States. The book offers the steps to make that happen and what she thinks can come of it if we do. Sparks, perhaps, can become flames and society will be a better place because of it, literate citizens within.

Tracy Swinton Bailey earned a Ph.D. in Education with a specialization in Language and Literacy at the University of South Carolina in 2013. She is the founder of Freedom Readers, an after-school and summer literacy program.

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“For-profit health insurance is the largest con job ever perpetrated on the American people—one that has cost trillions of dollars and millions of lives since the 1940s,” says popular progressive radio host Thom Hartmann.

The New York Times bestselling author returned to Town Hall with the latest installment of his “hidden history” series, The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich. He explored how attempts to implement affordable universal healthcare in the United States have been thwarted by greed, racism, and oligarchic corruption and what can be done to make healthcare for all a reality.

Hartmann shared examples of other countries that have shown that affordable universal healthcare is not only possible but also effective and efficient, and argued that America’s “sickness for profit” system can be replaced with Medicare.

Buy the Book: The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich (Paperback) Elliott Bay Books

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In the last two decades, many nations have adopted “gay reparations,” or policies intended to make amends for a history of discrimination, stigmatization, and violence on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The United States, however, has been reluctant to embrace any form of gay reparations, making the country something of an outlier among Western democracies.

Professor and author Omar G. Encarnación joined us for a presentation, in conversation with CEO of Epiphanies of Equity LLC ChrisTiana ObeySumner, to share takeaways from his book, The Case for Gay Reparations. Beyond making the case for gay reparations in the US, Encarnación explored three big questions: why, after centuries of attempts to marginalize, dehumanize, and even eradicate LGBT people, are governments coming around to confront this historical legacy?; how do we make sense of the diversity of gay reparations being implemented by governments around the world?; and what would an American policy of gay reparations look like?

Drawing upon the rich history of reparations to confront the legacies of genocide, slavery, and political repression, he argued that gay reparations are a moral obligation, intended to restore dignity to those whose human rights have been violated. He examined how other Western democracies notorious for their repression of homosexuals–specifically Spain, Britain, and Germany–have implemented gay reparations, from a formal apology to financial compensation, to the erection of monuments to the memory of those who have suffered. Encarnación invited us to consider that while there is no universal approach to gay reparations, foreign experiences reveal that it is never too late for countries to seek to right past wrongs.

Omar G. Encarnación is Professor of Political Studies at Bard College, where he teaches comparative politics and Latin American and Iberian studies. He is the author of Out in the Periphery: Latin America’s Gay Rights Revolution and Democracy without Justice in Spain: The Politics of Forgetting, and has written for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, Foreign Policy, and Foreign Affairs. He is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Fulbright Program, the Ford Foundation, and the National Research Council, among others.

ChrisTiana ObeySumner (they/them) is a Black/Indigenous, Queer, Non-Binary, and Multiply disabled person. They are a community organizer and activist, and CEO of Epiphanies of Equity LLC, a social equity consulting firm that particularly specializes in social change, intersectionality, antiracism, and disability justice.

Buy the Book: The Case for Gay Reparations (Hardcover)
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On June 26, 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled that state bans on gay marriage were unconstitutional, making same-sex unions legal across the United States. But the road to that momentous decision was much longer than many know. Author Sasha Issenberg introduced a definitive account in this presentation that discussed his book The Engagement: America’s Quarter-Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage, in conversation with CMBC Reporter Aditi Roy.

The story begins, Issenberg shared, in Hawaii in 1990, when a rivalry among local activists triggered a sequences of events that forced the state to justify excluding gay couples from marriage. Then in the White House, one president signed the Defense of Marriage Act, which elevated the matter to a national issue, and his successor tried to write it into the Constitution. Over 25 years, Issenberg told us, the debate played out across the country, from the first legal same-sex weddings in Massachusetts to the epic face-off over California’s Prop 8, and finally, to the landmark decisions of United States v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges. Across those 25 years, nearly every corner of American life was touched in some way by the debate. With insight from those who sought their own right to wed, those who fought to protect the “traditional” definition of marriage, and those who changed their minds about it, Issenberg invited us to a riveting story about a banner topic of the modern culture wars.

Sasha Issenberg is the author of three previous books, including The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns. He has covered presidential elections as a national political reporter in the Washington bureau of The Boston Globe, a columnist for Slate, and a contributor to Bloomberg Politics and Businessweek. He is the Washington correspondent at Monocle, and his work has also appeared in New York, The New York Times Magazine, and George, where he served as a contributing editor. He teaches in the political-science department at UCLA.

Aditi Roy is an Emmy-winning journalist who has spent two decades covering local, national and business news. In 2016, she joined CNBC’s San Francisco bureau, covering the California economy, the vaping/cannabis industry, the rise of alt-foods, and the Equifax breach. Roy left CNBC earlier this year to spend time with her daughters (ages 1 and 7) and pursue personal passion projects. Buy the Book: The Engagement: America's Quarter-Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage (Hardcover)
Elliott Bay Books

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On June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, the end of legalized slavery in the state was announced. Since then, a certain narrative and lore has emerged about Texas. But as Juneteenth verges on being recognized as a national holiday, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annette Gordon-Reed—herself a Texas native and the descendant of enslaved people—reworks the traditional “Alamo” framework, forging a new and profound narrative of her home state with implications for all.

In conversation with South Seattle Emerald’s Marcus Harrison Green, she weaved together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir chronicled in her book On Juneteenth. She recounted the origins of the date in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have endured since and explained how, from the earliest presence of Black people in Texas, African-Americans played an integral role in the state’s story. She demonstrated that the slave and race-based economy not only defined the fractious era of Texas independence but indeed caused the Mexican-American and Civil Wars.

Don’t miss this urgent program for an essential revision of conventional renderings of history, one that starkly reminds us that the fight for equality is demanding and ongoing.

Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. The author of Pulitzer Prize-winning The Hemingses of Monticello, she lives in New York and Cambridge.

Marcus Harrison Green is the publisher of the South Seattle Emerald, and a columnist with Crosscut. After an unfulfilling stint working for a Los Angeles based hedge-fund in his twenties, Green returned to his community determined to tell its true story, which led him to found the South Seattle Emerald. He was named one of Seattle’s most influential people by Seattle Magazine in 2016.

Northwest African American Museum opened in 2008 and serves to present and preserve the connections between the Pacific Northwest and people of African descent, as well as investigate and celebrate Black experiences in America. It is the premier institution for showcasing African American art, history, and culture in the Pacific Northwest.

Buy the Book: https://www.elliottbaybook.com/book/9781631498831

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and NW African American Museum.

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Somewhere, between character and caricature, there exists an authentic and unique urban place, believes urbanism consultant and author Charles R. Wolfe. One that blends global and local, old and new. Yet, in a dramatically changing world dominated by crises of climate change, maintaining public health, and social justice, finding such places—and explaining their relevance—may be easier said than done.

In conversation with interviewer Steve Scher, Wolfe joined us to introduce a comprehensive method for assessing how and why successful places come to be, with an explicit emphasis on context, as captured in his book Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character: Principles and Best Practices. They discussed how to enact urban change, using the past and the status quo as inspiration rather than a hindrance or obstacle. Wolfe shared his strategies for how we as a society can understand and unlock a public place, neighborhood, or city, using a new tool called LEARN: Look, Engage, Assess, Review, and Negotiate. With real-life examples, Wolfe provided a catalogue of techniques that emphasize “bottom up,” resident-based input about local history, building forms, cultural assets and tradition, and more. For those who seek an urbanism of distinctiveness rather than a bland, generic uniformity, join Wolfe for this singular presentation on how to make that happen.

Charles R. Wolfe is a London-based, multinational urbanism consultant, author, visiting scholar in Sweden, recent Fulbright specialist in Australia for an award-winning project, and long-time American environmental/land use lawyer. He has served as a long-time affiliate associate professor in the College of the Built Environments at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is also the author of Seeing the Better City and Urbanism Without Effort.

Steve Scher is a podcaster, interviewer, and teacher. He worked in Seattle public radio for almost 30 years. He has taught at the University of Washington since 2009. He is Senior Correspondent for Town Hall Seattle’s In The Moment podcast.

Buy the Book: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538133248/Sustaining-a-Citys-Culture-and-Character-Principles-and-Best-Practices

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India is in a crisis. In September 2020, the Indian government passed three new agricultural bills that deregulate and privatize India’s agricultural industry. Since then, farmers and farmworkers across India have taken to the country’s capital, staging the largest protest in human history. By prioritizing corporations over people and the planet, many believe these laws further environmental degradation and economic oppression, deepening an already stark wealth disparity. These protests are as much about land rights as they are about human rights, as dissent continues to be silenced.

In this urgent conversation, moderated by social impact advisor Manpreet Kaur Kalra, panelists Arjun Singh Sethi, a human rights lawyer, and Navyug Gill, scholar of modern South Asia and global history, unpack the history of industrialized agriculture in India and the geo-political factors influencing the protest that is unfolding today.

Arjun Singh Sethi is a human rights lawyer, professor, author, and community activist based in Washington, DC. He works closely with Muslim, Arab, South Asian and Sikh communities, and holds faculty appointments at Georgetown University Law Center and Vanderbilt University Law School. In the wake of the 2016 election, Sethi traveled the country and met with a diversity of people to document the hate they experienced during the campaign and after inauguration. American Hate: Survivors Speak Out was released in August 2018r. Sethi also serves as Co-Chair of the Committee on Homeland Security, Terrorism & Treatment of Enemy Combatants at the American Bar Assocation and has served as a legal observer across the world, including military commissions at Guantanamo Bay.

Navyug Gill is a scholar of modern South Asia and global history. He is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at William Paterson University. His research explores questions of agrarian change, labor politics, caste hierarchy, postcolonial critique, and global capitalism. Currently he is completing a book on the emergence of the peasant and the rule of capital in colonial Panjab. His academic and popular writings have appeared in venues such as the Journal of Asian Studies, Economic and Political Weekly, Al Jazeera, Law and Political Economy Project, Borderlines, and Trolley Times.

Manpreet Kaur Kalra (she/her) is a social impact advisor, anti-racism educator, and Seattle-based activist working to decolonize storytelling. She navigates the intersection of impact communication and sustainable global development. She founded Art of Citizenry to support impact-driven businesses and organizations to address inclusion in all aspects, from business development to marketing strategy. Her activism focuses on the interconnectivity of economic, social, and climate justice. She educates using a variety of mediums, including the Art of Citizenry Podcast, where she shares her nuanced and unfiltered insights on building a more just and equitable future. Her work unpacks history and addresses systemic power structures. She serves on the board of the NYC Fair Trade Coalition and co-established the Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the Fair Trade Federation.

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The guilty verdict against Derek Chauvin, the police officer who murdered George Floyd, was celebrated as a victory for racial equity progress in our country. As our nation continues to wrestle with racial equity, what local progress has been made? What have our leaders learned from the protests and calls for reform over the past several years? Are there steps we can take as a community to create a more equitable community for all?

Join us for a virtual Civic Cocktail program with our host Joni Balter and guests Jasmyne Keimig, staff writer at the Stranger, Naomi Ishisaka, assistant managing editor at The Seattle Times, and Kurt Streeter, Sports of The Times columnist at The New York Times.

As a 40-year-old nonpartisan, civics-focused nonprofit, Seattle CityClub provides a platform for insightful and educational conversations that include a diverse range of perspectives. This program wouldn’t be possible without Comcast as our premiere partner, our media partner Seattle Channel and our production partner Town Hall Seattle.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Seattle City Club.

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How healthy is journalism in the United States today? Andy Lee Roth and Mickey Huff of Project Censored joined us for a conversation on this topic, espousing their view of corporate media biases, censorship, and the importance of independent journalism, and the state of the free press.

Project Censored was founded in 1976 by Dr. Carl Jensen at Sonoma State University to research and publicize news media censorship in the news, and to develop students’ critical thinking skills and media literacy. That same year, The Project produced its first list of important but under-reported news stories, a tradition that endures to this day. Roth and Huff shared the biggest stories from the most recent yearbook, endeavoring to expose the corporate media’s failures to cover systemic social problems, including the deadly consequences of enduring economic inequality, attacks on freedom of expression, and the plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. They presented documentation of double standards and skewed framing that they believe have served to mystify the public about COVID-19, obscure the events surrounding the Black Lives Matter uprisings of 2020, and quash urgent conversations about universal healthcare, stimulus payments, and the U.S. government’s response to the pandemic. Tune in for some critical media literacy skills and an illuminating discussion about the state of the free press.

Mickey Huff has been director of Project Censored since 2010; president of the nonprofit Media Freedom Foundation since 2016; and co-host and executive producer of The Project Censored Show on Pacifica Radio, since 2010. In 2019, he co-authored United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (And What We Can Do About It). Huff is a professor of social science and history at Diablo Valley College, where he co-chairs the History program and is chair of the Journalism Department. He also serves on the editorial board for the journal Secrecy and Society, the advisory board at the crowd contested media site Credder.com, as well as the board of the nonprofit Behind the Headlines.

Andy Lee Roth is associate director of Project Censored and coordinator of the Project’s Campus Affiliates Program. His research and writing have been published in a variety of outlets, including Index on Censorship, In These Times, YES! Magazine, Media, Culture & Society, and the International Journal of Press/Politics. Roth has taught courses in Sociology at Citrus College, Pomona College, Sonoma State University, the College of Marin, and Bard College, and he serves on the board of the Media Freedom Foundation.

Buy the Book: https://www.elliottbaybook.com/book/9781644210260

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In 2016, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump declared: “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct.” This led many after his victory to blame “identity politics” for his win. When Trump was banned from Twitter, he claimed it was an assault on free speech. Columnist Nesrine Malik contended that both of these things were myths, and joined us to explain how these arguments over lies impact the struggle for greater equality in society.

In a presentation with novelist Ece Temelkuran, Malik shared from her book We Need New Stories: The Myths That Subvert Freedom, looking at how what she believes to be the lie that American values are under assault creates a solid obfuscation from the real problems. By interweaving reporting with a frank and no-holds-barred analysis of American history and politics, Malik offered a compelling account of how calls to preserve “free speech” are used against the vulnerable; how a fixation with “wokeness,” “political correctness,” and “cancel culture” is in fact an organized and well-funded campaign by elites; and how the fear of racial minorities and their “identity politics” obscures the biggest threat of all–white terrorism. Don’t miss this poignant inspection of the crises roiling American contemporary politics–and the introduction of a radical framework for understanding and identifying it.

Nesrine Malik is an award-winning British-Sudanese columnist and features writer for the Guardian. She lives in London.

Ece Temelkuran is one of Turkey’s best-known novelists and political commentators, and her journalism has appeared in the Guardian, New York Times, New Statesman, Der Spiegel, and more. Her latest book How To Lose A Country: The Seven Steps From Democracy to Dictatorship was internationally acknowledged. Her new book Together is out in May 2021.

Buy the Books:

We Need New Stories: The Myths that Subvert Freedom by Nesrine Malik

Together: 10 Choices for a Better Now by Ece Temelkuran

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Jeff Bezos’ empire, once housed in a garage, now spans the globe. Between services like Whole Foods, Prime Video, and Amazon’s cloud computing unit AWS, plus Bezos’ ownership of The Washington Post, it’s nearly impossible to go a day without encountering its impact. Many argue we live in a world run, supplied, and controlled by Amazon and its founder. But how did this man and his company come to dominate such a large part of modern commerce?

Sometimes called Amazon’s biographer, journalist Brad Stone joined us with the deeply reported and vividly drawn portrait of how a retail upstart became arguably one of the most powerful and feared entities in the global economy, also contained in his book Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire. In conversation with The New York Times’ Karen Weise, Stone took us from his bestseller which captured the rise of Amazon, The Everything Store, to the Amazon and Bezos of today. He looked at how Amazon has expanded over the last decade especially, with new products like virtual assistant Alexa and with a workforce that has quintupled in size. Stone presented a picture of a man, probing the evolution of Bezos himself, from a geeky technologist to billionaire–and to his transition away from day-to-day activities as CEO to executive chairman.

Brad Stone is senior executive editor of global technology at Bloomberg News. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, which has been translated into over thirty-five languages, and The Upstarts: Uber, Airbnb, and the Battle for the New Silicon Valley. He has covered Silicon Valley for more than twenty years and lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Karen Weise is a technology correspondent for The New York Times based in Seattle, covering Amazon, Microsoft, and the region’s tech scene. Before joining The New York Times in 2018, she worked for Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg News, as well as the nonprofit investigative newsroom ProPublica.

Buy the Book: https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9781982132613

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What’s the state of downtown Seattle? How are businesses and other sectors navigating the ongoing impact of the pandemic, recent protests, lack of affordable housing, and other social and economic factors? Hear perspectives from leaders including Bob Donegan, President of Ivar’s, and Brian Surratt, Vice President of Real Estate Development and Community Relations for Alexandria Real Estate and former director of the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development, on the history of the Emerald City and their vision to ensure downtown shifts from surviving to thriving.

Bob Donegan is the President at Ivar’s, Seattle’s Original Seafood Restaurants. He joined the company in 1997 as the Chief Financial Officer and became President on 9/11 when one of his partners died. In addition to Ivar’s, Donegan volunteers at the Seattle Aquarium, Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the Seattle Historic Waterfront Association, the Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts, the Seattle Sports Commission, UW’s Foster School Center from Strategic Leadership, and the Seattle branch of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank.

Brian Surratt is Vice President at Alexandria Real Estate Equities, one of the largest developers of life science and technology campuses. Previously, he was the Director of the City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development. Surratt has been recognized by the German Marshall Memorial and the White House Fellowship programs, as well as Seattle Met Magazine and Puget Sound Business Journal. Surratt is currently a board member of FareStart, the William D. Ruckelshaus Center, the Seattle Center Foundation, Downtown Emergency Services Center, Seattle 2030 District, and Downtown Seattle Association.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Seattle City Club.

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Although over half the people incarcerated in America today have committed violent offenses, the focus of reformers has been almost entirely on nonviolent and drug offenses. Danielle Sered takes aim at issues of mass incarceration, insisting that we cannot just critique violence and mass incarceration, but must build practical, moral solutions to displace them. She joined us, drawing from her book Until We Reckon to grapple with the question of restorative approaches to violent crime in conversation with local grassroots community organizer and Creative Justice Executive Director Nikkita Oliver.

Sered and Oliver explored whether the needs of survivors of violent crime are better met by asking people who commit violence to accept responsibility for their actions and making amends in ways that are meaningful to those they have hurt—none of which currently happens in the context of a criminal trial or a prison sentence. Sered argued that a reckoning is owed not only on the part of those who have committed violence, but also by our nation’s overreliance on incarceration to produce the illusion of safety—at great cost to communities, survivors, racial equity, and the very fabric of our democracy. Together they illuminated how ending mass incarceration and increasing public safety is not just a local issue but is also very relevant to the Seattle-King County region. Join them as they ask us to fundamentally reconsider our relationship to and the purposes of incarceration.

Danielle Sered envisioned and directs Common Justice, which develops and advances practical and groundbreaking solutions to violence that advance racial equity, meet the needs of those harmed, and do not rely on incarceration. Before planning the launch of Common Justice, Sered served as the deputy director of the Vera Institute of Justice’s Adolescent Reentry Initiative, a program for young men returning from incarceration on Rikers Island. She the author of The Other Side of Harm: Addressing Disparities in our Responses to Violence, of Accounting for Violence: How to Increase Safety and Break Our Failed Reliance on Mass Incarceration, and the book Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair.

Nikkita Oliver (they/them) is a Seattle-based creative, community organizer, abolitionist, educator, and attorney. They are the executive director of Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration and a healing engaged youth-led community-based program. Oliver organizes with No New Youth Jail, Decriminalize Seattle, Covid-19 Mutual Aid Seattle, and the Seattle People’s Party. They have been featured on the Breakfast Club, KUOW’s The Week in Review, and The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert, and their work has been seen on the South Seattle Emerald, Crosscut, the Establishment, and more.

Buy the Book: https://www.elliottbaybook.com/book/9781620976579

Presented by Common Justice and Town Hall Seattle.

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It has become impossible to deny that the planet is warming, and that governments must act. But some believe that a new denialism is taking root in the halls of power, shaped by decades of neoliberal policies and centuries of anti-democratic thinking. One such is journalist Kate Aronoff, who has written about the climate change fight in her book Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet and How We Fight Back.

Aronoff joined us, in conversation with author and environmentalist Bill McKibben, to explore her account that examines the forces that she contends have hijacked progress on climate change. Since the 1980s, Democrats and Republicans have each granted enormous concessions to industries bent on maintaining business as usual. And worse, Aronoff said, policymakers have given oil and gas executives a seat at the table designing policies that should instead be the end of their business model. Aronoff argued that this approach will only drive the planet further into emergency. Drawing on years of reporting, she layed out an alternative vision, detailing how democratic majorities can curb pollutors’ power; create millions of well-paid, union jobs; enact climate reparations; and transform the economy into a more leisurely and sustainable one. Our future, Aronoff, challenged, will require a radical reimagining of politics–with the world at stake.

Kate Aronoff is a staff writer at The New Republic, and a former fellow at the Type Media Center. Her work has appeared in The Intercept, The New York Times, The Nation, Dissent, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian, among other outlets. Aronoff is the co-editor of We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism, American Style and the co-author of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal.

Bill McKibben is an award-winning author and environmentalist. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change. He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement. A former staff writer for the New Yorker, he writes frequently for a wide variety of publications around the world, including the New York Review of Books, National Geographic, and Rolling Stone. In 2014, biologists named a species of woodland gnat—megophthalmidia mckibbeni—after him.

Buy the Book: https://www.elliottbaybook.com/book/9781568589473

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Xenophobia and bigotry against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community are on the rise in cities throughout the country, including Seattle. With nearly 4,000 hate crimes reported in the last 12 months, this trajectory became impossible to ignore when six Asian women were killed in a shooting in Atlanta. Why did this happen? What were the stepping stones that led to this increase in violence? Could those stepping stones have been influenced by a president who used bigoted and racist language in reference to a global health crisis?

In the third installment of Seattle University’s “The Conversations,” we hear from former U.S. ambassador to China and former Washington Governor Gary Locke, CEO of Treehouse Lisa Chin, and interim Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz. Journalist Joni Balter and Dr. Larry Hubbell, longtime previous director of the Seattle University Institute of Public Service, moderate an honest discussion with Locke, Chin, and Diaz about the possible causes of this disturbing trend—and offer suggestions on how we can make change around a problem that has a long legacy of harming our communities. With student questions led by Asian Studies Program Director Dr. Yitan Li, you won’t want to miss this essential and urgent conversation.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Seattle University Institute of Public Service.

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A young girl was raised on a rice farm in rural Japan when, at seven years old, her mother left her abusive husband and sailed with her two elder children to Hawaii, crossing the Pacific in steerage in search of a better life. That young girl would become the first Asian-American woman and the only immigrant serving in the United States Senate.

Senator Mazie K. Hirono joined us to share from her deeply personal memoir, Heart of Fire: An Immigrant Daughter’s Story, which traces her remarkable life from her earliest days in Hawaii to her emergence as a highly effective and passionate legislator. In conversation with award-winning writer and fellow immigrant Viet Thanh Nguyen, Senator Hirono talked about the immigrant experience. She related how she entered first grade not being able to read or speak English, and her family lived in a single room in a Honolulu boarding house while her mother worked two jobs to keep them afloat. Those beginnings tied directly to her work as a legislator, determined to help the most vulnerable with a purpose that was grounded in her own experiences of economic insecurity, lack of healthcare access, and family separation–fighting hardest to ensure that a story like hers is still possible in this country.

Finally, she explored her emergence, from dogged yet soft-spoken public servant into the frank and fiery advocate we see today, describing how she fought for causes she believed in while striving to remain polite and reserved, both because she had been steeped in nonconfrontational cultures and because she was a woman in politics. But in 2016, as she felt the impending force of a dangerous administration and crucial battles with lasting implications raged, Senator Hirono felt called to give voice to the fire that had always been inside her. Don’t miss this compelling and moving account of a woman coming into her own power over the course of a lifetime in public service–and of the mother whose courageous choice made that life possible.

Senator Mazie K. Hirono is a graduate of the University of Hawaii, Manoa and the Georgetown University Law Center. She has served in the Hawaii House of Representatives (1981-1994), as Hawaii’s lieutenant governor (1994-2002), and in the U.S. House of Representatives (2006-2013). She became Hawaii’s first female senator in 2013, winning reelection in 2018. Hirono serves on the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on Armed Services, and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, among others.

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and numerous other awards. His most recent publication is the sequel to The Sympathizer, The Committed. His other books are a short story collection, The Refugees; Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award in General Nonfiction); and Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America. He has also published Chicken of the Sea, a children’s book written in collaboration with his six-year-old son, Ellison. He is a University Professor, the Aerol Arnold Chair of English, and a Professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity, and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, he is also a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and the editor of The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives.

Buy the Book: https://www.elliottbaybook.com/book/9781984881601

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The United States is the only country in the world where property rights commonly extend “up to heaven and down to hell,” which means that landowners have the exclusive right to lease their subsurface mineral estates to petroleum companies. Shale gas extraction—commonly known as fracking—is often portrayed as an energy revolution that will transform the American economy and geopolitics. But in greater Williamsport, Pennsylvania, landowners leasing their subsurface mineral estates and fracking are personal.

Sociologist Colin Jerolmack spent eight months living with rural communities outside of Williamsport as they confronted the tension between property rights and the commonwealth, and he joined us to share from the resulting, deeply intimate book, Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town. In conversation with Responsible Drilling Alliance’s Ralph Kisberg, Jerolmack revealed how the decision to lease brings financial rewards but can cause irreparable harm to neighbors, to communal resources like air and water, and even to oneself. He provided a vivid and heartbreaking account of what happened in a rural Pennsylvania town as a result of what is largely a private choice that millions of ordinary people make without the public’s consent, despite it often being one of the most momentous decisions about the well-being of our communities and our planet. Ultimately, Jerolmack presented us with a question that has been brought into stark contrast over the last year especially: how might our American ideas of freedom change when personal choices can undermine our neighbors’ liberty, and how can individual rights bring unintended consequences for us all?

Colin Jerolmack is a professor of sociology and environmental studies at New York University and the author of The Global Pigeon.

Ralph Kisberg is a co-founder and consultant to the Board of the nonprofit Responsible Drilling Alliance (RDA), an organization to educate and advocate on shale gas development issues.

Buy the Book: https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9780691179032

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The vast majority of American—71 percent—believe the economy is rigged in favor of the rich. Guess what? They’re right! And Morris Pearl and Erica Payne would know—they’re some of America’s wealthiest “class traitors,” and they joined us to take us on an engaging and enlightening insider’s tour of the nation’s tax code, which is where they say everything starts.

With insight from their book Tax the Rich!: How Lies, Loopholes, and Lobbyists Make the Rich Even Richer, Pearl and Payne explained exactly how “the rich”–and the politicians they control–manipulate the tax code to ensure the rich get richer, and everyone else is left holding the bag. Founders of the Patriotic Millionaires, they unapologetically dismantled the justifications for a tax code that virtually guarantees destabilizing levels of inequality and consequent social unrest. They made a complicated subject accessible and illuminated the practical reforms that they contend will put America on the road to stability and shared prosperity before it’s too late. Don’t miss this powerfully persuasive and entertaining guide to the most effective way to un-rig the economy.

Morris Pearl, a former managing director of BlackRock, is chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of hundreds of high-net-worth Americans committed to making all Americans better off by building a more prosperous, stable, and inclusive nation, and ensuring that millionaires, billionaires, and corporation make their fair share of taxes.

Erica Payne is founder and president of the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of hundreds of high-net-worth Americans committed to making all Americans better by building a more prosperous, stable, and inclusive nation, and ensuring that millionaires, billionaires, and corporations pay their fair share of taxes. She is the author of The Practical Progressive!

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Lying has been a part of society since the beginning. Over the past decade, however, it has become increasingly clear that damaging lies and falsehoods are amplified as never before through social media platforms that reach billions. Lies have abounded: about COVID-19, about vaccines, about public officials, about products. And unfriendly governments have circulated lies in order to create chaos in other nations. In the face of these problems, renowned legal scholar Cass Sunstein probes the fundamental question of how we can deter lies while also protecting one of our most fundamental freedoms: freedom of speech.

Sunstein joined us with a powerful analysis of why lies and falsehoods spreads so rapidly now, with support from his book Liars: Falsehoods and Free Speech in an Age of Deception. He examined why free societies must often allow falsehoods and lies, reasoning that we cannot and should not trust governments to make unbiased judgments about what counts as a lie. However, he argued, governments should have the power to regulate specific kinds of falsehoods. And moreover, he believes that private institutions like Facebook and Twitter, have a responsibility to greater exercise their authority to stop the spread of lies. Navigating a fine balance, Sunstein contended that we can reform our laws and policies regarding speech to alleviate the problem–and still protect the promises contained in the Bill of Rights.

Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard University. From 2009 to 2012, he was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. In 2018, he received the Holberg Prize from the Government of Norway, often described as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for law and humanities. Founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School, he has been involved in law reform activities in nations all over the world. He is the author of many articles and books, including Nudge, How Change Happens, and Too Much Information.

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What’s ahead for Republicans, Democrats, and Independents when it comes to civics in our country and communities? How can we work together when parties are often divided themselves? This April Civic Cocktail continues an intended multi-part, multi-party series begun in February.

With a new administration in the White House, local leaders discuss the next steps for the Democratic Party in D.C., bridging the political divide, and how their national work impacts communities here in Washington State. Join CityClub for a virtual Civic Cocktail program with host Joni Balter and guests Congresswomen Pramila Jayapal and Suzan DelBene to be part of the conversation.

As a 40-year-old nonpartisan, civics-focused nonprofit, Seattle CityClub provides a platform for insightful and educational conversations that include a diverse range of opinions. But sometimes we need to dive deeper into a particular topic, so we can listen and engage in a more thoughtful manner with our community.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal is a former Washington State Senator and a lifelong organizer for immigrant, civil, worker, and human rights. She was just re-elected to Congress for a third term with more votes than any Member of the House of Representatives. In 2016, she became the first South Asian American woman ever elected to the House. After coming to the United States alone at the age of 16, she later started the largest immigrant rights group in Washington State and is currently one of only 14 immigrants serving in Congress. As the Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Representative Jayapal is the lead sponsor of the Medicare for All Act, the College for All Act, the Housing is a Human Right Act, and the Roadmap to Freedom Immigration resolution. She currently serves on the Judiciary, Budget, and Education and Labor committees. Congresswoman Jayapal lives in West Seattle with her husband Steve.

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene represents Washington’s 1st Congressional District. First sworn into the House of Representatives in 2012, Congresswoman DelBene brings a unique voice to the nation’s capital, with more than two decades of experience as a successful technology entrepreneur and business leaders. She currently serves as the Vice Chair on the House Ways and Means committee, and the Select Revenue Measures and Trade Subcommittees. In the 116th Congress, she was appointed to the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. Congresswoman DelBene also serves as the Chair of the New Democrat Coalition and co-chair of the Women’s High Tech Caucus, Internet of Things Caucus, and Dairy Caucus. Before being elected to Congress, Congresswoman DelBene served as Director of the Washington State Department of Revenue.

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In 2008, the American economy collapsed, taking with it millions of Americans’ jobs, homes, and life savings. The ensuing financial crisis was devastating, and many are still feeling its effects today. But despite the crisis, the US government has yet to implement policies that would prevent a repeat of the Great Recession. Why is that?

Kerry Killinger, the former CEO of Washington Mutual Bank, and Linda Killinger, the former vice chair of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, joined us with a critical analysis of the actions that led to the financial crisis—and to sound the alarm about how we may be on track to repeat our same mistakes.

In conversation with journalist Enrique Cerna, and with insight from their book Nothing Is Too Big to Fail: How the Last Financial Crisis Informs Today—all proceeds of which will be donated to charity—they held a microscope to the very policies and corruption that led to the major economic recession. By exploring the shrinking middle class, escalations in racial injustice, and current fiscal policies, they argued that our economy is in a fragile place, barely strong enough to survive a shock caused by an international conflict, cyberattack, or global pandemic. But they believe no institution, government, or country is “too big to fail,” and that we can learn from our past mistakes and take action to return our country’s economic system—and democracy—to one that is secure.

Kerry Killinger was the chairman, president, and CEO of Washington Mutual Bank. He is a chartered financial analyst (CFA) and a fellow in the Life Management Institute. He was chair of the National Education summit of Achieve and American Banker’s Banker of the year, received President George H.W. Bush’s Points of Light Award for his philanthropy, was vice chair and chair-elect of the Financial Services Roundtable, vice chair and chair-elect of the Federal Reserve’s Thrift Industry Advisory Council, and was vice chair of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle. He was elected to the American Society of Corporate Executives. He is currently the CEO of Crescent Capital.

Linda Killinger was vice chair of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines and chair of its audit/finance committee. She was also a consulting partner in an international accounting firm specializing in strategic planning and merger/acquisitions for financial institutions. She was the publisher and editor of Overseas Business magazine. Prior to that she was appointed by Governor Robert D. Ray as the director of administration for the Iowa Department of Human Services, which included the prison system, mental health hospitals, AFDC and other human service programs. She was appointed by Governor Tom Vilsack to chair his Committee for a Comprehensive Housing Strategy for Iowa. She currently is the CEO of Olympic Consulting.

In 2002, Linda and Kerry founded the Kerry and Linda Killinger Foundation which has the mission of public policy reform and social and racial justice, building community and access to the arts.

Enrique Cerna is a veteran journalist with more than four decades of experience. He has been honored with nine regional Emmy awards and numerous other journalistic honors. In March, he was appointed by Governor Jay Inslee to the Washington State University Board of Regents.

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Freedom of choice lies at the heart of American society. Every day, individuals decide what to eat, which doctors to see, who to connect with online, and where to educate their children. Yet, many Americans don’t realize that these choices are illusory at best. By the start of the 21st century, every major industrial sector in the global economy was controlled by no more than five transnational corporations, and in about a third of these sectors, a single company accounted for more than 40 percent of global sales.

So, why does this matter? Public health expert Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg believes it matters a great deal. In his book At What Cost: Modern Capitalism and the Future of Health, he confronts how globalization, financial speculation, monopolies, and control of science and technology have led to free consumer choice being all but gone, and with it, the personal protections guarding our collective health. He joined us in conversation with global food culture expert Mark Bittman to argue that the world created by 21st-century capitalism is simply not fit to solve our most serious public health problems, from climate change to opioid addiction. With an incisive investigation and impeccably detailed research, Dr. Freudenberg looked toward a better future, arming ordinary citizens with the knowledge of our current state of being—and insight for what we can do to ensure a healthier collective future.

Nicholas Freudenberg, DrPH, MPH, is Distinguished Professor of Public Health at the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, Director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, and Founder of Corporations and Health Watch, a website that monitors the impact of corporations on health. He is the author or co-author of five other books and more than 100 scientific articles. His work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Open Society Institute.

Mark Bittman has been a leading voice in global food culture and policy for more than three decades. His first cookbook was Fish: The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking, and he has since written or co-written thirty others, including the How to Cook Everything series. His writing has been seen in The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine, and he was a Today show regular, as well as appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and NPR’s All Things Considered, among others. He has hosted or been featured in four television series, including Years of Living Dangerously on Showtimeand On the Road Again with Gwyneth Paltrow.

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In 1937, the famed writer and activist Upton Sinclair published a novel bearing the subtitle A Story of Ford-America. He blasted the callousness of a company worth “a billion dollars” that underpaid its workers while forcing them to engage in repetitive and sometimes dangerous assembly line labor. Eighty-three years later, the market capitalization of Amazon. com has exceeded one trillion dollars, while the value of the Ford Motor Company hovers around thirty billion. We have, Alec MacGillis contends, entered the age of one-click America—and as the coronavirus makes Americans more dependent on online shopping, its sway will only intensify.

Award-winning journalist MacGillis has embarked upon a literary investigation of the America that he believes falls within the shadow of Amazon. His book, Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America, MacGillis told the stories of those who’ve thrived and struggled to thrive in this rapidly changing environment, and he joined us in conversation with UW history professor Margaret O’Mara to share what he’s gleaned. From our own Seattle to suburban Virginia to Baltimore and beyond, he ranged across the country gathering insight into the impact that Amazon has had. The reach has stretched to Congress as well, MacGillis explored, with lobbyists and government contractors. With empathy and breadth, he demonstrated the hidden human costs of the other inequality between the country’s “winning” and “losing” regions, inviting us to an intimate account of contemporary capitalism.

Alec MacGillis is a senior reporter for ProPublica. He worked previously at The Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, and The New Republic, and his journalism has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and other publications. He is the author of The Cynic, a 2014 biography of Mitch McConnell.

Margaret O’Mara is a professor of history at the University of Washington and a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. She is the author of several books, including The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America.

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On January 5, the run-off election in Georgia flipped the state and created opportunity for a Democrat-led Senate. On January 6, armed insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol Building, resulting in dozens of injuries and several fatalities. UW Professor Christopher Sebastian Parker believes that Donald Trump as chief executive was making matters worse. Yet despite Trump no longer being in office, there seems to be reticence to reckon with the true impact of the actions on January 6. What happened before Trump that created conditions that made us vulnerable? What will be the lasting effects of Trump’s rhetoric? And what can we discern about the future of American democracy from that Wednesday afternoon?

Parker joined us for a livestreamed panel discussion with University of Washington colleague and political scientist Lance Bennett as well as media and communications expert Kenan Block to dive deeper into an analysis of the current moment. This panel of experts drew on their knowledge of public opinion and social science to explore the possible long-lasting ramifications of the events on January 6. Looking at partisan divisions, the role of media, social justice movements, and more, they examined the pressure points in the country that were thrown into stark relief on that day—and that could impact the future of our national democracy.

Christopher Sebastian Parker, PhD., is the Stuart A. Scheingold Professor of Social Justice and Political Science in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington. He is the author of several books, including Fighting for Democracy: Black Veterans the Struggle Against White Supremacy in the Postwar South, Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America, written with Matt Barreto. His work has appeared or been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN.com, and more. He has also appeared on MSNBC, PBS, C-SPAN, and the History Channel.

Lance Bennett, PhD., is Emeritus Professor of Communication and Political Science at the University of Washington and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Journalism, Media & Democracy at UW. He is the author of 12 books, including News: The Politics of Illusion and The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics, and most recently, Communicating the Future: Solutions for Environment, Economy and Democracy. His work focuses on restoring democracy and creating economies better adapted to the environmental crisis.

After a long career in journalism, Kenan Block currently heads up Kenan Block Media and Communications, a firm that helps a variety of clients tell their stories. A fifth generation Seattleite, Block’s award-winning journalism career spanned over a dozen years in Washington, D.C. covering politics and national affairs for the PBS NewsHour and later MSNBC. He covered four presidential campaigns, the Congress, White House, and Pentagon during his career. He was part of the team that launched MSNBC, serving as the Chief Washington Producer for The News with Brian Williams. Block was a founding board member of Town Hall. He lives in Seattle and is active in civic and political affairs.

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Many believe that partisan politics has created a roadblock in efforts to reach across the aisle and forge ahead. Nationally, the chasm separating Democrats and Republicans can be felt to be vast, but what about here in Washington state? Is it possible that similar divisive politics could be holding up progress beneficial to all? If so, what are recommendations for characteristics and qualities needed in future leaders to govern more effectively?

Join Town Hall Seattle and Seattle CityClub for a virtual Civic Cocktail program with host Joni Balter and guests Tina Podlodowski, chair of the Washington State Democratic Party, and Caleb Heimlich, chair of the Washington State Republican Party. Tune in for an in-depth conversation with the guests, including audience questions.

As a 40-year-old nonpartisan, civics-focused nonprofit, Seattle CityClub provides a platform for insightful and educational conversations that include a diverse range of perspectives.

The youngest State Republican Party Chairman in the country, Caleb Heimlich has served as Chairman of the Washington State Republican Party since his election in January of 2018. He is a respected member of the Republican National Committee and was unanimously elected Vice Chairman for the Western Region, and a member of the RNC Executive Committee. Upon graduation, he worked for Americans for Prosperity in Washington DC and then for AFP in Washington State organizing grass roots activists. That led to being hired as the Political Director of the WSRP in 2011, promoted to Executive Director in 2013.

Tina Podlodowski is the daughter of two naturalized U.S. citizens who fled post-WWII Europe as refugees. As a first-generation American, “union kid,” and lifelong Democrat, Podlodowski has spent her life fighting for equity and equality and gained prominence as a visible leader in both the Democratic party nationally, and the LGBTQ community nationally and internationally. After a career as an executive at Microsoft, Podlodowski won an at-large seat on the Seattle City Council with 65% of the popular vote. Podlodowski won her first term as State Party Chair in 2017. Nationally, Podlodowski is proud to be the Western Association of State Democratic Committees Vice President (representing all of our Western States), Chair of the DNC Western States Caucus (again, representing all of our Western States), and a member of the 2021 DNC Executive Committee.

Special thanks to CityClub’s premiere partner Comcast, and media partner Seattle Channel.

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The coronavirus pandemic reignited a debate that has been raging for years: healthcare. There are few issues as consequential in the lives of Americans as healthcare. Every single American will interact with the healthcare system, and most people will find that interaction less than satisfactory. And yet for every dollar spent in our economy, 18 cents goes to healthcare, leaving many to ask: what are we paying for, exactly?

Doctors Abdul El-Sayed and Micah Johnson joined us to present a simple guide to America’s most debated policy-in-waiting. Using their book Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide as a base, they related how, although healthcare policy is notoriously complex, what Americans want is simple: good healthcare that’s easy to use and doesn’t break the bank. And two-thirds of Americans want the government to provide universal health coverage. Is Medicare for All the solution? El-Sayed and Johnson offered a serious examination of this complex subject, offering viewpoints on how Medicare for All would transform the way we give, receive, and pay for healthcare in America. Don’t miss this conversation that is perhaps more significant than ever before.

Abdul El-Sayed, MD, DPhil, is a physician, epidemiologist, public health expert, and progressive activist. He rebuilt Detroit’s Health Department after the City’s bankruptcy as the youngest big-city health commissioner in a major US city. He ran for Governor of Michigan in 2018 on a state-level single-payer platform in a bid endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, The Nation, and Current Affairs. He holds a doctorate in Public Health from University of Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a medical degree from Columbia University.

Micah Johnson, MD, is a physician and a health care researcher, writer, and policy advisor. He served as a health policy fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives and has advised presidential campaigns on health care reform. He holds a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics from the University of Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and he received his MD from Harvard Medical School. He is currently a resident physician in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

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Betsy DeVos may be the most prominent face of the seeming push to dismantle public education, but educational policy experts Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider believe she’s part of a larger movement that’s been steadily gaining power for decades. While support for public education today is stronger than ever, Berkshire and Schneider argue, the movement to save our schools remains fragmented, variable, and voluntary while those who seem set on tearing down the public school system are unified, patient, and well-resourced.

Berkshire and Schneider joined us, in conversation with historian of education Diane Ravitch, to discuss their book A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School. With remarkable insight, they explored the network of conservative elected officials, advocacy groups, funders, and think tanks that have aligned behind a radical vision to unmake public education. They described the convictions underpinning the work of the dismantlers and how it fits into the current political context, giving us an up-close look at the policies—school vouchers, the war on teachers’ unions, tax credit scholarships, virtual schools, and more—that support the intentions of this network. Finally they looked forward, surveying the potential impact on public education if this network is successful. Sounding an alarm, they presented a call for public reckoning on behalf of the millions of families served by the American educational system—and many more who stand to suffer from its unmaking.

Jennifer Berkshire is a freelance journalist and a host of the education podcast “Have You Heard.” Her writing on the politics of education has appeared in the Nation, Salon, the Baffler, the Progressive, and the New Republic.

Jack Schneider is the author of three books and an award-winning education historian. He is a host of the education podcast “Have You Heard” and an assistant professor at UMass Lowell. He co-founded the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment, a partnership of eight MA public school districts and their local teacher unions. He is a regular contributor to the Atlantic and the Washington Post.

Diane Ravitch is a Research Professor of Education at New York University and a historian of education. She served as the Assistant Secretary of Education during the Bush I administration. She is the Founder and President of the Network for Public Education (NPE). She is the author of 13 books, the editor of 14 others, and has written over 500 articles and reviews for scholarly and popular publications.

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How can educators help destroy entrenched inequalities and enact the values of Black Lives Matter in their classrooms, schools, and communities?

Jesse Hagopian and Denisha Jones, both educators and members of the Black Lives Matter at School movement, joined us to discuss this question. They believe that the United States is in the midst of an urgent moral and legal crisis over the safety, liberty, and well-being of Black young people. In an edited collection, Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice, they have gathered essential essays, interviews, poems, resolutions, and more from educators, students, and activists who have been building the Black Lives Matter Movement across the country. Hagopian and Jones layed bare the institutional racism inherent in our educational system, and present a critical call to radically reshape learning environments to make them safe, supportive, and transformative for all students.

Jesse Hagopian is a member of the Black Lives Matter at School steering committee and teaches Ethnic Studies at Seattle’s Garfield High School. Hagopian is an editor for Rethinking Schools magazine, the co-editor of the book Teaching for Black Lives, and the editor of the book More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing. Hagopian serves as the Director of the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award.

Denisha Jones is a member of the national Black Lives Matter at School steering committee and Director of the Art of Teaching, graduate teacher education program, at Sarah Lawrence College. Denisha is an education justice advocate and activist. She serves as Co-Director for Defending the Early Years, Inc, and is the Assistant Executive Director for the Badass Teachers Association. Currently, her research focuses on utilizing the BLM at School curriculum as cultural citizenship and documenting the value of play as a tool for liberation with an emphasis on global approaches to play.

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“Over the last three years in cities and on reserves and reservations across the continent, I have listened to Native people’s stories of loss, injustice and resilience. They are stories that echo Chief Peguis’ story. In myriad ways, each narrator’s life had been shaped by that same struggle: how to share space with a settler nation whose essential aim is to take all that is ours.” These are words from an article oral historian Sara Sinclair wrote for Salon last year, speaking about her mission to hear and share contemporary Indigenous stories.

This mission led to the creation of her edited collection How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America. It gathered inclusive and diverse narratives from Indigenous voices, with a common thread: all of their lives have been shaped by loss, injustice, and resilience. Sinclair was joined in this virtual conversation by two of the narrators from How We Go Home, to discuss their own stories and experiences. Join them for this impactful and essential conversation about the cruel, ongoing dispossession of Indigenous people in North America—and their astounding spiritual wealth and fortitude.

Sara Sinclair is an oral historian, writer, and educator of Cree-Ojibwe and settler descent. She is the editor of How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America. Sinclair teaches in the Oral History Masters Program at Columbia University. She has contributed to the Columbia Center for Oral History Research’s Covid-19 Oral History, Narrative, and Memory Archive; Obama Presidency Oral History; and Robert Rauschenberg Oral History Project She has conducted oral histories for the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City Department of Environmental Protection, and the International Labor Organization, among others. She is co-editor of Robert Rauschenberg: An Oral History.

Althea Guiboche (Métis/Ojibwe/Salteaux) is a narrator in the oral history book, How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America. After experiencing homelessness with her own young children, Althea became a community advocate for Winnipeg’s most vulnerable populations. She started the organization Got Bannock?, which serves meals to hundreds of people, in response to the constant need she saw around her. Althea helped to develop a definition of Indigenous homelessness in Canada that considers the structural issues contributing to the disproportionate number of Indigenous people among Canada’s homeless communities.

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Women make up fewer than ten percent of national leaders worldwide, and behind this eye-opening statistic lies a pattern of unequal access to power. Julie Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, both political leaders in their own countries, set about exploring this gender bias in their book Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons.

Gillard and Okonjo-Iweala joined us to discuss the conversations they had with internationally recognized women leaders, including Jacinda Ardern, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Christine Lagarde, Michelle Bachelet, and Teresa May. From their unique positions as fellow political leaders, Gillard and Okonjo-Iweala were able to have candid conversations with some of the most influential women in the world. They relayed stories from their many interviewees, speaking honestly and freely, of having their ideas stolen by male colleagues, what it’s like to be called fat or a slut in the media, and what things they wish they had done differently. With incisive analysis backed by current research, they examined how gender and sexism affect perceptions of women as leaders. Providing rare insight, they asked us to consider why there aren’t more women in leadership—and present a powerful call to arms for women everywhere.

Julia Gillard was the 27th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 2010 to 2013.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was Nigeria’s Minister of Finance from 2003 to 2006 and from 2011 to 2015, and Foreign Minister in 2006. She was Managing Director of the World Bank from 2007 to 2011, overseeing South Asia, Europe, Central Asia, and Africa, and is currently Board Chair of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and Chair of the African Risk Capacity (ARC). She is the author of Reforming the Unreformable and Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous.

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What’s ahead for Republicans, Democracts, and Independents when it comes to civics in our country and communities? How can we work together when parties are often divided themselves? This February Civic Cocktail is the first of an intended multi-part, multi-party series.

Join CityClub as they explore a few—certainly not all—of the varying viewpoints within the Republican Party with a discussion between the Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson and local Republican leader Bill Bryant, moderated by journalist Joni Balter. With the national election over, they explored some of the next steps for the Republican Party. After the departure of a one-term president who commanded a deeply loyal following among a large number, as well as challenged a number of others, the party is left without a clear, national standard bearer. Will the Republicans maintain a cohesive theme to unite the disparate perspectives within their ranks nationally? What is the local impact and future of the Party here in Washington? Join CityClub for this conversation to get some insight.

Rick Wilson is a Republican political strategist, negative ad-maker, writer, speaker, and political commentator. He is a founding member of the Never Trump movement, and a co-founder of the Lincoln Project. Wilson is the author of Everything Trump Touches Dies and Running Against the Devil. His work has been seen in The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, Politico, Rolling Stone, and more, as well as on CNN, MSNBC, and NPR.

Bill Bryant is the founder and chairman of Bryant Christie Inc. Under President Reagan, he was appointed as a trade policy coordinator at the Department of Commerce International Trade Commission. He organized the presidential campaign for Vice President Bush in Washington, and was co-chair for the Dole for President finance committee in Washington. In 2005, he served as the Washington State GOP finance chair, and in 2007 he was elected to King County Port Commission—the only Republican elected King County-wide—and re-elected in 2011.

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The United States was born in a struggle against the oligarchs of the British aristocracy, and ever since then the history of America has been one of dynamic tension between democracy and oligarchy, asserts author Thom Hartmann. And much like the shock of the 1929 crash woke America up to glaring inequality and the ongoing theft of democracy by that generation’s oligarchs, Hartmann believes that the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has laid bare how extensively oligarchs have looted our nation’s economic system, gutted governmental institutions, and stolen the wealth of the former middle class.

Pulling from his book The Hidden History of American Oligarchy: Reclaiming Our Democracy from the Ruling Class, Hartmann joined us to trace the history of this struggle, from America’s founding to the United States’ war with the feudal Confederacy to President Franklin Roosevelt’s struggle against “economic royalists,” who wanted to block the New Deal. While the oligarchs lost the battle in all of those cases, Hartmann argued that increasing right-wing control of the media, unlimited campaign contributions, and a conservative takeover of the judicial system means we’re now at a crisis point. Hartmann layed out practical measures we can take that he contends will break up media monopolies, limit the influence of money in politics, reclaim the wealth stolen over decades by the oligarchy, and build a movement that will return control of America to “We the People.”

Thom Hartmann is a progressive nationally and internationally syndicated talk show host. Talkers Magazine named him America’s most important progressive host and has named his show one of the top ten talk radio shows in the country every year for over a decade. A four-time recipient of the Project Censored Award, Hartmann is also a New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty-five books, translated into multiple languages.

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You’re told that if you “do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Whether it’s working for “exposure” and “experience,” or enduring poor treatment in the name of “being part of the family,” all employees are pushed to make sacrifices for the privilege of being able to do what we love. But Sarah Jaffe, a preeminent voice on labor, inequality, and social movements tells us that work won’t love us back, and advocates for the liberating power of recognizing that.

In conversation with professor Kathi Weeks, and with support from her book Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone, she examined the “labor of love” myth–the idea that some work is not really work, and should be done out of passion rather than pay. In a deeply-reported examination of this culture, told through the lives and experiences of workers in various industries, Jaffe revealed her belief that we have all been tricked into buying into a new tyranny of work. From the unpaid intern, to the overworked teacher, to the nonprofit worker, and even the professional athlete, she made the case that the labor of love myth is a recipe for exploitation. In a conversation that is more imperative than ever as the lines between home and work blur to an indistinguishable degree, she asserted that understanding this dynamic will empower us to work less and to demand what our work is worth. And once freed from those binds, we can find out what actually gives us joy, pleasure, and satisfaction.

Sarah Jaffe is a Type Media Center fellow and an independent journalist covering labor, economic justice, social movements, politics, gender, and pop culture. She is the author of Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Nation, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and many others. She is the co-host, with Michelle Chen, of Dissent magazine’s Belabored podcast, as well as a columnist at the New Republic and New Labor Forum.

Kathi Weeks is Associate Professor of Women’s Studies at Duke University. She is the author of The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries and Constituting Feminist Subjects, and a co-editor of The Jameson Reader.

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Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Red May.

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How did the US and Iran lapse from a once-friendly relationship to that of hostile enemies?

Historian John Ghazvinian joined us to discuss the answer, the two-centuries-long entwined histories of Iran and America. With support from his book America and Iran: A History, 1720 to Present, he shared years of archival research to lead us through the four seasons of US-Iran relations: the “spring” of mutual fascination; the “summer” of early interactions; the “autumn” of close strategic ties; and the long, dark “winter” of mutual hatred. He traced the complex story of the relations back to the Persian Empire—the subject of great admiration of Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams—and an America seen by Iranians as an ideal to emulate for their own government. He elucidated where, how, and when it all went wrong—and showed how it didn’t have to turn out this way.

John Ghazvinian is a journalist and historian. His writing has appeared in Newsweek, the Sunday Times, The New Statesman, Slate, and The Nation. He is the Executive Director of the Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He was born in Iran and raised in London and Los Angeles.

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Even before a national pandemic that sent the country into a crisis, almost 40% of Americans wouldn’t be able to cover a $400 emergency. Nearly a third of Americans have medical debt, and over half have defaulted on it. Student loan debt has surpassed $1.6 trillion, and the average college graduate has $32,000 in student loans, going up every year. The Debt Collective argues that access to debt has masked stagnating wages and deepening inequality, and they join us with a call to action.

Documentarian Astra Taylor wrote the foreword for a new book written by the Debt Collective, Can’t Pay Won’t Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition, and she joined us with New York Times writer E. Tammy Kim to discuss this informative and inspiring manifesto. With debt cancellation emerging as a key area of debate for the future and a catalyst of youth radicalization, Taylor considered the economic benefits of economic disobedience. Taylor and Kim highlighted critical historical precedents and clearly connect student debt to those debts tied to healthcare, fraudulent mortgages, payday loans, and incarceration. They presented an alternative to debt forgiveness—debt abolition—and urge us to recognize that together our debts make us powerful and that “you are not a loan.”

Astra Taylor is a documentary filmmaker, writer, and political organizer. She is the director, most recently, of What Is Democracy? and the author of Democracy May Not Exist, But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone and the American Book Award-winning The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age. She is co-founder of the Debt Collective, a union for debtors, and contributed the foreword to the group’s new book.

E. Tammy Kim writes for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, and The New Yorker. She is a former attorney.

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Today over half a million immigrants are caged each year, some serving indefinite terms in what history professor Elliott Young argues is the world’s most extensive immigrant detention system. These men, women, and children remain almost completely without rights, unprotected by law and the Constitution, and their status as outsiders, even though many have lived and worked in this country for years, has left them vulnerable to the most extreme forms of state power.

Young offered a broad history of immigrant detention in the United States, focusing on five stories across American history, drawn from his book Forever Prisoners: How the United States Made the World’s Largest Immigrant Detention System. Joined by Mayra Machado, the subject of one of the chapters, to share her own experience as an undocumented migrant who has since been deported, Young interrogated how foreigners have been caged not just for immigration violations, but also held in state and federal prisons for criminal offenses, in insane asylums for mental illness, as enemy aliens in INS facilities, and in refugee camps. He considered this return to past carceral practices and focuses on the sites of limbo where America’s immigrant population have been and continue to be held. Don’t miss this necessary discussion about immigration and the past and future of American immigration detention.

Elliott Young is Professor in the History Department at Lewis and Clark College. He is the author of Alien Nation: Chinese Migration in the Americas from the Coolie Era through WWII and Catarino Garza’s Revolution on the Texas-Mexico Border, and co-editor of Continental Crossroads: Remapping US-Mexico Borderlands History. He is co-founder of the Tepoztlán Institute for Transnational History of the Americas. He has also provided expert testimony for over 200 asylum cases and has written for the Huffington Post, the Oregonian, and the Utne Reader.

Mayra Machado is a mother of three children. She currently lives and works for a non-profit in San Salvador, El Salvador.

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Watch this program: https://youtu.be/171pbDjddPA

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The night of May 25, 2020 changed America. George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis when a white cop suffocated him. The video of that night’s events went viral, sparking the largest protests in the nation’s history and the sort of social unrest we have not seen since the sixties. While Floyd’s death was certainly the catalyst, many believe it was the fuse that lit a powder keg that has been filling since America’s promising but perilous beginning.

Now, public intellectual Michael Eric Dyson joined us in conversation with academic and author Robin DiAngelo with a necessary discussion that grapples with the cultural and social forces that have shaped our nation in the brutal crucible of race. Drawing on his book Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America, Dyson examined the cultural imperatives of Black death, the plague of police brutality, the white theft of Black bodies and opportunities, and the craving for white comfort that has too often cost Black people their lives. He traced the genealogy of anti-Blackness from the slave ship to the street corner where Floyd lost his life—and where America gained its will to confront the ugly truth of systemic racism. With an urgent guide to help America finally reckon with race, Dyson presents a poignant plea for hope, and points the way to social redemption.

Michael Eric Dyson is one of America’s premier public intellectuals and the author of seven New York Times bestsellers. He is a Distinguished University Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies and of Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University, where he is also Centennial Professor. A contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, Dr. Dyson is a recipient of two NAACP Image Awards, and the 2020 Langston Hughes Festival Medallion.

Robin DiAngelo is an academic, lecturer, and author, and has been a consultant and trainer on issues of racial and social justice for more than twenty years. She formerly served as a tenured professor of multicultural education at Westfield State University. She is the author of the bestselling book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.

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In 1990, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Les Payne embarked on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become over a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction. Following Payne’s unexpected death in 2018, his daughter Tamara Payne heroically completed the biography.

Presented by the Northwest African American Museum and Town Hall Seattle, the Payne family joined us to share from the final biography, The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews—with all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world—she traced his life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965. Payne explored how her father corrects the historical record and delivers extraordinary revelations with a biographer’s unwavering determination. She discussed the intensive research process, and introduces a penetrating and riveting biography that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle. In a moment of renewed vigor for the struggle in Black freedom, this presentation is essential viewing.

Tamara Payne is Les Payne’s daughter and served as his principal researcher.

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Presented by Town Hall Seattle and the Northwest African American Museum.

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It feels like every day there’s something new to be outraged about, or a new piece of information about something that is already outrageous. But how can those feelings of outrage be used productively to create real change? Global social innovation leader Steve Davis believes he has the answer.

In order to provide guidance on harnessing our outrage, Davis joined us in conversation with author and global health advocate Chelsea Clinton to discuss the ideas shared in his book Undercurrents: Channeling Outrage to Spark Practical Activism. He identified five global undercurrents with outsized importance that are shaping our world: our global economies are structurally changing, the role of communities in social change is morphing, equity is reshaping activism, the impact of digital disruption is more extensive, and the perception of social change as attractive is emerging. With unique insight, he shared stories, experiences, data, and observations from across the globe. Davis invited us to a conversation that is perfect for activists and the intellectually curious alike who are interested in increasing their understanding of the changing world around them—and in instigating and encouraging that change.

Steve Davis is a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is a senior strategic advisor and interim director, China Country Office, for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He serves as co-chair of the World Health Organization’s Digital Health Technical Advisory Group and is a member of numerous boards and advisory committees. He is the former president and CEO of PATH, a leading global health innovation organization; former Director of Social Innovation at McKinsey & Company; and former CEO of Corbis.

Chelsea Clinton is the vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, where she works alongside Foundation leadership and partners to help create economic opportunity, improve public health, and inspire civic engagement and service across the United States and around the world. She also teaches at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and has written several books for young readers, including She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World.

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Segregation in America—the incessant kind that continues to dog our major cities and has contributed to so much recent social strife—is the byproduct of explicit government policies at the local, state, and federal levels, researcher Richard Rothstein argues. He believes this is especially true for the racial segregation in our neighborhoods.

In this presentation with the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County, Rothstein joined us to share findings from his book The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. With an eye to how the structural conditions established by 20th century federal policy endure to this day, Rothstein explored the legacy of discriminatory practices.

Following his talk, Rothstein joined a panel of local experts to discuss how both the history of colonization and the history of redlining manifest in Seattle’s housing crisis, as well as considering both current and proposed housing policies. Moderated by Seattle Foundation’s Michael Brown, the panel features Colleen Echohawk of Chief Seattle Club, Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, and Councilmember Claudia Balducci. Don’t miss this essential and timely conversation about how the history of neighborhood segregation impacts Seattle today.

Richard Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute and a Fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He lives in California, where he is a Fellow of the Haas Institute at the University of California-Berkeley.

Colleen Echohawk is the Executive Director of the Chief Seattle Club, a nonprofit dedicated to the needs of Native American and Alaska Native people who are experiencing homelessness in Seattle. She is an enrolled member of the Kithehaki Band of the Pawnee Nation and a member of the Upper Athabascan people of Mentasta Lake. She also founded the Coalition to End Urban Native Homelessness.

Teresa Mosqueda is Budget Chair of the Seattle city council, elected in 2017. Her top priority on City Council is promoting healthy communities, lifting up working families, and creating more affordable housing for all residents through the city. She chairs the Housing & Finance Committee, and is a member of the National League of Cities.

Claudia Balducci is Chair of the King County Council. She is a leader in transportation and affordable housing, and a strong advocate for education and the arts. She serves as chair of the Sound Transit Board’s System Expansion Committee, vice president of the Puget Sound Regional Council, and chair of the County’s Affordable Housing Committee.

Michael Brown is the Chief Architect of Civic Commons at the Seattle Foundation, a regional civic infrastructure aimed at uniting more community voices in decision-making to advance racial and economic equity. He has led efforts to tackle complex challenges in the areas of affordable housing, economic and racial equity, policy, and advocacy.

This event is part of Affordable Housing Week, and is supported by West Coast Poverty Center, Seattle for Everyone, Pacifica Law Group, and Whatcom Housing Alliance.

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Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County.

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College campuses in the mid-twentieth century are an oft-forgotten battle ground in the fight for (and against) civil rights. Professor Dr. Eddie Cole believes the role of campus activism in the fight for social equality has been overlooked. In conversation with writer and historian Shaun Scott, Cole joined us with findings from his meticulously researched new book The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Freedom.

Focusing on the period between 1948 and 1968, he explored how college presidents, during a time of violence and unrest, initiated and shaped racial policies and practices inside and out of the educational sphere. He argued that the most pressing civil rights issues—desegregation, equal employment opportunity, fair housing, free speech—were closely intertwined with higher education institutions. With an eye for nuance, Cole examined how colleges, and their leadership, positioned themselves amid conflicting interests and demands, with courage and hope as well as malice and cruelty.

Do not miss this vital conversation that illuminates the legacy of academic leaders’ actions—and how that legacy continues to influence the unfinished struggle for Black freedom and racial equity today.

Eddie R. Cole, Ph.D., is an associate professor of higher education and organizational change at UCLA. His scholarship and public writing has also been featured in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Chronicle of Higher Education. He has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and recognitions, including research fellowships and grants from Princeton University and the University of Chicago, and has been a Dean’s Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Shaun Scott is a Seattle-based writer and historian. A former Pramila Jayapal staffer, 2019 Seattle City Council candidate, and Bernie Sanders 2020 Washington State Field Director. His essays about popular culture and late capitalism have appeared in Sports Illustrated, The Guardian, and Jacobin Magazine. He is the author of the paperback Millennials and the Moments that Made Us: A Cultural History of the US from 1982-Present.

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Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Wing Luke Museum. To become a Town Hall member or make a donation click here.

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For more than five decades, Ron Chew has fought for Asian American and social justice causes in Seattle. He joined us for this livestreamed presentation to share stories from his deeply personal memoir My Unforgotten Seattle.

In conversation with journalist Naomi Ishisaka, Chew documented the tight-knit community he remembers, describing small family shops, chop suey restaurants, and sewing factories now vanished. He untangled the mystery of his extended family’s journey to America during the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act. With deeply intimate profiles of his parents and leaders like Bob Santos, Ruth Woo, Al Sugiyama, Roberto Maestas, and Kip Tokuda, he highlighted Seattle’s unsung champions in the fight for racial inclusion, political empowerment, Asian American arts, and revitalization of the Chinatown-International District—including reflections from his campaign to find the Wing Luke Museum a permanent home. Join us to deepen your understanding of local history and the legacy of the Asian American community in our city.

Ron Chew is a Seattle-based historian, journalist, and museum visionary. His books include Reflections of Seattle’s Chinese Americans: The First 100 Years and Remembering Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes: The Legacy of Filipino American Labor Activism. He served as editor of the International Examiner and as executive director of the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience.

Naomi Ishisaka is the Social Justice columnist for The Seattle Times. She is a journalist and photographer who focuses on racial equity and social justice. Through writing and photography, Ishisaka documents social justice movements, issues and events. Her writing and photography have appeared in The Seattle Times, Seattle Magazine, CityArts, South Seattle Emerald, and many other publications.

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Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Wing Luke Museum. To become a Town Hall member or make a donation click here.

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From funding, to vouchers, to charter schools, public education policy has become a political football. Many feel that we are in the midst of a full-scale attack on our nation’s commitment to public education. And constitutional law scholar Derek W. Black contends that this assault threatens not just public education, but democracy itself.

In this livestreamed presentation, Black shared from his book Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy. He offered an illuminating history of our nation’s establishment of a constitutional right to education, and a trenchant analysis of how that right is being undermined today. He looked at education history with a wide view, examining both periods when our democracy has been strengthened (when the commitment to public education has been strongest), and weakened (when such a commitment has been lacking). He asked us to consider what is truly at stake when we move away from public education—and submits that it is not just the right to public education, but an erosion of democratic norms.

Derek W. Black is a professor at the University of South Carolina Law School where he teaches constitutional law, civil rights, and education law. He is a well-known and outspoken advocate of the importance of public education, and his work has been published in both professional legal journals as well as the mainstream media. You can follow him on Twitter @DerekWBlack.

Katherine Dunn is a Regional Policy Analyst for Children’s Rights at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Previously, she served as a General Attorney at the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in Atlanta. Prior to that, she was a Program Director at the Southern Education Foundation, where her work focused on research, advocacy, and organizing to promote equity in public education across the American South.

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Hugo Black, Glen Taylor, George McGovern, Robert F. Kennedy, Herbert Lehman, Theodore Francis Green, Al Gore, William Proxmire, Sherrod Brown. Did you know the common thread is a desk?

Current desk occupant and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown joined us to share stories of those who preceded him. Utilizing anecdotes and history from his book Desk 88: Eight Progressive Senators Who Changed America, he presented eight portraits of political courage that tell the triumphs and failures of the Progressive idea over the past century. He argued that despite their flaws and frequent setbacks, each made a decisive contribution to the creation of a more just America. With recollections from his own career, Brown asserted that the Progressive idea is not dead—that we can renew the social contract and create a new era in which Americans of all backgrounds can thrive.

Sherrod Brown is Ohio’s senior US senator. He has dedicated his life in public service to fighting for what he calls “the dignity of work”—the belief that hard work should pay off for everyone. He has been a strong advocate for health care reform measures and is a leading advocate of education. You can follow the Senator on Twitter and Facebook.

Dow Constantine is serving his third term as King County Executive. A former member of the King County Council and the Washington State Senate and House of Representatives, and a three-time graduate of the University of Washington, Dow is focused on meeting two of our greatest generational challenges: building equity and opportunity, and confronting climate change.

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What does it mean to be an American? Author Laila Lalami joinsed us to discuss this question in conversation with fellow author Viet Thanh Nguyen. Drawing from her book Conditional Citizen, she recounted her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to US citizen, using it as a starting point for her exploration of the rights, liberties, and protections that are traditionally associated with American citizenship. Tapping into history, politics, and literature, she interrogated how white supremacy survives through adaptation and legislation, keeping the modern equivalent of white male landowners at the top of the social hierarchy. With deeply personal stories, Lalami invites us to explore the place of nonwhites in the broader American culture.

Laila Lalami was born in Rabat and educated in Morocco, Great Britain, and the United States. She is the author of four award-winning novels: Secret Son, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, The Other Americans, and The Moor’s Account. Her essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Harper’s, The Guardian, and The New York Times. Lalami is a professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside. You can follow her on Twitter @LailaLalami.

Viet Thanh Nguyen is a writer, whose novel The Sympathizer won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He has written and edited a number of other works, and is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. He is an English professor at the University of Southern California. You can follow him on Twitter @viet_t_nguyen.

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Is America fated to decline as a great power? Can it recover?

Foreign policy expert Andrew Imbrie joined us in conversation with former White House communications director Jen Psaki to weigh in on exactly these questions. With absorbing insight from his book Power on the Precipice: The Six Choices America Faces in a Turbulent World, Andrew introduced an essential guide to renewing American leadership. Though it may seem as though the United States is either destined for continued dominance or doomed to irreversible decline, Imbrie argued that instead the US must adapt to changing global dynamics and compete more wisely. Join Imbrie as he provides a road map for bolstering American leadership in an era of turbulence abroad and deepening polarization at home.

Andrew Imbrie is a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. He served as a speechwriter and advisor to Secretary of State John Kerry and as a professional staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Jen Psaki is the Vice President for Communications and Strategy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a CNN political commentator. She was formerly the White House Communications Director and State department spokesperson.

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History often appears to consist of big gestures and dramatic shifts. But for every peace treaty signed, someone set the stage, using diplomacy to effect the outcome. Nobody knows this better than Capricia Marshall.

Ambassador Marshall joined us to share unvarnished anecdotes from her time as the chief of protocol for President Obama. Pulling from her book Protocol: The Power of Diplomacy and How to Make It Work for You, she told the story of harrowing near misses, exhilarating triumphs, and heartwarming personal stories that unveil the complexity of human interactions. Her time working at the highest levels of government taught her that there is power in detail and nuance—the micro moves that affect the macro shifts. Join Marshall as she makes the case that etiquette, cultural IQ, and a flexible mindset matter now more than ever, and relays how we can be empowered by the tools of diplomacy in work and everyday life.

Capricia Marshall served as White House social secretary in the Clinton administration and as United States chief of protocol in the Obama administration. In her posts, she enhanced traditional protocol methods with new tools to build relationships between dignitaries and industry leaders worldwide. She is president of Global Engagement Strategies, LLC, which advises global organizations and companies on issues relating to the nexus of business and cultural diplomacy. As a first-generation American, she has brought an understanding of the importance of culture to her posts and consultations. Marshall is an Ambassador-in-Residence at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, and a partner in Pine Island Capitol Partners.

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World Without Hate seeks to replace hate and violence with empathy and love, restoring peace through storytelling and empathy education. They called together a panel of speakers from different storytelling backgrounds exploring the ways that empathy and stories help us connect with others. Through the transformative power of compassion, World Without Hate invited us to renew feelings of hope and empowerment in the face of divisive rhetoric and rising hate crimes across our nation. Come together to explore the possibility of a world without hate, and reflect on the important tools that we all can utilize to build bridges and make connections.

Rais Bhuiyan is the Founder and President of World Without Hate, an international motivational speaker, and a human rights advocate. Ten days after 9/11, a white supremacist in Dallas shot Rais from point blank range. And ten years after the shooting, Rais was able to respond to his hate and violence with forgiveness, empathy, and love. He led what became an international campaign to try and save his attacker from death row.

Mark Wright is an award-winning anchor for KING 5, the NBC affiliate for Seattle. He is a four-time Emmy winner for his work as a documentary producer, anchor, and reporter. A native Washingtonian, Mark is a dedicated servant leader including as Rotary Club of Seattle President in 2017/18 and as a current board member of World Without Hate.

Deeyah Khan is a two-time Emmy Award-winning and twice BAFTA-nominated documentary film director. For her most recent film, White Right: Meeting the Enemy, Khan travelled to the United States to film with neo-Nazis, including attending the now-infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. She is also the founder of Fuuse, a media and arts company that puts women, people from minorities, and third-culture kids at the heart of telling their own stories.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and World Without Hate.

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Many in America do not feel safe in spaces that used to be seen as refuges: our churches and schools, our movie theaters and dance clubs, our workplaces and neighborhoods. But this feeling begs the question: Is America destined to always be a violent nation?

Pulling from his carefully researched and deeply emotional book The Violence Inside Us: A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy, Senator Chris Murphy joined us via livestream to attempt to answer this question. Telling the story of his profound personal transformation in the wake of the mass murder at Newtown, he advocated that in order to confront the problem, we must first understand it. Dissecting our country’s violence-filled history and the role of our unique fascination with firearms, he came to the conclusion that while America’s relationship to violence is singular, we are not inescapably violent. Join Murphy as he takes on the familiar arguments, addresses the usual talking points, and charts the way to a fresh, less polarized conversation about violence and the weapons that enable it—a conversation he urges we need in order to transform the national dialogue and save lives.

Chris Murphy is the junior Senator from Connecticut, elected in 2012 as the youngest member of the US Senate. Since the Newtown school shooting in December 2012, he has also become the best-known leader in Congress in confronting the plague of gun violence in America. He has also been a strong voice fighting for job creation, affordable health care, education, and a forward-looking foreign policy.

Eric Liu is an author and the co-founder and CEO of Citizen University. He has served as a board member of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Washington State Board of Education, and the Seattle Public Library and is a co-founder of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility. A regular contributor to the Atlantic, Eric can be found on Twitter @ericpliu

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Presented by Town Hall Seattle, Seattle U College of Arts and Sciences, and Elliott Bay Book Company

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One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent—but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture.

Just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong joined us via livestream in conversation with editor Elsa Sjunneson. Wong shared from her recent book, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, a curated anthology of contemporary essays from other prominent disability writers and activists. She gave us a glimpse into the rich complexity of the disability experience, and highlights the passions, talents, and everyday lives of the disability community. Wong invited us to question our own understandings, and look to the future of disability visibility with hope and love.

Alice Wong is a disability activist, media maker, and consultant. She is the Founder and Director of the Disability Visibility Project, which aims to amplify media created by people with disabilities, and she has been one of the leading partners in the #CripTheVote campaign. She is also a co-partner on the DisabledWriters.com, #CripLit, and Access Is Love projects. She has been published in the New York Times, Vox, Bitch Media, Teen Vogue, and others.

Hugo and Aurora award-winning editor Elsa Sjunneson is a deafblind hurricane in a vintage dress. Her nonfiction editorial work has appeared in Uncanny Magazine and Fireside Magazine. As an author, her work has appeared in CNN Opinion, Tor.com, The Boston Globe, and numerous other venues. In addition to editorial and authorial pursuits, she educates authors on writing disability respectfully.

Visit our YouTube page to view ASL and closed captioning.

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American monopolies dominate, control, and consume most of the energy of our entire economic system–but we’ve broken the hold of behemoths like these before, author Thom Hartmann says, and we can do it again.

In this livestreamed presentation, Hartmann shared how he believes monopolies threaten our systems and economy, and the damage that they have done to so many industries and individuals, pulling from his new book The Hidden History of Monopolies: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream. He explored America’s long history of trust busting, taking us from the birth of the nation as a revolt against monopoly, to the largely successful efforts of both Presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt and other like-minded leaders to restrain corporations’ monopolistic urges, to the massive changes in the rules of business starting during the Reagan years. Join Hartmann as he explores the current challenges we face, and what common sense measures we might engage in to retake control from monopolists.

Thom Hartmann is a progressive nationally and internationally syndicated talk show host and bestselling author of 24 books, including The Hidden History of the War on Voting and The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment, which he has previously discussed at Town Hall. Before his radio program, Hartmann was an entrepreneur and humanitarian for nearly three decades.

Buy the Book: https://www.elliottbaybook.com/book/9781523087730

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To make a donation or become a member click on this link or text TOWN HALL to 44321.

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Online trolls and fascist chat groups. Controversies over campus lectures. Cancel culture versus censorship. The daily hazards and debates surrounding free speech dominate headlines and fuel social media storms. In our highly digitized society, free speech is often invoked as a concept but rarely understood. Suzanne Nossel, a leading voice in support of free expression, joins us to deliver a user’s guide for free speech.

In a livestreamed conversation with writer Dinaw Mengestu, Nossel drew on arguments, examples, and advice from her book Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All to introduce tools for speaking one’s mind without curbing free expression. She argued that the drive to create a more inclusive society need not compromise robust protections for free speech. Centered on practical principles, she provides guidance on enacting these values within universities, on social media, and in daily life. Join Nossel as she introduces an urgent primer on speaking your mind in a fast-changing landscape.

Suzanne Nossel is the CEO of PEN America, the leading human rights and free expression organization. She is a leading voice on free expression issues in the United States and globally. She held senior State Department positions in the Clinton and Obama administrations, and her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and more.

Dinaw Mengestu is an Ethiopian-American author of three novels. His journalism and fiction have appeared in numerous publications, including Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, and more. He is a recipient of a 2012 MacArthur Foundation genius grant.

Buy the Book: https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9780062966032

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To make a donation online click here or text TOWN HALL to 44321.

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Observing its bustling stations today, it is difficult to picture Seattle and surrounding cities without Sound Transit—let alone imagine the agency teetering near collapse. But, as Bob Wodnik and Joni Earl recall, in 1996 the fledgling light rail program’s extended timetable and inflated budget led to a torrent of angry taxpayers and public ridicule. Wodnik and Earl took us back to this fraught era of Seattle public transit, drawing from Wodnik’s book Back on Track: Sound Transit’s Fight to Save Light Rail.

Together they recounted Earl’s efforts as Sound Transit’s newly appointed CEO in 2000—how she rallied remaining team members, secured a crucial $500 million federal grant, publicly confronted critics, and presented a realistic revised budget. Earl delved into the process of navigating lawsuits, expectations of outlying communities, and the complex and at times excessive demands of impacted locations. Listen in for the story of Earl’s struggle to build Sound Transit’s train and bus system into the thriving public resource we enjoy today.

Bob Wodnik served as Sound Transit’s senior communications specialist from 1999 to 2017. He has been a reporter and columnist for the Everett Herald and a reporter for the Aberdeen Daily World. He is the author of Captured Honor: POW Survival in the Philippines and Japan.

Joni Earl joined Sound Transit in 2000 and served 15 years as CEO. Earl’s leadership transformed Sound Transit from a struggling, startup agency to a nationally recognized leader in public transit.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Forum on February 26, 2020.

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Broad and principled opposition to Donald Trump’s presidency has drawn millions of previously disengaged citizens to the public square and to the ballot boxes. Journalist E.J. Dionne stepped up to Town Hall’s stage to comment on this inspired and growing activism for social and political change—an outpouring of engagement which hasn’t been seen since the days of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies and the Progressive and Civil Rights movements. He draws from his book Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country to call for a shared commitment to decency and a politics focused on freedom, fairness, and the future.

In conversation with KUOW’s Ross Reynolds, Dionne cautioned that if progressives and moderates are unable or unwilling to overcome their differences, they could not only enable Trump to prevail again but also squander an occasion for launching a new era of reform. Offering a unifying model for furthering progress, Dionne encouraged progressives and moderates to explore common ground and expand the unity that brought about Democrat victories in the 2018 elections. Breaking through the partisan noise and cutting against conventional wisdom to provide a realistic look at political possibilities, Dionne offered us a strategy for progressives and moderates to think more clearly and accept the responsibilities that history now imposes on them.

E.J. Dionne writes about politics in a twice-weekly column for The Washington Post. He is also a government professor at Georgetown University, a visiting professor at Harvard University, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and a frequent commentator on politics for NPR and MSNBC.

Ross Reynolds is the Executive Producer of Community Engagement at KUOW. He creates community conversations such as the Ask A events, and occasionally produces arts and news features.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Great Hall on February 26, 2020.

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Spacious and affordable homes used to be the hallmark of American prosperity. But according to journalist Conor Dougherty, punishing rents and the increasingly prohibitive cost of ownership have turned housing into the foremost symbol of inequality and an economy gone wrong. Dougherty lead us on a fact-finding expedition to the West Coast epicenter of America’s housing crisis with perspectives from his book Golden Gates: Fighting For Housing In America. He was joined in conversation with Alan Durning, founder of Sightline Institute.

Evoking the adage that California is a glimpse of our nation’s future, Dougherty and Durning tell a cautionary tale of the San Francisco Bay Area, where fleets of private buses ferry software engineers past a sea of tarp-and-plywood shanties. Dougherty outlined decades of history and economic forces that brought us to this pivotal moment, and introduced us to the activist uprisings that have risen in tandem with housing costs. He told the stories of a struggling math teacher who builds a political movement dedicated to ending single-family-house neighborhoods, a teenage girl who leads her apartment complex against their rent-raising landlord, a nun who tries to outmaneuver private equity investors by amassing a multimillion-dollar portfolio of affordable homes, and many more. Join Dougherty and Durning for a glimpse of a vast political realignment during this moment of rapid technological and social change that may redefine the lives and homes of Americans everywhere.

Conor Dougherty is an economics reporter at The New York Times. His work focuses on the West Coast, real estate and wage stagnation among U.S. workers. Dougherty has covered economics and real estate on and off for a decade at both The Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Alan Durning is the founder of Sightline Institute and co-author of more than ten Sightline books, including This Place on Earth 2002: Measuring What Matters, The Car and the City, and Unlocking Home: Three Keys to Affordable Communities.

Recorded live in The Forum by Town Hall Seattle on February 25, 2020.

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In 2017, twenty-five-year-old Susan Fowler came forward to discuss the sexual harassment and retaliation she’d experienced as an entry-level engineer at Uber. Her story went viral, leading to the ousting of Uber’s CEO and contributing to a wave of vigilance against sexual harassment that has been cited as a critical factor in the movements against figures such as Harvey Weinsten.

Fowler made her way to Town Hall with excerpts from her memoir Whistleblower: My Journey To Silicon Valley And Fight For Justice At Uber, chronicling her stand against the pervasive culture of sexism, harassment, racism, and abuse at Uber. In conversation with KUOW’s Carolyn Adolph, Fowler revealed how, when was told that she was the problem, she banded together with other women to try to make change. When that didn’t work, she went public. She could never have anticipated what would follow: that she would be investigated, followed, and harassed; that her words would change much more than Uber; or that they would set her on a course toward finally achieving her dreams. Join Fowler and Adolph as they explored Fowler’s unbelievable true story of her experiences facing down one of the most valuable startups in Silicon Valley history—and the fallout that arose from her stand against inequality.

Susan Fowler is an editor at the New York Times who edits the “Op-Eds from the Future” series. Previously she worked at Stripe as the founding editor in chief of Increment, and was one of the “Silence Breakers” named Person of the Year by TIME.

Carolyn Adolph is a reporter for KUOW who covers Seattle’s growth by looking at the city’s major companies. She’s also a co-host of KUOW’s Prime(d) podcast.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Great Hall on February 25, 2020.

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“The right of the people peaceably to assemble” is guaranteed in the First Amendment of the US constitution. Thanks to that right, every day thousands of community meetings are able to take place throughout the country where we, the people, shape decisions for the future. Community organizer Milenko Matanovič joined us at Town Hall to help us make the most of our opportunities to gather. He drew on insight from his book The Case For Everyday Democracy: Turning Community Meetings Into Engines For Collaboration to provide us with insightful, wise, provocative, and practical guidance for turning our meetings into productive, meaningful, and even joyful events that strengthen our everyday democracy. Sit in for a blueprint on how to transform our gatherings with trust, civic engagement, and meaningful action.

Milenko Matanovič is an artist and award-winning community builder and founder of the nonprofit Pomegranate Center. He has collaborated with communities to build more than 60 gathering places and spoken at dozens of universities, community gatherings, and conferences.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Great Hall on February 24, 2020.

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After a twenty-five-year career spent fighting for women’s rights around the globe, author Karen Sherman moved to Rwanda with her three sons to oversee the construction of a first-of-its-kind women’s opportunity center. Sherman made her way to Town Hall to tell the story of valiant women who survived the Rwandan genocide with insight from her book Brick by Brick: Building Hope and Opportunity for Women Survivors Everywhere.

In conversation with physician and volunteer Dr. Rosita Van Coevorden, Sherman recounted her year-long journey to better the lives of women survivors, highlighting the grit and determination they poured into building lives and raising families despite the brutal challenges of war, genocide, and inequality. Sherman shared how the strength of these women helped her confront corrupt officials, navigate conflict zones, face trauma in her own past, and renew her commitment to her family. Listen in as Sherman and Van Coevorden delved into the struggles of women everywhere—striving to balance work and family, fighting for real options and choices, trying to make their voices heard.

Karen Sherman has spent her life advocating for women in war-torn and transitional countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Sudan, Kosovo, and the former Soviet Union. Sherman serves as President of the Akilah Institute, Rwanda’s only women’s college, and was a senior executive at Women for Women International, an organization that helps women survivors of war to rebuild their lives.

Dr. Rosita van Coevorden is a retired physician, entrepreneur, and active community volunteer in women’s and children’s causes. She is the Founder and Co-Chair of Vital Voices Northwest Council and serves as a director of Vital Voices Global Partnership, Art of Hope, and Kindering Center. She currently serves as the ED of DSC of Puget Sound, a non-profit providing programs and services to individuals with Down syndrome and their families.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in the Reading Room on February 20, 2020.

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On February 18, 1965, an overflowing crowd in Cambridge, England gathered to witness a televised debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the movement and America’s most influential conservative intellectual. The topic was “the American dream is at the expense of the American Negro.” Drawing from his book The Fire Is Upon Us, political scientist Nicholas Buccola brought us the full story of this historic debate, outlining the radically different paths of Baldwin and Buckley, the controversies that followed, and how the debate and the decades-long clash between the men continues to illuminate America’s racial divide today. Buccola delved into the conversation between these two men as a remarkable story of race and the American dream—an unforgettable confrontation that pitted Baldwin’s call for a moral revolution in race relations against Buckley’s unabashed elitism and implicit commitment to white supremacy. Sit in for an exploration of this pivotal debate, and follow the deep roots and lasting legacy of a conflict that continues to haunt our politics.

Nicholas Buccola is the author of The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass and the editor of The Essential Douglass and Abraham Lincoln and Liberal Democracy. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Salon, and many other publications. He is the Elizabeth and Morris Glicksman Chair in Political Science at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Forum on February 20, 2020.

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Donald Trump was elected by only 26 percent of eligible voters. In America today, only a slim majority of people register to vote and a large percentage of registered voters don’t bother to show up at all. And according to progressive radio host Thom Hartmann, this low turnout is unfortunately not a bug in our system—it’s a feature.

Hartmann joined us at Town Hall to demystify strategies and tactics that conservative elites in our country have used to protect their interests by preventing “the wrong people”—such as the poor, women, and people of color—from voting, while making it easier for the wealthy and white. He layed out simple, common sense ways that we the people can fight back and reclaim our right to rule through the ballot box. Take an unblinking look at our country’s voting system, and explore what we can do to ensure everyone has a voice in this democracy.

Thom Hartmann is a progressive national and internationally syndicated talk show host and bestselling author of 24 books, including The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment, The Last Hours of Humanity: Warming the World to Extinction, and Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal is the representative for Washington’s 7th District, which encompasses most of Seattle and surrounding areas. She is the first South Asian American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and one of only 14 naturalized citizens currently serving in the United States Congress.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Great Hall on February 19, 2020.

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When traditional approaches are inadequate or resisted, advanced leadership skills are essential. Over a decade ago, renowned innovation expert Rosabeth Moss Kanter worked with successful professionals and young entrepreneurs to identify the leadership paradigm of the future: the ability to “think outside the building.”

With insight from her book Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time, Kanter provided extraordinary accounts of purpose-driven men and women whose convictions drove them to take action and affect positive change. A former Trader Joe’s executive who navigated business, government, and community sectors to deal with poor nutrition in inner cities while reducing food waste. A concerned European banker who used the power of persuasion (not position) to find novel financing for improving the health of the oceans. A Washington couple who enticed global partners to join an Uber-like platform to match skilled refugees with talent-hungry companies. A visionary journalist turned entrepreneur who closed social divides by giving fifty million social media users access to free local education and culture. Kanter showed us how people everywhere can unleash their creativity and entrepreneurial adroitness to mobilize partners and innovate for a brighter future.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter is a professor at Harvard Business School (holding the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship), specializing in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. She is also chair and director of the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative, a Harvard-wide innovation she co-founded in 2008 to help successful leaders at the top of their fields confront national and global challenges and build a new leadership force for the world.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Forum on February 17, 2020.

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Death is an integral part of life—and according to the Right-To-Die movement we should have the freedom to choose to end their own life. Renowned radio host Diane Rehm made her way to Town Hall to address the urgent, hotly contested cause of the Right-to-Die movement with insight from her book When My Time Comes. In conversation with KUOW’s Ross Reynolds, Rehm draws on interviews with terminally ill patients, and with physicians, ethicists, spouses, relatives, and representatives of those who vigorously oppose the movement to give voice to a broad range of people who are personally linked to the realities of medical aid in dying. Rehm presented the fervent arguments—both for and against—that are propelling the current debates across the nation about whether to adopt laws allowing those who are dying to put an end to their suffering. Rehm and Reynolds invited us to investigate both sides of the argument, providing critical context and informed responses that aim to dispel misconceptions and misrepresentations of end-of-life care.

Diane Rehm has spent nearly 40 years as radio host for WAMU and NPR. In 1979 she began hosting WAMU’s local morning talk show, Kaleidoscope, which was renamed The Diane Rehm Show in 1984. Rehm is known for her unique mix of curiosity, honesty, and intimacy in her programming.

Ross Reynolds is the Executive Producer of Community Engagement at KUOW. He creates community conversations such as the Ask A events. He is the former co-host of KUOW’s daily news magazine The Record and KUOW’s award–winning daily news–talk program The Conversation.

Recorded live in The Great Hall at Town Hall Seattle on February 12, 2020.

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According to Diane Ravitch, citizens across America are successfully fighting to stop corporations from privatizing our nation’s public schools. Ravitch joined us with insight from her book Slaying Goliath: The Passionate Resistance To Privatization And The Fight To Save America’s Public Schools. She highlighted how parents, teachers, activists, bloggers, religious leaders, and others are stepping forward to fight against the disruption of one of America’s most fundamental public institutions. Ravitch identified corporate interests, political voices, and economic disruptors who believe America’s schools should be run like businesses, modeling the structure of our schools on a gig economy in which students are treated like customers or products and teachers are incentivized with threats and bonuses. Join Ravitch to learn about the nationwide story of brave individuals who, spurred on by the power of ideas and passion, are fighting back to successfully keep their public schools alive.

Diane Ravitch is a research professor of education at New York University and the author of eleven books, including The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn and Reign of Error: The Hoax Of The Privatization Movement And The Danger To America’s Public Schools.

Jesse Hagopian teaches Ethnic Studies and is the co-adviser to the Black Student Union at Garfield High School. He is an editor for the social justice periodical Rethinking Schools and is the co-editor of the book Teaching for Black Lives.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Great Hall on February 4, 2020.

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Legendary for their size and intelligence, elephants are one of the most charismatic of megafauna. That they are under siege from poachers is no secret, and the rapidity of their declining numbers is horrifying. However, amidst the steady stream of bad news, photographer Art Wolfe and author Dr. Samuel Wasser offered hope that all is not lost.

Wolfe and Wasser made their way to Town Hall with inspiring accounts from their book Wild Elephants: Conservation in the Age of Extinction. Through stunning visuals and groundbreaking research, Wolfe and Wasser showed how global education about these gentle giants seems to be succeeding, and recent government crackdowns are lowering the price of ivory and discouraging poachers. Join Wolfe and Wasser to celebrate local and government initiatives that are rising to preserve the natural heritage of elephant population, and learn what we can do to safeguard the survival of this magnificent species.

Art Wolfe is an award-winning photographer who has worked on every continent and in hundreds of locations over his forty-year career. His stunning images interpret and record the world’s fast-disappearing natural treasures.

Dr. Samuel Wasser has participated in conservation programs around the world and is acknowledged worldwide as a pioneer of noninvasive wildlife monitoring methods. He is the director of the Center for Conservation Biology and holds the endowed chair in Conservation Biology at the University of Washington.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Great Hall on January 29, 2020.

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Can American democracy survive in a system where more money means more power? Award-winning journalist Andrea Bernstein tackled this question with insight from her book American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power. She created a vivid portrait of two emblematic American families, following their rise to power and their journey to the White House. In conversation with Stranger associate editor Eli Sanders, Bernstein presented a story of survival and loss, crime and betrayal which stretches from the Gilded Age through Nazi-occupied Poland to the rising nationalism and inequality of the twenty-first century.

Bernstein drew on hundreds of interviews and thousands of pages of unseen or forgotten documents, revealing how the Trumps and the Kushners grew rich on federal programs that bolstered the middle class, and then sheltered their wealth from tax collectors. She asserted that, wielding half-truths, secrecy, and media manipulation, these families blurred the lines between public and private interests and then leveraged political, prosecutorial, and judicial power to avoid legal consequences. Sit in with Bernstein and Sanders for a sweeping exposition on two American dynasties who encouraged and profited from a system of political dark money that has threatened to upend American democracy.

Andrea Bernstein is an investigative journalist and the Peabody and duPont-Columbia Award-winning cohost of the acclaimed WNYC/ProPublica podcast Trump, Inc. Her writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and New York magazine, and on NPR.

Eli Sanders is the Associate Editor of The Stranger and the winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. His book, While the City Slept, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle.

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At the beginning of the homelessness epidemic in the 1980s, Josephine Ensign was a young, white, Southern, Christian wife, mother, and nurse running a medical clinic for the homeless in the heart of the South. Through her work and intense relationships with patients and co-workers, her worldview was shattered after losing her job, family, and house—and she became homeless herself. Ensign joined us decades later to tell her story through her book Catching Homelessness: A Nurse’s Story of Falling Through the Safety Net. With intense empathy and deep human perspective, she highlighted the ways her experience of being homeless reconstituted her life with altered views on homelessness and on the healthcare system. Ensign provided a piercing firsthand look at the homelessness industry, nursing, and our country’s health care safety net. Join Ensign as she reflects on how her understanding of homelessness has changed her work, perspective, and life experiences—and changed her.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and the League of Women Voters.

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Technology has made communication easier than ever. As social networks, digital platforms, and emerging technologies keep us constantly connected, many have found that the volume of information has eroded our ability to trust. The University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public explored questions and solutions for building our trust in modern media. The audience participated in an active dialogue that covered ideas and solutions from the community, and heard from researchers on the cutting edge of information and communication. Listen to a conversation about ways to maintain a healthy democracy in the face of misinformation and “fake news” disrupting our systems and even our shared perception of reality.

Panelists

Ryan Calo, Associate Professor, School of Law

Chris Coward, Senior Principal Research Scientist, and Director, at the Information School

Emma Spiro, Assistant Professor, Information School

Kate Starbird, Associate Professor, Human Centered Design & Engineering

Jevin West, Associate Professor, Information School, Calling BS

Moderator

Hanson Hosein, Co-Director, Communication Leadership

Presented by Town Hall Seattle, UW Center for an Informed Public, UW Communication Leadership Program, and KUOW.

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Peggy Orenstein’s book Girls & Sex broke ground, shattered taboos, and launched conversations about young women’s right to pleasure and agency in sexual encounters. It also had an unexpected effect on its author—Orenstein realized that talking about girls is only half the conversation.

Orenstein arrived at Town Hall with insight from her book Boys & Sex to examine how young men understand and negotiate the new rules of physical and emotional intimacy. She outlined how boys are subject to the same cultural forces as girls—steeped in the same distorted media images and binary stereotypes of female sexiness and toxic masculinity—which equally affect how they navigate sexual and emotional relationships. Drawing on comprehensive interviews with young men, psychologists, academics, and experts in the field, she dissects so-called locker room talk; how the word “hilarious” robs boys of empathy; pornography as the new sex education; boys’ understanding of hookup culture and consent; and their experience as both victims and perpetrators of sexual violence. By surfacing young men’s experience in all its complexity, Orenstein unraveled the hidden truths, hard lessons, and important realities of young male sexuality in today’s world.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Forum on January 23, 2020.

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Psychologists have long understood that social environments profoundly shape our behavior, sometimes for the better, often for the worse. But social influence is a two-way street—our environments are themselves products of our behavior. Author Robert Frank joined us with insight from his book Under the Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work, identifying ways to unlock the latent power of social context—perhaps even on a level that could save the planet.

Frank drew our attention to the threat of a changing climate, asserting that robust measures to curb greenhouse gases could help us curtail droughts, flooding, wildfires, and famines. He highlighted new research that shows how the strongest predictor of our willingness to support climate-friendly policies, install solar panels, or buy an electric car is the number of people we know who have already done so. Frank explained how altering our social context could help us redirect trillions of dollars annually in support of carbon-free energy sources, all without requiring painful sacrifices from anyone. Join Frank to learn how fostering more supportive social environments could lead individuals everywhere to make choices that benefit everyone.

Robert H. Frank is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics at Cornell University, where he has taught since 1972 and where he currently holds a joint appointment in the department of economics and the Johnson Graduate School of Management. He has published on a variety of subjects, including price and wage discrimination, public utility pricing, the measurement of unemployment spell lengths, and the distributional consequences of direct foreign investment.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Forum on January 20, 2020.

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Despite Samuel Woolley’s warnings as early as 2013, the problem of online disinformation stormed our political process in 2016 and has only worsened since. Woolley made his way to Town Hall with urgent perspectives from his book The Reality Game: How the Next Wave of Technology Will Break the Truth. He cautioned that technology may soon play an even deeper role in the rise of disinformation—with human-like automated voice systems, machine learning, “deepfake” AI-edited videos and images, interactive memes, virtual reality, and more. Information literacy is an essential ingredient in a healthy democracy, and Woolley showed how the breakneck rate of technological change is making it nearly impossible. Woolley argued for a new culture of invention, one built around accountability and transparency. Sit in for a treatise on preventing technological manipulation in our future, and a call for us to use our new tools not to control people but to empower them.

Samuel Woolley is a writer and researcher with a focus on emerging media technologies, propaganda and politics. He is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas-Austin. Woolley’s work looks at how automation, algorithms and AI are leveraged for both democracy and control.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Forum on January 9, 2020.

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Many liberals and progressives yearn for coherent alternatives to capitalism, but previous visions of socialism do not necessarily account for anything beyond material benefits. Social theorist and psychotherapist Rabbi Michael Lerner came to Town Hall to advocate his strategy for a new socialism built on love, kindness, and compassion for one another. Drawing from his book Revolutionary Love, Lerner proposed a method to replace what he terms the “capitalist globalization of selfishness” with a globalization of generosity, prophetic empathy, and environmental sanity.

Lerner challenged liberal and progressive forces to move beyond politics and build a movement that can reverse the environmental destructiveness and social injustice caused by wanton pursuit of profit. Revisiting the hidden injuries of class, Lerner showed that much of the suffering in our society—including most of its addictions and the growing embrace of right-wing nationalism and reactionary versions of fundamentalism—are driven by frustrated needs for community, love, respect, and connection to a higher purpose in life. Yet these needs are too often missing from liberal discourse. Lerner contended that even if progressive programs are smartly constructed, they cannot be achieved unless they speak to the heart and address the pain so many people experience. Join Lerner to explore his idea of a “Caring Society” and develop the courage to stop listening to those who tell us that fundamental social transformation is unrealistic.

Rabbi Michael Lerner is the editor of Tikkun magazine. He is the author of eleven books, including two national bestsellers, Jewish Renewal and The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right. Lerner, who has PhDs in philosophy and social and clinical psychology, was chosen for the 2019 Humanitarian Award by the International Association of Sufism. He has also received Morehouse College’s King-Gandhi Award for his work for peace and nonviolence.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Forum on December 12, 2019.

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The United States is known as a nation of immigrants—but it is also a nation of xenophobia. Author Erika Lee took the stage at Town Hall with an unblinking look at the irrational fear, hatred, and hostility toward immigrants which have been defining features of our nation from the colonial era to the Trump era. Drawing on perspectives from her book America for Americans, Lee offered numerous examples chronicling our nation’s entrenched and staunchly negative treatment of immigrants. Benjamin Franklin ridiculed Germans for their “strange and foreign ways.” Americans’ anxiety over Irish Catholics turned xenophobia into a national political movement. Chinese immigrants have been excluded, Japanese incarcerated, and Mexicans deported—and today many Americans fear Muslims, Latinos, and the so-called browning of America. Lee invited us to confront our nation’s history and break down how xenophobia works, why it has endured, and how it threatens America.

Erika Lee is a Regents Professor, the Rudolph J. Vecoli Chair in Immigration History, director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, and Andrew Carnegie Fellow. She is the author of The Making of Asian America and other award-winning books.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Forum on December 10, 2019.

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For most of America’s history, we did not lock people up for migrating here. Yet over the last thirty years, our country’s federal and state governments have increasingly incarcerated people accused of violating immigration laws. Now almost 400,000 people annually spend time locked up pending the result of a civil or criminal immigration proceeding. Leading scholar César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández joined us to take a hard look at the immigration prison system’s origin and operation with insight from his book Migrating to Prison.

He tackled the emergence of immigration imprisonment in the mid-1980s, highlighting how enforcement resources were deployed disproportionately against Latinos. Hernández called out the expansion of private prisons and decries disingenuous links drawn by the political right attempting to connect immigration imprisonment with national security risks and threats to the rule of law. Through powerful stories of individuals caught up in the immigration imprisonment industry, Hernández made an urgent call for the abolition of immigration prisons and a radical reimagining of the way we determine who belongs in the United States.

César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández is an immigration lawyer and a professor of law at the University of Denver. He runs the blog Crimmigration.com and regularly speaks on immigration law and policy issues. He has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and many others.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Forum on December 9, 2019.

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Radio show host Derek Black grew up at the epicenter of white nationalism. His father founded Stormfront, the largest racist community on the Internet. His godfather, David Duke, was a KKK Grand Wizard. But even someone steeped in the culture of white nationalism found the space to question the prejudices behind his beliefs. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Eli Saslow joined us at Town Hall to tell the story of how the man who was considered the “leading light” of the burgeoning white nationalist movement confronted and disavowed everything he was taught to believe.

Saslow took the stage in conversation with KNKX journalist Simone Alicea to relate Derek’s story with great empathy and narrative verve. He offered insight from his book Rising Out of Hatred, recounting how Derek’s fellow student at New College of Florida discovered his white nationalist broadcast, and how the ensuing uproar overtook one of the most liberal colleges in the country. Some students protested Derek’s presence on campus, forcing him to reconcile for the first time with the ugliness of his beliefs. Other students found the courage to reach out to him, including an Orthodox Jew who invited Derek to attend weekly Shabbat dinners. It was because of those dinners—and the wide-ranging relationships formed at that table—that Derek started to confront the history of his worldview and reckon with the damage he had done. Saslow and Alicea explored Derek’s story as a study of America’s increasingly divided nature, and lend critical empathy to this inflection point in our country to help us better understand one another.

Eli Saslow is a Washington Post staff writer and author of Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting in 2014 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 2013, 2016 and 2017.

Simone Alicea is a reporter and fill-in host at KNKX. Formerly, she covered breaking news at the Chicago Sun-Times. She has also spent time in Cape Town, South Africa, covering metro news for the Cape Times.

Recorded live in the Forum by Town Hall Seattle on December 5, 2019.

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Activists, pundits, politicians, and the press frequently proclaim today’s digitally mediated racial justice activism the new civil rights movement. But according to Charlton D. McIlwain, the story of racial justice movement organizing online is much longer and varied than most people know. With insight from his book Black Software: The Internet and Racial Justice, from the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter, McIlwain chronicled the long relationship between African Americans, computing technology, and the internet.

He argued that the forgotten figures who worked to make black politics central to the internet’s birth and evolution paved the way for today’s explosion of racial justice activism. Starting in the 1960’s, McIlwain examined how computing technology has been used to neutralize the threat that black people pose to the existing racial order, but also how black people seized these new computing tools to build community and wage a war for racial justice. Join McIlwain for a centralized story of African Americans’ role in the internet’s creation and evolution, illuminating both the limits and possibilities for using digital technology to push for racial justice in the United States and across the globe.

Charlton McIlwain is Vice Provost of Faculty Engagement & Development at New York University, and Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU’s Steinhardt School. He is also the Founder of the Center for Critical Race & Digital Studies, and the co-author of Race Appeal: How Candidates Invoke Race in U.S. Political Campaigns, winner of the 2012 APSA Ralph Bunche Award.

Kamal Al-Mansour founded AfroLink Software in 1990, a pioneering African American electronic bulletin-board system, the first of its kind in the nation, that aimed to increase black awareness of the power of personal computers. Now, an artist and visual culturalist, his exhibitions have been seen at Northern Illinois University Art Museum, Reece Museum, and Vanderbilt University’s Black Cultural Center, among other institutions.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Forum on December 2, 2019.

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The struggle to pay for college is one of the defining features of middle-class life in America today. Author Caitlin Zaloom took us into the homes of middle-class families throughout the nation to highlight the hidden consequences of student debt and the ways that financing college has transformed family life. With insight from her new book Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost, Zaloom shared interviews with parents and their college-age children about stressful and intensely personal financial matters.

Zaloom was joined in conversation with KUOW’s Ross Reynolds to offer a troubling portrait of an American middle class fettered by the “student finance complex”—the bewildering labyrinth of government-sponsored institutions, profit-seeking firms, and university offices that collect information on household earnings and assets, assess family needs, and decide who is eligible for aid and who is not. Join Zaloom and Reynolds for a discussion that breaks through the culture of silence surrounding the student debt crisis and reveals the unspoken costs of sending our kids to college.

Caitlin Zaloom is associate professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University. She is a founding editor of Public Books and the author of Out of the Pits: Traders and Technology from Chicago to London.

Ross Reynolds is the Executive Producer of Community Engagement at KUOW. He is the former co-host of KUOW’s daily news magazine The Record and KUOW’s award–winning daily news–talk program The Conversation.

Recorded live in The Forum at Town Hall Seattle on November 20, 2019.

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In nineteenth-century New Orleans and Charleston, many cosmopolitan residents eluded the racial categories the rest of America takes for granted. Before the Civil War, these free, openly mixed-race urbanites enjoyed some rights of citizenship and the privileges of wealth and social status. Journalist and author Daniel Brook joined us at Town Hall with accounts from his book The Accident of Color, following this story through Reconstruction and revisiting a crucial inflection point in American history. He highlighted a movement that formed to oppose the black-white binary, where mixed-race elites made common cause with the formerly enslaved and allies at the fringes of whiteness in a bid to achieve political and social equality for all.

Brook chronicled this movement’s successes, and recalled how its achievements were ultimately swept away by a violent political backlash and expunged from the history books—culminating in the Jim Crow laws that would legalize segregation for a half century and usher in systems of racial binaries whose effects are still felt today. Brook offered us an unflinching look at the birth of our nation’s narrow racial system forged in the crucible of opposition to civil rights, and illuminated the origins of the racial lies we live by.

Daniel Brook is a journalist and author whose writing has appeared in Harper’s, the New York Times Magazine, and The Nation. His last book, A History of Future Cities, was longlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize and was selected as one of the ten best books of the year by the Washington Post.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Forum on November 17, 2019.

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Misconduct by those in high places is always dangerous to reveal. Whistleblowers thus face conflicting impulses: by challenging and exposing transgressions by the powerful, they perform a vital public service—yet they always suffer for it. Allison Stanger, professor of International Politics and Economics, took Town Hall’s stage to bring us an episodic history of whistleblowing as an important but unrecognized cousin of civil disobedience. With accounts from her book Whistleblowers: Honesty in America from Washington to Trump, Stanger highlighted histories of whistleblowing as a tool for holding powerful elites accountable in America. She recounted a range of whistleblowing episodes, from the national security debates surrounding Edward Snowden to the dishonesty of Donald Trump—all the way back to the corrupt Revolutionary War commodore Esek Hopkins, whose dismissal led in 1778 to the first whistleblower protection law.

Stanger showed us how, with changing technology and increasing militarization, the exposure of misconduct has grown more difficult to do and more personally costly for those who do it—yet American freedom, especially today, depends on it. Sit in with Stanger for a retrospective on the critical practice of whistleblowing throughout the history of our nation, and an unflinching look at its critical role in our democracy.

Allison Stanger is Technology and Human Values Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Russell Leng ‘60 Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College, New America Cybersecurity Fellow, and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. She is the author of One Nation Under Contract.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Forum on Friday, November 15, 2019.

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In 1921, facing one of the worst famines in history, the new Soviet government under Vladimir Lenin invited the American Relief Administration to save communist Russia from ruin. Author Douglas Smith joined us with an account of how a small, daring band of Americans fed more than ten million men, women, and children across a million square miles of territory. Smith’s book The Russian Job chronicles this endeavor—the largest humanitarian operation in history, which saved countless lives, staved off social unrest on a massive scale, and quite possibly prevented the collapse of the communist state.

Smith brought us this story nearly a century later, after decades of the Cold War and renewed tensions in the wake of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, in a time when cooperation between the United States and Russia seems impossible to imagine. Smith resurrected the American relief mission from obscurity, revealing a story filled with espionage, violence, and political intrigue. Smith invited us to revive a near-forgotten account of a US/Russia cooperative effort unmatched before or since, and a striking memory of the world’s ability to overcome ideological differences and confront international crises.

Douglas Smith is an award-winning historian and translator, and the author of six books on Russia including Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs and Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy. Douglas has taught and lectured widely in the United States, Britain, and Europe and has appeared in documentaries for National Geographic, the BBC, and Netflix.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Forum on Thursday, November 14, 2019.

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Hunger isn’t just the absence of food, it’s the absence of justice. When our systems are broken, the most vulnerable in our state suffer the most. Food justice aligns itself with the primary goals of social justice—demanding equal opportunity and access to basic rights and needs. To show us a way forward in promoting food justice, Northwest Harvest presented a panel discussion on Town Hall’s stage with a focus on providing equitable access to nutritious food for everyone. These experts take a 360-degree look at food policy—addressing issues such as racism, classism, and systemic inequalities of opportunity in our communities that lead to chronic poverty and food insecurity.

Panelists US Congresswoman Kim Schrier Chef, Entrepreneur, Business Leader, and Policy Advisor, Taylor Hoang PLU’s Director of Multicultural Outreach & Engagement, Melannie Cunningham

Moderator Northwest Harvest CEO, Thomas Reynolds

Recorded live in The Great Hall by Town Hall Seattle on November 11, 2019.

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As his campaign rhetoric in the 2018 midterms demonstrated, no issue matters more to Donald Trump than immigration. And no issue—with the possible exception of his opposition to Robert Mueller’s investigation of his 2016 campaign—better defines his administration. Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear have covered the Trump administration from its earliest days. Now they join us at Town Hall to offer us a glimpse inside the White House with their book Border Wars, documenting how Trump and his allies blocked asylum-seekers and refugees, separated families, threatened deportation, and sought to erode the longstanding bipartisan consensus that immigration and immigrants make positive contributions to America.

In conversation with Marcos Martinez, the Executive Director of Casa Latina, Davis and Shear contended that Trump has used immigration to stoke fears (“the caravan”), attack Democrats and the courts, and distract from negative news and political difficulties. They highlighted ways that Trump has used incendiary rhetoric and preyed on the imaginations of many Americans in an attempt to falsely elevate illegal immigration into a national crisis. Join Davis, Shear, and Martinez for insider accounts filled with previously unreported stories that reveal how Trump’s decision-making is driven by gut instinct and marked by disorganization, paranoia, and a constantly feuding staff.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis is the congressional editor at The New York Times and deputy Washington editor. She has covered politics and policy from Washington for twenty-two years. She joined the Times in 2014 as a White House correspondent after stints at Bloomberg News, the Associated Press, The Baltimore Sun, and Congressional Quarterly. She won the 2009 Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress

Michael D. Shear is a White House correspondent in The New York Times Washington bureau, where he covers President Trump. A veteran political correspondent, before coming to the Times in 2010, he spent eighteen years writing about local, state and national politics at The Washington Post, where he was also part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that covered the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007.

Marcos Martinez is the Executive Director of Casa Latina, a community organization dedicated to empowering low-wage Latino immigrants to move from economic insecurity to economic prosperity and to lift their voices to take action around public policy issues that affect them.

Recorded live in The Forum by Town Hall Seattle on November 3, 2019.

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