Story In The Public Square Podcast

In recent years, commentators and gadflies have looked at American presidents and, based on age and, sometimes, politics, called for the invocation of the 25th amendment to remove the president from office. Constitutional scholar John Feerick helped write the 25th amendment and shines a light on its provisions and the intentions of its framers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the summer of 2020, the country was racked by disease, violence, and social disruption as generations of racial injustice seemed to fall in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.  Thomas Chatterton Williams warns, however, that extreme views on the left—ascendent in that summer heat—are just as dangerous to western liberalism as extreme views on the right.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Artificial Intelligence is changing all of our lives and the biggest changes are yet to come. Yet despite the revolution on our doorstep, few have looked carefully at the impact of AI on children. Dr. Mhairi Aitken has done just that and has evidence-based advice for policy makers and developers.  Aitken is a Senior Ethics Fellow in the Public Policy Programme at The Alan Turing Institute, where she focusses on social and ethical dimensions of digital innovation. Aitken leads research on AI and children’s rights there, in addition to a data justice, ethics of Generative AI and emerging AI policy and regulation topics. She is particularly interested in the role of public engagement in informing ethical data practices and is a frequent contributor to media discussions on AI and data. She is a visiting senior lecturer at the Digital Environment Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London and an Honorary Senior Fellow at the Australian Centre for Health Engagement, Evidence and Values at the Un

For more than a decade, now, the world has been experiencing a process of “democratic backsliding,” while alternatives to governing by popular consent have gained popularity—even in the West.  James Fishkin offers a path to improving not just the health of democracy, but the effectiveness of liberal democratic governments.  Fishkin holds the Janet M. Peck Chair in International Communication at Stanford University where he is Professor of Communication, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Deliberative Democracy Lab. He is best known for developing Deliberative Polling®, a practice of public consultation that employs random samples of the citizenry to explore how opinions would change if they were more informed. His work on deliberative democracy has stimulated more than 100 Deliberative Polls in 28 countries around the world. It has been used to help governments and policy makers make important decisions in Texas, China, Mongolia, Japan, Macau, South Korea, Bulga

Scholars, journalists and even some politicians often warn about the lack of critical thinking in contemporary public and private life. Alex Edmans picks up that alarm and warns that we’re regularly exploited by those who would use our own sloppy thinking and unconscious biases to mislead us.   Edmans is a professor of finance at London Business School. His research interests are in corporate finance, responsible business and behavioral finance. He serves in leadership roles for the American Finance Association, Western Finance Association, Financial Management Association, British Academy and the Academy of the Social Sciences. He has spoken at economic forums, testified in the United Kingdom Parliament and been interviewed by many major news networks. He has won 28 teaching awards, was featured in “Thinkers50 Radar” and was named professor of the year by Poets & Quants in 2021. His latest book, “May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit our Biases- And W

It’s comforting to think about American political institutions as “transparent” and open to scrutiny.  However, this week on “Story in the Public Square,” Anna Massoglia describes a campaign finance system built, increasingly, on so-called “dark money.” Massoglia is a political influence expert and investigative journalist with more than a decade of experience exposing the hidden forces of money, power and politics. As the founder and author of “Influence Brief,” Massoglia helps readers to navigate the complex financial systems and influence networks shaping politics and public policy in the United States and across the globe. She also works as an independent consultant and advisor for various organizations, offering expertise in research, strategy and public policy. She is a director of investigations at the Sunlight Reseach Center, a nonpartisan journalism support organization that equips newsrooms to provide their communities fact-based, transparen

Eighty years ago, World War II ended in the Pacific with the first, and thus far, only use of nuclear weapons in warfare.  The widely popular decision to use the bomb at the time has become fodder for historians to debate in subsequent decades. Fred Borch helps us view the decision to drop the bomb from the perspective of American leaders in that summer of 1945.   Fred L. Borch is a historian, lawyer and soldier by profession. He has three history degrees, three law degrees and an M.A. in national security strategy from the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He served on active duty as an Army lawyer from 1980 to 2005 in a variety of roles, at one point having chief responsibility for overall prosecution efforts against alleged terrorists detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After retiring as a colonel, Fred returned to the Army for a civilian position as the professor of legal history and leadership at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia. He

The history of humanity is the history of individuals making decisions, sometimes collectively, and sometimes individually. New artificial intelligence, AI, brings a new player into the mix: machines capable of making decisions alongside or instead of their human counterparts. Sean O’Callaghan and Paul Hoffman grapple with the theological implications of this new technology.   Sean O'Callaghan is an associate professor of religious and theological studies at Salve Regina University, where he also serves as a coordinator of the AI Initiative. He previously served as director of the Ph..D.. program in humanities and technology and is currently a faculty member in that program. He received his Ph.D. in systematic theology from the University of Liverpool in 2008.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Where five years ago, we were in the thick of the pandemic, with the bulk of the sickness and dying still to come, now, the U.S. federal government is poised to slash spending on public health, as well as basic research in science, healthcare and more.  Dr. Ashish Jha helps us sort through competing claims and make sense of it all. An accomplished and practicing physician, Jha is a trusted expert on major issues impacting public health, and a catalyst for new thinking and approaches. A long-time leader on pandemic preparedness and response, from directing groundbreaking research on Ebola to serving on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response, he has analyzed key issues and advised local and federal policy makers around the world. In March 2022, he was appointed by President Biden as White House COVID-19 response coordinator and led the work that increased the development of and access to treatments and newly formulated vaccines. He has served as a professor of medicine and is currently the dean of the Bro

What if a secret gathering of luminaries concluded in the 1960s that the consequences of “peace” would be worse than continued war? Phil Tinline explains that in 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, just such a story emerged, and its consequences reverberate to this day.   Phil Tinline is a freelance writer and documentarian. He is the author of the 2002 book “The Death of Consensus,” which was chosen as The Times (London)’s Politics Book of the Year. Over the course of twenty years working for the BBC, he has made and presented many acclaimed documentaries about how political history shapes our lives. He has also written for The Times (London), The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph (London), The New Statesman (UK), BBC History Magazine, and Prospect. He is a graduate of Oxford University where he obtained a degree in English language and literature, and he currently lives in London.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For nearly 250 years, Americans have marked the fourth of July as the birthday of the nation, and in July of 2026, we’ll celebrate 250 years. Colin Woodard argues that the Declaration of Independence is as relevant and vital as ever, and that its promise is essential to preserving the republic today.   Colin Woodard is a New York Times-bestselling historian and Polk Award-winning journalist. He is one of the most respected authorities on North American regionalism, the sociology of United States nationhood and how our colonial past shapes and explains the present. He has authored six books including the award-winning Wall Street Journal bestseller “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.” Woodard is director of Nationhood Lab at Salve Regina University’s Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy, an initiative studying where America has come from, how we ended up as we are and how we might shape our future.  See omny

Journalists chronicle the world in the so-called “first draft” of history. Michael Corkery is helping lead one of America’s great newspapers as it tells the story of President Trump’s second administration with a particular focus on its impact on the world of business and finance.    Corkery is the finance editor at The New York Times, where he oversees a team of reporters writing on banks, private equity, corporate law firms and the stock market. Their coverage focuses on big news events and how Wall Street influences government and society. Prior to becoming an editor, he spent over 25 years as a reporter telling the stories of people from a range of political viewpoints, geographies and life experiences. Before he started at The Times in 2014, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, the Providence Journal and The Burlington (Vermont) Free Press. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s not unusual for friends, family members, and even good bosses to tell us, “practice some self-care.” But Nicole Karlis says that there are physical and emotional benefits to practicing care for others, too.  Karlis is an award-winning journalist and author covering health and science. Currently, she’s a regular contributor at Salon where she’s covered women’s health, science and wellness culture since 2017. Before writing for Salon, she was a contributing editor at The Bold Italic, a culture magazine based in the California-Bay Area. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times. She is the author of the book “Your Brain of Altruism: The Power of Connection and Community During Times of Crisis.”  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been said that the great challenge of diplomacy is to do and say the nastiest things in the nicest ways. Frank Lowenstein uses his experienced eye to consider if this challenge rings true for the United States under the second Trump administration.  Lowenstein is an international policy expert with a concentration in policy development, strategic communication and legal practice. He has served as a special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations for the U.S. department of state and worked as a senior foreign policy advisor to Secretary of State John Kerry. He also directed the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East and South and Central Asian Affairs, a position which allowed him to travel extensively throughout the Middle East. Prior to this role, he was the director of national security policy for the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign and practiced law in Boston, Massachusetts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s probably cliché to say that sport imitates life, but Hanif Abdurraqib traces the intimate details of basketball legends and faded school-yard stars in an unforgettable book about sport, life, and the places we call home.  Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and author of the new book, "There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension,” is the selection for this year's Reading Across Rhode Island Statewide Read, sponsored by the Rhode Island Center for the Book. His first full length poetry collection, “The Crown Ain't Worth Much,” was released in June 2016 and named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Prize, and was nominated for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. His first collection of essays, “They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us,” was released in winter 2017 by Two Dollar Radio and was named a book of the year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, Paste, CBC, The Los Angeles Review, Pitchfork, and The Chicago Tribune, among others. His book, “G

Humanity is capable of great dualities. Elizabeth MeLampy explores that in the way we both venerate animals, even while we exploit them.  MeLampy is an attorney with experience in animal law and environmental law.  She worked on issues related to farmed animals, wild animals, and captive animals with Harvard’s Animal Law & Policy Clinic while she was in law school.  She served in the inaugural cohort of Emerging Scholar Fellows with the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law and Policy, where I worked on animal law scholarship.  After two clerkships with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and the Federal District Court in Arizona, MeLampy litigated with one of the top environmental nonprofits in the country.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The saying goes that mothers and motherhood are the same all the world-over. Abigail Leonard puts that folk-wisdom to the test in a new book chronicling the first year of motherhood for four women from four different countries.    Leonard is an award-winning international reporter and news producer, previously based in Tokyo, where she was a frequent contributor to NPR, Time Magazine, and New York Times video. Her stories have also appeared in The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Vox. Before moving to Japan, she wrote and produced long-form news documentaries as a staff producer for PBS, ABC and Al Jazeera America. Stories she reported have earned a National Headliner Award, an Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism Award, an Overseas Press Club Award and a James Beard Foundation Media Award Nomination. She was a 2011 East-West Center Japan Fellow and 2010 UN Foundation Journalism Fellow. She served as First Vice President of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, a 2,000-member n

Throughout the campaign of 2024, President Donald Trump promised to use tariffs to reset America’s global trade relationships, revitalize American manufacturing, and increase government revenues—and in the first months of his second administration, the president has used tariffs and the threat of tariffs to drive concessions even while raising antagonism and roiling markets. Kimberly Clausing helps us distinguish between the rhetoric and the reality of these tariffs.   Clausing is an expert on the taxation of multinational firms. She served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, serving as the lead economist in the Office of Tax Policy during the Biden administration. She is a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Clausing has worked on economic policy research with the International M

Eighty years ago, mothers with sons and husbands at war in Europe could celebrate the end of the war there, even as they worried about the possibility their loved ones might be heading to the invasion of Japan. Tim Gray has made his life’s work about telling the stories of those heroes, their sacrifices, and their legacy.    Gray is a documentary filmmaker and founder and president of The World War II Foundation. He has won 5 Regional Emmy Awards in the documentary film writing and outstanding documentary film categories. He has also received four Indie Film Fest Awards in that international competition and two Impact Doc Awards. Gray has completed 38 documentaries to date. Tim Gray Media films consistently rank nationally in the top 5 of most requested programs by PBS and Public Television affiliates. Gray also hosts the “From the Front to the Films” podcast, which features well-known actors, authors, filmmakers, veterans, and others connected to World War II. He has also bee

Most of us can probably point to examples of people who suffered from racism, or who overcame racism.  But Keon West reminds us all that “the plural of anecdote is not data” and that science actually has a lot to say about the reality of racism today—if we take the time to consider it and really understand.    West is a social psychologist and an Associate Professor at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has also worked at the University of Leeds and the University of Roehampton, both in the U.K. His research interests include stigma, bias and perceptions of people from other groups. Much of his prior research specifically investigated the contact hypothesis and its derivatives. Recently, however, his recent research has developed a stronger focus on gender identity, perceptions of sexuality and sexual orientation, sexism and anti-LGBT prejudice. As well as publishing a number of scientific papers each year, West has disseminated his findings in the broader media. He has appe