Story In The Public Square Podcast

We’re used to thinking of technology as politically neutral—the zeroes and ones of binary code that operate independently of partisanship.  But Marietje Schaake says that, increasingly, private technology companies are usurping the function of government and thereby posing a real threat to the health of Western democracies.  Schaake is a non-resident Fellow at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center and at the Institute for Human-Centered AI. She is a columnist for the Financial Times and serves on a number of not-for-profit Boards as well as the UN's High Level Advisory Body on AI. Between 2009-2019 she served as a Member of the European Parliament where she worked on trade, foreign and tech policy. She is the author of “The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley,” which provides insight into steps government institutions can take to protect their citizens from emerging invasive technology.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every year, American popular culture focuses on recognizing the entertainment world’s hits and misses in Awards Season. Daniel D’Addario gives us a well-informed, if fictional, glimpse behind the smiles and glittering ceremonies to understand the personal and professional commitment of actresses at the top of their games.    D’Addario is chief correspondent at “Variety,” writing features, profiles, and columns. He has won awards from the Los Angeles Press Club for profile writing and for political commentary and is among the moderators of Variety’s Actors on Actors video series. His debut novel, “The Talent,” follows five actresses as they navigate the complex world of Hollywood. D’Addario was previously the television critic for “Variety” and for “Time.” A graduate of Columbia University, he lives with his husband and two daughters in Brooklyn. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the story of a young sex worker to one about an aging star, another about a transgender drug lord, and another about a troubled immigrant and brilliant architect, this year’s Academy Award nominees for Best Picture tell stories that are both epic and intimate. Pete Hammond walks us through the nominees and what to watch for on Hollywood’s Night of Nights.    Hammond, widely considered to be one of the pre-eminent awards analysts for both film and television, has for the past 14 years been Deadline's Awards Columnist covering the year-round Oscar and Emmy seasons. He is also Deadline's Chief Film Critic, having previously reviewed films for MovieLine, Boxoffice magazine, Backstage, Hollywood.com and Maxim, as well as Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide for which he was a contributing editor. In addition to writing, Hammond is also host of the PBS SoCal Cinema Series and the weekly PBS television series "Must See Movies." He previously held producing positions at "Entertainment Tonight

There was a time in American public life when “the news” was a nightly ritual, a 30-minute glimpse into the wider-world, a way to stay informed.  But Dr. Alice E. Marwick says that world is long gone, washed away in recent years with failing traditional news outlets and the rise of social media influencers.   Marwick is the director of research at Data & Society. She is a qualitative social scientist who researches the social, political, and cultural implications of popular social media technologies. Her most recent book, “The Private is Political: Networked Privacy on Social Media,” examines how the networked nature of online privacy disproportionately impacts members of marginalized communities. Marwick has several other publications in the realm of communications and mass media. She is currently writing her third book on online radicalization, supported by an Andrew Carnegie fellowship. Marwick was previously associate professor of communication and principal rese

Children’s and young-adult authors often explore the pain and loneliness of growing up.  Padma Venkatraman does it in an elegantly told story that also explores immigration, environmental change, and the power of friends to make everything better.    Venkatraman is an award-winning author who was born in Chennai, India.  Before becoming a novelist, earned a Ph.D. in oceanography from The College of William and Mary.  She conducted postdoctoral research in Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and later worked in Germany.  She also served as head of Inwoods Small School, and taught oceanography and directed diversity efforts at the University of Rhode Island.  Venkatraman is the author of five novels including “Climbing the Stairs,” “Island’s End,” “A Time to Dance,” and “The Bridge Home.”  She has written several other books, including: “Double Stars: The Story of Caroline H

The world will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II later this year.  Richard J. Evans helps us understand the murderous leaders of Nazi Germany, and the people at every level of German society who did their bidding. Evans is an historian of modern Germany and modern Europe and is the preeminent historian of the Third Reich today.  He has published over 20 books in the field, including his trilogy on the Third Reich. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Society of Literature and the Learned Society of Wales, and an Honorary Fellow of Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, Birkbeck, University of London, and Jesus College Oxford.  In 2022, he was made an Honorary Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.  He has been Vice-Master and Acting Master of Birkbeck, University of London, Chairman of the History Faculty in the University of Cambridge. He currently serves as Provost of Gresham College in London and a visiting Professor

So many of us are curious about the stuff of space and time and the forces that bind us all together.  Author and physicist Sean Caroll wants to encourage that curiosity, and believes physics can be accessible to everyone.   Carroll is the Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy, a joint appointment between physics and philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute.  He has focused his research on cosmology, field theory, and gravitation, looking at topics such as dark matter and dark energy, modified gravity, topological defects, extra dimensions, and violations of fundamental symmetries. He has shifted his focus to foundational questions, both in quantum mechanics—origin of probability, emergence of space and time—and statistical mechanics—entropy and the arrow of time, emergence and causation, dynamics of complexity, all while bringing a more philosophical dimension to this work. Carroll is the author of several books, i

Climate change has been part of the public lexicon for decades, now.  But what once seemed like some dystopian, distant future is, according to Jeff Goodell, a reality—where higher temperatures are reshaping agriculture, animal migrations, the health of the oceans, and our futures.   Goodell is a bestselling author and has written seven books including “The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World,” which was a New York Times Critics Top Book of 2017. He has covered climate change for more than two decades at Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, and many other publications.  As a commentator on climate and energy issues, he has appeared on NPR, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News and The Oprah Winfrey Show. He has a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MFA from Columbia University in New York.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the joyous streets of Paris and the opening of the Olympic Games to the snap of gunfire at a presidential campaign rally, 2024 has seen its highs and lows. Evelyn Farkas helps us unpack the stories that defined 2024 and name our story of the year.    Farkas is a highly respected expert in American foreign policy and geopolitics, particularly known for her insights into U.S.-Russia relations and now serves as the Executive Director of the Arizona State University’s McCain Institute, based in Washington, D.C.  She earned her MA and Ph.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and is fluent in multiple languages. Under President Obama, Farkas served as the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia. She is the author of the book, “Fractured States and US Foreign Policy: Iraq, Ethiopia, and Bosnia in the 1990s.” Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Gl

America’s wars have produced a legion of heroes.  But historian Ronald C. White focuses us on the story of Maine’s Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a Civil War lion whose service in war and in peace still resonates today. White is the author of two New York Times bestselling biographies, “A. Lincoln: A Biography,” and “American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant,” which won the William Henry Seward Award for Excellence in Civil War Biography. His latest book, “On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain,” was published in 2023 and is a USA Today national bestseller. He has also written, “Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural,” a New York Times Notable Book, “The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words,” a Los Angeles Times bestseller, and “Lincoln in Private: What His Most Personal Reflections Tell Us About Our Greatest President,” which received of the 2021 Barnondess/Lincoln award.  White is a graduate of UCLA and Princeton Theological Seminary an

Survey after survey shows that local media is the most trusted media in the United States today. Tiziana Dearing transformed a successful career in advocacy, philanthropy, and the academy into the morning voice of news and information in one of America’s great cities.  Dearing is the host of WBUR’s “Morning Edition.” Prior to helping listeners start the morning with news from around the corner and around the world, she hosted “Radio Boston,” WBUR’s daily local magazine, for five years. Prior to journalism, Dearing’s career spanned academia and advocacy work. She taught graduate students at the Boston College School of Social Work and chaired its program in Social Innovation and Leadership. Dearing also ran a start-up foundation focused on breaking generational cycles of poverty in Boston neighborhoods and was the first woman president of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Boston. Additionally, she ran a research center at the Harvard Kennedy School and worked in management consulting. She earned the Pi

Survey after survey shows that local media is the most trusted media in the United States today. Tiziana Dearing transformed a successful career in advocacy, philanthropy, and the academy into the morning voice of news and information in one of America’s great cities.  Dearing is the host of WBUR’s “Morning Edition.” Prior to helping listeners start the morning with news from around the corner and around the world, she hosted “Radio Boston,” WBUR’s daily local magazine, for five years. Prior to journalism, Dearing’s career spanned academia and advocacy work. She taught graduate students at the Boston College School of Social Work and chaired its program in Social Innovation and Leadership. Dearing also ran a start-up foundation focused on breaking generational cycles of poverty in Boston neighborhoods and was the first woman president of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Boston. Additionally, she ran a research center at the Harvard Kennedy School and worked in management consulting. She earned the Pi

Across human history, we have looked to the heavens and seen things that didn’t make sense. Greg Eghigian chronicles how those human experiences were translated by believers, skeptics, investigators and hoaxers in the aftermath of the Second World War into the UFO phenomenon we still talk about today.    Eghigian is a historian of the human sciences and medicine as well as modern Europe. He earned both his Master’s and Doctorate in Modern European History from the University of Chicago. He is now a professor of History and Bioethics at Penn State University. His past work has focused on how societies use science, technology, and medicine to define and treat people and behaviors deemed to be troubling, bizarre, or outright dangerous. In recent years, the modern history of supernatural and paranormal phenomena has caught Eghigian’s captivation. His 2024 book, “After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon,” depicts the social effects of claimed UFO sightings in the backdrop of the Cold W

When many of us think about animal rescue, we think about abandoned pets looking for a new home. But Carol Mithers chronicles the work of one woman in Los Angeles who challenges us all to understand that animal and human suffering are connected. Mithers is writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, L.A. Weekly, Smithsonian, O, the Oprah Magazine, Architectural Digest, Ladies’ Home Journal, Glamour, The Nation, Los Angeles, Salon, The Daily Beast and many other outlets. Her Village Voice cover story, “My Life as a Man,” was syndicated internationally and made into an NBC movie of the week. Mithers is also the author of four books including “Mighty Be Our Powers,” written with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee. Her fourth book, “Rethinking Rescue: Dog Lady and the Story of America’s Forgotten People and Pets,” tells the story of Lori Weise, known in Los Angeles as the Dog Lady, who’s spent decades caring for people in poverty and the animals that love them. 

Shakespeare called death “the undiscovered country.”  Luke Lorentzen documents the work of spiritual guides, also known as hospital chaplains, as they help patients navigate this country and the next.   Lorentzen is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and a lecturer in Stanford University’s Department of Art and Art History. His latest film, “A Still Small Voice,” follows a chaplain during her year-long hospital residency. Exploring perseverance, spirituality, and the human connection, the film received critical acclaim. It won the U.S. Documentary Best Director Award at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and was listed among the New York Times’ top ten films of the year. Lorentzen is also a co-founder of Hedgehog Films, an independent production company. His previous film, “Midnight Family,” was also shortlisted for the best documentary Oscar after winning over 35 awards from film festivals and organizations around the world including a Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival

The most 2024 story would have to involve the Olympics, presidential politics, and Taylor Swift. Joanna Weiss unpacks the recent convergence of those cultural phenomena and what they portend for American politics.   Weiss a Boston-based writer and editor. She is executive director of the AI Literacy Lab at Northeastern University, a project to connect journalists and technologists. Weiss is a former columnist, television critic, and a political reporter at the Boston Globe. She is the founding editor of Experience magazine, published by Northeastern University. She started her career covering Louisiana politics for the Times-Picayune of New Orleans. A contributing writer for Politico Magazine, she has also covered culture and politics for Boston Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, The Economist, and others. Weiss is also contributing to an album-by-album coffee table book about Taylor Swift, coming out in 2025.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since 2016, the presence of foreign disinformation in American politics—and especially on our social media platforms—has been well documented. But Darren Linvill says different state-actors—like Russia and China—behave differently online, depending on their goals. Darren Linvill is a professor of communication whose research explores social media disinformation and its influence on civil discourse (in and out of the classroom). He became a faculty member at Clemson after earning degrees from Wake Forest and Clemson and started studying social media in 2010. After becoming an associate professor in 2017, he delved deeper into the truth or falsity of online messaging and its effects. As a sought-after media expert, he’s contributed to many articles and broadcasts by outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Bloomberg, Rolling Stone, Inside Higher Ed, The State, CNN, NPR, ABC, NBC, WFAE and others.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The data tells us that every minute of every day, 20 people are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. Ashley Bendiksen has turned her personal experience with domestic abuse into a calling to prevent domestic violence and help victims.   Bendiksen is an author, domestic abuse survivor, speaker, and an award-winning activist. She also graduated from Salve Regina University in 2013 as the valedictorian. She is also a nonprofit founder, co-owner of a life coaching agency for youth, and founder of the Blue Hearts Project. Bendicksen experienced dating violence that began a cycle of abusive relationships and trauma at age 14. She speaks publicly about her struggles with self-worth and unhealthy coping habits that led her to her most damaging relationship where she said, “I became homeless, penniless, and was forced to drop out of college by my abuser. I only finally escaped after I was severely physically attacked.”  In the days following her attack, Bendicksen says a moment of clarity hel

Lies and disinformation are as old as humanity itself.  But Steven Brill argues that the witches brew of 30-year-old legislative consequences; mixed with technological innovation; and bad actors threaten the lives of democratic institutions and truth itself.   Brill is an award-winning journalist, author, and the founder of Court TV, The American Lawyer Magazine, American Lawyer Media, Brill’s Content Magazine, Journalism Online and The Yale Journalism Initiative. He is also the co-founder and co-CEO of NewsGuard, a media platform that rates the reliability of news and information websites. His latest book, “The Death of Truth: How Social Media and the Internet Gave Snake Oil Salesmen and Demagogues the Weapons They Needed to Destroy Trust and Polarize the World – and What We Can Do About it” explores the threat of disinformation on society.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It may be a scarcity mindset that views plenty as better than a world where nations and people compete over limited, scarce resources.  But Francis Gavin explains that even in a world of plenty, there are vexing international challenges for which the United States is not prepared.   Gavin is the Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and the inaugural director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS. He was the first Frank Stanton Chair in Nuclear Security Policy Studies at MIT and the Tom Slick Professor of International Affairs and the Director of the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas. Gavin has had fellowships at Harvard University, the University of Texas, and at the Noble Institute. From 2005 until 2010, he directed The American Assembly’s multiyear, national initiative, The Next Generation Project: U.S. Global Policy and the Future of International Institutions. He currently serves on the CIA Historical Panel and is