The pantheon of writers focused on climate change ranges from scientists and scholars to poets lamenting the loss of our environment. Jake Bittle documents the impact of climate on people, including the great migration of Americans caused by changes to the Earth’s environment.

Bittle is an author and climate change specialist for the non-profit magazine Grist. His work has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Harper’s and other media outlets. He is also author of the new book, “The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration.”

The pantheon of writers focused on climate change ranges from scientists and scholars to poets lamenting the loss of our environment. Jake Bittle documents the impact of climate on people, including the great migration of Americans caused by changes to the Earth’s environment.
Bittle is an author and climate change specialist for the non-profit magazine Grist. His work has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, Harper’s and other media outlets. He is also author of the new book, “The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration.”

“Story in the Public Square” is a year-round initiative to study and celebrate public storytelling. It features an annual conference, lectures, awards and student contests, as well as original scholarship about public storytelling and how those stories can affect the public debate.

Story in the Public Square is a partnership between the Pell Center and The Providence Journal, and is directed by visiting fellow G. Wayne Miller with Pell Center executive director Jim Ludes.

Story in the Public Square

Season 13

Exploring Human Displacement as a Result of Climate Change with Jake Bittle

The United States is both the richest country on Earth, and yet beset with a crushing poverty that saddles too many Americans. Dr. Matthew Desmond is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and sociologist who says the reality of American poverty is sustained by those who benefit from it.   

​​Matthew Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University and joined the Harvard Society of Fellows in 2010. He is the author of four books, including “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,” which won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, Carnegie Medal, and PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. Desmond leads The Eviction Lab, focusing his research on poverty in America, city life, housing insecurity, public policy, racial inequality, and ethnography. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, and the William Julius Wilson Early Career Award. A contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, Desmond was listed in 2016 among the Politico 50, as one of “fifty people across the country who are most influencing the national political debate.” 

The United States is both the richest country on Earth, and yet beset with a crushing poverty that saddles too many Americans. Dr. Matthew Desmond is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and sociologist who says the reality of American poverty is sustained by those who benefit from it.   
​​Matthew Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University and joined the Harvard Society of Fellows in 2010. He is the author of four books, including “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,” which won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, Carnegie Medal, and PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. Desmond leads The Eviction Lab, focusing his research on poverty in America, city life, housing insecurity, public policy, racial inequality, and ethnography. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award, and the William Julius Wilson Early Career Award. A contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, Desmond was listed in 2016 among the Politico 50, as one of “fifty people across the country who are most influencing the national political debate.”

How The Chains Of Poverty Prevent People From Being Free: Putting An End To Poverty In America With Matthew Desmond

In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that love is love is love and marriage equality became recognized in all 50 states.  Brad Sears warns, however of legislative efforts across the country to roll back LGBTQ rights.

Sears is the Founding Executive Director and Rand Schrader Distinguished Scholar of Law and Policy at the Williams Institute.  He is also the Associate Dean of Public Interest Law at UCLA Law.  Sears has published several research studies, primarily on discrimination against LGBT people and people living with HIV.  He has taught courses on LGBT and disability law at UCLA, Harvard, and Whittier law schools.  He has testified before Congress and state legislatures, authored amicus briefs in key court cases, helped to draft state and federal legislation, and been cited frequently by national media.  A graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School and has received the Co-Presidents Award from the LGBT Bar Association of Los Angeles in 2019 and the Earl Warren Outstanding Public Service Award from the American Society of Public Administration in 2018.

In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that love is love is love and marriage equality became recognized in all 50 states.  Brad Sears warns, however of legislative efforts across the country to roll back LGBTQ rights.
Sears is the Founding Executive Director and Rand Schrader Distinguished Scholar of Law and Policy at the Williams Institute.  He is also the Associate Dean of Public Interest Law at UCLA Law.  Sears has published several research studies, primarily on discrimination against LGBT people and people living with HIV.  He has taught courses on LGBT and disability law at UCLA, Harvard, and Whittier law schools.  He has testified before Congress and state legislatures, authored amicus briefs in key court cases, helped to draft state and federal legislation, and been cited frequently by national media.  A graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School and has received the Co-Presidents Award from the LGBT Bar Association of Los Angeles in 2019 and the Earl Warren Outstanding Public Service Award from the American Society of Public Administration in 2018.

Brad Sears on Current Issues Facing the LGBTQ Community

Every generation seems to lament the decline in public virtues, morality, and decency. But Adam Mastroianni argues that those perceptions are generally not rooted in reality.    

Mastroianni is an experimental psychologist and author of the science blog, “Experimental History.” He earned his doctorate in psychology from Harvard in 2021, and his work has been covered everywhere from The New York Times to “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” He is originally from Monroeville, Ohio (pop. 1,400). Outside of science, he’s also a stand-up and improv comedian, he has done over 140 escape rooms, and he once came in second on a British reality show about hosting dinner parties. 

Every generation seems to lament the decline in public virtues, morality, and decency. But Adam Mastroianni argues that those perceptions are generally not rooted in reality.    
Mastroianni is an experimental psychologist and author of the science blog, “Experimental History.” He earned his doctorate in psychology from Harvard in 2021, and his work has been covered everywhere from The New York Times to “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” He is originally from Monroeville, Ohio (pop. 1,400). Outside of science, he’s also a stand-up and improv comedian, he has done over 140 escape rooms, and he once came in second on a British reality show about hosting dinner parties.

Exploring Human Displacement as a Result of Climate Change with Jake Bittle

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