Geopolitics, Climate Change, and the Olympics: The 2024 Story of the Year with Evelyn Farkas

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 Ame…

Ronald C. White Reflects on the Life and Legacy of Joshua Chamberlain

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: …

Perspectives on Advocacy, Empathy, and Storytelling in Public Media with Tiziana Dearing

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’…

Greg Eghigian on Unraveling the History of the UFO Phenomenon

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 tod…

Understanding Humanity Through the Healing Power of Pets and Unconditional Love with Carol Mithers

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…

Luke Lorentzen Explores the Journey of a Hospital Chaplin in His Documentary “A Still Small Voice”

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’…

Joanna Weiss on the Intersection of Celebrity Culture and Political Engagement

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 Litera…

Combatting the Evolving Forms of Disinformation in our World Today with Darren Linvill

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 …

Domestic Violence: Healing and Prevention with Ashley Bendiksen

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 ab…

Steven Brill on Disinformation in the Modern Era and its Consequences

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,…