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.  

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.

Story in the Public Square is a weekly, 30-minute series that brings audiences to the intersection of storytelling and public affairs. Hosted by Jim Ludes and G. Wayne Miller, Story in the Public Square offers a spirited but respectful dialogue. Often funny, always provocative, each episode of Story in the Public Square
moves beyond traditional public affairs programming to consider the impact of narrative and storytelling on public life today.

Story in the Public Square is a weekly, 30-minute series that brings audiences to the intersection of storytelling and public affairs. Hosted by Jim Ludes and G. Wayne Miller, Story in the Public Square offers a spirited but respectful dialogue. Often funny, always provocative, each episode of Story in the Public Square moves beyond traditional public affairs programming to consider the impact of narrative and storytelling on public life today.

Season 16

Story in the Public Square

Joanna Weiss on the Intersection of Celebrity Culture and Political Engagement

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 helped her take steps to turn her life around. She began telling her story to raise awareness and serving on boards and committees of organizations that supported victims of domestic abuse. She chose domestic violence awareness as her central advocacy focus as Miss New Bedford, MA, and continues to leverage her experiences to serve others work in victim services and the justice system.  

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 helped her take steps to turn her life around. She began telling her story to raise awareness and serving on boards and committees of organizations that supported victims of domestic abuse. She chose domestic violence awareness as her central advocacy focus as Miss New Bedford, MA, and continues to leverage her experiences to serve others work in victim services and the justice system.

Domestic Violence: Healing and Prevention with Ashley Bendiksen

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.  

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.

Steven Brill on Disinformation in the Modern Era and its Consequences

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 a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Gavin is the Co-Founder, Co-Director and Principal Investigator, with James Steinberg, of the Carnegie International Policy Scholars Consortium and Network (IPSCON), and Founder and Director of the Nuclear Studies Research Initiative (NSRI). He’s also the author of a new Adelphi Paper from the International Institute of Strategic Studies: “The Taming of Scarcity and the Problems of Plenty: Rethinking International Relations and American Grand Strategy in a New Era.” 

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 a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Gavin is the Co-Founder, Co-Director and Principal Investigator, with James Steinberg, of the Carnegie International Policy Scholars Consortium and Network (IPSCON), and Founder and Director of the Nuclear Studies Research Initiative (NSRI). He’s also the author of a new Adelphi Paper from the International Institute of Strategic Studies: “The Taming of Scarcity and the Problems of Plenty: Rethinking International Relations and American Grand Strategy in a New Era.”

Joanna Weiss on the Intersection of Celebrity Culture and Political Engagement

In 2 playlist(s)

Story in the Public Square

Social links

Follow podcast

Recent clips