STORY IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE

#1401 Sean Carroll
Many of us grapple with big questions of the meaning of human existence, our place in space, time, and the forces that bind us together. Author and physicist Sean Carroll invites us to explore these questions and believes the concepts of physics should be accessible to everyone.

#1402 Richard Evans
The preeminent historian of the Third Reich explores the people surrounding Hitler who fed and translated his messianic delusions into crimes against humanity.

#1403 Hahrie Han
Johns Hopkins University professor Hahrie Han discusses the ways congregants at one of America’s largest churches are working for social justice.

#1404 Molly Ball
Molly Ball, senior political correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, breaks down the 2024 election and what the second Trump presidency might hold.

#1405 Padma Venkatraman
Best-selling young adult author Padma Venkatraman discusses her latest book, “Safe Harbor,” and her leadership in the national organization, Authors Against Book Bans.

#1406 Anatoly Kurmanaev
New York Times international correspondent Anatoly Kurmanaev helps us understand the war in Ukraine and the changes it has spurred inside Russia as the third anniversary of its full-scale of invasion of Ukraine approaches.

#1407 Andrew Holland
Imagine an energy technology that produces vast quantities of energy with extremely small quantities of waste and a virtually limitless supply of fuel. Fusion Industry Association CEO Andrew Holland says that technology is coming—with dozens of start-ups driving innovation that may just prove to be revolutionary.

#1408 Alice Marwick
Media scholar and disinformation researcher Alice Marwick says the world of traditional media has been forever changed as legacy news outlets fail and social media influencers rise to change who we trust and look to for information about the world around us.

#1409 Pete Hammond
With Hollywood's awards-season in full-swing, Deadline's Awards Columnist and Chief Film Critic Pete Hammond shares his insights on the contenders for this year's Academy Awards.

#1410 Daniel D’Addario
Daniel D’Addario, chief correspondent at Variety, discusses the entertainment industry today, the Oscars, and his new book, The Talent.

#1411 Jamie Metzl
Humanity’s ability to create artificial intelligence, to decode the human genome, and to engineer organisms are, individually, signature achievements. But Jamie Metzl says where these three technologies intersect lies great hope and challenge for all of humanity.

#1412 Samina Ali
In her new book, “Pieces You'll Never Get Back: A Memoir of Unlikely Survival,” author Amina Ali pens a harrowing and redemptive memoir, in which a new mother must reconstruct her shattered mind, her relationship to her religious upbringing, and her life's purpose.

#1413 Marietje Schaake
Scholar and former Member of the European Parliament Marietje Schaake describes how tech companies are, increasingly, taking on the functions of government and threatening the health of democracies around the world.

#1414 Alia Dastagir
As children we learned the that “stick and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” But Alia Dastagir says it’s not true—online attacks with words produce real physical and mental health consequences for their victims.

#1415 Keon West
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.

#1416 Tim Gray
The end of World War in Europe meant mothers with sons and husbands at war 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. Historian Tim Gray has made his life’s work about telling the stories of those heroes, their sacrifices, and their legacy.

#1417 Eric Schitzgebel
It’s possible that we live inside a simulated reality or a pocket universe embedded in a larger structure about which we know virtually nothing. And consciousness may be a physical matter, or it might require something extra, something nonphysical. Philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel says the answers to these and other fundamental questions about our existence lie beyond our powers of comprehension.


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