STORY IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE

#1101 Peter Colman
Political polarization is at epidemic levels in the United States—shaping national politics, friendships, and even family dynamics. Author and Columbia University social psychologist Peter T. Coleman says it doesn’t have to be that way—that each of us can adopt simple practices to reduce the polarization in our lives and in our communities.

#1102 Elie Honig
Justice is supposed to be blind. However, author and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig says that individuals blessed with power, fame, and money have advantages in the criminal justice system unavailable to most Americans.

#1103 Macaela Mackenzie
Professional female athletes still lag well behind their male counterparts in terms of how much they earn, the power they wield in their profession, and the respect afforded them. Author Macaela Mackenzie shows that this phenomenon in sports is no different from the experience of women across American society.

#1104 Meredith Broussard
The myth is that technology is unbiased, but data scientist Meredith Broussard says the truth is more complex and explains how bias and discrimination creep into the algorithms that shape the modern world.

#1105 Haruka Sakaguchi
New York-based Japanese photographer Haruka Sakaguchi specializes in cultural identity and intergenerational trauma, using striking images, many in black-and-white, to tell stories of survival and shared humanity.

#1106 Alexandra Robins
Schools are at the heart of communities across the United States, and teachers are at the heart of each school. Investigative journalist Alexandra Robbins shares a year in the life of three teachers, the schools in which they teach, and the children whose lives they shape.

#1107 Elizabeth Rush
For longer than we can remember, politicians and concerned citizens have asked 'what kind of world are we leaving our children?' Author Elizabeth Rush grappled with that very question when she journeyed to Antarctica’s fragile glaciers to chronicle the realities of a changing climate.

#1108 Jade McGlynn
The reality of Russia's War in Ukraine isn't just a year and a half old, but almost a decade, dating to Russia's invasion and annexation of Ukraine in 2014. Scholar Jade McGlynn explores the propaganda and mythmaking that sold the Russian people on aggression against their Ukrainian neighbors and cousins what it means for Russia role in the broader world.

#1109 Brad Sears
Brad Sears, founding executive director of UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, discusses discrimination against LGBTQ+ people at a time when their rights and safety are under attack.

#1110 Justin Brown
Justin Brown, co-founder of MASS (Model of Architecture Serving Society) Design Group, explains how architecture plays a critical role in supporting communities as they confront history, shape new narratives, collectively heal and project new possibilities for the future.

#1111 Adam Mastroianni
Surveys from around the world show that people believe morals have been decaying for decades. But scientists, including Adam Mastroianni, reject that idea as nothing more than an illusion.

#1112 Matthew Desmond
The United States is both the richest country on Earth, and yet beset with a crushing poverty that saddles too many Americans. Pulitzer Prize-winning author and sociologist Matthew Desmond says the reality of American poverty is sustained by those who benefit from it.

#1113 Bill Kole
Veteran AP journalist and author Bill Kole discusses his new book, “The Big 100: The New World of Super-Aging,” which explores what will happen in the coming decades as the world’s centenarian population increases eight-fold.

#1114 Dale Hanson Bourke
All over the world, girls face challenges—and outcomes—far worse than boys—a fact borne out by research on different continents and in different societies. Author Dale Hanson Bourke says that the challenges facing girls shouldn’t overwhelm us; they should inspire us.

#1115 Ned Blackhawk
For too long, the history we’ve considered “America’s” has really just been the history of European conquest. Yale University historian Ned Blackhawk argues that there is no American history without its first, indigenous inhabitants.

#1116 Nyani Nrumah
Author Nyani Nrumah adeptly weaves fiction with historical fact to tell the story of two traumatized people whose pasts still haunt them that are drawn together in a complicated friendship in her new book, “Wade in the Water.”

#1117 Dr. Dennis Charney and Dr. Jonathan DePierro
Dennis Charney and Jonathan DePierro, authors of "Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges," discuss strategies to navigate life's inevitable traumas in a post-COVID world.

#1118 Thomas P.M. Barnett
Globalization is often portrayed as the bogeyman in American politics. But combine it with climate change and demographic collapse and best-selling author Thomas P.M. Barnett says it will drive profound shifts in the way the world operates—with real challenges for American leadership and security.

#1119 Tananarive Due
In her new book, “The Reformatory: A Novel,” award-winning African American author Tananarive Due uses fiction to explore the horrors of racism and injustice in the Jim Crow era.

#1120 Jeff Horwitz
Not so long ago, Facebook was the unrivaled social media platform. It reached billions of users on a regular basis, selling a vision of itself as a new public square. Award-winning Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz broke the original story of the way Facebook executives prioritized engagement on its platform over protecting things like American democracy.

#1121 Nikhil Goyal
Sociologist and policymaker Nikhil Goyal follows the lives of three children growing up in the Kensington section of Philadelphia as they strive to resist the forces of modern-day American poverty in his new book, “Live to See the Day.”

#1122 Tom Nichols
From the violence in the Middle East to the dysfunction in Congress, the world feels increasingly untethered. The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols spent his early career analyzing threats to American security and now is unapologetic in his warnings about the threats to American democracy.
Available: December 4, 2023

#1123 Evelyn Farkas
The year began with chaos in the U.S. House of Representatives and ended with much the same. Along the way, technology demonstrated its potential to reshape human productivity and creativity; wars and violence raged in Europe and the Middle East; and American democracy continued to show signs of stress. The McCain Institute’s Evelyn Farkas helps us name the 2023 “Story of the Year.”
Available: December 11, 2023

#1124 Rainer Lohmann
Persistent Organic Pollutants sound like they would be dangerous, and they are. University of Rhode Island Oceanographer Rainer Lohmann explains their danger to the environment and human beings.