Bridging the Divide with Susan Rice
The Cost of Child Poverty with Lenette Azzi-Lessing
Air Dates: December 2-8, 2019 For generations, American politicians have promised reducing—or even eliminating—poverty as one of their goals. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson went so far as to declare an “unconditional war” on poverty. Lenette Azzi-Lessing warns, however, that the rhetoric of fighting poverty has become a war on the poor with devastating consequences for America’s most vulnerable children. Azzi-Lessing is Clinical Professor of Social Work at Boston University … Read More
Blood Libel in an American Town: Antisemitism in the United States with Edward Berenson
Air Dates: November 25-December 1, 2019 On September 22, 1928, a four-year-old girl named Barbara Griffiths disappeared in the woods near the small town of Massena, New York. At some point in the panicked search that followed, someone speculated that the child may have been murdered by a Jewish resident of the community in a ritual sacrifice. This was blood libel, a well-documented antisemitic slander common in Europe but new … Read More
Open Technological Innovation and Tomorrow’s Terrorists with Audrey Kurth Cronin
Air Dates: November 11-17, 2019 After Alfred Nobel developed dynamite, his invention reshaped the world—literally. From mining to infrastructure projects, dynamite proved essential to the building of the modern world. But it also changed political violence—both on battlefields and in the streets where the first wave of modern terrorists adopted the explosive as a weapon of choice. Audrey Kurth Cronin says we have work to do to manage the new … Read More
“Story in the Public Square” will Debut Fourth National Season on Public Television January 6, 2020
Newport, R.I. – The two-time Telly Award-winning series Story in the Public Square will continue to be broadcast across the United States with the debut of its fourth national season beginning January 6, 2020, the series announced on Tuesday. The show has been in production since January 2017 on SiriusXM Satellite Radio and in southeastern New England from its flagship TV station, Rhode Island PBS. Story in the Public Square … Read More
Opium: How an Ancient Flower Shaped and Poisoned Our World with Dr. John Halpern and David Blistein
Air Dates: November 4-10, 2019 In 2017, opioid addiction claimed nearly 50,000 American lives—that’s as many Americans as were lost in the entire Vietnam War, and more than were lost to gun-shots and automobile accidents combined. Dr. John Halpern and David Blistein explore the history of opium—from antiquity to the modern world—and describe a solution to the opioid crisis that blends an understanding of what works and what has failed, … Read More
The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Immigration Act of 1924 with Daniel Okrent
Air Dates: October 28-November 3, 2019 In 1924, a new American law ended the wave of immigration to this country that had begun in the 19th century. Hundreds of thousands of southern- and eastern-European immigrants had entered the United States each year before the law, but after 1924, those numbers were reduced to a trickle. Daniel Okrent is the author of a remarkable history of the bigotry and sham science … Read More
Memory, Connection, and Healing Through Storytelling with Patricia Nguyen
Air Dates: October 21-27, 2019 If you are a regular viewer of “Story in the Public Square,” you know we define “story” and “story-teller” very broadly. Educators, artists, scholars—and more—all qualify in our eyes; but occasionally, we meet a talent that weaves all three skills together with a profound humanity that commends their work to us, as they inspire and even heal others. Patricia Nguyen is just such a person. … Read More
The Value of Liberal Arts in a Digital World with Scott Hartley
Air Dates: October 7-13, 2019 For generations, a liberal arts education was the gold standard of preparation for career and a well-rounded-life. For much of the last decade, however, voices—including those of prominent technology leaders—have warned that the jobs of today and tomorrow require education in so-called STEM fields: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Not surprisingly, enrollments in liberal arts fields have declined. Scott Hartley argues that far more than … Read More
The Iranian Nuclear Landscape with Ilan Goldenberg
Air Dates: September 30-October 6, 2019 In 2015, the United States and Iran concluded years of difficult diplomacy that froze Iran’s nuclear weapons program for ten years. Less than two years later, Donald Trump was president and withdrew the United States from that agreement in May of 2018. IIan Goldenberg warns that while neither the United States nor Iran want a war, the potential for miscalculation and stumbling into war … Read More