This show is built on the power of storytelling to change the world. Mary Rohlich has built her career telling stories that matter, whether in documentaries, feature films, or on television.

Fables are ancient tools for delivering big lessons to human audiences. In his work, Karey Kirkpatrick applies modern story-telling technology to this ancient tradition.

Two months ago, production of Story in the Public Square was stopped when our state governor issued a stay-at-home order. Like most of the rest of the country, we’ve watched the days pass. While we stayed home, Dr. Daniela Lamas kept going to work as a pulmonary specialist on the front lines of the pandemic.

President John F. Kennedy once said, “[one person] can make a difference. And everyone should try.” Chelsea Clinton is the author of a series of books for young readers inspired by that same sense of idealism.

The history of the American women’s suffrage movement is the history of determined community organizing, fierce protest, and the power of ideals. Susan Ware, however, tells us the history we know fails to reflect the diversity of the movement that won women the right to vote 100 years ago. She’s Susan Ware, this week on Story in the Public Square.

In the course of producing “Story in the Public Square” each week, co-hosts Jim Ludes and G. Wayne Miller revel in the chance to sit down with incredibly gifted story-tellers and artists, to hear them describe their craft, and to benefit from their unique perspectives on the world. Sara Jordenö is all of those things and more.

While the United States contains less than five percent of the planet’s population, it has nearly one-quarter of the world’s prison population. Elizabeth Hinton traces the politics and policy decisions since President Lyndon’s Johnson’s War on Poverty that created the nation’s reliance on mass incarceration.

The partisan split on climate change is unmistakable. Democrats view the climate as one of their top-two national issues. Republicans tend to worry more about the economic disruption that may result from efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Dr. Michael Klare argues that for the a-political men and women who lead the U.S. military, the challenge of defending the nation and its interests in an age of climate change is daunting.

History, as a subject of study, is more than a linear progression of events—it’s ideas, currents of thought, institutions of learning, social movements, moral awakenings and more. In a brief, new book, Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen traces the history of ideas that shaped the United States from its beginnings.