There is no denying that Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell, is a skilled legislator and, perhaps, the most powerful force in the modern history of the Senate, given his years in leadership, but to what end has he used his influence? To move policy forward? To forge meaningful compromises? To enhance the institutional …
The United States Postal Service remains the only mail and package delivery mechanism with the capability of reaching all of America. Despite new technologies and competitors that have been heralded as the end of postal delivery, it remains critical to many Americans, particularly those in rural sectors. And in 2020, when it faced greater pressures …
While America’s democratic institutions held in 2020’s presidential election, it was because some people, Republicans and Democrats–election officials, secretaries of state, in particular–did their constitutional duties and withstood pressure from the sitting president and his acolytes to overturn the results by various means, including pressuring state legislatures to overturn results in battleground states, challenging results …
Most decisions we make are by listening to our gut or by talking to a few trusted friends. There is now, however, a better approach to decision-making, according to our guest, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, author of ‘Don’t Trust Your Gut’ and a former Google data scientist. Using data to get what we really want in life …
As our nation careens from crisis to crisis and trust in institutions fades, Americans are looking for fresh, visionary leadership. As we have seen the courage and exemplary leadership of President Volodomyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine we know that his development as a leader has been revealed through the unimaginable experience of war. In his new …
Regrettably, it’s a fair question. Sufficed to say, the pandemic, political angst, war and personal setbacks associated with all of the above have battered our collective sense of calm and well-being. Americans have seen loss of friends and family to COVID, been isolated for long stretches and brought closer to financial peril. While all measures …
Dan Golden, the author of the classic book “The Price of Admission’, which documents how the wealthy and well connected have an inside track on getting into elite universities, joins us again to discuss trends in college admissions. The optional SAT, a by-product of the pandemic, may well become the norm as Harvard has extended …
Jon Marshall, Medill School of Journalism professor at Northwestern University and author of ‘Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis’ for a second episode of our podcast focusing on the state of the new media industry as it morphs in response to the digital times. The two most disturbing trends are news deserts, …
Clearly, Donald Trump’s relationship with the press was a contentious one as he continually called into the question their legitimacy and the accuracy of their reporting. Often he shorthanded the relationship with the simple handle of ‘fake news’. While many factors went in to making this back and forth particularly destructive in relation to previous …
In many ways, America won the 20th century by making movies that created a demand for all things American–our lifestyle, our values, our possessions and democracy itself. The impact of film was not lost on China which wants to dominate the 21st century. In fact they went to school on our film industry back in …