Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
414 episodes - English - Latest episode: 12 days ago - ★★★★ - 11 ratingsThe Civics series at Town Hall shines a light on the shifting issues, movements, and policies, that affect our society, both locally and globally. These events pose questions and ideas, big and small, that have the power to inform and impact our lives. Whether it be constitutional research from a scholar, a new take on history, or the birth of a movement, it's all about educating and empowering.
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Episodes
#EducationSoWhite 2018
March 22, 2018 05:00 - 1 hour - 72.3 MBThis year’s panel of dynamic education leaders will examine the impact of the culture gaps in our schools separating students and teachers. Topics that will be fueling this event include: the fact that 90% of teachers in Washington State are white although almost half of our students are kids of color, the achievement gap, ideas for solutions in recruiting and retaining teachers of color, equitable restorative justice practices, the school-to-prison pipeline, inclusion—not just tolerance—for...
Casting A Wider Net
March 19, 2018 05:00 - 1 hour - 73.2 MBAcross the globe, millions of people depend on fisheries for their food security and livelihoods. Yet estimates suggest that between 20 to 50 percent of the global fish catch is either illegally caught, mislabeled, or never reported. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is valued at an estimated $15.5 to $36.4 billion a year, and the illicit nature of IUU fishing activities makes it difficult to understand the full scope of the problem. Town Hall partnered with The Stimson Ce...
Amy Chua with Bill Radke
March 15, 2018 05:00 - 1 hour - 68.8 MBHumans are tribal; we need to belong to groups. But according to international law professor Amy Chua in her book Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations, Americans are often spectacularly blind to the power of tribal politics—and that blind spot has continually undermined American foreign policy. Chua took our stage to outline how Washington’s foreign policy establishment and American political elites alike remain oblivious to the group identities that matter most to ordina...
Robert Reich
March 12, 2018 05:00 - 1 hour - 68.2 MBSocieties and nations undergo virtuous cycles that reinforce and build the common good, as well as vicious cycles that undermine it. In his new book The Common Good, acclaimed author Robert Reich contends that over the course of the past five decades America has been in a slowly accelerating vicious cycle—one that can and must be reversed. With the warmth and lucidity that have made him one of our most important public voices, Reich made the case for a generous and inclusive understanding of...
Dapper AF
March 08, 2018 06:00 - 1 hour - 67.5 MBIf the future is fluid, do lesbians still need to get coming out haircuts? Does the color of your bandana even mean anything anymore? Address these questions and more with this fierce panel of queer style innovators. Join us for an exploration of what it means to be unapologetically dapper in this city of flannel and fleece while learning about the intersection of fashion, history, and identity in the ever-evolving LGBTQ+ community. Panelists: SassyBlack is a space aged singer, songwrite...
12th Annual Urban Poverty Forum
March 05, 2018 06:00 - 1 hour - 69.9 MBThe Urban Poverty Forum is an annual educational event that brings speakers together around a common theme: to open a dialogue about the systemic issues surrounding urban poverty. Unite with a diverse and caring community including faith-based organizations, non-profits, and concerned citizens in addressing problems faced by the poorest among us. Join community leaders in a panel discussion on the successes, challenges and perceptions around police de-escalation tactics. The event includes c...
Steve Coll
March 02, 2018 06:00 - 1 hour - 77.5 MBPrior to 9/11, the United States had been carrying out small-scale covert operations in Afghanistan, in cooperation (and sometimes opposition) with Pakistani intelligence agency I.S.I.. While the U.S. was trying to quell extremists, a highly secretive and compartmentalized wing of the I.S.I. known as “Directorate S” was covertly training, arming, and seeking to legitimize the Taliban. In his book Directorate S, journalist Steve Coll makes painfully clear that the United States doomed the wa...
Jeremi Suri with Rajiv Chandrasekaran
February 28, 2018 06:00 - 56 minutes - 59.2 MBWith discussions of Presidential Approval Ratings surfacing in headlines, many wonder why numbers across recent presidential terms have seemed lower than ever. In The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office, historian Jeremi Suri charts America’s disenchantment with the office of the presidency, from the limited role envisaged by the Founding Fathers to its current status as the most powerful job in the world. He argued that the presidency is a victim of its own ...
Yasha Levine
February 26, 2018 06:00 - 55 minutes - 58.8 MBWith each passing year the internet becomes more and more a part of modern life. Despite story after story of hacks, malware, government surveillance, and corporate corruption, we continue to rely on the web for ever more social functions. Investigative journalist Yasha Levine shared observations to help us gain perspective on this system we take for granted, revealing the for-profit surveillance businesses operated within Silicon Valley and the military origins of the platforms and tools we...
Arlie Russell Hochschild with Christopher Sebastian Parker
February 22, 2018 06:00 - 1 hour - 77.8 MBPolitical scientists have outlined and explored a growing fundamental misunderstanding between the American Right and Left. Analysts reference this divide when addressing the widespread bewilderment of many Americans at Donald Trump’s election, citing difficulties from liberals in understanding what Trump voters were thinking when they cast their ballots. For clarity we turn to Arlie Russell Hochschild, one of the most influential sociologists of her generation, as she takes our stage to pre...
Andrew Keen with Alex Stonehill
February 19, 2018 06:00 - 1 hour - 73.1 MBThe Internet has morphed from a tool providing efficiencies for consumers and businesses to an elemental force that is profoundly reshaping our societies and our world. Former Internet entrepreneur Andrew Keen was among the earliest to write about the potential dangers that the Internet poses to our culture and society. Now he took our stage with his new book How to Fix the Future, looking to the past to learn how we might change our future. Keen discussed how societies tamed the excesses of...
Anya Kamenetz
February 15, 2018 06:00 - 47 minutes - 50 MBThe newest generation of children is exposed to technology more than any who have preceded them. For many, this technological interaction begins at infancy. Does this ubiquity represent a wonderful opportunity to connect around the world or the first step in creating a generation that’s emotionally and socially dependent on screens? Education and technology expert Anya Kamenetz offered us a refreshingly practical look at the subject with her new book The Art of Screen Time: How Your Family C...
Emily Dufton
February 12, 2018 06:00 - 1 hour - 68 MBIn the last five years, eight states have legalized recreational marijuana. To many, continued progress seems certain. But pot was on a similar trajectory forty years ago, only to encounter a fierce backlash. Historian Emily Dufton took our stage to share a comprehensive history of marijuana—from its decriminalization in a dozen states during the 1970s to its transformation into a national scourge by concerned parents, a movement paving the way for an aggressive war on drugs. Chastened marij...
Susan Wise Bauer
February 08, 2018 06:00 - 58 minutes - 46.9 MBModern educators have expressed dissatisfaction with our current K-12 school system. Many claim that it prioritizes only a single way of understanding, pushes children into a rigid set of grades with little regard for individual maturity, and slaps “disability” labels over differences in learning style. And when the children struggle, schools pressure parents into “fixing” their children rather than questioning the system. With boldness, experience, and humor, education expert Susan Wise B...