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Dick Metcalf has been shooting since kindergarten, a member of the NRA since middle school. He’s been studying, writing, and teaching about firearms for over 40 years. But Metcalf’s long career as a columnist with Guns & Ammo magazine came to an abrupt halt in late 2013 after he penned a column that explored the line between firearm regulation and Second Amendment infring...
Bestselling author Andrew Solomon praises Danielle Allen’s 2017 memoir Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A., saying, “In this narrative of freedom and incarceration, education and disadvantage, rehabilitation and punishment, Allen paints an unforgettable portrait of a cousin she loved. …The message is large and clear: we need urgently to reform the system through which we...
If we just do enough yoga, cleanse with the optimal juice fast, and buy products designed to help us meditate or foster positive thinking, we’ll feel better. That, at least, is what the $650 billion wellness industry wants us to believe. But what’s making us ill, argues Kerri Kelly, author of American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal, can’t be cured by...
American women have lived their daily lives — before and after the epic election of 2016 and its accompanying drama — up against a set of structures, barriers, and mindsets that rarely make the headlines. What it is like to be a woman in America today? Which circumstances and experiences bind us together — and which ones tear us apart? Leaders share the experiences they l...
Many American Muslims — especially those who have worked in government or in other ways to counter radicalism and terrorism — feel caught in the middle: Much of American society questions their patriotism, while their own communities question their loyalty. How do they balance their interests as both Muslims and Americans?
How can we prepare needed talent to fuel economic growth and social mobility? With the workplace rapidly changing with advances in artificial intelligence, do we even know enough about future jobs to prepare young people with the right skills and capacities? Are our education systems prepared in light of rapid demographic shifts? Leaders in industry and academia have some...
If one dives deeply into the statistics, the American Dream is actually quite alive and well. In his provocative book, The Myth of American Inequality, former U.S. senator Phil Gramm argues that the facts reveal a very different and better America than the one currently described by policy advocates across much of the political spectrum.
David Rubenstein brings his love of American history to life in a new eight-part series on PBS, “Iconic America,” a fascinating look at important national symbols including the Gadsden Flag, the cowboy, and the Statue of Liberty. In this fast hour, Rubenstein reflects on how these icons came to be, how they’ve evolved over time, and what they mean today.
In 1987, E.D. Hirsch sparked a national debate with his book Cultural Literacy, claiming that there is a foundation of common knowledge every American should know — and codifying it in a list of 5,000 facts and cultural references. Hirsch’s famous list was attacked for being too focused on “dead white men.” But now, amidst giant demographic and technological shifts, we nee...
Former US Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, who led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2015 to 2019, and Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass analyze the United States’ role in the world — how our relationships, responsibilities, entanglements, and motivations, have shifted in recent years and what’s at stake in the months ahead.
Join John Hamre, CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, for a dynamic exploration of the transformational forces that will shape the global community throughout the 21st century. Unpacking critical mega-trends like global demographics, water stress and food security, the energy transition, technological disruption, and geopolitics, Hamre examines the fa...
Across the nation, cities and metropolitan areas, and the networks of pragmatic leaders who govern them, are taking on the big issues that Washington won’t—or can’t—solve. They are reshaping our economy and fixing our broken political system.
How far have we come toward racial equality since the civil rights era? What does it mean to be black today? How can we have had a black president while events like Ferguson continue to occur? Explore the tremendous gains and persistent challenges of these years, from key events and turning points to the struggles and victories of daily life, ideas that are not often said...
Humans are tribal. But in America today, the allure of tribalism takes us down one treacherous path after another. American political elites have ignored the group identities that matter most to ordinary Americans. Identity politics have seized both the left and right in an especially dangerous, racially inflected way to the point that every group now feels threatened. To...
Experts believe climate change is not a technological problem, it’s a social problem. Americans have diverse and opposing views about global warming, which fundamentally shape the politics of climate change. What are the recent, and often surprising, trends in American knowledge, attitudes, and behavior on the issue? Where do liberals and conservatives across age and regio...
“I spent the first half of my life being afraid,” says Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of the bestselling memoir of transgender experience, She’s Not There, “and the second half telling people to be brave.” Boylan, who’s also known as the “voice of reason” on TV’s “I am Cait,” talks about living life as a father for six years, a mother for twelve, and neither for a few year...
Some research suggests that 60 percent of American voters want a new political party. With extremists on either side of the aisle hobbling the government’s ability toward the kind of forward change that most citizens might agree on, is it time to consider a third path forward?
What’s the state of this historically fraught relationship? Do today’s politics and rhetoric around the Middle East, immigration, and national security constitute a unifying force, or a divisive one? Are we entering a time of particular challenge, or one of opportunity?
America's problem with race has deep roots. With the country's foundation tied to the near extermination of one race of people and the enslavement of another, racism is truly our nation's original sin. And as recent tragedies confirm, we continue to suffer from this legacy of bigotry. The old patterns of white privilege are colliding with the changing demographics of a div...
Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic Paul Goldberger shares an entirely new look at the history of baseball, as told through the stories of the stadiums where the game is played. Reminding us that baseball’s history is a mirror of our cultural history, Goldberger explores how America’s favorite pastime has shaped our cities, both physically and psychologically. Sti...