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Our nation’s founders envisioned a republic in which the people would be the ultimate source of power. However, a pervasive cultural narrative—across the right and the left—tells Americans it is pointless to participate in civic life, because the game is rigged and their voices just don’t matter. The Pluribus Project Narrative Collaboratory, a project of the Aspen Institute’s Citizenship and American Identity Program, is designed to change this. We are countering this dominant negative narrative with a storyline of citizen empowerment, and we are funding eight experiments in creative media and narrative-making. Join program executive director Eric Liu, Matt Kibbe, and Maria Hinojosa of Futuro Media Group as they discuss how Americans across the country are coming together to create real change.
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USA
Many more Americans are struggling to survive and make ends meet than is typically portrayed in the media and public policy debates. And when poverty is depicted, harmful and...
America’s “second founding” came on the heels of the Civil War, when the architects of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments thought long and hard about how to enshrine civil rig...
It’s been decades since the United States has updated its immigration policies in any sort of comprehensive way, and the problems and suffering at the southern border have per...
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The 2024 presidential election is only months away, and the past few weeks alone have brought shocking headlines that change the political ground we stand on — an attempted a...
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The federal right to abortions in the United States has been overturned, access to contraception and IVF services are threatened in many states, and the gender wage gap persis...
The Supreme Court has issued another series of controversial and consequential decisions this term, fueling discussion on the current state of the judicial branch. Recent poll...
The rollback of reproductive rights, the push to end no-fault divorce, and gun laws that allow domestic abusers to own a firearm are turning the clock back on women’s rights....
Americans feel more polarized than ever, but two governors from opposite sides of the aisle have made it their mission to show otherwise.
Former Senators Bill Nelson and Kay Bailey Hutchison discuss the bipartisan work that defined their careers, suggest ways for today’s elected officials to find common ground,...
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Amid seismic shifts in the entertainment world, Oscar-, Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning Brian Grazer has managed to keep pivoting to new ways to tell stories in movies, TV and...
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Images communicate truths, and also lies. Learning to pay attention to photographs can help us discern. An art and cultural historian and a visual artist host a master class o...
Hurray for the Riff Raff is more than Alynda Segarra’s musical moniker; they spent their youth hopping trains across America, capturing that life in youthful poetry then and a...
Peter Thiel has made no secret of his feelings about economic and cultural issues. Hear him discuss his vision for the future, his bets on AI and digital currencies, his thoug...
From climate change and mental health to hate crimes and chronic school absenteeism, no challenge is too big for young people’s community-changing solutions. Hear from teams o...
Join our panel of expert analysts for a pre-debate conversation about how the 2024 election is shaping up. Stay for the debate watch party and refreshments, then hear the pane...