Free Forum with Terrence McNally

“We're still fighting the last battles of the Civil War," according to attorney CONNIE RICE in a recent interview. Rice has for decades been doing the hard work of police reform. She believes, “There's a war within American policing … Does it continue to go with the policing that descended from slavery, which is containment suppression? Or do they go toward community healing, wraparound safety, public health policing — which doesn't even promote cops for making arrests?” Here’s my 2012 conversation with Rice about her book, POWER CONCEDES NOTHING.

ELIZABETH FERNANDEZ has worked on voter education and GOTV campaigns, helping to register thousands of new voters. She’s now Communications Director of MOVEMENT VOTER PROJECT, which offers a clear break from failed electoral strategies of big donors, big consultants, and big TV ad buys. MVP helps donors move their money to the best local community-based organizations in key states, who are alive on the ground 365 days a year, election or not. In 2018, they moved more than $13M to 350+ groups in 42 states - in almost every competitive US House, Senate, Governor’s race and ballot measure. You can learn more at movement.vote.

2019 was marked by mass demonstrations around the globe. That ended with the pandemic. until millions witnessed George Floyd’s death. For more than two weeks crowds have risked their health to protest police brutality in all 50 states. People argue whether violent or non-violent protest works best. ERICA CHENOWETH did the research. Listen to my 2019 conversation with her about her book WHY CIVIL RESISTANCE WORKS: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict.

GEORGE PACKER’s recent essay in the Atlantic, We Are Living in a Failed State, was being quoted a lot - before George Floyd’s death and the ensuing days of rage. Packer is the author of 2013’s THE UNWINDING, which reported on a country growing vulnerable to a demagogue like Trump, and 2019’s Richard Holbrooke biography OUR MAN, just out in paperback. He’s a staff writer at The Atlantic and I reached out after reading two of his recent essays The President Is Winning His War on American Institutions and We Are Living in a Failed State. We talk about how it all fits together.

ASTRA TAYLOR takes democracy seriously. In her documentary WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? and the companion book, Democracy May Not Exist, But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone, she explores its early roots as well as its current embattled state. She reminds us that real democracy—fully inclusive and egalitarian—has never existed. Both ancient Athens and the original US were slave states. Can we restore rule of the people to the current American rule of the wealthy? Can democracy handle big challenges like the Coronovirus pandemic and climate change?

In these unsettling times, I turned to the archives for inspiring ideas about the meaning of life. First, my 2009 conversation with physicist FRITJOF CAPRA about one of my favorite books, The Turning Point. Written in 1981, it looks at many domains of human activity, and makes clear that we need to move toward a systems view of reality that sees everything as dynamic and interdependent. True to those themes, in the second half you’ll hear my 2008 conversation with MacArthur award-winning biologist STUART KAUFFMAN about his provocative book, Reinventing the Sacred, in which he offers an inspiring image of God as the ceaseless creativity of the universe and of life itself.

Millennials have already revolutionized technology, commerce and media. They’re responsible for our major social movements. And there are now 26 Millennials in Congress - five times as many as before the 2018 midterms. TIME magazine national correspondent CHARLOTTE ALTER (cover stories on Mayor Pete, AOC, and Person of the Year Greta Thunberg) examines how millennials have gained power so far — from City Hall to Congress. In her first book, THE ONES WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR, she asks - How are we going to get to the political future? - and - What’s it going to look like when we do?

In The Patterning Instinct, JEREMY LENT brings together cultural history and neuroscience - a new discipline he calls cognitive history. Lent reminds us we see the world through stories. The right has dominated politics with a story of America that is false on many counts and based on a set of values that brings us to this moment when we cannot work together to save our lives. Can we come out the other side with a story of shared vulnerability, shared fate, and shared purpose? I think this conversation recorded in 2018 lays a good foundation for considering that challenge.

The American people usually come together when confronting huge challenges – think of WWII and the attacks of 9/11. But today, facing the global pandemic, we are divided – on nearly every aspect of the crisis. In NONZERO, ROBERT WRIGHT contends that evolution and history move us toward greater cooperation, collaboration, and win-win outcomes. We talk about why - though individuals act heroically - the nation remains tribalized.

ROBERT WRIGHT takes on big questions, and in 2009’s THE EVOLUTION OF GOD, he shows how the concept of God in Judaism, Christianity and Islam has varied over time depending on the politics at play when their stories were told. When people see their interests threatened, this perception brings out the most belligerent parts of their religion. We explore how this might apply to Islamic terrorists and Evangelical Christians.