From devastating hurricanes to increasing destruction caused by wildfires, growing numbers of Americans are suffering from the impacts of drought, storms and other extreme weather events.  On “Let’s Find Common Ground” we’re looking at some of the most important issues facing voters as they make their choices in the 2020 election.  Climate change is a much more important issue for many voters now than it was in 2016. According to a recent poll by Pew Research Center, a record-high 60% of Americans say it is a major threat to the well-being of the United States. We gain a deeper understanding from journalists Eva Botkin-Kowacki and Eoin O’Carroll of The Christian Science Monitor. Both Eva and Eoin are staff reporters, covering science, technology and the environment. They tell us that climate change is no longer a theory. We are living with some of the early results.

Following the most unconventional Democratic political convention in history, Center Director Bob Shrum is joined by special guest Steve Schmidt to share the highlights and forecast the road ahead to November. Featuring: Steve Schmidt, Co-Founder, The Lincoln Project; Republican Political Strategist

How far apart are we as a nation? A liberal writer from Berkeley and a conservative military veteran decided to answer that question together during a series of long road trips in an old Volvo. They drove through 44 states and on nearly twenty thousand miles of road and highways, meeting an extraordinary range of people along the way. At a time of political gridlock and hyper-partisanship, Republican Jordan Blashek, and Democrat Chris Haugh formed an unlikely friendship that blossomed not in spite of but because of their political differences. The result of their road trips is the new book, “Union: A Democrat, A Republican, and a Search for Common Ground.” In this podcast episode, we discover what they learned about the American politics, culture, civics, and the condition of our democracy. “Our honest takeaway is that we’re not as far apart as imagined,” Chris tells us. “Underneath a patina of difference and division, there is a common language.”

"The black people I come from were owned and raped by the white people I come from," wrote author, poet and academic Caroline Randall Williams in a widely-read opinion column for The New York Times. As a Black southern woman with white ancestors, her view of the debate over how America remembers its past is deeply personal. This episode is the latest in our podcast series on racism and its painful legacy. Recent protests across the country have sparked renewed controversy over confederate statues, and the naming of military bases and public buildings that celebrate men who fought in the Civil War against the government of the United States.  Should the monuments be repurposed or removed? We discuss ways to find common ground and better our understanding of the American history. Caroline Randall Williams is a writer in residence at Vanderbilt University. She is a resident and native of Tennessee. Some of her ancestors were enslaved. Others included a prominent poet and novelist, and a civil rights leader. She is the great-great grand-daughter of Edmund Pettus, who was a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan and U.S. Senator from Alabama. 

John Chiang, former California State Treasurer and Fall 2020 Fellow at the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, joins co-directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy to discuss his career in politics, the pandemic’s lasting economic impact on California, and its implications for the November election and beyond. Chiang served as California’s 33rd State Treasurer until 2019. As the state’s banker, he oversaw trillions of dollars in annual transactions, managed a $75 billion investment portfolio, and was the nation’s largest issuer of municipal bonds. As State Controller during the Great Recession, his cash management decisions were instrumental in keeping California’s credit rating from plunging into junk status, and his actions saved taxpayers millions of dollars. Chiang aggressively used his audit programs to identify more than $9.5 billion of fraud, waste and abuse in government programs, the most by any Controller in California’s history. He serves on several boards and will be teaching a course in the fall titled, “From Financial Crisis to COVID-19: California Policy Responses to the Financial Fallout” with the USC Center for the Political Future.

What can we discover about personal pain caused by racism? In this episode, we speak with an inter-racial couple to find out what a well-educated white professional woman learned from her African American husband, a senior law enforcement official.  Our guests are Errol Toulon, elected as first African American Sheriff of Suffolk County, New York, and Tina MacNicholl Toulon, a physician liaison and business development executive. She tells us what she's learned since their marriage in 2016, about racism, "driving while black", and other indignities that are all too often part of a black person's daily life. The need to find common ground and improve race relations has taken on new urgency with recent anti-racist protests and demands for profound change in America. Both Tina and Errol believe that education is a crucial ingredient in reaching a much better understanding about widespread racism. By speaking out publicly about their own experiences, they believe they're contributing to a vital discussion aimed at improving public understanding of a divisive and disturbing part of American life.

Outrage, grief, and despair over cases of police brutality and racism erupted nationwide, with growing demands for major reforms. The protests appeared to sway public opinion. A Washington Post poll in June found that 69% of Americans agreed that the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis suggests a broader problem within law enforcement.  This episode brings together a police chief and a critic of law enforcement. Both discuss their hopes for better policing in the future, and find some areas of agreement on proposed changes, including greater diversity, better training, and firmer action against officers who step over the line.   Art Acevedo is Chief of Police for the Houston Police Department. He now serves as President of the Major Cities Chiefs Association. MSNBC legal analyst Maya Wiley is a civil rights activist, former board chair of New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board, and senior vice president for Social Justice at The New School.

Mimi Walters, former Congresswoman (R-CA) and Fall 2020 Fellow at the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future, joins co-directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy to share some thoughts on the 2020 election and her decades-long career in public office. From investment executive to elected official, Walters most recently served as U.S. Representative for District 45 in Orange County, until 2018. She also served in both the California State Senate and Assembly and got her start in politics as a city Councilmember and Mayor of Laguna Niguel. In Congress, Walters sponsored legislation for wildfire disaster tax relief and the Survivor’s Bill of Rights that established key protections for survivors of sexual assault. She served on the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee where she was a member of the Communications and Technology, Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection, and Oversight and Investigations subcommittees. She is the co-founder of the California Women’s Leadership Association, sits on several boards, and will be teaching a course in the Fall titled “So You Want to Run For Office?” with the USC Center for the Political Future.

As the pandemic has unfolded, social media has once again demonstrated how it can inform – or mislead – by encouraging the spread of literally deadly information. Center Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy moderate a discussion on the implications of misinformation from political, social and engineering perspectives – and how it could alter the course of social media. In partnership with the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences' Dornsife Dialogues series. The panelists include: Kristina Lerman, Research associate professor of computer science and principal scientist at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering Information Sciences Institute Jon-Patrick Allem, Assistant professor of research preventive medicine and director of the Social Media Analytics Lab at Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Still reeling from a global pandemic, protests across America erupted in cities across all 50 states, sparking a worldwide movement in over 20 countries. Violence against black men and women, like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others, perpetrated by police has plagued this country for decades. The demand for systemic change for how cities are policed and how racism penetrates so much of American life has become a national, multicultural discussion. This panel explores how we got here and what actions are needed to move forward. The panelists include: Art Acevedo - Chief of Police, Houston Police Department; President, Major Cities Chiefs Association Donna Brazile - Former Chair, Democratic National Committee (DNC); FOX News Contributor Sydney Kamlager-Dove - California State Assembly member, District 54 (D-Los Angeles) Bob Shrum - Director, Center for the Political Future; Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics, USC Dornsife Erroll Southers - Professor of the Practice in National & Homeland Security; Director, Safe Communities Institute; Director of Homegrown Violent Extremist Studies, USC Price Moderated by: Ron Christie, BBC News Analyst; Fall ‘19 Fellow, USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future.