After the Fact

Story: “Crisis and Change: Conversations With Leaders” is produced in partnership by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. In the series, leaders from across the social sector share insights about how they are innovating during challenging times. The increasing wealth gap is a symptom of larger inequities facing Americans today. And 61% of Americans say there’s too much economic inequality in the U.S., according to a 2020 Pew Research Center survey. In this episode, Larry Kramer, president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, discuss the origins of wealth inequality and its impact on American democracy. They also share how their institutions are creating new pathways for all communities to access secure and vibrant futures.

Story: “Crisis and Change: Conversations With Leaders” is produced in partnership by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. In the series, leaders from across the social sector share insights about how they are innovating during challenging times. In this episode, Tonya Allen, president of the McKnight Foundation, and John Palfrey, president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, address the growing threat of a changing climate. They discuss how they’re answering the global call for solutions that promote equity and protect vulnerable communities, and encourage others in the philanthropic sector to act at this critical time.   

Stat: 3 times: The Arctic is warming three times faster than the planet as a whole. Story: The ocean is important for the health of the planet, and coastal communities around the world rely on it for their way of life. In Part II of “The State of Our Ocean,” we speak with Sheila (Siila) Watt-Cloutier, an environmental, cultural, and human rights advocate, about the value of the ocean to the Inuit in the Arctic and how challenges such as climate change and rising tides affect her community and its traditional ways of life. “What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic,” says Watt-Cloutier. Many of the threats emerging in her people’s culture from climate change are reflected across the world in other coastal towns.

Stat: 30%—More than 70 countries support the call to protect and conserve at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030. Story: The ocean is central to all life, providing oxygen, nutrition, and recreation, and supporting economic livelihoods for coastal communities around the globe. But this essential resource is facing multiple threats, including climate change, overfishing and illegal fishing, and plastics pollution. In this new series, “Ocean, People, Planet,” we focus on the connection between the health of the ocean and the health of the planet. We’ll examine the state of the ocean, the challenges it faces, and offer potential solutions based on data, science, and traditional ways of knowing. In this first episode, we speak with Callum Roberts, marine biologist and oceanographer, about our human history with these waters and how we might chart a better course for our collective future.

Story: “Crisis and Change: Conversations With Leaders” is produced in partnership by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. In the series, leaders from across the social sector share insights about how they are innovating during challenging times. In this episode, Crystal Hayling, executive director of The Libra Foundation, and Sonal Shah, founding president of The Asian American Foundation, discuss their organizations’ work toward transforming the way race is discussed in America and how to improve understanding about racial concerns to lead to a more inclusive society.

Story: “Crisis and Change: Conversations With Leaders” is produced in partnership by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. In the series, leaders from across the social sector share insights about how they contend with challenging times and societal division. In this episode, Susan Urahn, Pew’s president and CEO, and Sarah Rosen Wartell, president of the Urban Institute, discuss the deepening political polarization, increasing misinformation, and growing mistrust that has affected public debate—and how they find common ground to forge meaningful change for the good.

Political polarization. Climate change. Racial reckoning. Income inequality. A global pandemic. Since 2020, all five of these immense challenges have emerged or deepened, commanding our attention and prompting major societal and cultural shifts. In this special series produced in partnership by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Stanford Social Innovation Review, we talk with leaders from across the social sector. They take us behind the scenes, sharing approaches and case studies of innovation and resilience during these unprecedented times. 

Stat: 4 in 10: U.S. Census data from 2020 shows that 4 in 10 Americans identify with a race other than White. Story: The demographic landscape in the United States is changing rapidly. In this virtual event rebroadcast, guests from our “Race and Research” season discuss how the country’s growing diversity is driving a new national conversation about race and ethnicity. The event panelists also highlight the challenges and opportunities researchers face when applying a racial and equity lens to data.

Stat: 93%—93% of new COVID-19 cases were caused by the delta variant in the United States by the end of July 2021. Story: The battle against the COVID-19 virus seemed almost won, but the delta variant is now responsible for a new surge of cases. In this episode, we turn again to infectious disease physician Dr. Rebecca Wurtz to learn more about this new variant and what it means for both vaccinated and unvaccinated populations.

Charita Castro, a social science researcher and ambassador for the American Association for the Advancement of Science IF/THEN Ambassadors program, speaks about how to recruit more women and people of color to the STEM fields¾science, technology, engineering, and math¾to strengthen innovation