Cascade PBS Ideas Festival

Social media platforms have been used to divide people and tilt elections. Can anything be done about it? The question of disinformation in the modern age has become inextricable from the social media platforms that command so much personal attention — Facebook and Twitter in particular.  These platforms do a lot of things, but one thing they do really well is feed on a kind of confirmation bias. And, as recent history has shown, people with agendas can leverage that bias to their advantage.  What can be done about it? Beyond deleting their accounts or enacting a heightened regimen of personal vigilance, the average person is left to rely on government intervention or the willingness of the companies to police themselves.  For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, we speak with two authors who know a lot about social media, Jillian C. York and Andrew Marantz, about the likelihood that anything can be done, or will be done, about it. --- Host: Mark Baumgarten Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara Engineers: Seth Halleran, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

The urban theorist discusses the appeal of urban life to young workers and how remote work is going to change the way we live. The future of American cities has been a point of ongoing anxiety. For the past couple of decades, the fate of both fading industrial centers and booming tech hubs has resulted in much hand-wringing.  When COVID-19 arrived in early 2020, it supercharged anxieties about the future of cities while also challenging some assumed wisdom about who will occupy American cities in the future and how.  Americans have been living in that future for a year and a half now and, while the fate of cities may be a little clearer, it is still difficult to say exactly where urban life is headed. For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, urban theorist Richard Florida shares his evolving vision of America's urban future, explaining why early concerns of an exodus were overblown and how work will really change the way city dwellers live. --- Credits Host: Mark Baumgarten Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara Engineers: Sara Bernard, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

The author and strategist discusses the anti-government sentiment that emerged in the wake of the civil rights movement and what it still costs all Americans. Over the past two decades, Americans have grown accustomed to reports on the yawning gap between the country's rich and poor. Such news might be seen as a catalyst for change, but that hasn't really been the case.   So, what is going on? What is it about America that, despite its incredible wealth, prevents it from closing the gap? Heather McGhee has an answer, which she puts forth in her book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. The problem, she says, is America's zero sum theory of economic well-being. And the roots of that theory, she says, are found in racism. For this week's episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, McGhee sits down with the Root senior writer Michael Harriot to discuss the origins of that theory and how it affects all Americans. --- Credits Host: Mark Baumgarten Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara Engineers: Seth Halleran, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

The Black Lives Matter co-founder discusses how recent social movements are challenging Americans to press for real change.  Power is an active and ever-evolving element in American politics and an animating force in American culture. The act of seeking it, discovering it, fighting for it and defending it is the drama of a democracy. Yet it’s not always so apparent.  There are times in American history when the pervading power dynamic is largely taken for granted. Now is not one of those times.  The crises of recent years, along with the spread of new technologies, have disrupted the status quo and brought power struggles of all sorts into the open. Those denied power — whether because of their race, their gender or their immigration status — are staking a claim to it. These struggles are shaping politics at all levels in a very real way and touching American lives on an individual basis.  For this week’s episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza discusses how she and others are pushing to rebalance power in this country, especially when it comes to Black Americans. In conversation with The 19th’s Erinn Haines, Garza discusses the role that activists have played in the shifting of power and the forces that are working to stop or even reverse that shift. --- Credits Host: Mark Baumgarten Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara Engineers: Seth Halleran, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

Science journalist Michelle Nijhuis and philosopher Peter Singer discuss the complex relationship between people and the other creatures they rely on. Human beings may often view themselves as apart from animals. But even in the most urban existence, creatures big and small loom large in the day-to-day existence of just about everybody. Animals are sustenance, nuisance and company. The relationships between people and the animals they rely on are often taken for granted, even though these relationships are embedded with deeply consequential questions.  What right do human beings have to interrupt or manipulate the lives of other beings? What is that interruption doing to them? And what is it doing to humanity? For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, we invited science Nijhuis and Singer to answer these questions and to explain the history of humanity’s tangled relationship with the animal kingdom. --- Credits Host: Mark Baumgarten Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara Engineers: Seth Halleran, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

The founders of The 19th share the lessons learned in the first year of their industry-bending journalism startup. Over the past two decades, the journalism industry has experienced a lot of change. Much of that transformation has been bad: shrinking page counts, shrinking budgets and, ultimately, shrinking newsrooms.  In recent years, though, the kind of changes the journalism industry is seeing have themselves changed. As the old ways have fallen away, some new approaches to the industry’s financial and philosophical underpinnings have resulted in new hope for many.  A lot of that hope is embodied in The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom focused on covering gender, politics and policy.  For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, we feature a conversation with The 19th founders Amanda Zamora and Emily Ramshaw about the origins, intentions and successes of their outlet.  --- Credits Host: Mark Baumgarten Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara Engineers: Seth Halleran, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

The two journalists discuss how the decisions following the attacks of Sept. 11 led to distrust and division. Racism, inequity and political polarization have been a part of American history since the beginning of the country. And yet, all of the issues have exploded in the past few years as Americans have become more polarized than they have been in generations.  There is no single reason for the division and political mistrust that have become endemic to public life, but there is an argument to be made that the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, served as an animating force of this difficult era.  This is the idea behind the latest installment of PBS's Frontline series, America After 9/11.  For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, we speak with Michael Kirk, the filmmaker behind the documentary, and journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran about how that one day and the decisions that followed transformed the country.  --- Credits Host: Mark Baumgarten Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara Engineers: Seth Halleran, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

He talked a big game during the presidential campaign. Our guests look at what the president is doing in his first year to back that up. Democratic control of the federal government was far from certain heading into the 2020 general election. But following the election of Joe Biden to the presidency and Georgia's two Senate seats going blue, an unexpected opportunity emerged.  One of the biggest questions facing the party now in power is what it would do with this moment when it came to the environment.  Climate policy has never been a given when it comes to actual legislation at the federal level. But President Biden and many of his fellow Democrats have put climate front and center in this first year of his administration. For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, Dr. Leah Stokes, Dr. Katharine Wilkinson and Julian Brave Noisecat discuss the moves the president has made to shore up his administration's environmental acumen, the scope of his vision and whether it will amount to anything.  --- Credits Host: Mark Baumgarten Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara Engineers: Seth Halleran, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

The ‘White Fragility’ author and Slate podcast host Jason Johnson discuss the massive cultural changes since the murder of George Floyd. In the months after the murder of George Floyd, many institutions and white people across the country were openly grappling with the idea of whiteness — in particular, what responsibility white people and white-led institutions bear in addressing racism in American society.  Anti-racist statements were issued from corporate accounts and personal pledges made on social media. A year later, the national conversation about racism continues as the cultural shift promised in those early days meets reality.  In some places, stated goals of diversity, equity and inclusion are coming up against headwinds created by a status quo that is pretty resistant to change.  For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, we speak with Robin DiAngelo, the author of White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Race. Interviewer Jason Johnson, who hosts Slate's A Word podcast, speaks with her about what has actually changed in the past year and what still needs to happen. --- Credits Host: Mark Baumgarten Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara Engineers: Seth Halleran, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

Is it still ethical to ski and hike? How is raising a kid to love the outdoors changing? The director of the UW Climate Impacts Group talks us through those questions. For a long time, climate change was more of a theoretical threat for many people. While certain events would underline the threat the scientists were warning the world about, they were rare enough that it was possible to ignore or quickly forget about the dangers ahead. That is becoming more and more difficult to do now as headlines about record-breaking heat waves, drought, wildfires and flooding become more frequent.  It is also becoming more difficult to ignore for one particular segment of the population: outdoor adventurers who rely on snowy slopes, forest trails, waterways and clean air to get their kicks. For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, we speak with Amy Snover of the University of Washington's Climate Impacts Group about the ways the changing climate is changing the nature of outdoor recreation and what can still be saved. --- Credits Host: Mark Baumgarten Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara Engineers: Seth Halleran, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph