The City Club of Cleveland Podcast

At its core, the German Marshall Fund strives to champion democratic values and the transatlantic alliance by strengthening civil society, forging bold and innovative policy ideas, and developing a new generation of leaders to tackle global challenges. In fact, many of its alumni reside right here in Northeast Ohio and they continue to drive innovative solutions to the challenges our communities face.\r\n\r\nAs the organization's sixth president, Heather Conley is leading the German Marshall Fund forward during these times of international unrest and upheaval. Alliances and strategic relations around the world are being redefined by the Russian war against Ukraine and growing US-China competition and tension. It begs us to reconsider US and European engagement in global swing states, new patterns of international cooperation, and what type of leadership is required of all of us at this moment.\r\n\r\nConley has spent her career working in international relations and governmental affairs. Before coming to the German Marshall Fund, she spent 12 years at the Center for Strategic and International Studies as the senior vice president for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic. Before that, she was the executive director of the Office of the Chairman of the Board at the American National Red Cross and the deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, it sent the issue of legalizing abortion back to the states. After the court's decision, Ohio enacted a near-total ban on abortion--which remained legal for a little over two months until a Hamilton County judge placed the law on hold due to a lawsuit from the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. Currently, abortion is legal in Ohio before 22 weeks of pregnancy. With Issue 1, abortion proponents hope to enshrine the right to abortion in the state's constitution.\r\n\r\nIf passed, Issue 1 would allow a patient to "make and carry out one's own reproductive decisions, including decisions about abortion, contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care, and continuing pregnancy." It would still allow the state to restrict abortion after fetal viability, except when "necessary to protect the pregnant patient's life or health. Opponents to Issue 1 argue the amendment would increase access to abortions, remove parental rights, allow gender affirming care for minors.

The phrases \"woke\" and \"anti-woke\" have entered the general lexicon in recent years, providing combative fodder to both sides of the debate, and fueling division in American discourse. But what are the origins and consequences of so-called "wokeness?\"\r\n\r\nIn Yascha Mounk\'s previous visit to the City Club, he discussed shifts in the global thoughts about democracy, how we got here, and how it can be saved. Mounk has built his acclaimed scholarly career on being one of the first to warn of the risks right-wing populists pose to American democracy. Now, Mounk joins us once again to discuss his latest book that tackles the appeal and limitations of identity-based politics--which has rapidly transformed America and college campuses across the country. He calls it the \"identity trap,\" and argues those on the left and center who are stuck in the identity trap will ultimately make it harder to achieve progress toward genuine equality.\r\n\r\nYascha Mounk, Ph.D. is a political scientist known for his work on the rise of populism and the crisis of liberal democracy. He is a professor of the practice of international affairs at Johns Hopkins University, the founder of the digital magazine Persuasion, a contributing editor at The Atlantic, and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. The Identity Trap is his fifth book.

Systems change in workforce development is the collective efforts of employers, workers, talent developers, and other stakeholders to make a transformative impact and create opportunities for others in our community. It asks those in the work to go beyond traditional models of workforce development.\r\n\r\nAs the CEO of Incept since 2012, Sam Falletta oversees customer acquisition strategies and outreach for major global companies, including Microsoft, Ford, and Honda. Under his leadership, the Canton-based marketing company has grown and is consistently recognized as a leader in its field and in the Northeast Ohio business community. Incept has received numerous awards for its innovative business practices and its positive workplace culture. Outside of his work at Incept, Falletta is the founder of TEDxAkron and a skilled public speaker.

It\'s evident that Cleveland is positioning itself as a burgeoning technology and arts and culture hub, rapidly expanding its network of startups and visionary individuals. Still, there remains an imbalance in the accessibility to capital and growth prospects, particularly for BIPOC communities.\r\n\r\nGhanaian filmmaker, and Kent State University alum Blitz Bazawule, knows first-hand the challenges that lie at the intersection of entrepreneurship, arts & culture, and the startup economy. Now, he is making headlines as director of the musical reimagining of THE COLOR PURPLE, a film produced by Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Quincy Jones, which is set to release in theaters on Christmas Day.\r\n\r\nBazawule is also an author, visual artist, rapper, singer-songwriter, and record producer. Blitz Bazawule, or 'Blitz The Ambassador' is a visionary artist who has been making waves in the American music and film industry since his debut album in 2004. He also served as director for Beyonce\'s visual album Black is King in 2020. He first stepped into the literary scene in 2022 with the publication of his novel The Scent of Burnt Flowers, detailing the story of a Black couple seeking asylum in Ghana.

In 1955, the integration of a lily white Cleveland suburb began with one Black family and an unexpected response from that family\'s new neighbors. While some had responded with the racism and bigotry common to that era, the neighbors welcomed them and stood with them. Eventually, together they created an intentionally integrated community in Ludlow, on the west side of Shaker Heights.\r\n\r\nThese events set a course for the community and the Shaker Heights school district became a beacon for racial school integration and academic excellence. But not without its challenges. In Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity, author Laura Meckler explores Shake Heights school\'s history as a case study of what\'s possible and how hard the work can be.\r\n\r\nUsing her years of experience as a journalist, Meckler turns her investigative eye toward the city that formed her, delving into difficult questions about this complicated part of Shaker Heights' history-and its effects on the country's racial academic achievement gap. Publishers Weekly called the book "a nuanced and impressively detailed study of the barriers to racial equality."\r\n\r\nMeckler is a national education reporter for The Washington Post. She previously worked at The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press. She was part of the team that won the George Polk Award for Justice Reporting for a 2020 series on the life of George Floyd. Before coming to Washington, Laura covered state government in Columbus. She got her start at The Repository in Canton.

For many small to medium-sized arts venues, the last few years were some of the toughest to navigate. The COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain struggles, and the contracting of the global economy all played a part. Many venues struggled to stay open or were forced to close down permanently, and ultimately support from COVID era stimulus packages saved the industry from mass collapse. Independent venues play important roles as third spaces for social engagement, but they also generate jobs and contribute greatly to economic activity.\r\n\r\nFormed during the pandemic, the National Independent Venue Association recently hosted its first conference in Cleveland in 2022; and the Cleveland chapter just recently announced the Cleveland Music Census--an effort to gather measurable data on the economic impact of independent venues.

Since 1935, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards remains the only American book prize that recognizes books that have made significant contributions to our understanding of racism and human diversity. Joining us at the City Club is this year\'s Lifetime Achievement award winner, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, a civil rights icon and a veteran journalist with a remarkable career.\r\n\r\nHunter-Gault first made history in 1961 when she desegregated the University of Georgia after she mounted a successful legal challenge that granted her admission. In 1963, the Georgia governor declared her marriage to University of Georgia classmate Walter L. Stovall, who was white, "a shame and disgrace." The state's Attorney General even threatened prosecution.\r\n\r\nCharlayne has worked for The New Yorker, The New York Times, PBS, NPR, and CNN. She has received multiple awards, including an Emmy and Peabody for her distinguished work covering the Apartheid at PBS NewsHour. In her latest book, My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives, Charlayne chronicles her lifelong commitment to reporting on Black people in their totality, from the Civil Rights Movement to the election of Barack Obama, and beyond.

Over the decades, NASA has become synonymous with scientific discovery, innovation, and economic opportunities. Now, with Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. Then, NASA will use what is learned on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap: sending the first astronauts to Mars.\r\n\r\nAt the helm of these efforts is NASA\'s Jim Free. He leads America's deep space human exploration efforts, including developing the systems for NASA's Artemis missions and planning the agency's Moon to Mars exploration approach and architectures. A native of Northeast Ohio, Jim Free previously served as Center Director of the NASA Glenn Research Center and has over three decades of experience in government and the industry. Under his leadership, humanity will establish a long-term presence on the Moon to conduct fundamental scientific research, send humans to further destinations, and advance economic opportunity--including right here in Northeast Ohio.

When the City Club convened its first forum in 1912, Cleveland Mayor Newton D. Baker, Cincinnati Mayor Thomas Hunt, and Toledo Mayor Brand Whitlock came together to discuss the work of city government, the challenges they faced, and the solutions they were implementing. Now, more than 110 years later, as the City Club opens a new home for civic dialogue at Playhouse Square, Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb and Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval will join us to discuss the work of governing Ohio cities today.\r\n\r\nJustin M. Bibb is the 58th Mayor of Cleveland. He has prioritized improving public safety, investing in neighborhoods, and modernizing City Hall. Mayor Bibb was born and raised on Cleveland's southeast side in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood.\r\n\r\nAftab Pureval is the 70th Mayor of Cincinnati. Raised in Southwest, Ohio, the son of first-generation Americans, he is the city's first Asian American mayor. He served as Hamilton County Clerk of Courts from 2016 to 2021 and was the first Democrat to hold this office in over 100 years.