New America NYC

New America NYC and NYU's McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research have teamed up to produce an inaugural conversation on June 18th to highlight the necessity of early and sustained census preparation in keeping our democratic institutions equitably funded and accessible. 

Imagine a centralized database replete with your personal information that links together your and your family’s vital health, education, and social welfare records. Now imagine the database includes an entire country’s population. Fifty years ago this year, Denmark launched the world's first nationalized big data project. The country's Civil Personal Registration (CPR) system assigns every resident a "digital ID" that directly connects them with the Danish state to facilitate government-citizen interactions from birth to death and everywhere in between. Originally created to render tax collection  and the distribution of social benefits more efficient, the system has become a popular and benevolent instrument in Denmark built on the values of trust in government and sense of community. Now similar data infrastructures—often built by private sector platforms—are being applied across the globe, but in a climate in which data breaches are growing more frequent and more severe, their implications must adapt to the opportunities—and account for the challenges—of twenty-first century technology. How can citizens ensure their personal data isn't vulnerable to hacking and that their privacy rights are being upheld? What safeguards must government and the private sector take on to guarantee data is used and stored securely? What do CPR-modeled platforms mean for the future of digital democracy? Join New America NYC, in partnership with the Consulate General of Denmark in New York and Columbia University's European Institute, for a set of conversations on the past, present, and future of digital identity—and the measures we need in place to ensure its use for good. WELCOMING REMARKS Elana Broitman @elanabroitman Director, New America NYC   Tom FrestonBoard Member and Chair, New America NYC Advisory Council OPENING REMARKS Ambassador Jonas Bering-LiisbergState Secretary for Foreign Policy, Kingdom of Denmark   SESSION 1 Mikkel Hagen Hess @mikkelhess Director, Invest in Denmark, North America   Don Thibeau @4thibeau Executive Director, OpenID Foundation Zia Khan @ZiaKhanNYC Vice President, Initiatives and Strategy, The Rockefeller Foundation Michael IbachChief Analytics Officer, United Nations Tara Nathan @Thetaranation Executive Vice President, Public-Private Partnerships, MasterCard Louise Matsakis @lmatsakisStaff writer, WIRED  SESSION 2 Rebecca MacKinnon @rmack Director, Ranking Digital Rights, New America   Jacob Mchangama @JMchangama Founder and CEO, Justitia   John Paul Farmer @johnpaulfarmer Director, Technology and Civic Innovation, Microsoft Amanda Graham @BCCBlockchainCo-founder and Chief Services Officer, Blockchain for Change David K. Park @davidchungpark Dean of Strategic Initiatives, Arts & Sciences, and Faculty Member, Data Science Institute, Columbia University Natasha Singer @natashanytTechnology reporter, The New York Times    This event is presented in partnership with the Consulate General of Denmark in New York with additional support from the European Institute at Columbia University.  

There are no good guys in this story, including me. – Dan David, GeoInvesting After the 2008 financial collapse, U.S. investors began scouring global markets for new opportunities for high returns, and they turned to China to take part in its explosive economic growth. Looking beyond profits that seemed too good to be true, a band of rogue Wall Street outsiders uncovered a massive web of multibillion-dollar fraud. From the producers of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, The China Hustle takes a deep dive into China's economic miracle to reveal how many ordinary Americans who want to invest in China's dynamic growth—through pension funds, retirement savings, and mutual funds—are unaware they could be holding billions of dollars of junk. Academy-Award® nominee Jed Rothstein follows Dan David and a group of whistleblower investors who go to China to discover a landscape ripe for fraud. Working with Chinese investigators who put their freedom at stake, they expose hundreds of small Chinese companies that have vastly overvalued their assets, revenues, and and future prospects—representing 1.1 trillion dollars in market value on the NYSE and NASDAQ—and the American companies willing to turn a blind eye while they rake in huge profits. Join New America NYC for an advanced screening of The China Hustle and a conversation with the film's director, key subject, and experts that considers the accountability and transparency needed to protect investors and asks: what will happen if the China bubble bursts? PARTICIPANTS Jed Rothstein @boerumhillfilm Director, The China Hustle   Dan David Chief Investment Officer, F.G. Alpha Management, and Co-founder, GeoInvesting Featured subject, The China Hustle Dune Lawrence @DuneLawrence Investigative Reporter, Bloomberg & Businessweek Jiayang Fan @JiayangFan Staff writer, The New Yorker

Optimism is a moral choice. – Dr. Jim Yong Kim Thirty years ago, as much of the world was being ravaged by horrific diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, three young people, not yet out of medical school, set out to provide healthcare for Haiti's rural poor. They went on to spend the next three decades on the frontlines of health crises across the globe. Paul Farmer, Jim Yong Kim, and Ophelia Dahl came together to deliver a world-class level of care — the kind they would expect for their own families — and build health clinics in remote areas ignored by everyone else. Their idea was controversial and revolutionary: to create partnerships with the patients themselves by training ordinary villagers as healthcare workers. Despite enormous resistance from the outside world, they made groundbreaking advances in combating the life-threatening conditions of impoverished communities and against the spread of pandemics including drug-resistant TB, HIV/AIDS, and Ebola. Their inspiring vision is the subject of Bending the Arc, a new film by Academy Award® nominees Kief Davidson, Pedro Kos, and Cori Shepherd Stern. Through candid interviews and never-before-seen archival footage, the film profiles the fiercely dedicated group of doctors and activists as they deliver the highest-quality care in the most unlikely places. Join New America NYC for a screening of Bending the Arc and a conversation with global health practitioners and experts to ask: is healthcare a privilege for those who can afford it or a basic human right?   INTRODUCTION Nina Fialkow Executive Producer, Bending the Arc Chair, Massachusetts Cultural Council PARTICIPANTS Natalia Kanem, MD, MPH @Atayeshe Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Alishya Mayfield, MD, MPH Senior Clinical Adviser on Strategy, Partners in Health (PIH) Anatole Manzi, PhD Director of Clinical Practice, Partners in Health (PIH) Donna Patterson, PhD @PharmacySenegal International Security Fellow, New America Associate Professor of History and Director of Africana Studies, Delaware State University Lori Adelman @Ladelman Executive Director, Feministing Director of Youth Engagement, Women Deliver This event is presented in partnership with Tumblr.

In January 2013, on an early morning in Guatemala City, soldiers with automatic weapons are standing on street corners. A long line of Mayan women and men head into the high court, an institution historically dominated by the interests of a small white elite minority. Just three decades earlier, the ruling elite, with U.S. backing, engineered a coup that would topple a democratically elected government and unleash a dark period of repression and massacres. 200,000 mostly indigenous people were murdered; 45,000 urban artists, intellectuals, and activists disappeared.  Thirteen years later, the Mayan survivors and activists prevailed: former president Efraín Ríos Montt was brought before the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity and  a citizen uprising forced a corrupt president, Otto Perez Molina, to resign.  This heroic story is the subject of 500 Years, the third installment in Director Pamela Yates’s The Resistance Saga trilogy. Focusing on universal themes of racism, power, corruption, and social justice, 500 Years tells the story through the eyes of the majority indigenous Mayan population in Guatemala. It highlights how the ongoing struggle for human rights galvanized activists, especially women, to emerge as eloquent, powerful leaders of their community and country.   Join New America NYC for a screening of 500 Years and a conversation with the filmmaker, activists, and global experts about justice in the face of structural racism and how the force of sustained nonviolent resistance can make it possible for right to make might. PARTICIPANTS Pamela Yates @pameladyates Director, 500 Years Monica Aleman Cunningham @ACunningham2013 Senior Program Officer, Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD), Ford Foundation Andrea Ixchíu @Andreakomio Mayan activist featured in 500 Years

Many American workers are unwell. They live with serious economic insecurity; succumb to diabetes, depression, and addiction at alarming rates; and struggle to balance the conflicting needs of their employers, their families, and their own well-being. That outlook won’t improve until we think of health as the driver of prosperity — not just the product of it. In the U.S., we spend extravagantly on treating illness but spend proportionally less on keeping people healthy than most developed nations. But research shows a strong correlation between healthy communities with little economic disparity and healthy economies. People live longer in the nation's more equal states. What can we do to change the country's focus from health care as a cost with limited returns, to health as an investment that pays off over the long term — socially and economically? How can we better elevate health as a policy priority? Join New America NYC for a conversation on the future of health and wellness — and what both governments and the private sector can do to improve its outlook. PARTICIPANTS Esther Dyson @edyson Executive Founder, Way to Wellville, and health investor   Dr. Herminia Palacio @HerminiaPalacio Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, City of New York Manmeet Kaur @ManmeetKaurNY Founder and Executive Director, City Health Works Melanie Lavelle @Mglavelle Founder, Benefit Kitchen Dan Goldberg @DanCGoldberg Senior Health Reporter, Politico

The United States and China are in a race to build the world’s first quantum machine, and whoever crosses the finish line first will attain global dominance for generations to come. In The Quantum Spy, a new genre-bending thriller, New York Times bestselling author and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius tells the fictional story of a hyper-fast quantum computer—the digital equivalent of a nuclear bomb—able to shred any encryption and break any code in existence. When top-secret U.S. research labs are compromised by a suspected Chinese informant, CIA officer Harris Chang sets in motion a history-altering investigation that forces him to question he thinks about loyalty, diplomacy, and the primacy of truth. Couched in the real-world technological arms race, the novel asks pivotal questions about contemporary national security issues—the competition to achieve quantum computing technology, the high stakes rivalry between the U.S. and China, and the conduct of spycraft in the digital age.     Join New America NYC for a conversation with David Ignatius and Karen Greenberg on the fictional tale of cyber espionage—and what it tells us about the real-world threats with which national security policy must contend. PARTICIPANTS David Ignatius @IgnatiusPost Columnist, The Washington Post Author, The Director and The Quantum Spy Karen Greenberg @KarenGreenberg3Director, Center on National Security, Fordham University School of Law Author, Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State

Today, almost half of the American workforce earns less than $15 per hour and a third of working-age men are either unemployed or unable to keep a family of four out of poverty. Few have sufficient savings to retire with, while businesses continue to push healthcare and other social safety costs onto their employees. Yet American companies are far from struggling. Is the contract between employee and employer broken? In his new book, The End of Loyalty, Rick Wartzman chronicles the erosion of the relationship between American companies and their workers through the histories of four major American employers — General Motors, General Electric, Kodak, and Coca-Cola. Wartzman argues that big businesses once took responsibility for providing their workers and retirees with an array of social benefits, but in a twenty-first century economy turbocharged by the pace of technology, access to a good, stable job no longer guarantees access to the American Dream. The cause, he says, is clear: the American workforce cannot thrive if it clings to systems that preference shareholders over employees and productivity over morale. Join New America NYC for a conversation on the past, present, and future of work — and how technology can play a more constructive role in fostering effective systems for both workers and businesses. PARTICIPANTS Rick Wartzman @RWartzman Senior Advisor and former Executive Director, Drucker Institute Author, The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America Ai-jen Poo @aijenpoo Executive Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance Co-director, Caring Across Generations 2014 MacArthur "Genius" Award winner Jessica Lin @jerseejess Co-founder and General Partner, Work-Bench Kristin Sharp @ktsharp2Executive Director, Shift: The Commission on Work, Workers, and Technology, New America

When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than one percent of the United States’ total wealth. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. According to a new book by Mehrsa Baradaran, The Color of Money, this absence of wealth isn't just a failure to atone for oppression imposed by slavery and Jim Crow — it's the product of contemporary acts to maintain their legacies. Today, the racial wealth gap persists in building wealth for those who already have it and sowing debt among those who don't. Many policies animated by this trend — fees and fines levied my municipal governments and the criminal justice system; residential segregation; the rise of predatory payday lenders — disappear mainstream banks from communities of color, pass off responsibility of investment in their wealth, and enforce conditions that disproportionately push them from profit to poverty. Join New America NYC and the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research for a conversation with legal, business, and racial equity leaders on the fight for economic justice and how to pioneer strategies that reform how government works — and who it serves. OPENING REMARKS Scott M. Stringer @NYCComptroller Comptroller, City of New York PARTICIPANTS Mehrsa Baradaran @MehrsaBaradaran J. Alton Hosch Associate Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law Author, The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap   Blondel Pinnock @blondelSenior Vice President and Chief Lending Officer, Carver Federal Savings Bank Anne Stuhldreher @AnneStuhldreher Director of Financial Justice, City and County of San Francisco Fellow, New America CA Clyde Vanel @clydevanelAssembly Member (D-33), State of New York Michael Lindsey @DrMikeLindseyDirector, McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research, New York University

On Sunday, October 8th, join New America NYC for a private screening of Human Flow, a sweeping new film by world-renowned artist, activist, and icon Ai Weiwei, followed by a conversation with Richard Gere and David Miliband on the plight of refugees all over the world. More than 65 million people have been forcibly displaced due to war, persecution, climate change, and crushing poverty in the greatest human displacement since World War II. Setting out on a journey across 23 countries, Ai Weiwei, who spent his own childhood as a displaced person during China's Cultural Revolution, follows a chain of urgent human stories across the globe to bear witness to this massive human migration, elucidating both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its intimately personal human impact. From perilous ocean crossings to barbed-wire borders, Ai follows the desperate attempts of men, women, and children as they move from dislocation and disillusionment to endurance and adaptation. HumanFlow is a testament to the unassailable human spirit and poses a question that will define this century's greatest human rights challenge: will we emerge from fear and isolation and choose a path of freedom and respect for one another? SPEAKERS Ai Weiwei @aiwwArtist and activist Director, Human Flow Richard GereActor and humanitarian David Miliband @DMilibandPresident and CEO, International Rescue Committee Former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, United Kingdom

Extremism across the continent of Africa has been widely researched and reported; less covered are the stories of those who have been survivors—and resisters—of it. A Moonless, Starless Sky, the debut book by New America National Fellow, Alexis Okeowo, is a vivid account of Africans who are courageously countering their continent's wave of fundamentalism. Okeowo weaves together four narratives that form a powerful tapestry of modern Africa: a young couple, kidnap victims of Joseph Kony's LRA; a Mauritanian waging a lonely campaign against modern-day slavery; a women's basketball league flourishing amid war-torn Somalia; and a vigilante who takes up arms against the extremist group Boko Haram.  Complicating the simplistic good-guy, bad-guy narratives common in describing the continent, the book illuminates the inner lives of ordinary people doing the extraordinary — lives that are too often hidden, underreported, or ignored by the rest of the world.    

The only United States bank indicted for mortgage fraud related to the 2008 financial crisis is the one you’ve never heard of.  Charged with securities fraud, mortgage fraud, and conspiracy, Chinatown’s Abacus Federal Savings Bank — the country's 2,531st largest bank and a cornerstone of the Chinese immigrant community — became the only bank in the U.S. to face criminal charges in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Part legal thriller, part underdog saga, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, a film from director Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Life, Itself), tells the incredible tale of the Sung family and their five-year, ten-million-dollar legal battle to defend themselves and their bank’s legacy.  Thomas Sung, a prominent lawyer and real estate developer, opened the Abacus bank in 1984 to provide the small housing and business loans that Chinatown’s residents and business owners were routinely denied. The small, fiscally conservative bank weathered the 2008 worldwide economic meltdown, but at the same time large, global banking institutions were deemed “too-big-to-fail” and given bailouts, Abacus saw its employees marched out of the bank in chains for the evening news.  

For her entire life, German-born and -educated Souad Mekhennet has had to balance the two sides of her upbringing—Muslim and Western—and provide a mediating voice between these cultures, which too often misunderstand each other. In Mekhennet's new memoir, I Was Told To Come Alone, she journeys behind the lines of jihad, starting in the German neighborhoods where the 9/11 plotters were radicalized and culminating on the Turkish-Syrian border where ISIS is a daily presence. Traveling across the Middle East and North Africa, she documents the failed promise of the Arab Spring, and then returns to Europe, where she uncovers the identity of notorious ISIS executioner "Jihadi John" and delves into the terror that has pierced the heart of Western civilization. With unprecedented access to some of the world's most wanted men, she's told to never come alone to an interview. As she gets closer and closer to the inner circles of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, and their affiliates, she can never underestimate the personal danger that awaits her destination. Join New America NYC for the release of New America fellow Souad Mekhennet's I Was Told To Come Alone and for a conversation on her journey coming face to face with the figures most of us confront only in news headlines. PARTICIPANTS Souad Mekhennet @smekhennet Correspondent, The Washington Post Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellow, New America Author, I Was Told To Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad   Alexis Okeowo @alexis_okStaff writer, The New YorkerFellow, New America Author, A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa (forthcoming)

The future of the Negro in this country is precisely as bright or as dark as the future of the country.— James Baldwin In the final years of his life, James Baldwin began writing Remember This House, a personal account of the lives and assassinations of three of his closest friends—Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Now, more than 30 years later, a new documentary picks up those letters and unfinished manuscripts to explore how race became the defining struggle of American society. I Am Not Your Negro , an Academy Award-nominated film by Raoul Peck, is an up-to-the-minute examination of race in America. Using Baldwin's original words and a spellbinding flood of archival material, the film is a journey into the black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights Movement to the present of Black Lives Matter. Baldwin's legacy makes one thing clear: the piercing endurance of racism—and the very definition of what America stands for—remains as relevant as ever. On the eve of its theatrical release, New America NYC presented a screening of I Am Not Your Negro and a conversation on how we can better face—and change—the racial divide in America. PARTICIPANTS Hébert Peck @IAmNotYourNegroProducer, I Am Not Your Negro   Nikole Hannah-Jones @nhannahjonesStaff Writer, The New York Times MagazineEmerson Fellow, New America Aisha Karefa-Smart @afroculinistaAuthor and niece of James Baldwin Jamil Smith @JamilSmith Senior National Correspondent, MTV News

As the debate about which bathroom transgender people should use continues, a more complex question is emerging about how early the medical transition begins for trans kids. Families and doctors are rewriting the rules as they decide when and how to start medical intervention before transgender youth hit puberty. In a special VICE on HBO episode, VICE correspondent Gianna Toboni explores this emotionally charged and rapidly evolving issue with trans youth and their parents in the midst of this intense process. On August 9, New America NYC and VICE presented a special screening of VICE on HBO's Trans Youth at Lincoln Center, followed by a talkback with the segment's producers and some of the featured family members on the state of the transgender rights movement today. PARTICIPANTS Tom, Rachel, and Max O'Brien Featured subjects, Trans Youth Nicole BozorgmirProducer, Trans Youth, VICE on HBO   Hendrik Hinzel @JH_Hinzel Associate Producer, Trans Youth, VICE on HBO Tim Clancy @FancyTimClancy Executive Producer, VICE on HBO

The regime’s biggest fears were those who held cameras, so they were the first to be eliminated. — Obaidah Zytoon, co-director, The War Show When the Arab Spring reached Syria in 2011, 35-year-old radio DJ Obaidah Zytoon joined the revolution armed with two things: a video camera and hope. The portrait that resulted—encapsulating both the euphoria of protest and the devastating violence—is the subject of the 2016 Venice Days Award-winning documentary, The War Show. Against the brutal backdrop of chaos and civil war, The War Show unfolds as an intimate account of the daily lives of Zytoon and her friends—among them a dentist, law student, and poet—and the transformations they endure documenting their own experiences of the Syrian conflict. But as protest marches turn into funerals, their ideas about the resistance—and their own identities—splinter. One thing, however, becomes clearer: the camera footage they collect doesn't just record the revolution—it is the revolution.    On May 9, New America NYC presented a screening of The War Show and a conversation with the film's producer and human rights experts on the state of the Syrian civil war, its estimated 11 million refugees, and what it'll take to move closer to resolution and peace. INTRODUCTION Justine Nagan @justinenagan Executive Director, American Documentary, Inc. Executive Producer, POV & America ReFramed PARTICIPANTS Alaa Hassan @Alaa7assan Producer, The War Show   Sarah Mehta @sarahlmehtaAttorney and Researcher, Human Rights Program, ACLU Sana Mustafa @sanasyr6Syrian refugee and social activist   Gissou Nia @gissounia Human rights lawyer and Strategy Director, Purpose 

Baltimore is a city fighting to save its youth. In the wake of the death of Freddie Gray, the inaugural class of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women began their senior year. Established in 2009, the charter school had a simple mandate: send every girl to college, regardless of any barriers their home lives and communities might present. Step, the 2017 Sundance Special Jury Award winner for Inspirational Filmmaking by director Amanda Lipitz, chronicles this pressure-filled year and the girls' dedication to a source of empowerment: the school step team. We follow the trials and triumphs – on and off the stage – of three tenacious seniors and the women who champion and challenge them, as their commitment to step becomes more than just a hobby, but a new approach to life.  PARTICIPANTS  Amanda Lipitz @stepthemovie Director, Step Abigail Swisher @Abigail_Swisher Program Associate, Education Policy Program, New America Paula Dofat @pauladofat Director of College Counseling, Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women Unique Brathwaite @LIFTcommunities Executive Director, LIFT – New York Blessin Giraldo @BlessinGiraldo1 Alumna, Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women Cori Grainger @JustCoriG Alumna, Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women Tayla Solomon @notmyfor_tay Alumna, Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women  

When unarmed teenager Michael Brown, Jr. was killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marked a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial bias, and renewed anger brought together residents and activists from across the nation to confront this flashpoint in a long history of injustice. Their stories are the subject of Whose Streets?, a new film narrated by the artists, parents, teachers, and children of Ferguson working to counter the mainstream media headlines that characterized the protests as looting, fire, and mayhem. Their cell phone video footage and social media updates tell another story: as the National Guard descended on Ferguson, nonviolent organizers were met with military-grade riot gear, their right to peaceful assembly rescinded. As we approach the third anniversary of Brown’s death, the struggle persists and these young community members have stepped up to become the torchbearers of a new wave of resistance. For them, the battle is not only for civil rights, but for the right to live.   Sabaah Folayan @sabaahfolayan Director and Producer, Whose Streets? Damon Davis @heartacheNpaint Co-director and Producer, Whose Streets? Rashad Robinson @rashadrobinson Executive Director, Color of Change Opal Tometi @opalayo Co-founder, #BlackLivesMatter Executive Director, Black Alliance for Just Immigration Jimmie Briggs @briggsjimmieAward-winning journalist, public speaker, and author

The traditional narrative of the American Dream — hard work, steady saving, and a little bit of luck will lead to security today and mobility tomorrow — has all but become an American Myth. Today, insecurity is so pronounced that 92 percent of Americans, when asked to choose between being a little richer or more financially stable, chose stability. But amidst 30 years of wage stagnation and radically decreased mobility, neither has been attainable. In The Financial Diaries, authors Jonathan Morduch and Rachel Schneider track the financial lives of 235 low- and middle-income households to cast a light on the pervasive economic anxiety felt across the country. The individuals they profile — among them a casino dealer, a street vendor, and a tax preparer — challenge popular assumptions about how Americans earn, spend, borrow, and save and suggest new tools the U.S. needs to correct the broader distress of income and wealth inequality. Join New America NYC for a conversation on the growing financial instability Americans face and the policy interventions needed to better support those who need it most. OPENING REMARKS: Xavier de Souza Briggs @xavbriggs Vice President, Economic Opportunity and Markets, Ford Foundation PARTICIPANTS Jonathan Morduch @JMorduch Professor of Public Policy and Economics and Director, Financial Access Initiative, New York University Co-author, The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty   Rachel Schneider @RachelSchneider Senior Vice President, Center for Financial Services Innovation Co-author, The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty Justin KingPolicy Director, Family-Centered Social Policy, New America Unique BrathwaiteExecutive Director, LIFT–New York Alex Goldmark @alexgoldmark Supervising Producer, Planet Money, NPR

Amidst daily revelations about Russia's global web of influence, is there a way to chart a path ahead? Not since the end of the Cold War has Russia received as much front page media attention as it gets today. Russia has been blamed for several recent global upsets — Trump's election, Le Pen's surge, and Assad's ability to remain in power. At the same time Russian oligarchs have structured a network of financial influence across Europe and into the U.S., Russian media has been charged with turning into an unabashed propaganda mouthpiece. How should we read Putin's goals? As congressional and FBI investigations into election interference continue, is the Kremlin nervous about what might come out? And ultimately, how long can Putin's power be sustained, among everyday Russians and abroad? Join New America NYC at the CORE: club for a conversation with leading reporters and editors on this age of Putinism and what its blowback means for the future of Russia's relationship to the world. PARTICIPANTS Joshua Yaffa @yaffaesque Contributor, The New YorkerFellow, New America   Jo Becker @Jo_Becker Investigative Reporter, The New York TimesWinner, 2017 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting Noah Shachtman @NoahShachtman Executive Editor, The Daily Beast Miriam Elder @MiriamElder World Editor, BuzzFeed News Former Moscow Correspondent, The Guardian

Police play an indispensable role in our society. But the responsibility for keeping them accountable may lay with us, the people. In June 2013, documents leaked by Edward Snowden sparked widespread debate about secret government surveillance of Americans. Just over a year later, the shooting of Michael Brown, a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, set off protests and triggered concern about militarization of law enforcement and discriminatory policing. In his new book, Unwarranted, Barry Friedman argues that these two seemingly disparate events are connected—by the failure of policing, from local officers to the FBI and NSA, to be accountable to the public. In recent decades, policing has changed dramatically. Technologies like CCTV and predictive policing software have made suspects of us all, while proliferating SWAT teams and militarized forces have put property and lives at risk—particularly for communities of color and the poor. The effects beg a critical realization for all of us: it's not a question of what the police should do, but what we want the police to do. Join New America NYC for a conversation with Barry Friedman, Sherrilyn Ifill, and Trymaine Lee on the contemporary debates about policing—and the call to better govern those who govern us.  PARTICIPANTS Barry Friedman @barryfriedman1 Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law and Director, Policing Project, NYU School of Law Author, Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission   Sherrilyn Ifill @Sifill_LDF President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Trymaine Lee @trymainelee National Reporter, MSNBC and NBC News 2016 Emerson Fellow, New America

When the online blog Gawker posted an excerpt of a secretly filmed sex tape of professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, it ignited a high stakes legal battle that pitted privacy rights against the First Amendment.

Gonna be a lot of irate citizens when they find out that they’re paying for water they’re not gonna get. — Jack Nicholson as J.J. “Jake” Gittes in Chinatown In 1994, a handful of California state officials met in secret with representatives from big agriculture to transform wide swaths of formerly arid land into some of the country's most fertile megafarms. Two decades later, amidst an historic drought, the Monterey Amendments have all but depleted the state's river waters, leaving homeowners with dry wells and agribusiness billionaires with skyrocketing profits. Water & Power: A California Heist, a new National Geographic documentary from Emmy Award-winning director Marina Zenovich, examines the little-known events in California's notorious history of water manipulation and the far-reaching implications for the thousands of people currently lacking access to safe drinking water. Playing like a real-life, modern-day Chinatown, Roman Polanski's 1974 film noir, the film lifts the lid on the chilling effects California's water crisis has on all of us when a public resource is privatized. Following the Sundance Film Festival premiere, join New America NYC at Tumblr for a screening of Water & Power: A California Heist and a discussion with the film's director, lead subject, and environmental experts on how everyday citizens are facing down the water crisis to better preserve one of our country's most precious resources. PARTICIPANTS Marina Zenovich @MarinaZenovich Director and Executive Producer, Water & Power: A California Heist   Adam Keats @akboognish Senior Attorney, Center for Food Safety Lead subject, Water & Power: A California Heist Upmanu Lall Director, Columbia Water Center, and Alan & Carol Silberstein Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering, Columbia University Justin Worland @JustinWorland Energy and environment reporter, TIME Magazine Follow the conversation online using #WaterAndPower and by following @NewAmericaNYC. 

What happens when a democratically elected leader evolves into an authoritarian ruler? India and Turkey are two of the world's biggest democracies—multi-ethnic nations that rose from their imperial past to be founded on the values of modernity. The have fair elections, open markets, and freedom of religion. But despite their democratic values, each of their charismatic leaders—Narendra Modi in India and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey—have used their electoral support to amass significant control, in some cases limiting press freedom, pursuing opposition, and subverting democratic methods to extend their rule.       For his new book, A Question of Order, Basharat Peer spent a year and a half traveling across India and Turkey to uncover the alarming, illiberal drift these countries have engineered and the terrible human toll it has exacted. Through a combination of right-wing populism, majoritarian politics, and aggressive nationalism, the two countries provide a shocking warning to what many say are the same strongmen tendencies spreading across the globe—including here at home.   Join New America NYC and The India Center Foundation for the release of Basharat Peer's A Question of Order and for a conversation on what seem to be illusory promises of liberal democracy and the people fighting to protect it. PARTICIPANTS Basharat Peer @BasharatPeer Opinion Editor, The New York Times Author, A Question of Order: India, Turkey, and the Return of Strongmen Elmira Bayrasli @endeavoringECo-founder, Foreign Policy Interrupted Fellow, International Security Program, New America Manu Bhagavan @ManuBhagavanProfessor of History and Human Rights, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, the City University of New York Author, The Peacemakers / India and the Quest for One World Sheri Berman Professor of Political Science, Barnard College Author, The Primary of Politics: Social Democracy and the Making of Europe's Twentieth Century Copies of Basharat Peer's A Question of Order: India, Turkey, and the Return of Strongmen will be available for purchase. Join the conversation online using #QuestionOfOrder and by following @NewAmericaNYC.            This event is presented in partnership with The India Center Foundation.

A former insider discloses the story behind for-profit schools to explain the exorbitant price tags, the questionable credentials, and the lose-lose options for Americans seeking a better life. More than two million students are enrolled in for-profit colleges, from the small family-run operations to the behemoths brandished on billboards, subway ads, and late-night commercials. These schools have been around just as long as their not-for-profit counterparts, yet shockingly little is know about why they have expanded so rapidly in recent years. Lower Ed, a new book by Tressie McMillan Cottom, herself a former for-profit college recruiter, lifts the lid on this big-money industry to show precisely how it is part and parcel of the growing inequality plaguing the country today. Behind the shareholder earnings and congressional battles are human stories—from mothers struggling to pay for beauty school to accomplished professionals pursuing doctoral degrees—that illustrate the inextricable links between the for-profit industry and the stifled promise of opportunity in America. Join New America's Education Policy program for a conversation with Tressie McMillan Cottom and other leading experts and activists on the benefits, pitfalls, and real costs of a for-profit education. PARTICIPANTS Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd Assistant Professor of Sociology, Virginia Commonwealth University Author, Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy   Robert Shireman @bob_shireman Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation Former Deputy Undersecretary, U.S. Department of Education Laura Hanna @0debtzone Political organizer and filmmaker Founder and Co-director, Debt Collective   Sarah Jaffe @sarahljaffe Journalist and Fellow, The Nation Institute Author, Necessary Trouble: Americans In Revolt Stephen Burd @StephenBurd2 Senior Policy Analyst, Education Policy, New America Copies of Tressie McMillan Cottom's Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy will be available for purchase. Follow the conversation online using #LowerEd and by following @NewAmericaNYC. 

What happens when a revolution unravels? While motivations vary widely, revolutions are, at their core, a clash between old and new ideas. The Tahrir Square uprisings were no different. Nearly two-thirds of Egypt's 70 million citizens were under thirty years old and newly online, and it became harder for the regime to isolate the public from radical ideas. That influx of ideas—and the political sentiments that followed—created a new wave of turmoil for many young people torn between the ever-shifting balance of tradition and change in their own lives. In her new book, Generation Revolution, journalist Rachel Aspden offers a window into the Arab Spring through the millennials who experienced it firsthand. Following the stories of four young Egyptians—an atheist software engineer, a village girl in defiance of her community, a one-time religious extremist, and a would-be teenage martyr—the book reveals a growing generation in Egypt vastly different from preceding ones, struggling to find a place for various voices during the chaos of government upheaval. As misinformation about religious extremism and the refugee crisis accelerates, join New America NYC for a discussion on where the next generation will take the Middle East and how Americans can better understand the doubts, resentments, and hopes they carry into the future. PARTICIPANTS Rachel Aspden @rachelaspden Author, Generation Revolution: On the Front Line Between Tradition and Change in the Middle East   Sana Amanat @MiniB622 Director, Content & Character Development, Marvel Entertainment Moustafa Bayoumi @BayoumiMoustafa Professor of English, Brooklyn College, City University of New York Author, How Does It Feel To Be A Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America Angie Gad @Angieslyst Egyptian-American writer Katherine Zoepf @katherinezoepf Fellow, Better Life Lab, New America Author, Excellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Young Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World

If you're looking for a place to hide, this isn't it. At our school, we want you to demand that we help you. There is no shame in asking for help. – Vonda Viland, Principal, Black Rock High School At a remote Mojave Desert high school, educators believe that empathy and life skills, more than academics, give at-risk students command of their own futures. At Black Rock High School, the methods are unique and the model is innovative: no punitive measures, no end-date, and no formal graduation. Employing a vérité approach during a year at the school, The Bad Kids follows Black Rock High School principal Vonda Viland as she coaches three at-risk teens – a new father who can't support his family; a young woman grappling with sexual abuse; and an angry young man from an unstable home – through the traumas and obstacles that rob them of their spirit and threaten their goal of a high school diploma. The film depicts how a radical approach to education can combat the crippling effects of poverty in the lives of these so-called "bad kids." A discussion on the intractable problem of generational poverty and how public education can better support all students in our nation's schools that followed the advances screening of The Bad Kids. INTRODUCTION Victoria McCullough Social Impact and Public Policy Director, Tumblr PARTICIPANTS Keith Fulton @BadKidsMovie Co-Director, The Bad Kids Lou Pepe @BadKidsMovie Co-Director, The Bad Kids Vonda Viland Principal, Black Rock High School, Yucca Valley, California India Williams @cisnational Alumna, Communities In Schools Elena Silva @NewAmericaEd Director, PreK-12, Education Policy Program, New America Join the conversation online by using #TheBadKids and by following @NewAmericaNYC.

Over the past 25 years, the United States has seen a disturbing militarization of its sworn law enforcement offices – a 25 percent increase in SWAT team raids, a mass influx of military-grade equipment in small-town communities, and the seeming immunity of a new force of violent warrior-cops. Starting on the streets of Ferguson, Mo., as the community grapples with the death of Michael Brown, Tribeca Film Festival award winner Do Not Resist offers a disturbing glimpse at the current state of policing in America and, if left unchecked, a troubling indictment on the future of police culture. The film puts viewers in the center of the action – from a ride-along with a South Carolina SWAT team to the inside of a police training seminar that teaches the importance of "righteous violence" – before exploring where controversial new technologies, like predictive policing algorithms, could lead the law and criminal justice fields next. Join New America NYC for a conversation following the screening of Do Not Resist a with the film's director and producer Craig Atkinson to explore what needs to be done to mend the growing rift between police forces and the communities they are tasked with serving. PARTICIPANTS Craig Atkinson  @DoNotResistFilm Director and Producer, Do Not Resist   Maria Ponomarenko  @m_ponomarenkoDeputy Director, Policing Project, New York University School of Law

With the death of Osama bin Laden and the explosion of the Arab Spring five years ago, it seemed like the war on terror might be ending. Instead, the Arab Spring inaugurated civil war in much of the Middle East, out of which sprang brutal attacks by a rising global presence: the Islamic State. Exactly on year ago, ISIS-trained militants killed 130 people at the Bataclan concert hall and several other locations across Paris. Ever since, extremism has moved beyond the spheres of the military and foreign policy and into the daily discourse of our news feeds and living rooms. In a new five-part series, VICE founder Suroosh Alvi travels the world to investigate the origins and impact of the world's deadliest terrorist organizations from the inside out. TERROR provides viewers with an on-the-ground look inside the places and ideologies that shed light on the notorious groups that confound and threaten much of the globe. Following his travels to Iraq, join Suroosh Alvi and New America's Peter Bergen for a screening of the episode examining the Islamic State and for a conversation on the past 15 years of terrorism and whether there's an end in sight. PARTICIPANTS Suroosh Alvi  @SurooshAlviFounder, VICE Peter Bergen  @peterbergencnnVice President and Director, International Security Program, New America Author, United States of Jihad: Investigating America's Homegrown Terrorists

In 2008, the collapse of the US financial system plunged the economy into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Between 2008 and 2009, the U.S. labor market lost 8.4 million jobs – 6.1% of all payroll employment – and the average household brought in roughly $5,000 less in 2009 than it did in the year 2000. Since then, the wealth gap has only gotten worse: the top 10 percent now averages nearly nine times as much income as the bottom 90 percent. It should be no surprise, then, that Americans feel disenchanted. From Occupy Wall Street and more recent racial and economic movements to the left and right populisms of the 2016 election, Americans across the ideological spectrum are increasingly concerned by the concentration of both private and public power. Are our post-election politics on the precipice of change? According to Democracy Against Domination, a new book by New America fellow K. Sabeel Rahman, today's inequality crisis will only be solved with a complete overhaul of how we govern the modern economy. New forms of democratic action – strategies that tap into contemporary labor and racial justice movements – will be necessary to counteract both the legacies of the New Deal era and the problems of corporate power, too-big-to-fail finance, and political dysfunction today. On the evening following Election Day, join New America NYC to evaluate the economic policies of the past eight years and what the next Administration can do to turn today's "New Gilded Age" into a more responsive, inclusive economy. PARTICIPANTS K. Sabeel Rahman  @ksabeelrahmanAssistant Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School Fellow, New America Author, Democracy Against Domination   Dorian Warren  @dorianwarrenContributor, MSNBC Fellow, Roosevelt Institute Keesha Gaskins  @keeshagaskinsDirector, Democratic Practice Program, Rockefeller Brothers Fund Daniel Altschuler  @altochulo Managing Director, Make the Road Action Director of Civic Engagement and Research, Make the Road New York

They stomp on our neck, and then they tell us, ‘Just chill, O.K., just relax.’ Well, look, we are mad, and we’ve been had. —Sarah Palin, endorsing Donald Trump for president, January 19, 2016 More than five years ago, renowned sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild embarked on a journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou country—a stronghold of the conservative right. As she got to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she champions, Hochschild nevertheless finds common ground with the people she meets—people whose concerns are ones that all Americans share: the desire for community, the embrace of family, and hopes for their children. In a new book, Strangers In Their Own Land, Hochschild explores the right-wing world and discovers powerful forces—fear of cultural eclipse, economic decline, perceived government betrayal—that help explain the emotional appeal of a candidate like Donald Trump. Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of the sociology of emotion to help us understand what it feels like to live in “red” America. Along the way she finds answers to one of the crucial questions of contemporary American politics: why do the people who would seem to benefit most from “liberal” government intervention abhor the very idea? Join New America NYC for a conversation with Arlie Russell Hochschild on a conversation that plumbs our deep political divide and asks the question: how does the world look from the heart of the right? PARTICIPANTS: Arlie Russell HochschildProfessor Emerita, University of California, Berkeley Author, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right Jamil Smith  @JamilSmithSenior National Correspondent, MTV News Nina Burleigh  @ninaburleigh National Politics Correspondent, Newsweek Copies of Arlie Russell Hochschild's Strangers In Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right will be available for purchase and signed by the author. Join the conversation online using #HeartOfTheRight and by following @NewAmericaNYC.

In the spring and summer of 2016, the world's richest democracies witnessed a collective upheaval that shocked the globe. As if overnight, many Democrats backed a socialist named Bernie Sanders; the United Kingdom voted to the leave the European Union, in a stunning rebuke; the nativist billionaire Donald Trump became the presidential nominee of the Republican Party; and a slew of extreme parties continued to win election after election in countries like Norway, Austria, and Greece. A new book by John B. Judis, The Populist Explosion, traces the phenomenon of populism back to its roots in the 1890s United States and sees it in a new light: as a warning sign for the ideological crises to come. What started in the United States spread to Europe and back again. As the EU grapples with the aftershock of Brexit, the U.S. must also come to terms with the implications of the rise of Sanders and Trump: growing numbers of people are insisting that our standard worldview is breaking down and in desperate need of repair. Join New America NYC for a conversation with John B. Judis and New America co-founder Michael Lind on the social and economic upheaval roiling politics on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Atlantic. PARTICIPANTS John B. Judis  @JohnBJudis Editor at Large, Talking Points Memo Author, The Populist Explosion: How the Great Recession Transformed American and European Politics   Michael Lind Co-founder and Policy Director, Economic Growth Program, New America

The only warheads we thought would go off in the United States were Soviet warheads. We never considered that our own warheads could detonate our own continent. – Allan Childers, Missile Combat Crew It is September 19, 1980, and a nuclear disaster is playing out in a missile silo outside Little Rock, Arkansas. A worker accidentally drops a socket, puncturing the fuel tank of an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying the most powerful nuclear warhead in our arsenal. It sets in motion a chain of emergency responses to head off damage and destruction of unknown reach. Directed by Emmy Award winner Robert Kenner (Food, Inc., Merchants of Doubt) and based on the critically acclaimed book by Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Command and Control is a minute-by-minute account of the long-hidden story of the "Damascus Accident." With original footage and eyewitness accounts, the film recalls this near-miss catastrophe, shocking for being only one of thousands of close brushes with nuclear incidents, according to a recently declassified Department of Energy document. Join New America NYC for a screening of Command and Control and discussion about the risks of our aging nuclear arsenal and current efforts in arms control and nonproliferation. PARTICIPANTS Robert KennerDirector, Producer, and Co-writer, Command and Control Eric SchlosserProducer and Co-writer, Command and Control Sharon SquassoniDirector and Senior Fellow, Proliferation Prevention Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies Tamara Patton Doctoral Candidate, Nuclear Futures Lab, Princeton University

In a world in which the instant push of a button can lead to the death of a particular individual more than eight thousand miles away, is it possible to define "war" with any clarity? What separates the targeting of an enemy combatant under lawful wartime from the extrajudicial murder of someone suspected of wrongdoing? What is the purpose of a modern military in a world where future threats come from computer hackers, terrorists, and other nonstate actors? These are some of the questions Future of War fellow Rosa Brooks poses in her new book,  How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything. Backed up by a career with human rights NGOs and top positions in the Pentagon, she argues that by viewing more and more threats as "war," its ambit of law seems to apply to more and more spheres of human activity. The result: a greater tolerance for secrecy and coercion, the inevitable expansion of the military, and a society distrustful of the entity tasked with protecting it. Join New America NYC for a discussion on how to bring into focus the increasingly blurry boundaries of "war" and "peace" and the global security outcomes that depends on their understanding.  

It has been 43 years since Roe v. Wade passed 7-2, yet the war against reproductive health clinics has not subsided. In the past six years, 288 TRAP () laws have been passed by state legislatures, subjecting reproductive health clinics and abortion providers to legal restrictions not imposed on any other medical professionals. Unable to comply with these extensive laws, dozens of clinics in states like Alabama and Texas have been forced to close, leaving scores of women under-served, without access to legal healthcare services. But now, a contingent of clinic workers and lawyers have taken the fight to the courts. Trapped follows leaders on the front lines of an escalating battle who are working to change the fact that, for many women, a zip code determines the fate of their constitutional rights. As another landmark Supreme Court case addressing abortion is decided this month, join New America for a screening of Sundance Film Festival award-winner Trapped and a conversation with leading experts on what remains among the country's most divisive issues. Stephanie Toti, lead counsel on that case, Whole Women's Health v. Cole, will be joining us. This event is a Social Cinema Screening.

In the wake of the Great Recession, as the housing bubble burst and unemployment rose, millions of American families experienced a precipitous decline in their net worth. Those who were able to stay in their homes were able to weather the storm, but others couldn't. Tragically, something more nefarious – and preventable – was also in play: foreclosure fraud. In his new book, Chain of Title, David Dayen chronicles how a small group of ordinary people uncovered the large-scale corporate malfeasance that undermined the financial security of families when they were at their most economically vulnerable. Scores of families were faced with eviction from their homes based on false evidence by mortgage companies with no legal right to foreclose. Stories like this are, at once, a cautionary tale on how financial services firms can behave badly and an inspiring story of the citizens fighting back. Chain of Title provides a valuable context for the current and future fight to protect New York homeowners from the next wave of foreclosure scams, battles that continue to be waged on the frontlines by legal service attorneys and community activists.

“By the middle of this century we will trigger runaway climate change — a process beyond our control. What do you do if you have that information? What do you do?” – Dr. Steven Chu, Former U.S. Energy Secretary and Nobel Prize winner Climate change may be the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced. There are solutions, but we are in a race against the clock to respond to this critical global threat. In Time To Choose, Academy Award® winner Charles Ferguson (Inside Job, No End In Sight) explores the far-reaching effects of the climate change crisis and examines the potential of solutions already available and the promise of those to come. Shot on five continents, from the oil fields of Nigeria to the forests of Indonesia and the coal mines of Appalachia, Time To Choose investigates the costs that fossil fuels and industrialized agriculture take on human lives and future of the land. Through interviews with clean energy and environmental entrepreneurs; innovators in urban planning and design; global and local leaders; and the grassroots activists working on the frontlines of climate change, the film takes an in-depth look at many of the remarkable people working to save our planet. Join New America for a screening of Time To Choose and a conversation with the film's director and leading climate advocates on what may very well be the next greatest political issue of our time. This event is a Social Cinema Screening.

Four years ago – in the infancy of Syria's civil war – Janine di Giovanni traveled to Syria on assignment for the New York Times. That trip became the first of many as conflict in the region escalated tragically, reaching far beyond borders and affecting millions of lives. When di Giovanni, a seasoned war correspondent, first arrived in Damascus in 2012, she immediately recognized the familiar sight of a country trembling on the brink of war. Through the intimate stories of the ordinary civilians she encountered in places like Damascus, Homs, Darayya, and Aleppo, The Morning They Came For Us illuminates the harsh realities of warfare from all sides. What began with a handful of teenagers writing anti-government slogans rapidly turned into a full civil war, transforming a people in denial into a people in the midst of violence from which they have never recovered. Join New America for a conversation with International Security Program Fellow Janine di Giovanni on the devastating impacts of the Syria crisis and the ongoing realities of daily life in a war zone. Copies of Janine di Giovanni's The Morning They Came For Us: Dispatches from Syria will be available for purchase. Join the conversation online using #DispatchesFromSyria and by following @NewAmericaNYC. Janine di Giovanni Middle East Editor, NewsweekFellow, International Security Program, New America Author, The Morning They Came For Us: Dispatches from Syria @janinedigi Ben Taub Contributor, The New Yorker @bentaub91

Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was stabbed to death on a street in Queens, New York, in 1964, and 38 witnesses, it was claimed, did nothing. More than 50 years later, her brother uncovers a lie that transformed his life, condemned a city, and defined an era. The murder of Kitty Genovese transfixed New York and the world; it came to symbolize the apathy and indifference of urban life, and for many, a great social breakdown. Now, The Witness, a new film by James Solomon, follows Kitty's brother Bill Genovese about his sister's life and tracks down the neighbors who, according to the press, did nothing as the terror-filled screams of rape and murder took place outside their windows. A half-century after the crime, spurred by the recent death of Kitty's murderer Winston Moseley, the film also re-examines the journalistic telling of the story, its distortions, and how certain narratives "go viral" by capturing the anxieties of their times. Join New America for a screening of The Witness followed by a conversation that explores the case that motivated the study of "The Bystander Effect," led to the creation of 911 emergency call lines, and held the public imagination to become an American obsession. This is a Social Cinema Screening.

Popular awareness of postpartum depression has improved tremendously in recent years. Obstetricians now regularly screen patients for post-delivery symptoms of sadness and anxiety, and depressive illness in new parents is discussed in thousands of books, articles, support groups, and online forums. Yet there has been no such growth in public understanding of prenataldepression. Though studies show that depression during pregnancy is just as common, and equally dangerous, many newly pregnant women are unaware that it is even a possibility. Conditioned to believe that pregnancy should be a joyful period, depressed expectant mothers may avoid seeking help, or find that their feelings are trivialized or stigmatized by partners and friends. Many obstetricians and psychiatrists remain reluctant to prescribe antidepressants to pregnant patients, even as suicide has become one of the leading causes of death among pregnant women and new mothers. And in the United States, a pregnant woman who survives a suicide attempt may find herself receiving, not support and psychiatric treatment, but a murder charge. What can be done to ease the damaging guilt, shame, and stigma surrounding depression during pregnancy? Could ideals of maternal sacrifice be impeding the protection of some of our communities' most vulnerable mothers? This is a Broadly Speaking event.

For many investors, emerging markets appear to be a turbulent and risky frontier; for others, they represent an opportunity to transform lives and communities. In recent years, impact investing has gained significant momentum as a way to match socially-minded entrepreneurs with risk capital. This investment movement has occurred alongside massive technological innovation – and with it unprecedented ways to reach and connect the developing world. Increasingly, business solutions to entrenched social and economic problems are taking advantage of new technologies to bring goods, services, and opportunities to some of the world's underserved people and places. But what does this mean in practice? Where do investors see the most promising opportunities – and barriers – to earn financial returns while addressing unmet needs? And what is it like to actually build these ventures on the ground?

The mixed economy was the most important social innovation of the twentieth century. It spread a previously unimaginable level of prosperity and enabled steep increased in education, health, and economic security. And yet, extraordinarily, it is anathema to many current economic and political elites. Like every other prospering democracy, the U.S. developed a mixed economy that channeled the spirit of capitalism intro strong growth and health social development. In this bargain, government and business were as much partners as rivals. But, according to Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson's new book,American Amnesia, what's good for business and what's good for Americans has become misaligned. As anti-government advocates of free market fundamentalism have gained power, they are bent on scrapping the instrument of a century of unprecedented economic and social progress.

Participatory budgeting is perhaps the greatest experiment in democracy that could redefine how public budgets are decided in the United States. A “revolutionary civics in action” that came to the U.S. in 2009, this global phenomenon bridges a citizen-government divide in not only what public projects get funded, but who decides. But for participatory budgeting to work, the health of American democracy is a must. According to Hollie Russon-Gilman's new book, Democracy Reinvented, current citizen disaffection and mistrust of government have stalled the best impacts of participatory budgeting and many other advances in civic innovation. The political and institutional restraints we work under now need to be opened up, and with the help of digital tools and other technological innovations, more inclusive governance is possible.Join us at Civic Hall for a conversation with New America fellow Hollie Russon-Gilman, along with John Paul Farmer and Story Bellows, on the state of civic innovation today and the digital tools that can foster a better democracy tomorrow.

American attitudes toward marriage have undergone a seismic shift in recent decades. Gay marriage has become mainstream, nearly half of American households have female breadwinners, and gendered expectations of domestic roles have changed as well. Yet our attitudes toward divorce remain surprisingly unchanged. Even as marriage rates overall have fallen and long-term unmarried partnerships are increasingly accepted, ending a marriage is still widely regarded as a failure and is stigmatized accordingly. But divorce does not look as it once did. Changes in laws, customs, technology, psychology and child development research, and the evolving roles of men and women in the last decades have greatly improved uncoupling for many. And great knowledge of what helps both the adults and children involved in divorce have led to positively restructured families on the other side of marriage. Is there such a thing as a good divorce? And have our courts, public policies, or even pop culture caught up? Is a good divorce available to all, or just the highly educated or well-to-do? Join New America and Wendy Paris, author ofSplitopia: Dispatches from Today's Good Divorce and How to Part Well, for a conversation about new models of divorce and their impact on the families involved and in culture at large. A Broadly Speaking Event

In 1979, seemingly overnight, Iran became the first revolutionary theocracy in modern times. Since then, the country has largely been a black box to the West, a sinister presence looming over the horizon.But inside Iran, according to Laura Secor's Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran, a much different picture has unfolded. With traditions drawn as deeply from the West as from the East, religious thinkers, political operatives, poets, journalists, and activists have wrestled with their country's apparatus of violent repression and reimagined what Iran should be.

Workers lose to automation, investors lose to algorithms, and even tech developers lose their visions to the demands of the startup economy.According to Douglas Rushkoff's new book, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity, the digital economy has gone wrong, and no one quiet knows how to fix it. The problems lie not with digital technology itself, but in the ways we are deploying it: instead of building a distributed digital economy that new networks could foster, we're doubling down on the industrial age mandate for growth above all.But it doesn't have to be this way. In the era of big data, robots, and the gig economy, Rushkoff calls for a bridge to the human-technology divide in a way that optimizes the economy for the people it's supposed to serve.