Podcast appearances and mentions of Geoffrey Cowan

The silencing of the Voice of America is "a geopolitical blunder for the USA," according to Clayton Weimers, executive director of Reporters Without Borders USA. The group, VOA reporters and a handful of unions has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Agency for Global Media and Kari Lake, who is President Trump's representative there. Weimers and Geoffrey Cowan, a University of Southern California professor, and a former director of the Voice of America, talk with Host Llewellyn King about the work of VOA and the consequences of the shutdown.

Watch Politics War Room & James Carville Explains on YouTube @PoliticsWarRoomOfficial James and Al celebrate the late John Feinstein and discuss the dangers of isolationism, the future of NATO, and our nation's budding constitutional crisis stemming from the war being waged by Trump and DOGE on our most sacred governmental institutions.  Then, they welcome USC professor Geoffrey Cowan to explain the important role American media plays in building a just and stable world, the potential and pitfalls of soft power, and why outreach is critical to further the cause of global democracy.  As the United States becomes more myopic, will authoritarian regimes around the world be stepping in to fill the leadership void? Email your questions to James and Al at politicswarroom@gmail.com or tweet them to @politicon.  Make sure to include your city– we love to hear where you're from! More from James and Al: Get text updates from Politics War Room and Politicon. Watch Politics War Room & James Carville Explains on YouTube @PoliticsWarRoomOfficial James Carville and Matt Tyrnauer are taking CARVILLE: WINNING IS EVERYTHING, STUPID on the road again!  Get updates and some great behind-the-scenes content by following James on Twitter @jamescarville and his new TikTok @realjamescarville James Carville & Al Hunt have launched the Politics War Room Substack Get More From This Week's Guest:  Get More From Professor Geoffrey Cowan: Website | USC Annenberg | Author Please Support Our Sponsors: Naked Wines: To get 6 bottles of wine for $39.99, head to nakedwines.com/warroom and use code WARROOM for both the code AND PASSWORD.  Fast Growing Trees: Get the best deals for your yard, including up to half off on select plants and other deals with an additional 15% off at fastgrowingtrees.com using the code WARROOM Quince: Get 365-day returns and free shipping on high-quality, stylish, and affordable clothing you'll wear for years to come when you go to quince.com/warroom

Podcasts, social media, blogs, oh, my! These communications sources have been simmering in U.S. elections for years, but came to a boil in the 2024 elections. Geoffrey Cowan, director of USC's Annenberg 's Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, discusses the rise and impact of the new media with Host Llewellyn King and Co-host Adam Clayton Powell III.

In light of the growing divisions among Americans, this panel will address the intersection of culture and politics in society, how we can better understand divisiveness, and find common ground. Geoffrey Cowan is an award-winning writer, television producer, and University Professor and Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He is the author of several books, including Let the People Rule: Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of the Presidential Primary, See No Evil: The Backstage Battle Over Sex and Violence on Television, and The People v. Clarence Darrow: The Bribery Trial of America's Greatest Lawyer. Elizabeth Currid-Halkett is the James Irvine Chair in Urban and Regional Planning and professor of Public Policy at the USC Price School of Public Policy, whose research focuses on arts and culture, the American consumer economy, and the role of cultural capital in geographic and class divides. She is the author of several books, including The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class and The Overlooked Americans: The Resilience of Our Rural Towns and What It Means for Our Country (forthcoming). Jeffery Jenkins is the Provost Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Law, Maria B. Crutcher Professor of Citizenship and Democratic Values, and director of the Political Institutions and Political Economy (PIPE) Collaborative at USC. His book, Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968, shows how the GOP evolved from a biracial party into one dominated by whites, with lessons that inform today's politics. Moderator: Robert Shrum is the director of the Center for the Political Future and the Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. A legendary political strategist, he was once described as “the most sought-after consultant in the Democratic Party,” by The Atlantic Monthly. 

Judy Woodruff (PBS NewsHour, NBC, CBS) and Martin Baron (Washington Post, Boston Globe, New York Times, Los Angeles Times) with Geoffrey Cowan (Dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism). In this fascinating discussion, the best in the business discuss growing distrust of the media that is being sown by misinformation and disinformation on social media and by disingenuous political forces. In their combined many decades of experience, Woodruff, Baron, and Cowan have covered world events with objectivity and humility, asking the right questions and seeking anwsers. Hear them address the problems (and benefits) of social media and potential solutions to restoring faith in the press. 

Michael Barone, senior political analyst at the Washington examiner, is one of the most important political writers and thinkers of his time. He helped found the Almanac of American Politics in the early 70s and was the lead author for decades. He worked in politics himself, before transitioning to a role as a journalist, author, and pundit - always being an incisive and influential analyst of American politics at each stop along the way. In this conversation, we talk his roots in post-war Detroit, his time working for Democratic candidates and as a Democratic pollster, founding the Almanac, moving from left-of-center to right-of-center, and he gives his thoughts on some of the most pressing issues facing the political system and country today.IN THIS EPISODE…Michael's memories of growing up in post-war Detroit…The first election Michael remembers in detail…The up-and-coming politician Michael worked for at an important time…Michael talks his movement from liberal to conservative…Michael shares his memories of being on the scene during the momentous 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention…The off-hand comment that led to Michael's involvement in forming and writing the Almanac of American Politics…Michael talks the nuts and bolts that have gone into writing the Almanac for 40 years…Michael spends several years working with legendary Democratic pollster Peter Hart…The time when Senator Joe Biden took issue with something Michael wrote in the Almanac…Michael remembers the impact of Senator Pat Moynihan…Some of Michael's favorite political convention memories…Michael's involvement in the infamous 1980 convention fights between the forces of Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy…How Michael makes the jump from political consultant to an opinion writer and journalist…The 3 books that shaped Michael's political thinking…Michael's thoughts on today's political writing…Michael talks the unusual place that California holds in today's politics…Michael's take on the current state of both political parties…Michael compares today's political scene to the politics of the 1880s…Michael's current view on what demographics tell us about politics…The issue of the last decade on which Michael wishes he'd have been much more active…AND…the 1967 Detroit riots, 8 Mile Road, the UAW, US-16, the arsenal of democracy, Dan Balz, Big 3 Auto Companies, baloney and malarkey, David Broder, James Buchanan, George W. Bush, Pat Caddell, Jimmy Carter, Jerome Cavanaugh, Bill Clinton, Geoffrey Cowan, Mario Cuomo, Richard D. Daley, Duke University, Dwight Eisenhower, flotsam and jetsam, Gerald Ford, John Kenneth Galbraith, Newt Gingrich, Meg Greenfield, Martha Griffiths, Jon Grinspan, John Gunther, Lou Harris, Hubert Humphrey, Al Hunt, Jim Hunt, Harold Ickes, Jesse Jackson, John Judis, Jack Kemp, John Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, V.O. Key, Lyndon Johnson, John Lindsay, Samuel Lubell, Madison Square Garden, Walter Mondale, The Moynihan Report, Wade McCree, George McGovern, Ralph Nader, Newton's Second Law of Motion, Richard Nixon, Kirk O'Donnell, Tip O'Neill, Charles Oakman, Barack Obama, obvious impractical proposals, Nancy Pelosi, podium passes, prayers of political scientists, Franklin Pierce, David Price, Oliver Quayle, Nancy Reagan, Ronald Reagan, recessed steering columns, Nelson Rockefeller, George Romney, Tim Russert, E.E. Schattschneider, Mark Shields, superdelegates, supply side economics, John Paul Stevens, Ted Stevens Airport, Ruy Teixeria, Bob Torricelli, Donald Trump, Grant Ujifusa, Carl Wagner, George Wallace, Woodrow Wilson, Worland Wyoming, Sam Yorty, Coleman Young, & more!

 The Iowa Caucus kicked off the 2020 presidential primaries this week, so we’re sharing a primer on the history and influence of presidential campaigns. Communications scholar Geoffrey Cowan and historian David Greenberg explain how our primary system originated in the midst of Teddy Roosevelt’s quest for a third term, how campaigning and “spin” has evolved since then, and more in this program from 2016.  NCC President Jeffrey Rosen moderates. Jeff’s mic cuts out briefly around 15 minutes in (sorry!) but it just lasts a few minutes so please stick with us!   Questions or comments about the podcast? Email us at podcast@constitutioncenter.org. 

Attacks on the media are nothing new: in 1971, the US government tried to shut down the publication of a top secret study indicating the United States could never win the war in Vietnam. “Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers” dramatizes a key moment in the history of freedom of the press. Written by Geoffrey Cowan and LeRoy Aarons, and starring Susan Sullivan, John Heard, Gregory Harrison, and John Getz.

Let the People Rule tells the story of the four-month campaign that changed American politics forever. In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt (TR) came out of retirement to challenge his close friend and handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, for the Republican Party nomination. To overcome the power of the incumbent, TR seized on the idea of presidential primaries, telling bosses everywhere to “Let the People Rule.”The cheers and jeers of rowdy supporters and detractors echo from Geoffrey Cowan’s pages as he explores TR’s fight-to-the-finish battle to win popular support. After sweeping nine out of thirteen primaries, he felt entitled to the nomination. But the party bosses proved too powerful, leading Roosevelt to walk out of the convention and create a new political party of his own.Using a trove of newly discovered documents, Geoffrey Cowan takes readers inside the colorful, dramatic, and often mean-spirited campaign, describing the political machinations and intrigue and painting indelible portraits of its larger-than-life characters. But Cowan also exposes the more unsavory parts of TR’s campaign: seamy backroom deals, bribes made in TR’s name during the Republican Convention, and then the shocking political calculation that led TR to ban any black delegates from the Deep South from his new “Bull Moose Party.”Geoffrey Cowan, president of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands and the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership at the University of Southern California, is the best-selling author of The People v. Clarence Darrow. For his role in dramatically increasing the number of presidential primaries in 1968, ABC Television News called him “the man who did more to change Democratic Conventions than anyone since Andrew Jackson started them.”Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.

Let the People Rule tells the story of the four-month campaign that changed American politics forever. In 1912 Theodore Roosevelt (TR) came out of retirement to challenge his close friend and handpicked successor, William Howard Taft, for the Republican Party nomination. To overcome the power of the incumbent, TR seized on the idea of presidential primaries, telling bosses everywhere to “Let the People Rule.”The cheers and jeers of rowdy supporters and detractors echo from Geoffrey Cowan’s pages as he explores TR’s fight-to-the-finish battle to win popular support. After sweeping nine out of thirteen primaries, he felt entitled to the nomination. But the party bosses proved too powerful, leading Roosevelt to walk out of the convention and create a new political party of his own.Using a trove of newly discovered documents, Geoffrey Cowan takes readers inside the colorful, dramatic, and often mean-spirited campaign, describing the political machinations and intrigue and painting indelible portraits of its larger-than-life characters. But Cowan also exposes the more unsavory parts of TR’s campaign: seamy backroom deals, bribes made in TR’s name during the Republican Convention, and then the shocking political calculation that led TR to ban any black delegates from the Deep South from his new “Bull Moose Party.”Geoffrey Cowan, president of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands and the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership at the University of Southern California, is the best-selling author of The People v. Clarence Darrow. For his role in dramatically increasing the number of presidential primaries in 1968, ABC Television News called him “the man who did more to change Democratic Conventions than anyone since Andrew Jackson started them.”Writers LIVE programs are supported in part by The Miss Howard Hubbard Adult Programming Fund.Recorded On: Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Geoffrey Cowan, president of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, discusses his book "Let the People Rule: Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of the Presidential Primary". Using a trove of newly discovered documents, Cowan offers a glimpse at the raucous and often mean-spirited political machinations of the 1912 campaign, which changed American politics forever by creating the system of primaries by which presidential nominees are selected today.

Geoffrey Cowan, president of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, discusses his book "Let the People Rule: Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of the Presidential Primary". Using a trove of newly discovered documents, Cowan offers a glimpse at the raucous and often mean-spirited political machinations of the 1912 campaign, which changed American politics forever by creating the system of primaries by which presidential nominees are selected today.

As education strategy adapts to accommodate the current and future needs of a population and a workforce, a variety of initiatives emphasize learning 21st-century skills. Many of these ideas embrace art’s integration into curricula, helping to build critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and other key skills. Is the American education system effectively creating innovative thinkers? How can the arts enhance these aspects of education and what is the role of museums in facilitating the process? Geoffrey Cowan, president of The Annenberg Foundation Trust, moderates the panel, which includes Windgate Foundation Executive Director John Brown, Tom Finkelpearl, Commissioner NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and Artist Hope Ginsburg.

The second installment of our WikiLeaks mini-series, this is a discussion of the diplomatic cables release with Prof. Geoffrey Cowan, Dean Emeritus of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and Ambassador Derek Shearer, Occidental Colle

The second installment of our WikiLeaks mini-series, this is a discussion of the diplomatic cables release with Prof. Geoffrey Cowan, Dean Emeritus of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and Ambassador Derek Shearer, Occidental Colle

The American Academy of Political and Social Sciences recogonized six new Fellows of the American Academy at the University of Pennsylvania on May 8, 2008.