337. Martin Baron with Frank Blethen A Marriage of Press and Politics
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Release Date: 10/31/2023
358. Sasha Issenberg with Austin Jenkins: The Lie Detectives
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
As we head into another presidential election year, few issues feel as pressing as the spread of political misinformation. How can political campaigns fight back against the barrage of lies and disinformation? As time, tension, and technology all progress in our world, we’re not always prepared for the acceleration and its impact on the political climate. The public can often be left to weed through a seemingly endless digital news cycle and the task of differentiating between fact, misinformed fictions, and intentional disinformation. As the population faces the high-stakes election season...
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357. Susannah Fox with Sally James: Rebel Health
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Anyone who has fallen off the conveyor belt of mainstream health care and into the shadowy corners of illness knows what a dark place it is to land. Where is the infrastructure, the information, the guidance? What should you do next? In her new book, Rebel Health, Susannah Fox draws on twenty years of tracking the expert networks of patients, survivors, and caregivers who have come of age between the cracks of the healthcare system to offer a way forward. Covering everything from diabetes to ALS to Moebius Syndrome to chronic disease management, Fox taps into the wisdom of...
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356. Dr. Rajiv Shah with Eric Liu: Charting a Course for Change
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Ever wondered how a leader orchestrates large-scale change on a global scale? In his new book, Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens, Rajiv J. Shah, President of the Rockefeller Foundation and former administrator of USAID unveils his model for driving large-scale change. Drawing on his experiences, from vaccinating 900 million children with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to combating the Ebola outbreak, Shah reveals the secrets behind executing seemingly impossible endeavors. Through behind-the-scenes stories and reflections on personal growth, Shah shares his...
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355. Barbara McQuade with Jenny Durkan: In Search of Truth
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
The subject of disinformation is a well-known part of political rhetoric, but it has implications even outside of the sphere of democracy. From the electoral system to schools; from the workplace to hospitals, the consequences of it are far-reaching and dire. A legal analyst at MSNBC and former U.S. Attorney, Barbara McQuade’s decades of experience in law help inform her authorship of Attack From Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America. The book asserts that disinformation has been used deliberately and strategically to polarize, pushing voters to extremes, and...
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354. Michael J. Gerhardt: The Law of Presidential Impeachment
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Have you ever wondered how impeachment really works? As a witness and consultant in the impeachment trials of Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, legal scholar Michael J. Gerhardt has collected a lifetime of scholarly research and firsthand experience. But despite his proximity to such high-profile cases, Gerhardt doesn’t advocate for or against the impeachment of specific presidents. Instead, he illuminates the legal and procedural aspects that govern the process, providing a comprehensive overview of impeachment from its origins to present-day practice. His new book, The Law Of Presidential...
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353. César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández: Redefining the Borders — How to Shape Inclusive and Just Immigration Practices
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Is it possible to reshape immigration practices to align with the values of inclusivity, justice, and the historical promise of the United States as a welcoming haven for all? Law professor and immigration lawyer César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández presents a powerful case for divorcing immigration law from criminal law in his book, Welcome the Wretched. He challenges the status quo by advocating for the abolition of so-called immigration crimes, questioning the criminalization of border crossings, and proposing a shift towards allowing migrants, even those accused or convicted of...
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352. Boldt at 50
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Boldt Decision, a pivotal moment in civil rights history and tribal sovereignty. Centered around Charles Wilkinson’s posthumously acclaimed work, Treaty Justice, a panel will discuss the significance of the Boldt Decision and its enduring impact on the tribal sovereignty movement in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Three panelists and a moderator will delve into the historical significance of the ruling, reflecting on its implications and the work that still lies ahead. The panelists include Jeremiah “Jay” Julius, a fisherman, Lummi...
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351. Ijeoma Oluo with Michele Storms: Be a Revolution
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Ijeoma Oluo’s #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want To Talk About Race (), offered a vital guide for how to talk about important issues of race and racism in society. In Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, she discussed how white male supremacy has had an impact on our systems, our culture, and our lives throughout American history. But now that we better understand these systems of oppression, the question is this: What can we do about them? In her new book, Be A Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the...
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350. Tamara Payne with Glenn Hare: The Life and Legacy of Malcolm X
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
In 1990, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Les Payne embarked on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become over a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction. Following Payne’s unexpected death in 2018, his daughter Tamara Payne heroically completed the biography. Presented by the Seattle Opera and Town Hall Seattle, Tamara Payne returns to the Town Hall stage (following her virtual appearance in...
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349. Tim Schwab with Ashley Fent: The Problem with Philanthropy
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Journalist Tim Schwab is no stranger to investigative journalism that scrutinizes power structures and questions how private interests intersect with public policy. With funding from a 2019 Alicia Patterson Fellowship, Schwab pursued an investigative series specific to Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation, and his work was published by in 2020 and 2021. Now Schwab expands on his reporting in a new book, The Bill Gates Problem. Schwab provides an in-depth analysis of Bill Gates’ philanthropic trajectory, tracing his evolution from a prominent figure in the tech...
info_outlineIf you’ve felt like the news cycle has been out of control in the past few years, imagine being the editor of one of the most prominent papers in the US.
Martin Baron had over a decade of newsroom experience before he took charge of The Washington Post in 2013. But just seven months into his new job, Baron received unexpected news: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would buy (and own) the Post, marking a sudden end of control by the esteemed family that had presided over the paper for 80 years. Two years after that jarring shift, Donald Trump won the presidency. Baron found himself working for the capital’s newspaper owned by one of the world’s richest men while reporting on a president with an anti-press platform who once referred to them as the “lowest form of humanity.”
In his debut release Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post, Baron provides readers with a personal account of the immense pressure faced by both him and his colleagues. Despite unprecedented circumstances, Baron led the Post‘s staff to award-winning coverage: stories about Trump’s purported charitable giving, misconduct by the Secret Service, and former chief justice Roy Moore’s troubling history. In addition to external challenges, Baron faced internal battles as well, such as changing societal dynamics around gender and race.
Part memoir, part investigation, Collision of Power details the feat of managing the Post’s newsroom while meeting a new owner’s demands, all while simultaneously contending with a president who waged war against the media. The text examines the very nature of power in 21st-century America and how key players like media, money, technology, and politics interact and intersect.
Martin Baron is a longtime journalist and newspaper editor. He ran the newsrooms of The Miami Herald and The Boston Globe before being named executive editor of The Washington Post in 2013. His role in launching an investigation of the Catholic Church’s cover-up of sexual abuse by clergy was portrayed in the Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight.” Baron retired from daily journalism in early 2021 and now splits his time between Western Massachusetts and New York City. Collision of Power is his first book.
Frank Blethen is the publisher of The Seattle Times and the great-grandson of the 126-year-old company’s founder.
The Elliott Bay Book Company