367. Loretta Napoleoni with Ross Reynolds: The Rise of the New Robber Barons
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Release Date: 08/22/2024
397. Advancing Climate Resilience with Connected Communities
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Town Hall Seattle, Juneau Street Resilience Pod, and the City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment hosts an evening with climate justice leaders who are reimagining our climate future in Seattle and beyond; discussing how community leaders, local government and academia can use joy and storytelling to build relationships and actualize climate resilience strategies, and sharing more about the upcoming One Seattle Climate Action Plan Update, including how you can get involved! Moderator Nancy Huizar (they/them/theirs) is an environmental justice activist, facilitator, and...
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396. In the Spirit of Right and Respectful Relations: Conversations about Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being in Nature
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
In relationship with , Braided River is celebrating the launch of their newest project, In the Spirit of Right and Respectful Relations: Conversations about Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being in Nature. As told to Kurt Russo, with a foreword by Jay Julius Xw’tot lhem, and illustrations by Fiorella De La O (Quechua), this book invites readers into a conversation rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing and being in nature. The vision of the project is to draw on ancestral knowledge to further empower and inspire Indigenous-led environmental campaigns with...
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395. Nilanjana Dasgupta with Paula Boggs: How Small Changes Can Make a Big Impact
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
How can one person fight for social justice? Can everyday people actually make changes in systemic, structural inequality? Social psychologist and author of the book Change the Wallpaper, Nilanjana Dasgupta offers science-driven answers to these questions, arguing that social shifts start with small changes to our “wallpaper,” or the things that we experience in our daily lives. In other words, we need to revise the hyperlocal cultures we live in to make broader change. Dasgupta believes that these small shifts in our cultural “wallpaper” are far more effective in producing...
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394. Shannon Watts with Brooke Baldwin: Fired Up
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
As founder of Moms Demand Action — the nation’s largest grassroots movement against gun violence — author Shannon Watts has helped thousands of women find their voice and take action. In her new book, Fired Up, Watts outlines a practical and inspiring framework for reigniting purpose, confidence, and ambition. With real-life stories from women across generations and backgrounds, Fired Up offers tools to help readers identify what sparks them and live with greater intention and impact. Watts seeks to challenge the negative narrative that many women hold, asserting that...
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393. Megan Greenwell with Jay Willis: Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Did you know that private equity firms have a hand in many U.S. industries, including hospitals, daycare centers, supermarket chains, local newspapers, and prison service providers? They also manage highways, municipal water systems, fire departments, emergency medical services, and a growing swath of real estate. In her new book, Bad Company, journalist Megan Greenwell illuminates how ingrained private equity is, and how it’s preying on the most vulnerable people in our society, controlling congress, and causing destruction in communities around the country. Private equity is a system...
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392. Anna Malaika Tubbs with Florangela Davila: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
One guiding principle for resisting the patriarchy in the United States is to demand equal rights for men and women. Yet, author and multidisciplinary expert Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs argues that fighting patriarchal culture is more complicated than that. Tubbs believes that this fabricated hierarchy became so deeply ingrained over time that it now goes unnoticed. She outlines the history of patriarchy in the United States along with everything it intentionally conceals. Pulling from her latest book, Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us, Tubbs highlights how the United States...
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391. Building a Bikeable Seattle: A Bike Everywhere Day Bash!
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Is Seattle on the cusp of a biking Renaissance? From Beacon Hill to SODO to the Waterfront and Downtown, the next few years will bring major improvements to Seattle’s growing network of connected and separated bike lanes and bike paths. That’s good news for people who want a safer, healthier, more equitable and climate-friendly city. Join Cascade Bicycle Club on Bike Everywhere Day for a conversation with climate journalist and bike advocate Paul Tolme, Biking Uphill in the Rain author and Seattle Bike Blog founder Tom Fucoloro, and Cascade Bicycle Club Policy Manager Tyler...
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390. Alec Karakatsanis with Erin Papworth: Copaganda—How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
What if everything you thought you knew about crime and punishment was shaped by those who profit from it? Join us for a discussion with civil rights attorney and author Alec Karakatsanis as he examines “copaganda”—the deliberate manipulation of public perception by police, prosecutors, and the media. Despite historically low crime rates, the United States imprisons far more people than it did just decades ago, driven by a sprawling and profitable punishment industry. Karakatsanis will explore how media narratives fuel fear, distort public policy, and divert attention from systemic...
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389. Shamichael Hallman: Meet Me at the Library — A Place to Foster Social Connection and Promote Democracy
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
America is facing an epidemic of loneliness and isolation, with troubling effects on our mental and physical health. We live in one of the most divisive times in our history, one in which we tend to work, play, and associate only with people who think as we do. How do we create spaces for people to come together — to open our minds, understand our differences, and exchange ideas? In his new book, Meet Me at the Library, Shamichael Hallman argues that the public library may be our best hope for bridging these divides and creating strong, inclusive communities. Public libraries are...
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388. Derek Thompson with Clayton Aldern: Abundance
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
From bestselling authors and journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, Abundance is a call to renew a politics of plenty, face the failures of liberal governance, and abandon the chosen scarcities that have deformed American life. To trace the history of the twenty-first century so far is to trace a history of unaffordability and shortage. After years of refusing to build sufficient housing, America has a national housing crisis. After years of limiting immigration, we don’t have enough workers. Despite decades of being warned about the consequences of climate change, we haven’t built...
info_outlineTechnology pioneers like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft (to name a few) are woven into the fabric of Seattle’s economy. Yet, on a day-to-day basis, how much do you think about what these techno giants mean for the future of our world? With such enormous amounts of influence and money, how are these powers shaping our world today? Economist and journalist Loretta Napoleoni digs into these questions.
At the dawn of the digital revolution, people thought the internet was going to be the great equalizer, a global democratic force. Napoleoni argues that instead, Wall Street funded a new breed of capitalists, the “Techtitans,” who embraced rapid, transformational change while stripping their workers of rights and enriching themselves. Those who control and own the technology are the absolute masters, in Napoleoni’s eye.
In her book, Technocapitalism: The Rise of the New Robber Barons and the Fight for the Common Good, Napoleoni describes how these phenomena are the beginning of a new world model, born in a period of extraordinary change and acceleration––from the FTX collapse to AI, private space companies to the war in Ukraine, from inflation to the environmental impacts of EV car batteries. The ubiquity of techno giants in Seattle makes it easy to forget what kind of power resides in this city. Napoleoni wants to shed light on the kind of power it really is, and how we can fight against it for our common good to address today’s challenges.
In the mid-70s Loretta Napoleoni became an active member of the feminist movement in Italy, and later studied as a Fulbright Scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC. She began her career as an economist and went on to work as a London correspondent and columnist for La Stampa, La Repubblica, and La Paîs. Napoleoni is the author of the international bestsellers Rogue Economics: Capitalism’s New Reality and Terror Incorporated: Tracing the Money Behind Global Terrorism. She has served as Chairman of the countering terrorism financing group for the Club de Madrid, and lectures regularly around the world on economics, money laundering, and terrorism.
Ross Reynolds loves conversation and learning. He hosted a public radio news/talk show on KUOW Seattle called The Conversation for 13 years. He’s also been a radio program director, news director, and executive producer of community engagement. He is a public event convener, moderator, and interviewer.
