380. Jesse Hagopian with Dr. Ayva Thomas and Wayne Au: Teach Truth — Unbanning Books in Public Schools
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Release Date: 02/05/2025
382. Chris Hayes with Luke Burbank: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
You’ve probably been there: doomscrolling or otherwise distracted by devices. Many of us have lost focus before as our addictive phones consume our time or interfere with social situations. People bump into one another on the street, look down at their phones at restaurants, or check their mobile devices while spending time with the kids as continuous pings sound off in their pockets and purses. New York Times bestselling author, political commentator, and MSNBC news anchor Chris Hayes posits that these phenomena are part of a larger issue of attention capitalism, and show how...
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381. Queering Talks: In Between
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Step into the in-between. This segment dives into the rich, transformative power of liminal spaces—those borders and boundaries where identities and experiences defy tidy categories. Our speakers will share deeply personal stories of hybridity, multiplicity, and fluidity, offering insights from lives lived beyond the binary. These talks challenge conventional thinking and celebrate the voices of those who have always thrived in the margins. Don’t miss this bold exploration of the spaces where possibility begins. About Queering Talks From the beginning, Town Hall has been a space for...
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380. Jesse Hagopian with Dr. Ayva Thomas and Wayne Au: Teach Truth — Unbanning Books in Public Schools
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Did you know that the Seattle Public Library offers any U.S. resident, ages 13-26, a free “Books Unbanned Card,” which allows you to check out any e-books or e-audiobooks from the Library’s digital collection, no matter where you live? This is just one example of how people are resisting new restrictions on information and education across the country. In his new book, Teach Truth, Seattle educator and author Jesse Hagopian discusses these restrictions and offers advice on how to defend antiracist education. Hagopian outlines how numerous states and school districts in recent...
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379. Juan Williams with Enrique Cerna: The Rise of America’s Second Civil Rights Movement
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
After the U.S. elected Barack Obama its first Black president in 2008, some assumed that this signaled a post-racial America. However, subsequent and serious incidents suggested this was not the case, inciting what some came to know as a second civil rights movement. Political correspondent, journalist, and historian Juan Williams explores this phenomenon in his latest release New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America’s Second Civil Rights Movement. Who are the heroes of this movement? Where is it headed? What distinguishes it from its predecessor? Williams aims to answer...
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378. Mariana Chilton with Agueda Pacheco Flores: Rethinking What We Know About Hunger in America
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
In America today, reports show that food insecurity is a pressing issue for over 35 million people. With rising grocery prices, inflation, and the lasting impacts of the pandemic—understanding the complexities of hunger has never been more imperative. Mariana Chilton explores this issue in the book, The Painful Truth about Hunger in America: Why We Must Unlearn Everything We Think We Know—and Start Again with some new insights and perspectives. Mariana Chilton is an author, professor, and founder of the Drexel University — Center for Hunger-Free Communities. In The...
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377. Casey Michel with Katy Pearce: A Danger to Democracy
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
If there is one thing on our collective minds these days, it is the issue of politics. But for all the interest it piques, much of it remains a mystery to the American public. Bestselling author and journalist Casey Michel, who tackled the problem of financial corruption in his first book American Kleptocracy, sheds light on an issue that may be unknown to those outside the Capitol. In Michel’s new book , he details how one group has worked as foot soldiers for authoritarian, repressive regimes. In the process, they’ve not only established dictatorships and spread...
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376. Paul Pierson with Megan Ming Francis: Partisan Nation
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Professor of Political Science Paul Pierson, discusses his new book Partisan Nation. Co-authored with Eric Schickler, this book explores the roots of America’s democratic crisis, highlighting how the mismatch between the Constitution and today’s nationalized, partisan politics has destabilized American democracy. Pierson offers a fresh perspective on contemporary polarization, explaining how it has evolved from past eras and become self-perpetuating. Pierson and Schickler’s work dives into the changing dynamics of state parties, interest groups, and media since the 1960s,...
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375. Nate Silver with Clayton Aldern: On the Edge
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
What can professional risk-takers — poker players and hedge fund managers, crypto true believers and blue-chip art collectors— teach us much about navigating the uncertainty of the twenty-first century? In the bestselling The Signal and the Noise, statistician Nate Silver showed how forecasting would define the age of Big Data. Now, in his timely and riveting new book, On the Edge, Silver investigates “The River,” or those whose mastery of risk allows them to shape — and dominate — so much of modern life. People in “The River” have increasing amounts of wealth and...
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374. David Orr: Reforming Democracy for a Warming World — Pathways to Thriving in a Post-Fossil Fuel Era
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Democracy in a Hotter Time calls for reforming democratic institutions as a prerequisite for avoiding climate chaos and adapting governance to how Earth works as a physical system. To survive in the “long emergency” ahead, the book suggests ways to reform and strengthen democratic institutions, making them assets rather than liabilities. Edited by David W. Orr, this collection of essays proposes a new political order that would enable humanity to thrive in the transition to a post-fossil fuel world. Orr gathers leading scholars, public intellectuals, and political leaders to address the...
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373. Robert Merry: How Massachusetts and South Carolina Led the Way to Civil War
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
In his new book, Decade of Disunion, Robert W. Merry explores the critical lessons from the 1850s when the United States faced a growing crisis over slavery. The Mexican War’s vast new territories sparked debates on expanding slavery, clashing with the 1820 Missouri Compromise. Key events such as the Compromise of 1850, the 1854 repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the 1857 Dred Scott decision, and John Brown’s 1859 raid heightened tensions, leading to violent conflicts and further division between North and South. Merry focuses on the contrasting roles of South Carolina and...
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Did you know that the Seattle Public Library offers any U.S. resident, ages 13-26, a free “Books Unbanned Card,” which allows you to check out any e-books or e-audiobooks from the Library’s digital collection, no matter where you live? This is just one example of how people are resisting new restrictions on information and education across the country. In his new book, Teach Truth, Seattle educator and author Jesse Hagopian discusses these restrictions and offers advice on how to defend antiracist education.
Hagopian outlines how numerous states and school districts in recent years have enacted policies or laws mandating how to teach about systemic racism and oppression—policies that impact nearly half of all students in the U.S. Thousands of books have been banned from schools. Teachers face termination, attacks, and disciplinary action. You can be punished, including jail time, for providing access to a banned book. These new changes have old roots in McCarthyism’s Red Scare and Lavender Scare. They have strongholds in U.S. history.
But there is also strong pushback. Hagopian shows how the fight against them also has a rich legacy, from the resistance to anti-literacy laws for enslaved people to the Black Lives Matter at School movement today. Hagopian calls to defend antiracist education, showing how to reclaim suppressed history by creating beloved classroom communities and healthy social movements.
Jesse Hagopian has taught in public schools for over 20 years, serves on the Black Lives Matter at School steering committee, organizes for the Zinn Education Project, and founded the Ethnic Studies course at Seattle’s Garfield High School. He is an editor for Rethinking Schools magazine, the co-editor of Black Lives Matter at School and Teaching for Black Lives, and the editor of More Than a Score: The New Uprising Against High Stakes Testing.
Dr. Ayva Thomas is a P-12 education and systems leader in and beyond her local community. She has been a speaker, panelist, and thought partner for events like the Zinn Education Project’s Teaching for Black Lives campaign, the City of Bothell’s DEI work, and the City of Kenmore’s Juneteenth Celebration.
Wayne Au is Dean and Professor in the University of Washington Bothell School of Educational Studies, and he is an editor for the social justice teaching magazine, Rethinking Schools. A former public high school teacher, he writes and speaks about racial justice in education. Au’s most recent book is Asian American Racialization and the Politics of U.S. Education.
Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Seattle Public Library.
