396. In the Spirit of Right and Respectful Relations: Conversations about Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being in Nature
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Release Date: 10/31/2025
412. Speaking of Seattle: Immigrant Rights Are Human Rights: Hosted by Marcus Harrison Green with Angelina Godoy, Roxana Norouzi, Erika Evans, and Alexis Mercedes Rinck
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
At a moment when national politics are testing the boundaries of constitutional protections and human dignity, local communities are asking a vital question: What can we do to protect one another? Town Hall Seattle and The Stranger present the March 19 edition of the Speaking of Seattle civic conversation series, an evening focused on immigrant rights, community responsibility, and the everyday actions that help safeguard our neighbors. This timely conversation explores how federal immigration enforcement policies ripple through local communities — and how ordinary people can respond...
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411. Cindy Cohn: Protecting Privacy in the Digital Age
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
As we cascade further into the digital age, concerns over privacy and data security continue to rise with increasing urgency. As artificial intelligence expands its reach, vast aggregates of personal data are constantly being mined to refine future models. But, the fight for digital privacy is as old as the digital age itself. In Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance, author and Digital Rights Activist, Cindy Cohn, chronicles her career-long battle to preserve our right to privacy online. Part memoir and part legal history for a general...
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409. How to be a Strategic Political Donor: With former US Ambassador Suzi LeVine and Joe Nguyễn
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Are you ever overwhelmed with politics and trying to figure out how and where to channel your resources to make a difference? Or, worse, have you thrown up your hands in disgust and opted for the couch? Join an empowering conversation on “How to be a strategic political donor,” where you will learn that you have agency and can make a difference in determining the future of our Democracy. Based on her decades-long journey in this arena, U.S. Ambassador (ret) Suzi LeVine will paint the landscape of the political ecosystem and decode their acronyms; provide a roadmap with key elections and...
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410. Matthew Sutton with Bill Radke: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Whether or not you call yourself religious, there’s no denying that religion has an impact on society across the continents. And there is no faith more dominant than Christianity in the United States today. Washington State University professor and historian Matthew A. Sutton can show you just exactly how evangelical Christianity entwines itself with all aspects of the country. Drawing from his book, Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity, Sutton chronicles Christians’ five-hundred-year endeavor to turn the U.S. into their version of the kingdom...
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408. Emily Galvin Almanza with Michele Storms: The Price of Mercy
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Have you ever wondered what really goes on in our country’s criminal courts? Many want to believe in the hallowed halls of justice, with ethical and equitable legal processes that pursue truth and enforce the law fairly. But one author argues that this perception hides the reality that the system is broken. Emily Galvin Almanza, also a former public defender, presents her latest work The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender’s Search for Justice in America. The text takes us behind closed doors of America’s criminal courts, arguing...
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407. Blue City Blues with Anne Applebaum: Resisting Authoritarianism Here and Abroad
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Blue City Blues leads a conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, as she addresses the escalating global threats to democratic institutions and explores pragmatic strategies to counter the rise of authoritarianism. Drawing on her extensive research, Applebaum discusses findings from her critically acclaimed works, including Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism and her latest book, Autocracy, Inc., offering insight into how free societies can prevent the worst-case scenarios now unfolding across the world. Anne...
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406. Brian Soucek: The Opinionated University
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Like many universities nationwide, the University of Washington is facing threats to federal funding, which they rely on for fundamental research and development. The erosion of federal support means universities like UW are facing decisions on how to survive and move forward, especially as today’s social and political climate becomes more divisive. UC Davis law professor Brian Soucek explores this pivotal moment in his book, The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education. One could argue that universities must remain...
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405. Speaking of Seattle: Who Tells Seattle’s Story? Local Media in a Broken News Economy: Hosted by Erica C. Barnett with Florangela Davila, Hannah Murphy Winter, and Naomi Ishisaka
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Seattle loves to think of itself as an informed, engaged, “I-read-the-footnotes” kind of city. But what happens when the institutions we rely on to tell our stories are shrinking, consolidating, or vanishing altogether? Join Marcus Harrison Green with Florangela Davila, Hannah Murphy Winter, and Naomi Ishisaka for a candid, no-spin conversation about the state of local media— and what it means for the future of civic life in Seattle. We’ll dig into questions like: Who gets covered, and who only shows up in the news when something goes wrong? What does it mean when neighborhoods lose...
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404. Evelyn Iritani with Frank Abe: Safe Passage: The Exchange of American and Japanese Civilians by Sea
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Across the water from Seattle, you can visit the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial. It’s a place to honor and learn from the past. Evelyn Iritani, a longtime Seattle resident and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, wants to remember – and learn from – another, lesser-known story from World War II. In her book, Safe Passage, she reveals the dramatic, behind-the-scenes efforts to bring U.S. and Japanese citizens home from enemy land. In 1943, during some of the Pacific theater’s bloodiest battles, the United States and Japan coordinated the exchange of civilians...
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403. We Hold These Truths: A Live Broadcast of the 1941 Bill of Rights Radio Special
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Celebrate the 234th anniversary of the Bill of Rights and the historic December 15, 1941, radio broadcast of We Hold These Truths with a live performance and radio event at Town Hall Seattle. Known as the poet laureate of American radio, Norman Corwin wrote We Hold These Truths months before its original airing. But after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, the program—created to honor the Bill of Rights on its 150th anniversary—took on new emotional depth and national significance. This production commemorates both the Bill of Rights and Corwin’s landmark broadcast, featuring a...
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In relationship with Se’Si’Le, 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 non-Indigenous allies and partners to the benefit of Mother Earth and all her relations down to the seventh generation.
Come be a part of the celebration of this inaugural project, with a night full of powerful Pacific Northwest speakers. Facilitated by Jeff Renner, engaging public speaker and meteorologist, the talk will include Jay Julius Xw’tot lhem (President and founder of Se’Si’Le, previous Lummi Nation Chairman), Lynda Mapes (Pacific Northwest Journalist, reported with the Seattle Times for 27 years), and John Vechey (Cofounder of groundbreaking technology companies, and board member of Se’Si’Le).
Jeff Renner holds degrees in Atmospheric Sciences and in Journalism and Political Science. He is a polished and engaging public speaker with a passion for the Pacific Northwest and a deep love of the natural world. In addition to his public speaking, Jeff is a meteorologist for the King 5 television station in Seattle.
Jay Julius Xw’tot lhem (Lummi) is the President of Se’Si’Le. A fisherman, Former Chairman and Councilman at Lummi Nation, Jay was a leader in the fight to protect Xwe’chi’eXen (Cherry Point). He has organized and executed Tribal, local, regional, and national campaigns. A bridge-builder, he uses empathy and storytelling to bring people together. Principal at Julius Consulting LLC.
Lynda Mapes is a journalist, nature writer, and author based in Seattle. A full-time daily newspaper reporter since 1985, Maps worked at the Seattle Times for 27 years before her recent retirement to focus on writing books and long-form journalism.
John Vechey is a board member of Se’Si’Le and is based on the San Juan Islands. In Right and Respectful Relations, Vechey is highlighted under the chapter about technology. As the co-founder of groundbreaking technology companies, including Pluto VR and PopCap Games,Vechey has helped conceive of and produce popular video games like Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies.
Se’Si’Le is an Indigenous led, Bellingham-based non-profit that works to protect Indigenous areas, resources, and sacred sites.
Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Braided River.
