416. Kimberlé Crenshaw with Angela Rye: Backtalker: An American Memoir
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Release Date: 07/28/2026
423. Gerard Ryle with Jas Randhawa: How the Panama Papers Changed the World
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
A decade after the Panama Papers exposed the hidden world of offshore finance, the investigation’s consequences continue to unfold. Governments have recovered at least $1.4 billion, transparency laws have changed, and investigative journalism has been transformed. But financial secrecy has evolved alongside these reforms. Join Gerard Ryle, executive director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, for a conversation with financial crime expert Jas Randhawa about the investigation that reshaped public understanding of offshore finance and sparked arrests, legislation...
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422. Leah C. Stokes with David Roberts: The Carbon Wave: Democracy, Parenthood, and the Race to Protect Our Planet
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
They were perhaps an unlikely trio: the professor Leah Stokes, the policy wonk Sonia Aggarwal in the White House, and the DC insider Adrian Deveny in the Senate, but together, they crafted the boldest climate legislation of our time. In her newest book, The Carbon Wave, Leah Stokes chronicles the turbulent path of their climate bill as it veered between breakthrough and collapse — from the hopeful beginnings of the Green New Deal in 2018, to the bill’s near-certain defeat by Senator Joe Manchin in the winter of 2021, to the surprise passage of the landmark legislation in August 2022....
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421. Rashad Robinson with Angela Rye: From Presence to Power
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Why do some fights for justice hit a wall while others succeed? What does it take to win social change, especially now? According to author and social change strategist Rashad Robinson, it all comes down to understanding one thing: the difference between presence and power. Robinson has watched many movements unfold in his more than twenty years at the highest levels of leadership in two of the most significant social movements of our time: the fight for LGBTQ rights and the fight for racial justice. He’s taken on tech giants and the criminal justice system, politicians in Washington and...
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420. Ben Wikler with Governor Jay Inslee: This Is The Plan: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Ben Wikler, hailed as the “preeminent state party chair” by Nancy Pelosi, led Wisconsin Democrats through a series of hold-your-breath fights against right-wing extremists that resulted, against the odds, in the unrigging of the political system of the most divided — and, until recently, most gerrymandered — state in the nation. His new book, This Is The Plan: How to End America’s Meltdown and Save Democracy, draws on decades of experience in everything from school-board races to presidential elections to bring readers inside the hidden web of power that shapes our lives....
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419. Cole LeFavour: A Memoir of Land, Love, and Queer Resistance in Red America
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Finding and forging one’s identity and purpose can be challenging enough. Doing that while also being a member of a marginalized identity living in a conservative milieu can add more complexity to this experience. For former state Senator Cole LeFavour, that was very much a reality. LeFavour chronicles their life in a new book, In the Arms of Mountains: A Memoir of Land, Love, and Queer Resistance in Red America. As Idaho’s first out LGBTQ+ lawmaker, LeFavour explores a journey through gender, power, and rebellion against a reactionary system. When LeFavour was 11 years old,...
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418. Barbara McQuade with Debora Juarez: Preserving Our Democracy
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
New York Times bestselling author and former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade offers an exposé on what she frames as an escalating threat of far-right politics to both national security and American democracy. In The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government, McQuade draws on her decades of legal experience to argue how systems of organized crime and political opportunism exploit the levers of power — using corruption, cruelty, and chaos as tools to dominate institutions and eliminate accountability. McQuade exposes government tactics like information...
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417. Peter Beinart with Smadar Ben-Natan: Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
As the Gaza war stretches into its third year, journalism professor and MSNBC analyst Peter Beinart claims that, as a Jew, he must reckon with the intense moral and theological tensions that not only he holds, but what he sees as challenges for Judaism as a whole. Because of these tensions, Beinart believes the Jewish community must build a new answer to the question: What does it mean to be a Jew? From his book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, MSNBC analyst Peter Beinart imagines a world where Israeli Jews have the right to equality, not supremacy, and in...
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416. Kimberlé Crenshaw with Angela Rye: Backtalker: An American Memoir
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
By way of structured academia or outspoken social commentary, the work of Kimberlé Crenshaw can be found woven throughout the fabric of modern American sociopolitical discourse. Through establishing the concepts of intersectionality and critical race theory, Crenshaw helped lay a foundation for decades of discussion and activism around race and gender across the world. In her upcoming memoir Backtalker, Crenshaw recounts the personal journeys that shaped her as someone who champions taking notice and speaking up. With intimate and compelling storytelling, Crenshaw takes readers...
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415. Celebrating Bike Everywhere Month 2026: 2nd Annual Bike Month Bash
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
Do you bike in Seattle — or want to? Join Cascade Bike Club for Town Hall Seattle’s 2nd annual Bike Month Bash. Seattle’s bike network and transit connections are expanding as the city prepares for the FIFA World Cup and a flood of visitors this summer. But gaps remain, and more work is needed to make people of all abilities feel safe biking in our city. There are also many opportunities to support better biking in Seattle, such as the Pedaling Relief Project that rescues and delivers food on behalf of multiple food banks. Bring your enthusiasm and questions for our panel of...
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414. Red May 2026: ICE-Age Policing presented by Town Hall Seattle and Red May
Town Hall Seattle Civics Series
a month-long spree of red arts, red theory, and red politics based in Seattle, Washington, gathers each spring to discuss a world beyond capitalism. For this year’s event at Town Hall Seattle, Red May brings together a panel to discuss policing in the age of ICE. “Counterinsurgency has come home. Since the end of the Vietnam War, innovations in militarized policing have come one after another. No knock raids. AI surveillance. Clear and hold neighborhoods. Each new tactic or strategy has been rubber-stamped in Congress by both Democrats and Republicans under the guise of a...
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By way of structured academia or outspoken social commentary, the work of Kimberlé Crenshaw can be found woven throughout the fabric of modern American sociopolitical discourse. Through establishing the concepts of intersectionality and critical race theory, Crenshaw helped lay a foundation for decades of discussion and activism around race and gender across the world. In her upcoming memoir Backtalker, Crenshaw recounts the personal journeys that shaped her as someone who champions taking notice and speaking up.
With intimate and compelling storytelling, Crenshaw takes readers back to her roots as a little girl in Canton, Ohio, who saw and said things that others didn’t. As the daughter of a strong-minded teacher and pathbreaking public servant and the sister of a protective, yet bullying older brother, she starts to talk back. When she is denied a role in the kindergarten school play. When she is escorted to the back door of a private club. When Anita Hill is exiled for testifying against Clarence Thomas. When OJ Simpson goes on trial. When Obama launched My Brother’s Keeper, a movement focused on boys of color only. When the movement against police violence overlooks Black women. Crenshaw keeps talking back. From classroom to courtroom, as the years go by – with new context and critique, but always the same fervor for challenging the structures that were never built for her.
Backtalker presents an immersive, defiant, and deeply personal portrayal of a life spent fighting to be heard. Evoking emotions and revelations with each instance, Crenshaw transports readers to the moments that not only shaped her, but motivated her to work towards reshaping the world. Combining insight, intention, and impact, Backtalker details the path Crenshaw carved to establish herself as a pioneering voice in American civil rights– and a force to be reckoned with.
Kimberlé W. Crenshaw is a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, Black feminist legal theory, race, racism, and the law. She was a founder and has been a leader in the intellectual movement called Critical Race Theory and is also known for introducing and developing the concept of intersectionality. She is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and the cofounder and Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum. Crenshaw writes regularly for The New Republic, The Nation, and Ms., hosts the podcast Intersectionality Matters!, and has appeared as a commentator on media outlets including MSNBC and NPR.
Angela Rye is an award-winning host, lawyer, social justice advocate, and Principal/CEO of IMPACT Strategies. Rye is also the co-creator of State of the People, a coalition of 200 local and national organizations providing resources, education, empowerment, and relief to thousands of citizens. She is co-host of the award–winning podcast Native Land Pod and co-founder of Reasoned Choice Media. With more than two decades of experience in political strategy, coalition building, and advocacy, Rye previously served as Executive Director and General Counsel to the Congressional Black Caucus and as Senior Policy Advisor and Counsel for the House Homeland Security Committee.
