Town Hall Seattle Civics Series

Town Hall Seattle

The Civics series at Town Hall shines a light on the shifting issues, movements, and policies, that affect our society, both locally and globally. These events pose questions and ideas, big and small, that have the power to inform and impact our lives. Whether it be constitutional research from a scholar, a new take on history, or the birth of a movement, it's all about educating and empowering.

  1. 12H AGO

    410. Matthew Sutton with Bill Radke: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity

    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 of God. In the centuries after Christianity first arrived on American shores, colonizers (and the colonized) practiced many varieties of the faith. Throughout the nation's history, Christianity has maintained influence and power through new and evolving strains of its faith. As U.S. Christianity has fractured and adapted to changing times, the religion has shaped everything from the promise of Manifest Destiny to Ronald Reagan's approach to the Cold War, the rise of the Southern Lost Cause narrative, to the triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement. Through Sutton's research, he explains how faith affects human behavior, which ultimately shapes the world we make. Tracing the faith's major figures and currents, Sutton pinpoints how U.S. Christianity — always both steadfast and precarious — lives at the center of the nation's shared history. Matthew Avery Sutton is the Claudius O. and Mary Johnson Distinguished Professor and department chair in History at Washington State University. He is the author of five other books on the history of American Christianity, including Double Crossed and American Apocalypse, and the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship. He lives in Pullman, Washington. Bill Radke hosts Week In Review at KUOW. Before that, he created and hosted the NPR humor show Rewind and hosted the Marketplace Morning Report, covering the day's national/international business news. He's been a KUOW reporter, news director, and interview host; also, a stand-up comedian and Seattle P-I newspaper columnist. Buy the Book Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity Third Place Books

    1h 10m

  2. APR 30

    408. Emily Galvin Almanza with Michele Storms: The Price of Mercy

    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 that the institutions that claim to protect us are doing the exact opposite. Examples include data showing that jails actually increase future crime, police corruption in overtime pay, an example of a man incarcerated for decades because scientists mistook dog hair for his own, incentives that push prosecutors to seek convictions, and even how judges may decide cases differently after lunch. Almanza presents examples and offers a blueprint for fixing these issues at their core, and by engaging the general public in helping to shape our collective future. Emily Galvin Almanza is the co-founder and executive director of Partners for Justice, a nonprofit creating a new collaborative model of public defense designed to empower defenders nationwide. Prior to founding PFJ, Emily fought for clients inside the L.A. County Public Defender's Office, the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office, and the Bronx Defenders, and with the Stanford Three Strikes Project. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, and Time, among other publications. Michele E. Storms is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington (ACLU of Washington), former Deputy Director of the ACLU of Washington, and previous Assistant Dean for Public Service and executive director of the William H. Gates Public Service Law program at the University of Washington School of Law.  Preceding those roles, she served as a statewide advocacy coordinator first at Columbia Legal Services and later at the Northwest Justice Project. She was also previously on faculty at the University of Washington School of Law where she founded what is now the Child and Youth Advocacy Clinic and taught several other courses. Buy the Book The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender's Search for Justice in America Elliott Bay Book Company

    1h 18m

  3. APR 22

    407. Blue City Blues with Anne Applebaum: Resisting Authoritarianism Here and Abroad

    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 Applebaum is a prize-winning historian, a staff writer for The Atlantic, and a senior fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Her history books include Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine; Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956; and Gulag: A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. Her most recent books are the New York Times bestsellers Twilight of Democracy, an essay on democracy and authoritarianism, and Autocracy Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Rule the World. She was a Washington Post columnist for fifteen years and a member of the editorial board. She has also been the deputy editor of the Spectator and a columnist for several British newspapers. For nearly two decades, David Hyde worked for NPR-affiliate KUOW in Seattle, most recently as a Murrow-award-winning politics reporter. He departed in 2024 to dedicate himself full-time to podcasting and other journalism and writing projects. Blue City Blues builds on the success David had creating the Seattle Nice podcast. Each week, Blue City Blues takes a deep dive into the many shared issues facing blue cities. Sandeep Kaushik is a political and public affairs consultant in Seattle. In addition to his extensive strategic advisory, public relations, and political communications work for elected officials leading businesses, associations, governments, and non-profits, he has worked on multiple political campaigns in the Northwest, including numerous issue and ballot measure campaigns. Prior to forming his firm, Sound View Strategies, Sandeep worked as deputy communications director for then-King County Executive Ron Sims, and prior to that as a political columnist/writer for Seattle's alt-weekly, the Stranger, and as the Washington State correspondent for Time Magazine and the Boston Globe. He currently co-hosts two podcasts: Blue City Blues and Seattle Nice. Presented by Town Hall Seattle, Blue City Blues, UW Office of Public Lectures, and UW Evans School of Public Policy & Governance.

    1h 14m

  4. APR 14

    406. Brian Soucek: The Opinionated University

    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 neutral in society's contentious issues in order to uphold the neutrality of truth and knowledge. But can a university ever truly be neutral in today's social and political climate? Soucek argues that this promise is doomed to fail—universities can't help being opinionated, and neutrality is an unattainable myth. Soucek takes a deep dive into several prominent campus controversies, including diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and restrictions on campus speech and protest. Each issue forces universities to choose a side in what they do and say. Soucek argues that those pushing for neutrality are only preventing universities from standing up for their long-held values, whether in today's current moment of crisis or in periods of political calm. Drawing from his conclusions in The Opinionated University, Soucek calls on universities like University of Washington to forget neutrality as a governing principle and focus instead on what their mission should be—and who should determine it. Their very existence may depend on it. Brian Soucek is a Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis. A scholar of free speech and equality law, Soucek has shaped national policy on academic freedom, nondiscrimination, and campus speech through his work with the American Association of University Professors' "Committee A" on Academic Freedom and Tenure and the University of California's Academic Senate. Buy the Book The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education Third Place Books

    1h 14m

  5. APR 13

    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

    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 beat reporters, but gain police press releases and political mailers? How are grassroots, BIPOC-led, and community media stepping in where legacy outlets have stepped back—and what support do they actually need to survive? And how do everyday readers and listeners move from consuming the news to co-creating it? Alongside Florangela Davila, of the South Seattle Emerald, Hannah Murphy Winter of The Stranger, and Naomi Ishisaka from The Seattle Times, Marcus will explore how we rebuild trust in news, fund coverage that actually reflects our communities, and resist the slide into a city where the loudest voices are the best-funded ones. This won't be a nostalgia tour for the "good old days" of print. It's a conversation about what comes next—and how Seattle can choose a media ecosystem that serves people, not just profit. Host:  Erica C. Barnett is a longtime journalist covering local news and politics, co-founder of PubliCola, and author of Quitter: A Memoir of Drinking, Relapse, and Recovery.  Panelists: Florangela Davila is the Executive Director of the South Seattle Emerald and a longtime Seattle journalist whose work has centered on both race and the creative community. She's the former race and immigration reporter at The Seattle Times, former arts reporter at KPLU, former managing editor and host at Crosscut/Cascade PBS, and most recently, the news director at KNKX Public Radio, where she led the newsroom to more than two dozen regional and national awards during her four-year tenure. Hannah Murphy Winter is The Stranger's Editor-in-Chief and writes about queerness, justice, the climate crisis, and the intersection between politics and the arts, usually not all at once. Naomi Ishisaka is the social justice columnist and assistant managing editor for diversity, inclusion, and staff development at The Seattle Times. Presented by Town Hall Seattle and The Stranger.

    1h 17m

  6. MAR 26

    404. Evelyn Iritani with Frank Abe: Safe Passage: The Exchange of American and Japanese Civilians by Sea

    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 caught on the wrong side of the battlefield after Pearl Harbor. Nearly fifteen hundred Allied civilians trapped in Asia, mostly U.S. citizens, sailed through dangerous waters to India, where they were traded for Japanese immigrants sent from the U.S. The fate of the more than ten thousand U.S. civilians left behind in Asia rested on the success of this endeavor. Engineering these wartime exchanges was fraught within and outside the U.S. government. The U.S. uprooted and repatriated Japanese citizens of Latin America, sometimes against their will. People imprisoned in camps like Bainbridge Island, many of them American citizens, were forced to choose between expulsion to a war zone in Japan or an uncertain future behind barbed wire. Through these stories, Iritani explains how messy humanitarian efforts can be in wartime and illuminates the lasting effects of racism throughout U.S. history. Evelyn Iritani is the author of An Ocean Between Us: The Changing Relationship of Japan and the United States, Told in Four Stories from the Life of an American Town. She is a former reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Los Angeles Times, where her reporting garnered numerous awards, including the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for a series she coauthored on Walmart. Frank Abe is lead author of the graphic novel, WE HEREBY REFUSE: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration, a Finalist in Creative Nonfiction for the Washington State Book Award, and co-editor with Floyd Cheung of a new Penguin Classics anthology, THE LITERATURE OF JAPANESE AMERICAN INCARCERATION. He won an American Book Award as co-editor of JOHN OKADA: The Life & Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy, and wrote and directed the award-winning PBS documentary CONSCIENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION." He is currently developing a new stage adaptation of Okada's NO-NO BOY.   Buy the Book Safe Passage: The Untold Story of Diplomatic Intrigue, Betrayal​, and the Exchange of American and Japanese Civilians by Sea During W​o​rld War II Elliott Bay Book Company

    1h 1m

  7. MAR 22

    403. We Hold These Truths: A Live Broadcast of the 1941 Bill of Rights Radio Special

    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 cast of prominent local broadcasters and public figures. Feliks Banel is an award-winning broadcaster and historian based in Seattle. Presented by Town Hall Seattle, SPACE 101.1 FM, and Cascade of History.

    1h 34m

  8. MAR 9

    402. Cynthia Miller-Idriss and Jen Barnes: Man Up: The New Misogyny

    As political violence, mass shootings, and the actions of radical extremists continue to be a devastating presence in our news cycle, academics and experts are compelled to look for connections. What things do most mass shooters, terrorists, or violent extremists have in common? In her newest book, educator and scholar of extremism Cynthia Miller-Idriss expands upon the roles of gender in this conversation – that not only are these violent acts almost always carried out by men and boys, but that evidence of aggressive misogyny, homophobia, or transphobia occurs at nearly the same rates within the perpetrators of these crimes. Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism seeks to shed light on an increased presence of gender-based violence across a range of incidents and forms extremist groups. Through extensive research and five distinct case studies, Man Up draws attention to violent events where motivations of racism, antisemitism, or xenophobia are still supported by throughlines of misogynistic aggression. From the misogynistic language in the plot to kidnap and execute Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer to the prior reports of stalking, harassment of women, and domestic violence by the men behind the mass shooting events at Virginia Tech and Pulse nightclub. Miller-Idriss also provides her analysis on the centering of gendered discrimination within far-right and male supremacist culture – a rising misogynistic force that has resulted in increasing numbers of attacks internationally, specifically targeting women and citing feminism or sexual frustration with women as motivation. Miller-Idriss posits that these interconnected threads of misogyny have been underrepresented in the media and with experts in a way that leaves us vulnerable to hate-fueled violence of all forms, both online and out in the world. From interpersonal instances of sexism to extreme far-right ideologies and mass violence events, Miller-Idriss explores how an epidemic of misogyny and a patriarchal backlash can act as driving factors in this rise in violence. Man Up aims to give insight on how this culture shift has developed, how to recognize the misogyny in our everyday lives, and presents strategies that everyone – including parents, teachers, and counselors – can use to push back against these forms of violence. Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss is an internationally recognized scholar, speaker, and author on the subjects of extremism and radicalization. She is the founding director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at the American University in Washington, DC, where she is also a Professor in the School of Public Affairs and in the School of Education. She regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress and works with agencies globally on trends in domestic violent extremism and strategies for prevention and disengagement. Her work and expertise have been featured by MSNBC, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and more. Her previously published books include Hate in the Homeland and The Extreme Gone Mainstream. Jen Barnes is the CEO and founder of Rough & Tumble. She is an advocate, entrepreneur, and life-long athlete committed to building community around gender equity and visibility for women's sports. Buy the Book Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism Elliott Bay Book Company

    1h 22m
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4
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

The Civics series at Town Hall shines a light on the shifting issues, movements, and policies, that affect our society, both locally and globally. These events pose questions and ideas, big and small, that have the power to inform and impact our lives. Whether it be constitutional research from a scholar, a new take on history, or the birth of a movement, it's all about educating and empowering.

Information

  • Creator
    Town Hall Seattle
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2017 Town Hall Association. All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Town Hall Seattle Civics Series

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