How Identity Shapes Politics in a Fractured America

Is the personal always political? Washington Post columnists discuss how identity markers have come to define how we think and vote.

Trust in American institutions has reached record lows. Where do Americans turn to for a sense of identity, connection or belonging? Are identity markers such as race or religion a way to build community and understanding or do these affinities further divide us?  

As part of the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival in early May, Martine Powers and Elahe Izadi, co-hosts of The Washington Post podcast Post Reports, spoke with columnists Shadi Hamid and Jason Willick about how personal identity overlaps with politics in our current highly polarized moment.  

In this episode of the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival podcast, the four journalists dig into the Israel-Hamas war and its impact on political and social debates in the U.S. They also discuss aspects of their own identities and how that shapes their worldviews, and whether there is such a thing as a set of shared American values. 

This conversation was recorded on May 4, 2024. 

---

Credits

Host: Paris Jackson

Producer: Isaac Kaplan-Woolner

Event producers: Jake Newman, Anne O'Dowd

---

If you would like to support Cascade PBS, go to cascadepbs.org. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Cascade PBS.