Luke Burgis — The One and the Ninety-Nine: Forging Identity in the Age of Social Contagion - with Anne Snyder

Julia Angwin & Ami Fields-Meyer — On Courage: How to Be a Dissident in an Age of Fear - with Miles Taylor

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and a former White House senior advisor, a deeply reported manual about how anyone can defy an authoritarian – based on original interviews with more than 100 dissidents, activists, and theorists across the world. The United States is only the latest country to face a leader who wields fear as a weapon, punishes political enemies, disappears people off the street, and undermines free and fair elections. Today nearly three out of four people on earth live under authoritarianism, the highest rate since the late 1970s. But even under repressive conditions, each of us holds the power to help defeat autocrats. Based on their acclaimed The New Yorker essay “So You Want to Be a Dissident?,” veteran reporter Julia Angwin and political strategist Ami Fields-Meyer give us a captivating – and profoundly hopeful – guide to courage in an age of fear. Meet a student from Hong Kong who risked everything for democracy. A mom in a working-class neighborhood of Caracas who broke with the political movement that raised her. Cairo twentysomethings who staged a gutsy stunt to help bring down a dictator. A mild-mannered immigrant fighting to save a landmark U.S. civil rights law. People throughout the United States and across five continents who faced serious risks for dissenting in their workplace, their community, or their country. On Courage is the story of how they did it anyway – and how you can do it, too. Blending rich, previously untold narratives with history, spirituality, and movement research, Angwin and Fields-Meyer deliver a highly accessible book full of practical lessons – an inspiring resource for anyone, anywhere, who feel the walls of history closing in on them. On Courage [https://politics-prose.com/book/9780063491946?ic_referral=cHBqMPECEL8Zp82ir66NVL9FGfhH1MdoxY_WO9vRT0UwMyhIMz2zlgpwlelBTTVzQlODQFHcrchisDuuC1bMBJ5d9f96XopnnIYJ_YFkieJTxiAnXWv8GABqgVTMcwFjFRt7RIY] is a roadmap to political courage and a powerful case for how taking personal risks can help save the free world. Julia Angwin is a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist, New York Times bestselling author, and monthly contributing writer for New York Times Opinion. In 2018, she founded The Markup, an award-winning nonprofit newsroom that produces meaningful data-centered journalism about technology and the people affected by it. Before founding The Markup, she led investigative teams at ProPublica and The Wall Street Journal that pioneered the coverage of privacy and algorithmic accountability. She is a winner and two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in journalism. Ami Fields-Meyer is a political strategist, speechwriter, and former White House senior policy advisor to Vice President Kamala Harris. He is a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, and has served as a top advisor to political candidates, leaders of major civil rights groups, and high-profile public officials from Los Angeles City Hall to the West Wing. Angwin and Fields-Meyer will be in conversation with Miles Taylor. What does it cost to tell the truth — and is it worth it? Miles Taylor answered that question the hard way. As Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, he became one of the most prominent officials in American history to blow the whistle on a sitting president, publishing an anonymous New York Times essay that triggered a national reckoning. When he revealed his identity, he lost everything. He'd do it again. Miles has spent his career inside the haunted halls of power — the White House, the Pentagon, Capitol Hill, major U.S. tech companies, and beyond — and emerged with an uncommon vantage point on the threats to free society. As a national security expert, technologist, and one of the most recognized voices on democratic backsliding,. PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9780063491946?ic_referral=vRZPVcle-th0Kwf9lBJp9FBJ9kJonOezXmf-0qfpx6EwM2VyC6RBxmwRN9pUAIeJ3UqhNhQHTvC769E0_cFrGLq7R-fJrUVoppdYXPP1Bct6y2vxJbpoCrMruhJ6sU5O9vCY9t4

Atima Omara — The Instigators: How Black Women Have Been Essential to American Democracy (And What We Can Learn from Them) - with Kimberly Atkins-Stohr

A top Democratic Party strategist and media contributor offers a bold and urgent reminder that young Black women hold the key to saving our democracy and building a truly multi-racial future that benefits all Americans. Agitator. Troublemaker. Motivator. Initiator. Instigator. “How can we build a truly inclusive multi-racial democracy?” For Atima Omara, the answer is The Instigators—a name she has given to a demographic of Black women between the ages of 18 and 45. These women are uniquely equipped to save American democracy. They didn’t ask for this ability, she argues. It was forced on them because racism and sexism have made them the most marginalized group in American politics. We can all benefit from their strategic know-how as we rebuild our society. Black women have always been the most relentless instigators for change—building a democracy for all. Omara draws on her political knowledge and expertise, as well as history, to examine how they have responded to failed strategic decisions by movement leaders and the modern Democratic Party in previous elections as a context for the present. She also provides actionable recommendations to organizers, donors, candidates, strategists, political party leaders, that everyday people can use in their communities to build an inclusive democracy that endures beyond one election cycle. The Instigators [https://politics-prose.com/book/9780063424876] is at once an urgent political guide, historical exploration, and a poignant memoir that pulls from Omara’s two decades of work in Democratic politics and the progressive movement as an elected Democratic Party leader, movement organizer, former candidate, gubernatorial aide, campaign staff to candidates at the national, state, and local level; and now political strategist. Powerful, insightful, and practical, it is imperative reading for everyone eager to protect and rebuild our democracy and create a better tomorrow for all. Atima Omara is a nationally recognized award-winning political strategist, leader, writer, speaker, and advocate. She holds a BA in American Studies from the University of Virginia, and is a commentator on national politics, candidates, policy, race, gender and culture having been quoted in national outlets including The New York Times, Boston Globe, and The Atlantic. She’s appeared on CNN, PBS, Fox News, BBC, CBC, NPR, and MSNBC including Joy Reid’s The ReidOut. She was named one of one hundred notable Black Americans by EBONY Magazine. Atima’s writing was published in Wake Up America: Black Women on the Future of Democracy edited by Kesha Blain. She’s also written for Washington Post, the American Prospect, The Root, Teen Vogue, and other national outlets. Omara is in conversation with Kimberly Atkins-Stohr, a senior opinion writer and columnist with more than 20 years of experience covering politics, policy and law. She is an on-air political analyst for MSNBC, a frequent panelist on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” and co-host of the popular Politicon legal news podcast #SistersInLaw. Based in Washington, Kimberly focuses primarily on national political and legal analysis. PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9780063424876?ic_referral=MWzJB00LENQPb7KI876Bu1ygqVcbXpp-o2T42RCbzSgwM9Iqhr6qpiHuJpAoMzy5UmQfdwDxvcKTTkNG-UUv5Fs3En6u2_9YIB0fRJIm0MjXx5ovc81w8RjE6cJD6oT52qfRP18

Devlin Barrett — The Department of Revenge: How Trump Took Control of American Justice - with Evan Perez

Dear American, No part of life in the United States has been untouched by Donald Trump’s relentless weaponization of the Justice Department. This is a cautionary tale about how, once a president amasses such power, future presidents may never relinquish it. Whose votes get counted and whose get tossed out? Who gets prosecuted and who gets protected, like Jeffrey Epstein’s friends? Who gets to run our colleges and schools? How do citizens protest without getting killed? For generations, the Justice Department has sought to enforce the law fairly, without fear or favor. But Trump came into his second term with one obsession above all. “I was the hunted,” he said. “And now I’m the hunter.” In this shocking exposé, the three-time Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Devlin Barrett reveals the systematic way the president’s men and women have dismantled the department as it once existed and retooled it to hunt Trump’s enemies. This time around, the president and his team have been far shrewder about getting what they want: revenge against the people who investigated and prosecuted Trump; revenge against a legal system he believes was set to ruin not just his career but also his life; and, ultimately, revenge against the parts of America he despises. In a book filled with bombshells, Barrett describes how Trump’s adviser Stephen Miller drives the department and the FBI on a daily basis; how the White House decimated the justice divisions that protect civil rights and punish tax cheats; how prosecutors deploy a “charge first, ask questions later” approach against those they don’t like; and how lawyers are hired for the purpose of going after Trump’s personal targets, such as James Comey, Jerome Powell, Chuck Schumer, and even the mayor of Newark. Most concerning, Barrett shows how the Trump administration has shut down a program used to monitor and react to election security threats, raising concerns that future elections could be chaotic and that the Justice Department, rather than ensuring the integrity of the results, may instead serve as a megaphone for unfounded claims of fraud. This is the inside story of the damage—and a road map for putting our justice system back together. Devlin Barrett has covered federal law enforcement for more than twenty-five years. He writes about the Justice Department and FBI for The New York Times, and previously worked for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, and the New York Post. In the past decade, he has been part of three Pulitzer Prize–winning reporting teams—for Public Service, for National Reporting, and for Breaking News—and was a cofinalist for Pulitzer Prizes for International Reporting and Feature Writing. He is also the author of October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election, an account of the FBI's role in the 2016 presidential election. Barrett lives in Virginia with his wife and children. Barrett is in conversation with Evan Perez. Perez is a CNN Senior Justice Correspondent based in the Washington, D.C. Bureau, reporting on legal, crime, and national security issues. PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9781668065129?ic_referral=stiGUG9PxoILBCvlC0EgWyXEU5OCCGn4BL-nru8qpIcwMwG-eGozPe9BKtIsdQoHYrm60_ftji-opbE9btkJKvn7XJ_XhHLHiqCu7stMmXLWXHV7-WgR3VYSzvJvK6Ef1ckSvz0

Stephanie Green — AMERICAN CROWN: From Revolutionaries to Royalty: The Story of Prince William's American Ancestors - with Amy Argetsinger

The fascinating story of Prince William’s American ancestors, and how this often-rebellious lineage will help shape the future King of Great Britain. In this fresh and perspective-shifting narrative, American Crown is an absorbing blend of American history and royal biography that brings to life the past generations who will shape the Prince of Wales’s role in the future of Britain, America and the world. For the first time, Britain will have a monarch whose ancestors fought against the very crown he bears. It all goes back to the roots of Diana, Princess of Wales whose Spencer family has a friendship with the Washington clan of Sulgrave Manor that produced the founding father of America, but more fascinating is Diana’s maternal side whose American ancestors fought in the Revolution in New England, became successful in the new nation, and then (like many Gilded Age families) sent a daughter across the ocean to marry into the British elite. Other Spencers on the British side had bucked social trends in the 1770s even raised funds for the American rebels themselves. Embodying more interconnected history than any of his predecessors, William’s sense of his own role in the world is markedly different from anyone who’s ever held the throne.  With sweeping locations from battlefields to Buckingham Palace and featuring grand personalities like Nathan Hale, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Winston Churchill, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II, Stephanie Green’s American Crown tells the story of a very new kind of royal family—one with the potential to bring two countries closer together in times of turmoil and bring the “special relationship” into next century. Stephanie Green is a cultural journalist and features writer. A longtime contributor to The Washington Post, she is a former reporter for Bloomberg News and The Washington Times. Her freelance work has appeared in Vogue, Vanity Fair, WWD, and a wide variety of print and online publications. She lives in Washington, DC.  Green is in conversation with Amy Argetsinger. Argetsinger is an editor for The Washington Post’s acclaimed Style section, where she has overseen coverage of media, popular culture, politics and society. A staff writer since 1995, she covered local DC-area communities, higher education and the West Coast before authoring the paper’s signature Reliable Source gossip column for eight years. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and daughter. Her first book, There She Was: The Secret History of Miss America (SIMON & SCHUSTER, 2021) explored the subculture of the century-old beauty contest and the pageant's lingering impact on the larger culture. PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9798897101054?ic_referral=zpttQY8ZU_abkI-TroT6iUy2EnuFNDnGGy4hSgfEJ-8wM4Hnisd9tlfUkU6Bdf7K_OK1WH_J_SZg466E1NL4sXfEt4c4bhHWh-nNsZ4URlGEjA96crZ1CeJDdz-e7UdLnls_xxo

Crystal Simone Smith — Common Sense (1776), Addressed to Today's Citizens of America: An Erasure -with Gloria Browne-Marshall

A revolutionary work of erasure poetry that exposes the contradictions in Thomas Paine’s Common Sense—calling for a new definition of citizenship that embraces all Americans In his famous cry for inhabitants of the thirteen colonies to seek independence from Britain, Thomas Paine claims to call for total freedom and equality, yet his arguments are directed only at white men, excluding women and people of color. Crystal Simone Smith, known for writing poetry about the human condition and social change, offers a new poetic work that calls out the contradictions in one of the foundational texts of American democracy. Britain’s oppressive rule, while strongly criticized throughout Paine's text, was subsequently repeated by the founding fathers who, when forming our nation, established laws that oppressed racial groups and women. Smith uses the power of redaction to revise Pain’s approach, inviting readers to critically engage with the text and reimagine it anew. Retaining the original text as a translucent background, Smith highlights specific words and phrases to reveal new meanings that reflect not only the totality of America’s founding, but the ensuing fragile, if not failing, democracy of our present times. Perfect for students and US history buffs alike, this highly interactive collection functions as a textual reveal of historical biases and makes a case for a new, inclusive definition of citizenship that recognizes all Americans. Crystal Simone Smith is the author of three poetry chapbooks. In 2019, she won the North Carolina Poetry Society Bloodroot Haiku Award. Her work has appeared in numerous journals including Prairie Schooner, POETRY Magazine, Crab Orchard Review, Frogpond, and Modern Haiku. Her latest book, RUNAGATE: SONGS OF FREEDOM BOUND, a collection of Japanese forms of poetry written in response to slave artifacts including ads for runaway slaves, will be published by Duke University Press in Spring 2025. Crystal Simone Smith is in conversation with Gloria Browne-Marshall, an EMMY Award-winning writer, a professor of constitutional law at John Jay College (CUNY), playwright, legal commentator, and author of five books. Her previous works include She Took Justice: The Black Woman, Law, and Power and The Voting Rights War as well as essays and short stories. She was an Institute of Politics Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. Browne-Marshall has received numerous accolades, including the 2024 American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award. PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9780807023389?ic_referral=qrmn2Qz1glVUhV--2zCQwsWbBSP8GyUvEF2xkQ9bO5cwM3xeewinpJ0_Uac7eJcPEBJNW4RwjyKBNBnQBMzPWdVAw9EITG4tyWVXHGbBZ4isSaEsuCdY8ZiGf5PVxIdHkZ4Qu40