Gautham Rao — White Power: Policing American Slavery - with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi

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

How to become yourself without losing everyone else. We’re living in a time when it’s harder than ever to become a whole person—and to stay in authentic community. Some people dissolve into their group identities and lose themselves entirely. Others withdraw into ephemeral, online collectives they can float into and out of without consequence. Both are symptoms of the same problem: a fragmented sense of self in an age of social contagion. This fragmentation is more than a personal crisis—it’s the soil in which hollow and often dangerous mass movements take root, offering counterfeit belonging to those desperate for meaning. The One and the Ninety-Nine [https://politics-prose.com/book/9781250373038?ic_referral=TZHrRlQmDUZTCxWWX0lkCQFGnG2fJD47FqSl8luITn8wM-5m8D4EpRfldbbA7x_0ns3Rs7MXflqOoz4vQfZwKt-wSkFeoUSKxCm4Zlvh2XLNcgGNDv0H-QrBfUNM2EPDchaqg0k] is a timely and inspiring exploration of what it means to forge a stable identity in the face of coercion, conformity, and the contagious desires of the crowd. Through compelling and original insights drawn from philosophy, psychology, and personal experience, author Luke Burgis examines how our lives are shaped by the groups we belong to—and how we, in turn, shape those groups. He offers a roadmap for engaging with modern society without losing our unique sense of personhood, and reveals the essential rites of passage and personal challenges that differentiate a life of meaning from one dictated by societal expectations. People who are able to find their solid self and thrive in the space between the one and the many—who can act with integrity while being part of a community—live freer and more comfortable lives and become models for others. The One and the Ninety-Nine is a call to reject passive conformity, rediscover the depth of personality, and choose a life that is both truly personal and deeply connected. Luke Burgis is the director of The Cluny Institute and a professor at The Catholic University of America, where he studies the invisible forces that shape human behavior. He is the author of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life. He lives in Washington, D.C., and Michigan with his wife, Claire, and their children. Burgis is in conversation with Anne Snyder, the editor-in-chief of Comment, a magazine of public theology for the common good that is becoming a vibrant ecosystem of conversation and community. Rooted in the Christian humanist tradition, Comment now encompasses a growing podcast network, gatherings that span grassroots to institutional settings across North America and the U.K., and a three-day festival at the Washington National Cathedral. Anne also hosts The Whole Person Revolution podcast and co-edited Breaking Ground: Charting Our Future in a Pandemic Year (2022). The author of The Fabric of Character (2019), she writes widely and delights in weaving worlds together—in print, around the table, and across different sectors and ways of knowing. PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9781250373038?ic_referral=4HQZcoItn8ZonVX8DFUVFYTRW9i1uwPdkJni0gOx6uQwM-rhSzje2tfUZOIaXearSkudWydtklZpYnHozShxhAtpdXZmNZGLXSV87MY0UhBW80iWoKX0bMUhpbtIgZGY7PW3xuA

Dara Levan — Shaken to the Core - with Abby Maslin

When life is cut short, what do we do with the time we have left? Joy Stern, a free-spirited photographer, thought she had it all together. She built a traveler’s life with her husband, Andre, an architect who designed their days like the buildings he created. Children weren’t part of the plan. When Joy’s mom dies suddenly, everything changes. Being behind the lens, capturing photos of families, doesn’t feel like enough anymore—until Joy discovers a hidden key to her mother’s diary. One entry inspires a choice that could transform the trajectory of her life. Then the unthinkable happens: Andre receives devastating news, which upends their carefully constructed world. As Joy struggles to pursue her own dreams while supporting the man she loves, Joy wonders: Can she do it all? An uplifting story of hope amid heartbreak, Shaken to the Core [https://politics-prose.com/book/9798895652534] explores motherhood, chosen family, and love that transcends life’s greatest hardships. Dara Levan is an author, speaker, and the founder of Every Soul Has a Story, an inspiring podcast in which she interviews guests from around the globe. Dara is the author of the award-winning novel, It Could Be Worse, and a contributor to the USA Today bestselling anthology, On Being Jewish Now. She is a graduate of Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in English and certificate in journalism. Dara earned her master’s degree in communication sciences and Disorders at Nova Southeastern University. Actively involved in her community, Dara is a board member of Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Foundation/Memorial Foundation, board trustee of Interlochen Center for the Arts, and involved in several other organizations. She is a founding member of the Circle of Friends for the Alvin Sherman Library at Nova Southeastern University and a member of the Authors Guild and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. When she’s not writing in South Florida, you’ll find Dara with her family and fur babies, traveling, capturing moments through photos, and talking to strangers who become friends. Levan is in conversation with Abby Maslin, is the Washington Post bestselling author of Love You Hard and a contributing essayist in Moms Don’t Have Time to Have Kids. A writer and national speaker on caregiving and resilience, her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Sunday Paper, and other outlets. She also serves as COO of Amore Learning, where she supports young writers and learners.  PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9798895652534?ic_referral=keCWYB18VWf6c7WEqDBLC20qmP4P0QbaVr3_E0G8RF8wMx2nZUxPNqQT826FSnExTQeMAD43xT2hNjkGhISejALwGB-LpiBTCKuHUwyYF2nauZE-LqoSM0HCyVBOx0IVq3KWBkw

Tad Stoermer — A Resistance History of the United States - with Karen Attiah

Revisit the Salem Witch Trials, the Underground Railroad, and other resistance movements of American history to get a bold new understanding of how resistance shaped our past—and how its principles can change our future. The United States was shaped by resistance—but not in the way we’ve been taught. The Revolution did not secure liberty; it opened the door to either liberty or oppression, where only white men enjoyed all of the benefits and protections of citizenship. In A Resistance History of the United States [https://politics-prose.com/book/9781586424367], public historian Tad Stoermer shows how from the very beginning, that tension—between the ideals of resistance and the realities of power—has defined America more than the Enlightenment ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Utililizing powerful storytelling to focus on key—and often lesser-known—moments in American history, this book reveals the truth of how resistance movements from Colonial times have opposed the powers that be. Stoermer covers an impressive roster of pivotal movements, with each chapter identifying a key resistance movement and principle meant to inspire contemporary readers, including:   * Bacon’s Rebellion/Metacomet’s War (1676) * Salem Witch Trials (1692) * The Black Loyalists (1783) * The Underground Railroad (1850) Through these and many more examples, Stoermer dismantles the mythologies that pass for American history—exposing the curated nostalgia, moral evasions, and institutional silences that have long protected abusive power. What emerges is an essential look at how we can take lessons from the past to understand, and effectively respond to, the injustices we face today. Tad Stoermer is a public historian who trained at the University of Virginia, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard, with a particular focus on Colonial and Revolutionary America. He is also a former congressional staffer and speechwriter, and he served in the US Army and Reserves as a reconnaissance scout. He lives in Denmark. Stoermer is in conversation with Karen Attiah, an award-winning journalist, editor, and global thought leader whose work explores the intersections of race, culture, gender, media, and international affairs. A graduate of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and Northwestern University, Attiah is a former adjunct lecturer at Columbia, where she brought global expertise and academic rigor to her teaching. A former Fulbright Scholar to Ghana, she has reported from across the world, including Nigeria, Germany, and Curaçao. Her commentary and reporting have appeared in major international outlets such as the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, and Voice of America. She also holds an Honorary Doctorate of Journalism from Dickinson College. Attiah was formerly a columnist and the founding Global Opinion Editor for The Washington Post. She founded the Resistance Summer School in 2025, a learning community of over 1,000 students focused on subjects currently being banned or cancelled in the current political climate. She writes on Substack at The Golden Hour. She can be found on X, Instagram at @KarenAttiah. PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9781586424367?ic_referral=eGa1HIaXnwTcMkyr2NiK45xyagoZjoBwr_Vcf3Zuo6swMy00LNsjV-8xmSdW9yd2wluPDfDf0AzQQKahsO7jmGBFLl0bxXcB9DWH5yLNBqw2cn_v5fbNmatvEajo1fL8ElH1Teo

Jessica M. Goldstein — Retro - with Alexandra Petri

An out-of-work actress gets a job as a tour guide for an ultra-luxury time travel company—only to discover her trips to the past could upend her present—in this sharp, speculative debut novel. When Ash spots an ad for Retro during a depressing Instagram scroll—she’s in debt and unemployed; everyone else is, evidently, thriving—she’s surprised the algorithm sent it her way. She’s heard of recreational time travel, but it’s way out of her budget. Then she sees the caption: Come away with us! We’re hiring. So begins Ash’s life as a Time Travel Agent, leading wealthy tourists on vacations to historical hotspots. She takes bachelorette parties to live out their cowboy-romance fantasies in the Old West and throws “'20s for your twenties” birthday bashes at speakeasies; she smiles politely as rich Wall Street guys give prospecting a shot in the Gold Rush. It's all thrilling, outrageous, and totally surreal. Bygone America is just a Retro Metro ride away.  Despite Ash’s tendency toward cynicism, she finds herself swept up in her dazzling new job. Sure, Ash isn’t the actress she always dreamed she’d be. But isn’t this so much better? It’s like Ash’s life is a movie, complete with an impossible love triangle. How is she supposed to choose between her mysterious office crush and the handsome private eye pursuing her in 1937?  For the first time in years, Ash’s life feels enviable—so she’d really rather not pay attention to the strange things happening to her memory and relationships outside Retro. But as her trips threaten to unravel her real life, she confronts an unsettling truth: “escaping” into the past was never really an escape at all. Jessica M. Goldstein is a journalist and humorist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Vulture, Marie Claire, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and more. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she was born and raised in New Jersey and currently lives in Washington, D.C. Retro is her first novel. Goldstein is in conversation with Alexandra Petri, a staff writer at The Atlantic. Before joining The Atlantic in 2025, she wrote a humor column for the Washington Post. She won the 2025 Thurber Prize for American Humor for her book AP’s US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up) [https://bookshop.org/a/12476/9781324074762]. She is the author of two other books, Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why: Essays [https://bookshop.org/a/12476/9780393867374], and A Field Guide to Awkward Silences [https://bookshop.org/a/12476/9780451469618]. Her writing has also appeared in McSweeney’s, the New Yorker’s Daily Shouts and Murmurs, and elsewhere. PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9798217091362?ic_referral=gIo2q7eg6rnloeW_hfozvl2XozOstHFg0ozKRfY2G1UwM4LUDodb2fmPtPujDBfLOlUCubM0w7-os-rnApazZXf7zHZR_lsrYOconQ0vD7u0B3KulcJ9ljZkC3NTJ7iBOATiWQk

Yotam Marom — For Louder Days: Reaching Beyond a Politics of Powerlessness - with Keya Chatterjee

The essential guide to establishing an effective opposition movement in the age of Trump, from the leading activist and organizer "I consider Marom] one of the most generous and important thinkers for the activist left, for anyone who cares about where we are and how to get to where we should be." --Rebecca Solnit There is no way to stop the descent into authoritarianism, nor win a world in which all people can thrive, without massive numbers of people organizing for social, political, and economic change. Yet experienced movement leader Yotam Marom delivers a hard truth: progressive and left movements too often get in their own way. They can be ambivalent about power, choosing insularity and purity over winning. This amounts to what Marom calls the "politics of powerlessness," which has kept movements small, weak, and defeated. In For Louder Days: Reaching Beyond a Politics of Powerlessness [https://politics-prose.com/book/9798893850857?ic_referral=55X0vLsRdmhKbGGLG-ZfdzOcKaTA71gt2t3ol23bcAYwM3Cgii0POF5fT3JWJEIF4jnggl3cOthLOUjwDoFz_2IjmRX92qBR41Ybkp8J1QDAEJ3VyfzuUrb9_t6QrQOXTpjZnhE], Marom offers a brilliant, lyrical clarion cry for a more honest, more strategic, more loving approach to progressive activism and movement building. Grounded in decades of experience in movements, from leading at Occupy Wall Street and other movement moments to supporting some of the most important climate, racial justice, and democracy movements of our time, Marom dives deep into the challenges that hold movements back, and offers stories, tools, and paths toward real power and enduring change. Published at the most perilous time in our modern political history, For Louder Days comes not a moment too soon. It is essential reading for committed activists as well as the wider public concerned about the state of our world and hoping to change it for the better. Yotam Marom has been in movements since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. He has played leadership roles at Occupy Wall Street and other movements before and after, and co-founded IfNotNow and the Wildfire Project. Yotam has trained and facilitated many of the leading social justice organizations of these times, from Sunrise and the Dream Defenders to Uncommitted and Hands Off NYC, and more. He lives in Brooklyn, and this is his first book. Marom is in conversation with Keya Chatterjee, the Executive Director and cofounder of Free DC a renewed movement to protect Home Rule and win lasting dignity for the people of DC. Free DC is a five year campaign focused on seeding a culture of joyful defiance, training DC residents on noncooperation as jurors, workers, consumers, and more, and responding to dozens of attacks on DC-- from military occupation to the takeover of our public spaces and cultural centers. Keya is also a cofounder of Freedom Trainers, a loose network of trainers teaching about the powerful tools of collective noncompliance and mass noncooperation like boycotts and strikes. Keya started her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. She served as a Presidential Management Fellow at NASA, in the Science Mission Directorate for four years. After NASA, Keya worked at USAID and WWF as a Climate Change specialist. Keya also ran US Climate Action Network for almost a decade, a network of US Climate-focused organizations, where her tenure was bookended by the network’s efforts to secure the Paris Climate Agreement and pass the Inflation Reduction Act. Keya was elected and served two terms as a hyperlocal neighborhood commissioner, and currently serves on the boards of Sunrise Movement and Evergreen Action. She is the author of works of both fiction and nonfiction, including her October 2025 romance novel about taking down fascism, The Revolution Will Not Be Rated G. PURCHASE: https://politics-prose.com/book/9798893850857?ic_referral=hk7X368T1HbVgsLKhFefdTeYTDjgbMLn7oHVD8kVN0owMwpi2_Yt4mSkMpdl_PO8W_tOVxAl1e4TyTnoPxmJm_fbMNHQYMnrgb3iFMdU_c5xI7l78ZUwP5V6UTZ7QPS0ExgUREQ