Archives: The Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program Events

Modern Family: Coupling and Uncoupling in America

Wednesday, June 12, 2013 - 12:00pm

As a society, America is in a moment of great transition regarding how we think about marriage and family life. Gay marriage is becoming mainstream at a speed that surprises even its most optimistic advocates, with a Supreme Court decision expected this month that is certain to bring further changes. Divorce rates are falling and marriages among college-educated, upper middle class people are more stable than they have been in decades, even as marriage rates overall are in decline, particularly among the working class and poor.

Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now

Tuesday, June 11, 2013 - 12:15pm

People spent the twentieth century obsessed with the future and in pursuit of networks that could provide instantaneous connections, knowledge, and entertainment. In his influential 1970 book, Future Shock, Alvin Toffler theorized that things were changing so fast we would soon lose the ability to cope.

Now, with the advent of Twitter, email, and smartphones, we have a completely new relationship to time. We live in an eternal present, in which the priorities of the current moment seem to mean everything. 

Immigration Reform: Bipartisanship's Improbable Poster Child

Monday, June 10, 2013 - 12:15pm

Washington is broken, you may have heard, a victim of scorched-earth partisanship. Congress can't get anything done because its members have abandoned the art of the compromise, opting instead for a zero-sum politics that incentivizes gridlock.

The Power Surge

Thursday, May 2, 2013 - 12:15pm
For decades, politicians have been pledging to make America energy independent, and for decades, they have failed.
 
Today, the nation finds itself caught between two diverging energy revolutions—the new technologies of oil and gas production on one end and the gains of renewable energy on the other.

Twilight of the Elites

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 - 6:00pm

How do we define elites today? As Starbucks-drinking, NPR-listening snobs?

The true definition of an elite is a relatively small group of people that has undue influence over society. Even “people who have cable TV shows” are elites, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes said as he sat down with New America’s vice president and editorial director Andrés Martinez to discuss his new book Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy.

Red Channel, Blue Channel: How Fox and MSNBC Are Transforming American Politics

Tuesday, April 24, 2012 - 6:00pm

In collaboration with New America's Media Policy Initiative

 

The Crisis of Zionism

Monday, March 26, 2012 - 5:30pm

In its 1948 declaration of independence, Israel committed to “ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex." Today, those fundamental democratic ideals are at stake. In Israel, the continued occupation of the West Bank and an emboldened conservative government are putting Israeli democracy at risk.

The Richer Sex

Tuesday, March 20, 2012 - 6:00pm

A revolution is under way. In 1970, less than 5 percent of working wives in the U.S. out earned their husbands. Today, nearly 40 percent do. Within a generation, a majority of working women will make more than their husbands and more women will support families than men.

In The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love and Family, best-selling author Liza Mundy shows how this reality will transform the sexual, dating, marriage, and work habits of men and women worldwide.

What Would You Do?

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 - 6:00pm

From corporate whistleblowing to civil disobedience, some of the boldest acts of dissent are carried out not by radicals seeking to overthrow the system, but by true believers clinging with unusual fierceness to their convictions. In his latest book, Eyal Press tells the dramatic stories of people who refused to conform when facing a morally compromising situation.

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