Crosscut Ideas Festival

Someday, when the vaccine rollout is complete and the pandemic is brought under control, we'll set out again to travel the world. A lot will have changed since we last went abroad. Cultures, countries and economies have been ravaged. America’s role in the world is different. What

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has had a front row seat for the most profound moments in our government’s history. Often she has been center stage. The last years have included some of the most challenging and unprecedented of them all. She sits down with PBS Newshour anchor, Judy Woodruff,

America is faced with a myriad of profound challenges; a global pandemic, economic and political disarray at home and abroad, climate emergencies, unending wars, the emergence of China as a superpower, and cyber attacks penetrating our classified systems. Robert Gates, Former Secretary of Defense, has a unique perspective on how

When Alicia Garza wrote a love letter to Black people on Facebook she launched the now-famous hashtag #blacklivesmatter. But she wants us to understand, a hashtag is not a movement. Organizing for change comes from the grassroots, and is the key to a better future. She is joined by Erinn

Senator Amy Klobuchar argues that huge corporate mergers of recent decades have rewarded the already rich and squeezed the middle-class. Now chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, she argues that regulation is needed to contain big tech companies' monopolistic growth and to

In their new anthology, Four Hundred Souls, Ibram X. Kendi (How To Be an Antiracist) and historian Keisha N. Blain, chart the tragic and triumphant history of Black American experience. Over 90 contributors bring to vivid life the history of slavery and resistance, segregation and survival, migration and discovery, cultural

While the North prevailed in the Civil War, ending slavery and giving the country a "new birth of freedom," Heather Cox Richardson argues in her new book, How the South Won the Civil War, that democracy's blood-soaked victory was ephemeral. The system, which had sustained the

Democratic Senator Jon Tester keeps winning in red Montana. When he's not in Washington he works full time on his farm. If Democrats want to pass an ambitious infrastructure bill paired with environmental priorities, they'll need to sway skeptics it will renew rural America.

Dr. Jane Goodall transformed the world's understanding of the relationship between humans and animals, and redefined species conservation to include the needs of people and the environment. Now, with climate change threatening ways of life around the globe, she remains determined, and even hopeful.

Most of us don't think about turning on the faucet or taking a shower. But more than one third of the world doesn't have access to safe or clean water. Matt Damon and Gary White think this is a problem with a solution and they set

Her landmark 1619 Project challenged our country to rethink and reframe American history. Now with her new book that expands the project, Nikole Hannah-Jones returns with a lot more to say.

Bill McKibben, the man who was among the earliest to warn of global warming, an iconic environmentalist, now tells us we have a small window of time remaining to save humanity.

Someday, when the vaccine rollout is complete and the pandemic is brought under control, we'll set out again to travel the world. A lot will have changed since we last went abroad. Cultures, countries and economies have been ravaged. America’s role in the world is different. What

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has had a front row seat for the most profound moments in our government’s history. Often she has been center stage. The last years have included some of the most challenging and unprecedented of them all. She sits down with PBS Newshour anchor, Judy Woodruff,

America is faced with a myriad of profound challenges; a global pandemic, economic and political disarray at home and abroad, climate emergencies, unending wars, the emergence of China as a superpower, and cyber attacks penetrating our classified systems. Robert Gates, Former Secretary of Defense, has a unique perspective on how

When Alicia Garza wrote a love letter to Black people on Facebook she launched the now-famous hashtag #blacklivesmatter. But she wants us to understand, a hashtag is not a movement. Organizing for change comes from the grassroots, and is the key to a better future. She is joined by Erinn

Senator Amy Klobuchar argues that huge corporate mergers of recent decades have rewarded the already rich and squeezed the middle-class. Now chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, she argues that regulation is needed to contain big tech companies' monopolistic growth and to

In their new anthology, Four Hundred Souls, Ibram X. Kendi (How To Be an Antiracist) and historian Keisha N. Blain, chart the tragic and triumphant history of Black American experience. Over 90 contributors bring to vivid life the history of slavery and resistance, segregation and survival, migration and discovery, cultural

While the North prevailed in the Civil War, ending slavery and giving the country a "new birth of freedom," Heather Cox Richardson argues in her new book, How the South Won the Civil War, that democracy's blood-soaked victory was ephemeral. The system, which had sustained the

Democratic Senator Jon Tester keeps winning in red Montana. When he's not in Washington he works full time on his farm. If Democrats want to pass an ambitious infrastructure bill paired with environmental priorities, they'll need to sway skeptics it will renew rural America.

Dr. Jane Goodall transformed the world's understanding of the relationship between humans and animals, and redefined species conservation to include the needs of people and the environment. Now, with climate change threatening ways of life around the globe, she remains determined, and even hopeful.

Most of us don't think about turning on the faucet or taking a shower. But more than one third of the world doesn't have access to safe or clean water. Matt Damon and Gary White think this is a problem with a solution and they set

Her landmark 1619 Project challenged our country to rethink and reframe American history. Now with her new book that expands the project, Nikole Hannah-Jones returns with a lot more to say.

Bill McKibben, the man who was among the earliest to warn of global warming, an iconic environmentalist, now tells us we have a small window of time remaining to save humanity.