Cascade PBS Ideas Festival

A New Era of Antitrust with Sen. Amy Klobuchar

The senior senator from Minnesota talks about Facebook, Google and Amazon and if antitrust legislation is the answer.

In the last two decades, tech behemoths like Facebook, Google and Amazon have become essential to the lives of millions of Americans. They have also become more and more troubling to those concerned about privacy, disinformation and the consolidation of power. 

As these concerns have grown, so have calls for government action. Tech CEOs have been brought before congress to answer questions about their practices and plans. 

Critics have been vocal about what they believe should happen, but lawmakers will ultimately decide what will happen. 

For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, we are featuring a conversation with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democratic lawmaker who authored a recently published book on antitrust and is seeking to reign in what she views as excesses in big tech. 

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Credits

Host: Mark Baumgarten

Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara

Engineers: Seth Halleran, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

Why Black History Matters with Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

In conversation with journalist Soledad O'Brien, the historians discuss the stories found in their anthology, ‘Four Hundred Souls,’ and what a “community history” can reveal.

It's impossible to tell the complete story of the United States of America without talking about the experience of Black Americans. Yet Americans can't agree on exactly how much of that history should be taught in our schools. 

The Black experience has played a part in the long-accepted version of American History. The Underground Railroad, Jim Crow laws and the Civil Rights movement, for instance, are all parts of the country's story that should be familiar to most Americans. 

But now, a new generation of historians and journalists are bringing forward the experiences of more Black Americans, revealing that there is much more to their stories.  

For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, we feature a conversation from the 2021 Crosscut Festival with Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, two leading lights in the effort to deepen Americans' understanding of the Black experience and the country's history. In conversation with journalist Soledad O’Brien, they discuss why this history is essential and how it came together.

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Credits

Host: Mark Baumgarten

Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara

Engineers: Chi Lee, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

Gun Violence in America with Sen. Chris Murphy

The Connecticut senator discusses the origins of gun violence in the U.S. and how the debate around this may be changing.

The United States holds a distinction among wealthy nations for the number of gun deaths that occur each year. And the argument over what to do about gun violence has become a part of the national identity. 

In recent decades the shape of that debate has become fairly predictable, to the point that it is difficult imagining an outcome that strays from the status quo.

Sen. Chris Murphy believes that that could be changing and has been pushing to make that change happen.

For this week's episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, we speak with the Connecticut senator about the origins and history of gun violence in America and why he believes the debate is changing.

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Credits

Host: Mark Baumgarten

Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara

Engineers: Chi Lee, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

What White Evangelicals See in Trump with Rev. Rob Schenck, Rev. Lenny Duncan and Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Three experts on religion discuss the history, the meaning and the possible hypocrisy of an unlikely union.

When Donald Trump won the White House in 2016, he did so with the overwhelming support of white evangelical Christians. And through the tumultuous four years of his presidency, the faithful stood with him to the dismay of many.

Critics contend that it is the height of hypocrisy for a faith built on the teachings of Jesus Christ and guided by the Ted Commandments to empower a person who has chosen hubris over humility and is seemingly unbound by a number of the divine laws. 

For this episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast we posed that question to three experts: the Rev. Rob Schenck, the Rev. Lenny Duncan and Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez. 

The answer, they say, begins long before Trump descended that golden escalator to announce his presidential campaign, perhaps as far back as the faith’s very beginning.

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Credits

Host: Mark Baumgarten

Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara

Engineers: Chi Lee, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

The Great Climate Migration with Sonia Shah and Abrahm Lustgarten

Journalists Sonia Shah and Abrahm Lustgarten discuss what happens when people must flee from drought, fire and floods.

Human beings are a migratory species. We have moved for food, for economic opportunity and for safety from prosecution. And now, more and more, people are moving to escape the deleterious effects of climate change. 

How people think about these migrants will go a long way to determining how individual societies and the global community move forward through an era that will be defined by climate change and the drought, floods and fires that come with it. 

The question facing governments and individuals is whether to push back against the tide of migrants, or to embrace it.

For today's episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, science journalists Shah and Lustgarten consider the impacts of the great climate migration and what it might mean to view it as a solution instead of a problem.

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Credits

Host: Mark Baumgarten

Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara

Engineers: Chi Lee, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

Traveling in a Reopened World with Rick Steves

The travel expert shares his vision of globetrotting when the pandemic ends.

After a year of being homebound by a raging pandemic, Americans are traveling again. But while rising vaccination rates have normalized weekend trips to the coast or across borders to see family, traveling abroad is still an iffy proposition. 

Over the past few weeks, many countries have opened their borders to Americans and other foreign travelers, but there are restrictions in many places, requiring proof of vaccination or even a negative COVID-19 test. 

Meanwhile, in some other parts of the world, the pandemic continues to rage, and travelers are being advised to stay away. 

For this issue of the Crosscut Talks podcast, travel expert Rick Steves discusses how he plans to ease into post-pandemic travel, what he expects to find when he does and what lessons from the lockdown he will bring to his future adventures.

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Credits

Host: Mark Baumgarten

Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara

Engineers: Chi Lee, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

Is It Safe to Unmask? with Dr. Umair Shah

The Washington state secretary of health discusses the state's decision to remove restrictions, the risks that come with it, and the strange and hopeful new reality Washingtonians are about to enter.  

As vaccination numbers have ticked up and COVID-19 infections have gone down, states across the country have dropped mask mandates and lifted restrictions on businesses and other public spaces. Washington state, the first American state to record a pandemic death and one of the slowest to return to normal, is set to reopen on Wednesday, June 30.

Much is changing, but one thing remains a constant for many: worry. After a year spent navigating many unknowns while attempting to avoid an unusual, deadly and highly contagious virus, it is, perhaps, difficult to stop worrying. But there are also reasons to worry, including a host of variants that have the potential to change the course of the virus, a politically charged divide between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, and shifting social norms that may feel risky or just plain weird. 

The undercurrent to all of this is an unsettling sense of the unknown and a desire for more information. 

For today’s episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, Northwest Newsmakers host Monica Guzman speaks about all of this with Dr. Umair Shah, Washington state’s secretary of health. In this conversation, recorded on June 22, 2021, the doctor speaks about the reopening plan, the risks that come with it and how he believes the pandemic has changed us.

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Credits

Host: Mark Baumgarten

Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara

Engineers: Chi Lee, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

Is This the End of American Exceptionalism? with Robert Gates

The former Secretary of Defense for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama has strong opinions on the United States’ place in the world.

That America has been an exceptional power in the years following the end of the Cold War is of little doubt. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States stood alone in its power to influence global events.  

Yet, in recent years that power appears to have waned some as adventurism abroad and partisan gridlock at home have tarnished the country’s global reputation and tested the trust of its allies. 

China, meanwhile, has emerged as an economic force that is coalescing power while building allyships of its own through the Belt and Road Initiative.

For this week's episode of the Crosscut Talks podcast, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates discusses what the rise of China means for American exceptionalism and how the country might best navigate the new global terrain.

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Credits

Host: Mark Baumgarten

Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara

Engineers: Chi Lee, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

America’s Reckoning on Race with Doug Baldwin and Shaun Scott

Former Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin and organizer Shaun Scott discuss the anti-racist movement and whether it will result in lasting change.

It's been just over a year since George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police, and the fallout continues to shape conversations and culture.  

This time last year, the streets of Seattle — as in so many other cities across the nation — were filled with protesters calling for an end to racist policing. The anti-racist movement spread from there, hitting pretty much every institution in the country. 

Promises of change flooded social media, coming from business leaders, nonprofit organizations, professional sports leagues and city leaders.

But where are we now? That is a question  that former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin and organizer Shaun Scott are actively contemplating and one that they discuss with Northwest Newsmakers host Monica Guzman for our latest episode of the Crosscut Talks episode.

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Credits

Host: Mark Baumgarten

Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara

Engineers: Chi Lee, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph

Fixing American Democracy with Elie Mystal and Adam Jentleson

Adam Jentleson and Ellie Mystal discuss the structural issues they say threaten how we govern, and the solutions they believe are within reach.

The battle over the fate of American democracy has heated up in the past few months, as pundits and political leaders spar over issues of accountability and reform. 

Much of the conversation has revolved around what some consider immediate threats: state legislatures seeking to curtail voting, disinformation campaigns warping the electorate,  disgruntled voters storming the U.S. Capitol. 

This week's guests on the Crosscut Talks podcast — Kill Switch author Adam Jentleson and Nation magazine  justice correspondent Ellie Mystal — are concerned about those issues, but they have focused their attention and considerable passions on more long-burning threats coming from within the government. 

In this conversation with Slate's Dahlia Lithwick from last month's Crosscut Festival, Jentleson and Mystal discuss why the U.S. Supreme Court and Senate have long undermined any sense of true democracy in the United States, what can be done to fix them and why now is the time they must be fixed. 

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Credits

Host: Mark Baumgarten

Event producers: Jake Newman, Andrea O'Meara

Engineers: Chi Lee, Resti Bagcal, Viktoria Ralph