Common Ground with Jane Whitney

Often referred to as “the conscience of America,” Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and historian Jon Meacham joins Jane Whitney to talk about how America’s history of overcoming crises makes him confident and hopeful that the country once again will prevail over these tumultuous times.

As climate change moves from an imminent peril to a deadly reality for vast swaths of the country, two nationally recognized groundbreakers in the debate on global warming, Jay Inslee and David Wallace-Wells, discuss the gaping dichotomy between what scientists say needs to be done to moderate an impending disaster and the political reality of what is possible.

“Doomsday Denial: The Politics of Climate Change” is a broad ranging discussion of the science, economics and politics swirling around the alarming climate change headlines. The debate examines what state and local communities are doing to mitigate the congressional stasis, what might break the logjam, how the issue plays in national, state and local elections and the role of private citizens and companies.

Moderated by Jane Whitney, former NBC News correspondent & talk show host. Audience members are encouraged to participate in the interactive town-hall style format.

All proceeds benefit:

Greenwoods Counseling Referrals, Inc. - Helping members of the Litchfield County Community and beyond find access to compassionate and high-quality mental health and related care.

New Milford Hospital - helping to secure the latest technology, attract the best medical staff and provide the compassionate, patient-centered care for which they are nationally recognized.

Susan B. Anthony Project - promoting safety, healing, and growth for all survivors of domestic and sexual abuse and advocates for the autonomy of women and the end of interpersonal violence.

Unchallenged for so long, the primacy and legitimacy of the American system of checks and balances came to be accepted as political bedrock, certain to survive even the most severe earthquakes.

But the daily headlines show the guardrails of American democracy are under assault and, many analysts now warn, the entire American experiment is in danger of collapse - a majority of Republicans, polls have found, favor postponing the 2020 election if President Trump says it's the sole way to ensure that only eligible voters are allowed to cast ballots.

"History does not repeat, but it does instruct," notes the ominous first line of "On Tyranny," one of the hottest historical books of recent years. "The European history of the twentieth century shows us that societies can break, democracies can fall, ethics can collapse, and ordinary men can find themselves standing over death pits with guns in their hands."

The book's author, the noted Yale Historian Timothy Snyder, will discuss the state of the country's constitutional health at the September 15 Conversations On the Green with two celebrated observers of the American political scene, The Washington Post's illustrious columnist, Max Boot, a CNN analyst and one of the intellectual pillars of neo-conservative movement, and Malcolm Nance, MSNBC’s renowned national security specialist.

A former Navy cryptologist and 20-year veteran, Nance is an author and media commentator on foreign policy, counter-terrorism, intelligence, and insurgency. Widely credited with convincing the Pentagon to renounce waterboarding, his most recent book, published last year, was “The Plot to Destroy Democracy: How Putin and His Spies Are Undermining America and Dismantling the West.” He also is the founder and executive director of the Hudson, NY-based think tank Terror Asymmetrics Project on Strategy, Tactics and Racial Ideologies, TAPSTRI.

A finalist for this year’s Pulitzer Prize in biography, Max Boot is a historian, best-selling author, foreign-policy analyst and a respected authority on armed conflict. A Moscow native and senior foreign policy advisor to the late Senator John McCain, Boot’s latest work of history, "The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam" was praised as an “epic and elegant biography” by the Wall Street Journal and “judicious and absorbing” by the New York Times. He is also the author of another book released in 2018 — "The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right."

Proficient in 11 languages, Tim Snyder’s most recent book, published last year, is “The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America,” an unsparing history on the threat to democracy and law. A prolific essayist for leading literary publications, he is the author of a series of sprawling books about war, genocide, and the descent into dictatorship in mid-20thcentury Europe but rocketed to prominence with the publication two years ago of the pamphlet-sized “On Tyranny,” an international bestseller that is subtitled “Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century.” His most recent titles before “On Tyranny,” are “Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning,” which was published in 2015, and “Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin,” published in 2010.

Moderated by Jane Whitney, former NBC News correspondent & talk show host. Audience members are encouraged to participate in the interactive town-hall style format.

Once a safe, somnambulant replacement for counting-sheep, late night comedy has metastasized into a crucible for American angst - a cutting, ruthless, running commentary on the nation’s polarized political life.

The shift is largely credited to – or blamed on – Jon Stewart, who transformed “The Daily Show” into political satire that amalgamated silliness and substance in exposing the hypocrisy of elected officials and critiquing the superficiality of TV news. He put, one wag noted, the politics into political humor.

President Trump’s penchant for norm breaking has given comedians a wellspring of material and has been a fountainhead of national despair. That’s elevated late night hosts into the conscience of a nation – but it also has posed a challenge: how to mock solemn events without making light of them.

"'Late Night With Seth Meyers,' which soon will celebrate its sixth anniversary, does this distinctively and brilliantly, by folding barbed one-liners into more shapely structures,” Frank Bruni, The New York Times’ columnist wrote earlier this year in a profile of the host of the eponymously name show.

Now Meyers, one the more acerbic of the growing gaggle of late-night comedians, will discuss how he navigates the nightly conundrum between comedy and tragedy as the headliner of the not-so-late night Conversations On the Green, “Late Night: The Divine Comedy.”

Meyers will talk about the trials and tribulations of creating a nightly show tied so tightly to daily disaster and the existential fear it provokes. In an informal, interactive conversation moderated by Jane Whitney, the former NBC talk show host, he’ll also reminisce about his years as the head writer and Weekend Update host at “Saturday Night Live” as well as stories of his climb up the comedy ladder and his personal life as a celebrity, husband and father.

The 45-year-old comedian was born in Evanston, IL, but raised in Michigan and New Hampshire. He got his start in comedy while attending Northwestern University, where he ran a hot dog stand and joined an improv troupe. Meyers became a SNL cast memberr in 2001 and was heralded for impersonating a host of national figures – John Kerry, Michael Caine, Anderson Cooper, Sean Penn and Prince Charles, among others – and for his recurring characters, including Zach Ricky, host of the kids' hidden camera show "Pranksters"; Nerod, the receptionist in the recurring sketch "Appalachian Emergency Room"; David Zinger, a scientist who often insults his fellow workers; Dan Needler, half of a married couple "that should be divorced," (opposite Amy Poehler); and William Fitzpatrick, from the Irish talk show "Top o' the Morning."

He auditioned to co-anchor Weekend update in 2004 but was beaten out by Poehler. He stayed with the show and became its head writer when Tina Fey departed before the 2006 season. But he won his highest critical acclaim in 2008 when he wrote iconic sketches for Fey, who returned as a guest star to impersonate Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. It was Meyers who created the famous phrase uttered by Fey's Palin, "I can see Russia from my house."

He was soon in demand to host award shows. He emceed the 2010 and 2011 ESPY Awards, the 66thEmmy Awards, the 75thGolden Globe Awards and was the keynote speaker at The 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, where his timing provoked retrospective snickers after he joked about Osama bin Laden hosting a CSPAN show even as that the secret operation to kill the terrorist leader was underway. Some have suggested Meyers is partly responsible for provoking Donald Trump to run for president as the comedian, along with President Barack Obama, roasted the real estate developer, who sat stone-faced in the audience, with jokes like, “Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising, since I just assumed he was running as a joke.”

Three nationally known voices - Maya Wiley, Joy Reid, and Dr. Jason Johnson - come together in Conversations On the Green's third event of the season to discuss the role of race in American politics and how identity issues will shape the 2020 campaign for the presidency and Congress.