232. Alec MacGillis with Margaret O’Mara: Winning and Losing in One-Click America

04/22/21 • 57 min

In 1937, the famed writer and activist Upton Sinclair published a novel bearing the subtitle A Story of Ford-America. He blasted the callousness of a company worth “a billion dollars” that underpaid its workers while forcing them to engage in repetitive and sometimes dangerous assembly line labor. Eighty-three years later, the market capitalization of Amazon. com has exceeded one trillion dollars, while the value of the Ford Motor Company hovers around thirty billion. We have, Alec MacGillis contends, entered the age of one-click America—and as the coronavirus makes Americans more dependent on online shopping, its sway will only intensify.

Award-winning journalist MacGillis has embarked upon a literary investigation of the America that he believes falls within the shadow of Amazon. His book, Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America, MacGillis told the stories of those who’ve thrived and struggled to thrive in this rapidly changing environment, and he joined us in conversation with UW history professor Margaret O’Mara to share what he’s gleaned. From our own Seattle to suburban Virginia to Baltimore and beyond, he ranged across the country gathering insight into the impact that Amazon has had. The reach has stretched to Congress as well, MacGillis explored, with lobbyists and government contractors. With empathy and breadth, he demonstrated the hidden human costs of the other inequality between the country’s “winning” and “losing” regions, inviting us to an intimate account of contemporary capitalism.

Alec MacGillis is a senior reporter for ProPublica. He worked previously at The Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, and The New Republic, and his journalism has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and other publications. He is the author of The Cynic, a 2014 biography of Mitch McConnell.

Margaret O’Mara is a professor of history at the University of Washington and a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times. She is the author of several books, including The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America.

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Buy the Book: https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9781250829276

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here.

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undefined - 231. Christopher Sebastian Parker with Lance Bennett and Kenan Block: What the Attack on the Capitol Means for the Future of American Democracy

231. Christopher Sebastian Parker with Lance Bennett and Kenan Block: What the Attack on the Capitol Means for the Future of American Democracy

On January 5, the run-off election in Georgia flipped the state and created opportunity for a Democrat-led Senate. On January 6, armed insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol Building, resulting in dozens of injuries and several fatalities. UW Professor Christopher Sebastian Parker believes that Donald Trump as chief executive was making matters worse. Yet despite Trump no longer being in office, there seems to be reticence to reckon with the true impact of the actions on January 6. What happened before Trump that created conditions that made us vulnerable? What will be the lasting effects of Trump’s rhetoric? And what can we discern about the future of American democracy from that Wednesday afternoon?

Parker joined us for a livestreamed panel discussion with University of Washington colleague and political scientist Lance Bennett as well as media and communications expert Kenan Block to dive deeper into an analysis of the current moment. This panel of experts drew on their knowledge of public opinion and social science to explore the possible long-lasting ramifications of the events on January 6. Looking at partisan divisions, the role of media, social justice movements, and more, they examined the pressure points in the country that were thrown into stark relief on that day—and that could impact the future of our national democracy.

Christopher Sebastian Parker, PhD., is the Stuart A. Scheingold Professor of Social Justice and Political Science in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington. He is the author of several books, including Fighting for Democracy: Black Veterans the Struggle Against White Supremacy in the Postwar South, Change They Can’t Believe In: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America, written with Matt Barreto. His work has appeared or been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN.com, and more. He has also appeared on MSNBC, PBS, C-SPAN, and the History Channel.

Lance Bennett, PhD., is Emeritus Professor of Communication and Political Science at the University of Washington and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Journalism, Media & Democracy at UW. He is the author of 12 books, including News: The Politics of Illusion and The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics, and most recently, Communicating the Future: Solutions for Environment, Economy and Democracy. His work focuses on restoring democracy and creating economies better adapted to the environmental crisis.

After a long career in journalism, Kenan Block currently heads up Kenan Block Media and Communications, a firm that helps a variety of clients tell their stories. A fifth generation Seattleite, Block’s award-winning journalism career spanned over a dozen years in Washington, D.C. covering politics and national affairs for the PBS NewsHour and later MSNBC. He covered four presidential campaigns, the Congress, White House, and Pentagon during his career. He was part of the team that launched MSNBC, serving as the Chief Washington Producer for The News with Brian Williams. Block was a founding board member of Town Hall. He lives in Seattle and is active in civic and political affairs.

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233. Nicholas Freudenberg and Mark Bittman: Modern Capitalism and the Future of Health

Freedom of choice lies at the heart of American society. Every day, individuals decide what to eat, which doctors to see, who to connect with online, and where to educate their children. Yet, many Americans don’t realize that these choices are illusory at best. By the start of the 21st century, every major industrial sector in the global economy was controlled by no more than five transnational corporations, and in about a third of these sectors, a single company accounted for more than 40 percent of global sales.

So, why does this matter? Public health expert Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg believes it matters a great deal. In his book At What Cost: Modern Capitalism and the Future of Health, he confronts how globalization, financial speculation, monopolies, and control of science and technology have led to free consumer choice being all but gone, and with it, the personal protections guarding our collective health. He joined us in conversation with global food culture expert Mark Bittman to argue that the world created by 21st-century capitalism is simply not fit to solve our most serious public health problems, from climate change to opioid addiction. With an incisive investigation and impeccably detailed research, Dr. Freudenberg looked toward a better future, arming ordinary citizens with the knowledge of our current state of being—and insight for what we can do to ensure a healthier collective future.

Nicholas Freudenberg, DrPH, MPH, is Distinguished Professor of Public Health at the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, Director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, and Founder of Corporations and Health Watch, a website that monitors the impact of corporations on health. He is the author or co-author of five other books and more than 100 scientific articles. His work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Open Society Institute.

Mark Bittman has been a leading voice in global food culture and policy for more than three decades. His first cookbook was Fish: The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking, and he has since written or co-written thirty others, including the How to Cook Everything series. His writing has been seen in The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine, and he was a Today show regular, as well as appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and NPR’s All Things Considered, among others. He has hosted or been featured in four television series, including Years of Living Dangerously on Showtime and On the Road Again with Gwyneth Paltrow.

Buy the Books:

https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9780190078621

https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9781328974624

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