This is the video of my Jan. 31 presentation about my recent book, What Should We Do? A Theory of Civic Life at The Providence College Humanities Forum, along with a Q&A session with good questions from the audience. The presentation should make sense and, I hope, have some value for people who don’t read the book. I am grateful to my Providence College friends for the opportunity.
APSA’s Civic Engagement Section has a podcast, Civic Cafe, that’s organized and introduced by University of Virginia political scientist Carah Ong Whaley. Episode 2, “What Should We Do?”, is an interview of me by my friend David Campbell, the Packey J. Dee Professor of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame. Dave’s most recent book (with Geoff Layman and John Green) is Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics, which received the Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.
Here is a link to listen to the episode. (I think a video version is coming to YouTube, and I will include a link once that’s up.) Civic Cafe also provides links to relevant websites , namely: APSA Civic Engagement Section; Guided activities that build civic skills and capacity; Civic Studies at Tufts University; Common Cause; and Educating for American Democracy
I really enjoyed a conversation with Danielle Allen last week, which was organized by Facing History & Ourselves and very nicely moderated by Facing History’s Elizabeth Carroll. You can watch the video here. (You’ll have to create a free account, which is a good thing to do, since Facing History is a wonderful organization.)
Melissa Harris-Perry interviewed me about What Should We Do? on WCNY’s “The Takeway.” Here is the audio:
Here is a podcast episode by Tufts’ Julie Flaherty & Anna Miller. Their summary says:
Sometimes we don’t even know why, but we hold onto things. We’re not talking about bad relationships or lousy jobs, but the actual stuff that takes up space. How do you decide what’s worth keeping and what you would be happier getting out of your life?
In this episode, we get advice from a home organizer on how to pare down and from an archivist who knows something about what’s worth keeping for the next generation.
Even if you decide you want to donate your stuff, we learn that it’s not always easy to find the right home for it, especially if it’s a 30-ton book collection you inherited from your father.
That 30-ton book collection belonged to our family, and in the podcast, I share a few thoughts about giving and receiving.