Intellectuals Archives - Public Seminar

Feature

Why We Need More Essays About Media

And what we offer to democracy

March 6, 2018 • by Julia Sonnevend

Conversation may or may not be the soul of democracy -- but the essay is. Essays are about grey-zones, multi-layered meanings, ambiguity. These are all qualities any good autocrat detests. The autocrat wants you to absorb his one-liner, his all-encompassing propaganda slogan, his simplistic social media post. He wants you to be with him, his ...

Feature

African-American Intellectuals, Southern Democrats, and LaCroix Sparkling Water

Past Present Episode 113

January 11, 2018 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

In this episode, Natalia, Niki, and Neil discuss a feud between African-American intellectuals Cornel West and Ta-Nehisi Coates, the electoral prospects for southern Democrats, and why LaCroix Sparkling Water has become an obsession.

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African-American Intellectuals, Southern Democrats, and LaCroix Sparkling Water

Feature

Intellectuals—Can’t Live With Them, Can’t Live Without Them, Part II

Are intellectuals really the enemies of democracy?

November 24, 2017 • by Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

You threaten democracy. They hate you. They suspect that you despise them, as “they cling to their guns and bibles.” They know that you think you are better than they are. When they resent you and act upon their resentment, they too threaten democracy. We recognize that the anti-intellectualism of the less ...

Multi Media

Baton Rouge, Christian Intellectuals, and Teaching Trump

Past Present Episode 48

August 30, 2016 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

In this week's episode, Niki, Neil, and Natalia debate flood relief in Louisiana, the disappearance of Christian intellectuals, and teaching Trump in the classroom. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: More than two feet of rain brought death and destruction to southern Louisiana recently. Natalia addressed ...

Baton Rouge, Christian Intellectuals, and Teaching Trump

Uncategorized

Growing Up in Public

October 19, 2015 • by Zachary Sunderman

This time last year, Public Seminar ran a piece I wrote about the People's Climate March. I intended to make a simple point. The climate change movement, because it had asked for environmentally protective government regulation, had become a target of Tea Party accusations of "socialism," and was now on the verge of ...

Uncategorized

Germany’s Awkward Farewell to Günter Grass

May 6, 2015 • by Jaroslava Gajdosova

Can good poetry also be a good politics? I am paraphrasing a question that I have heard Jeff Goldfarb asking on several occasions. Günter Grass, German novelist, poet, sculptor, and a Nobel Prize laureate, delivered both -- the finest literature and daring political insights. With his departure, Germany and the ...