inequality

At this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival, Amy hosted back-to-back post-debate discussions with a panel of influential writers. We’ll hear excerpts from the conversation, in an effort to provide analysis of the first Democratic debates of the 2020 presidential campaign.

We also talk with two academics to discuss how their policy work could be used in tandem with politics to bring about change in areas of technology and inequality.

Finally, Amy reflects on the LGBTQ movement, on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising.

Guests:

Kristen Soltis Anderson, co-founder of Echelon Insights and author of The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials Are Leading America (and How Republicans Can Keep Up)

Rich Lowry, editor-in-chief of National Review

Jonathan Capehart, opinion writer for The Washington Post and a member of its editorial board; he also hosts the “Cape Up” podcast

Raj Chetty, professor of economics at Harvard University, and the director of Opportunity Insights

Ramesh Srinivasan, professor and director of the Digital Cultures Lab at UCLA

Ilene Chaiken, co-creator of The L Word and executive producer of Empire

June 16, 2016:

1. How the 2016 Election Could Reshape the Electoral Map (8 min)

2. After Orlando, Republican Strategist Thinks Twice About Trump (3 min)

3. When Being Convicted Means Paying Forever (7 min)

4. For Some Parents, Summer’s No Vacation (8 min)

5. Design as the Invention of Desire (7 min)

How do you explain the rise of Donald Trump and the state of the 2016 elections? Pundits and analysts point to fear, anger, cult of personality, and disillusionment with our political system.

While those are all viable reasons, some argue that Trump’s popularity is about something much more basic: Inequality. 

It’s an issue Democratic candidates have built platforms on. Bernie Sanders has built an entire career on the issue. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, equated it with “class warfare” and “envy” in the 2012 election against Barack Obama. 

George Packer, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of “The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America,” believes that inequality persists, and has even worsened, since 2012. And he says that it inequality is to blame for our mess today. 

1. Race, Class and Baltimore: Inside the History of a Divided City | 2. Why Israel is The World’s Toughest Beat | 3. ‘Oregon Trail’ Creator Discusses The Video Game Hall of Fame Finalists | 4. Wendell Pierce aka Bunk from ‘The Wire’ Reflects on Baltimore’s Real-Life Struggle

1. Race, Class and Baltimore: Inside the History of a Divided City | 2. Why Israel is The World’s Toughest Beat | 3. ‘Oregon Trail’ Creator Discusses The Video Game Hall of Fame Finalists | 4. Wendell Pierce aka Bunk from ‘The Wire’ Reflects on Baltimore’s Real-Life Struggle