Fixing Congress and Finding Peace: An Interview with Jack Abramoff

December 30, 2011

[Update: a podcast version of this interview is available here.] Jack Abramoff helped break Congress, and now he’s trying to fix it. In the mid-2000’s, Abramoff was earning $20 million a year selling his clients access to the Republican House leadership. He owned restaurants, flew on private jets, and set up golf outings for congressmen [...]

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“You Don’t Want the Thing to Turn into a Pissing Contest”: Michael Dukakis on Campaign Jujitsu, Improving Obama’s Communications Strategy, and Where Occupy Should Go Next

December 23, 2011

Michael Dukakis was the 1988 Democratic nominee for president. He also served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975-1979 and 1983-1991. On December 6th, I spoke with him about the lessons of ’88, Obama’s communications strategy, and the Occupy movement. MATT BIEBER: In an interview you did a few years ago with Katie Couric, you described [...]

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Religion and Reckless Courage: Activist Val Kalende on the Fight for LGBT Rights in Uganda

November 29, 2011

In October of 2009, MP David Bahati introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in the Ugandan Parliament.  The bill – which proposed the death penalty for homosexuality – immediately became infamous around the world. At that time, Val Kalende was a veteran activist in the struggle for LGBT rights in Uganda. Kalende had come out in 2003 [...]

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Building an Ecclesiological Response to Mass Incarceration / On Faith and Soul-Suffering

November 24, 2011

I recently got the chance to write about two of my remarkable classmates at Harvard Divinity School.  The article which resulted – originally published here - is reposted below. In 2010, HDS students Willie Francois and Helen Kim were named ministry fellows by the Fund for Theological Education (FTE), an honor bestowed on young leaders who [...]

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Marshall Ganz, Obama’s 2008 Organizer-in-Chief, on the Moral Urgency of Occupy Wall Street

November 5, 2011

In the early 1960′s, Marshall Ganz dropped out of Harvard to join the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. He then spent 16 years working with César Chávez and the United Farm Workers before returning to Harvard to finish his BA and earn a  Ph.D. in sociology. During the 2008 presidential campaign, he architected Barack Obama’s organizing effort. [...]

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Former DNC Chairman Ed Rendell on Intransigent Politicians, Compromise, and Occupy Wall Street

November 1, 2011

Ed Rendell has served as mayor of Philadelphia, (1992-99) chairman of the Democratic National Committee, (1999-2001) and governor of Pennsylvania (2003-2011). This interview took place on October 11 at Harvard’s Institute of Politics. MATT:  How does our political discourse today compare to when you first ran for office in the 70s? ED RENDELL:  I think [...]

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“From a Position of Moral Strength”: Harvard Professor and Gay Rights Activist Tim McCarthy on President Obama, the Republican Party, and Life as a Second-Class Citizen

October 26, 2011

Timothy Patrick McCarthy is core faculty and director of the Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights Program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. He also served as a founding member of Barack Obama’s National LGBT Leadership Council. McCarthy’s books include: The Radical Reader:  A Documentary History of the American Radical [...]

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“Desperation and Wild Inspired Hope”: Todd Gitlin on Why the Occupy Movement is Different From All Other Social Movements, How Initial Media Coverage Was Like a Pre-Programmed Computer Algorithm, and How Not to Judge the Movement’s Success

October 21, 2011

Todd Gitlin is a professor of journalism and sociology and chair of the Ph. D. program in Communications at Columbia University. In 1963-64, Gitlin served as the third president of Students for a Democratic Society. Later, he helped organize the first national demonstration against the Vietnam War and the first American demonstrations against corporate aid [...]

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“We Are Moving in a More Humanitarian Direction”: An Interview with Philosopher Peter Singer (Full Text and Video)

September 30, 2011

Peter Singer is perhaps the world’s most influential philosopher and the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. In late August, I sat down with him to discuss his most recent book, The Life You Can Save. Full text below. At the outset of your recent book, The Life You Can Save, you lay [...]

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The Banality of Evil, Revisited: An Interview with Paul Katz on Transitional Justice and Civil Society

September 20, 2011

Paul Katz is a student of social history at the Universidad Nacional de Luján in Buenos Aires, Argentina and a 2009 graduate of Harvard College.  Over the last several years, his research has focused on the role of civil society institutions under Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’ dictatorships.  His article, “A New ‘Normal’: Political Complicity, Exclusionary Violence [...]

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