Story in the Public Square

The work of talented photographers inspires: the composition; the courage to go after stories; the ability to frame a subject is so much more than simply "pointing and shooting" a camera.

Stories have the power to change the world. Martin Puchner is a scholar of the impact stories have had on minds around the world, and on human history itself.

Whether it's a film like "Saving Private Ryan," or a memoir like A Helmet for My Pillow, the temptation to romanticize war-and the Second World War, in particular-is part of American life.

A behavioral scientist by training, an unwanted Twitter celebrity by circumstance, Caroline Orr uses social media to make sure her scholarship reaches a wide audience-and in doing so helped expose Russia's disinformation campaign against the United States.

4.1 miles is the distance from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos, and the scene of incredible human courage, compassion, and loss as told by Daphne Matziaraki in her Academy Award-nominated short documentary about the refugee crisis in Europe.

Local plans to remove Civil War monuments reflect not just the history of America's bloodiest war, but our collective memory of it as well.

Western liberalism-the idea that freedom is best preserved by free institutions-is under assault.

News consumers rely on a select group of journalists willing to travel into combat zones to understand the conflicts of the 21st century.

The stories we tell ourselves shape who we are, as individuals, and as a society.

One of the most persistent ideas in the politics of the West, whether we're talking about Europe or the United States, is that government debt is best attacked through reducing government spending.

The tension between faith and reason is an ancient one, made even more distinct in the West by the scientific revolution that preceded the era of the Enlightenment.

The intermingling of traditional and emerging security challenges demands fresh thinking from a new generation of scholars and practitioners-guest Jacquelyn Schneider tells us that some of those new thinkers and new soldiers will not look like their predecessors.

Since 1976, nearly 1500 Americans have been executed in the name of justice.

Former Secretary of State and Democratic Senator of Massachusetts John Kerry is interviewed.

Speculative fiction allows authors to spin out scenarios and game outcomes from real-life headlines.

Domestic political and economic considerations influence nations' foreign policies and how they wage conflict.

Even for the devout, questions about the earliest history of Christianity can seem lost behind a shroud of history and official church teachings.

Recently, the Trump administration proposed defining gender as an individual's assigned sex at birth.

There are not a lot of examples of perfection in life-except in the world of sports.

Poets, rock stars, authors-and even mere mortals-all share a nightly sojourn-a temporary stay-in the land of dreams.

Stories are sometimes told with a particular message for their audiences.

Democracy relies on facts, accurately reported and commonly understood-and journalists play an essential role in building that shared body of knowledge.

Millions of Americans live with mental illness every day.

Video games are a $138 billion per year global industry with their own language and culture.

Human actions are changing the environment in catastrophic ways for many species.

It's easy to be convinced by talk show hosts and politicians that American security hangs on the razor's edge and that the world is more dangerous, now, than it has ever been.

Sixty-one million Americans live with some kind of disability.

The war in Iraq has cost the United States trillions of dollars and thousands of lives.

The war in Afghanistan is America's longest war, and Katherine Brown explains how stories told by American journalists have shaped the public's understanding of the conflict and the options available to American and Afghan leaders.

Flint, Michigan, has become a cautionary tale about America's decaying infrastructure.

Local journalism is one of the keys to American democracy.

The super-heated rhetoric over immigration and border security in the United States is part of a long tradition of anti-immigration hysteria.

Mikhail Gorbachev is one of the most important figures of the 20th century.

It's almost taken for granted that technology is changing America.

The British colonies in the New World, and later the United States, were built on land taken from native populations.

Lisa Genova, best-selling author (Still Alice; Every Note Played; and more) and neuroscientist.

Adam Zyglis, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist from The Buffalo News.

Maggie Smith, an award winning poet.

Danny Strong, Emmy-winning screenwriter and co-creator of "Empire" on FOX.

Typically, identity politics are associated with marginalized groups-communities that have been defined as "other" by the dominant group in a political culture.

History, when seen through the eyes of people living in a particular era, becomes less predictable, decisions seem less certain, and understanding becomes, in fact, more complete.

Of the two mechanisms in the U.S. Constitution for removing a president from office, impeachment remains the only way to remove a sitting president for crimes.

For older Americans with means and access to quality healthcare, as well as the emotional benefits of a loving family and friends, the "golden years" are just that.

The concept of justice is central to the American experience.

When Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States, pundits and leading news outlets heralded the arrival of a "post-racial America.

The political debate over healthcare in the United States seems cyclical-it rises and falls with America's political calendar.

In 1994, an errant gunshot struck high-school senior Joseph Sakran in the throat.

In 2015, the United States and Iran concluded years of difficult diplomacy that froze Iran's nuclear weapons program.

As education in STEM fields-science, technology, engineering and mathematics-has grown with the need for more "techies" in the workforce, the humanities have suf-fered.

Every American has heard a conspiracy theory whether about 9/11, Area 51, or the Kennedy assassination.

The daughter of refugee immigrants from Vietnam, scholar and artist Patricia Nguyen is committed to healing and political empowerment.

In 1924, a new American law ended the wave of immigration to this country that had begun in the 19th century.

In 2017, opioid addiction claimed nearly 50,000 American lives.

After Alfred Noble developed dynamite, his invention changed political violence-both on battlefields and in the streets where the first modern terrorists adopted the explosive as a weapon of choice.

The protests that swept across North Africa and the Middle East in the "Arab Spring" toppled some governments and threatened others.

Lies and hysterical fabrication have been the basis historically to persecute and kill Jews.

Nearly six million American children live in poverty.

As the youngest Assistant Secretary of State in the history of the United States, as U.

From the Mueller report to Syria, Ukraine, and impeachment, 2019 was a year of big stories and powerful narratives.

Afghanistan is known to most Americans as the site of America's longest war.

With less than 5% of the planet's population, the United States houses 22% of the world's prisoners.

The genetics revolution is already reshaping healthcare-and most people see in it the potential for healthier children, healthier adults, and less disease.

Nothing saps the confidence of the uninitiated quite like the reality of actually becoming a parent.

In this era of "fake news," disinformation, and social-media distortion and falsehood, professional expertise is under fire.

On many issues today, Americans are bitterly divided.

History, as a subject of study, is more than a linear progression of events.

War stories whether the stuff of memoir or fictional portrayals of people at war-are mainstays of literature across human history.

With more and more newspapers closing, a cornerstone of democracy in many localities is imperiled.

Climate change is about water: places where there is either too little or too much.

One hundred years after the adoption of the 19th amendment, noted feminist historian Susan Ware has produced a new, inclusive history of the women who led the suffrage movement, Why They Marched.

While many Americans spent most of the last three months at home, Daniela Lamas, MD, had to go to work each day as a pulmonary and critical care specialist.

Mary Rohlich is drawn to stories that matter. As executive producer of the Netflix hit "Atypical," she helps the world understand life through the eyes of 19-year-old Sam Gardner, who lives on the autism spectrum.

Karey Kirkpatrick transformed his childhood passions into a career that stretches from Hollywood to Broadway.

A treatise on the future of technology and security usually is thick and often inaccessible, but Peter Singer and August Cole turn their expertise on emerging technology and national security into a page-turning techno-thriller, Burn In, set in the not-too-distant future.

Professional sports play a giant role in American public life-and their absence has been a much-discussed part of the pandemic.

While the narrative history of 2020 will take some time to be written, Maddie McGarvey is among the photojournalists already capturing the images of this era and beginning to tell that story.

The pandemic began as a disease of privilege-those whose employment and wealth enabled them to travel the world were the first Americans affected by the virus.

There are some really great dead people, as journalist, humorist, and author Mo Rocca might say.

It is one of the cruel realities of life for every nation and every individual: we all suffer loss and disappointment.

The uncertainty of a creative career-waiting for acceptance and dealing with rejection-can be an isolating experience.

2020 began with presidential impeachment, has seen a global pandemic kill hundreds of thousands of Americans, and ends with concerns over the peaceful transfer of power in the United States.

Change may be an essential part of human existence, but science journalist Jen Schwartz explores the dislocations in human society caused by the speed with which the world is changing around us.

Less than a decade ago, information technology seemed wondrous in its ability to make modern life better.

Anybody on social media has seen it: dueling posts, arguing over a hot-political issue.

The analytical mind can explain the world around us, but the creative mind can help create our future.

Pick up a book, and you can transport yourself to any time in history-or the future, delve into the mystical or the romantic, or help us to open our minds and our hearts.

Folk music has a long and rich tradition in the United States, telling stories by capturing life in lyric and melody.

Asian-American hate crimes were brought into tragic focus with the March 16 mass shooting in Atlanta.

Technology-specifically artificial intelligence and automation are poised to change the way we work and the contours of society.

The Human Rights Campaign estimates that there are 2 million transgender people living in the United States, today.

Documentary filmmakers take us into the lives of their subjects in a way that the written word can't capture.

In his role as editor-at-large of America Magazine, Father James Martin, S.

"The Other Black Girl" is one of the most anticipated - and critically acclaimed - releases of 2021.

It's been 20 years since the attacks of 9/11 and the arrival of American troops in Afghanistan.

When schools finished the academic year earlier this summer, they looked forward to the fall with the first cautious optimism anyone had felt in years.

Critically acclaimed young adult author Padma Venkatraman's new book, "Born Behind Bars," set in Venkatraman's native India, explores universal themes of racism and hope against odds.

There is a contradiction inherent in today's China.

Colleges and universities all over the United States are facing a wave of students suffering from depression and anxiety heightened by the last year and a half of the pandemic.

On January 6, 2021, a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol seeking to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.

The promise of a liberal arts education has always been the insight offered to us by classic texts about the human experience.

Forests have long been celebrated in literature as a repository or life and solitude.

Democrats and Republicans don't agree on much-and, generally speaking, they don't agree on health care policy.

Since early 2020, the world has become familiar with the impacts of COVID-19: isolation, mask-wearing, and, for far too many, disease and death.

Every president, every public servant in the United States, raises their hand and takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

There are some who argue that the United States of Amer, 2022ica, as a nation, should be defined by its civic identity-a federal republic whose founding promised equality under the law and liberty to all of its people.

The demands society places on women-the choices they make about their lives, their relationships, and their appearance-can be overwhelming.

The last 12 months have seen terrible loss from the pandemic, hope rise with the wide availability of vaccines, an open assault on American democracy, and the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan.

The planet is warming. This isn't conjecture and it isn't political: it's the overwhelming conclusion of climate scientists from all over the world.