PODCAST · society
Westminster Town Hall Forum
by westminsterforum
Podcast by westminsterforum
Episodes
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Immigrants as Pillars of Democracy with Kica Matos (October 1, 2026)
After the June 2026 Supreme Court ruling on birthright citizenship, Kica Matos observed how fragile foundational constitutional guarantees have become, with the struggle for immigrant rights serving as a central pillar of the broader pro-democracy fight. Named one of Time magazine’s most...
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Ethics & Government: Wrestling with Truth and Democracy with James Comey (February 26, 2026)
The second Forum of our “Ethics Still Matter” spring season features former FBI Director and #1 New York Times Best-Selling Author James Comey. This Forum returns us to where we began in fall 1980 with Special Watergate Prosecutor Archibald Cox who also spoke on “Ethics and Government.” Do ethics...
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Gerrymandering and Election Integrity with Dr. Sam Wong (September 24, 2026)
Gerrymandering is expanding and making news from coast to coast. How will it affect our elections? Sam Wang – one of the nation’s leading experts on redistricting, representation, and election reform – will address gerrymandering and share his data-driven approach to building and repairing an...
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Arc of Justice: Building Abolitionist Sanctuaries with Nikia Smith Robert (May 28, 2026)
The Forum’s annual “Arc Toward Justice” Series is dedicated to honoring the legacy of George Floyd and the ongoing need for racial, social, and systemic change. On May 28, The Rev. Dr. Nikia Smith Robert, executive director of Abolitionist Sanctuary, will ask us to consider Martin Luther King’s…
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Violins of Hope - Ethics & Story: Why We Remember (May 14, 2026)
On November 17, 1983, Elie Wiesel—Holocaust survivor, author, and activist—began his Forum speech “Why Hate?” by saying, “The best thing one can do at noon on a Thursday is to tell stories.” Now, more than 42 years later, we gather anew to consider the power of stories and the role of music and...
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45th Anniversary Celebration with Justice Alan Page: Ethics Still Matter
Our Noon Forum: Special guest Justice Alan Page will join us to celebrate the Forum’s 45 years of affirming Ethics Matter. Justice Page was one of the Forum’s earliest presenters, sharing “The Student Athlete” in 1982. Now, in conversation with moderator The Rev. Dr. Jessica Patchett, Page will...
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Ethics & the Supreme Court: What is Justice? with Nina Totenberg (March 19, 2026)
NPR’s Nina Totenberg joins us for the third Forum of our spring season, sharing observations about the U.S. Supreme Court and how it has changed since she presented “Perspectives on the Supreme Court” at the Forum in spring 1993. What is justice? Who decides the role of the courts as its arbiter?...
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Ethics & Medicine: Does My Neighbor Matter? with Dr. Michael Osterholm (January 29, 2026)
The first Forum of our “Ethics Still Matter” spring season features Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, reflecting on an early Forum topic, “Critical Issues in Medical Ethics,” addressed by the University of Minnesota’s Dr. John Najarian in 1982. Throughout time, ethical questions and norms have been...
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Continuing the Conversation: AMPERS & Community Media
As a follow-up to our Fall Season: "Ethics, Conscience, and the New Public Square," listen in to the conversation between AMPERS CEO Joel Glaser and our Executive Director Sara Wilhelm Garbers as they discuss community radio and public media in our time.
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Courage is Contagious with The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde (December 4, 2025)
THE RIGHT REV. MARIANN EDGAR BUDDE, Episcopal Diocese of Washington Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde is the first woman elected spiritual leader for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, which includes the Washington National Cathedral and other congregations and Episcopal schools in the District of...
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America’s Illiberal History with Dr. Steve Hahn (November 6, 2025)
STEVE HAHN, Professor of History, New York University Pulitzer-prize winning historian Steve Hahn is renowned for his understanding of the political dynamics of the American South. He suggests that Donald Trump’s reliance on racial resentments and coercion is not new to America but familiar to…
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A Time for Reinvention: Reclaiming Our Civic Institutions with Steve Grove (October 23, 2025)
STEVE GROVE, CEO and Publisher, Minnesota Star Tribune We live in a time of dynamic change, when our most important institutions face unprecedented challenges. Public trust in the media, government, technology, and almost every other body in our civic lives is declining rapidly. Reinventing our...
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The State of Public Media with Duchesne Drew and Sylvia Strobel (October 2, 2025)
DUCHESNE DREW, President, Minnesota Public Radio SYLVIA STROBEL, President and CEO, Twin Cities PBS (TPT) Duchesne Drew and Sylvia Strobel currently sit at the epicenter of preserving the future of public broadcast media in Minnesota. Following the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s loss of…
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Paul Neimann: The Origins of the Forum
In this special episode of the Forum podcast, we talk with Paul Neimann, one of the originators of the Forum. He and his wife Diane moved to Minneapolis in the 1970s and believed their new home deserved a great speaker series. That idea became the nationally renowned Westminster Town Hall Forum....
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Keyu Jin: China Beyond Socialism and Capitalism
Dr. Keyu Jin speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis. Born in China and educated in the U.S., she is a world-renowned economist at the London School of Economics. Her most recent book is "The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism." In it and in this talk, she...
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Kara Swisher: Tech and the Truth
Legendary tech journalist Kara Swisher in conversation with Tane Danger at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis. Swisher's newest work is "Burn Book; a Tech Love Story." It’s part memoir, part history and, most of all, a necessary recounting of tech’s power players and influence. In it...
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Michele Norris: Our Hidden Conversations
Award-winning journalist Michele Norris speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis. She spoke about her best-selling book, "Our Hidden Conversation; What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity." For more than a decade, Norris asked people around the world to send in their...
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Raquel Willis: On Life and Liberation
Transgender rights activist and author Raquel Willis speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum. Raquel Willis is an award-winning activist, author, and media strategist dedicated to Black transgender liberation. She is the co-founder of The Transgender Week of Visibility and Action. She spoke…
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Nancy Giles: Humor and Storytelling in the American Experience
Nancy Giles speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis on November 9, 2023. Giles is a comedian, actress, and social commentator. Since 2002 she has been a regular contributor to the Peabody Award-winning program CBS News Sunday Morning. In that time, she has earned five Emmy…
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Steve Inskeep: Differ We Must
Author and NPR host Steve Inskeep speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum. Inskeep's latest book is "Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America." It shares Lincoln’s lessons for bridging intense political divisions. He spoke at the Forum about what we can learn from Lincoln to...
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Emily Hanford: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong
Senior correspondent for APM Reports Emily Hanford speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum. For more than a generation, schools across the U.S. embraced a specific methodology of teaching kids to read. The problem? Cognitive scientists had proven decades before it didn’t actually work. In her...
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Forum at the Fair: Samuel Freedman on Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights
Samuel G. Freedman, author of "Into the Bright Sunshine: A Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights." He spoke with Forum director Tane Danger at a special Westminster Town Hall Forum recorded at the Minnesota State Fair. They discussed the former Vice President's upbringing in South...
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Marie Yovanovitch: Lessons from the Edge
Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch speaking on life as a diplomat, the Russian war in Ukraine, and the political smear campaign against her by then-President Trump and his allies. She is the author of the best-selling memoir, "Lessons from the Edge." Yovanovitch served for more…
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Cornel West & Ifeoma Ike: The Arc Toward Justice 2023
Dr. Cornel West and Ms. Ifeoma Ike Esq. speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum's 2023 Arc Toward Justice program. Moderated by Angela Davis of Minnesota Public Radio News. The Arc Toward Justice series invites national racial justice leaders to reflect on a another year George Floyd's murder...
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Dr. Pooja Lakshmin: Mental Health Lessons from Around the World
Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, M.D. speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum on May 2, 2023. She is a women's mental health specialist, a board-certified physician psychiatrist, and a Clinical Assistant Professor at George Washington University. She is the author of "Real Self-Care: Crystals, Cleanses…
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Elliot Ackerman: America's End in Afghanistan
Veteran and author Elliot Ackerman speaking at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He spoke on his most recent book, "The Fifth Act: America's End in Afghanistan." Elliot Ackerman is a writer, journalist, former White House Fellow, and decorated veteran. He served five…
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Ari Shapiro: The Best Strangers in the World
Ari Shapiro's talk at the Westminster Town Hall Forum, March 28 2023. He is the award-winning co-host of National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and the author of the new memoir "The Best Strangers in the World; Stories from a Life Spent Listening." Learn more at the Westminster Town Hall...
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Parker Palmer and Sondra Samuels - We the People: A Time to Act - 11/16/19
Parker Palmer is a writer, teacher, activist, and founder of the Center for Courage & Renewal, a nonprofit organization committed to creating a more just and compassionate world by nurturing personal and professional integrity. His bestselling books include, among others, A Hidden Wholeness, Let...
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André Thomas - The Meaning and Impact of African American Spirituals - 11/12/19
André Thomas is Professor of Choral Music Education, Director of Choral Activities, and the Owen F. Sellers Professor of Music at Florida State University. He is the conductor of a variety of choral organizations throughout the country and served as the artistic director for the Tallahassee...
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Jim Sciutto - Inside Russia's and China's Secret Operations - 10/22/19
Jim Sciutto is CNN’s chief national security correspondent and co-anchor of the weekday program CNN Newsroom. He reports and provides analysis on all aspects of U.S. national security, including the military, foreign policy, the intelligence community, and the ongoing Russia investigation. An...
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Kathleen Belew - White Power and Paramilitary America - 9/24/19
Kathleen Belew is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Chicago where her teaching and research focus on militarization, violence, racism, and identity in 20th-century America. Her recent book, Bring the War Home, explores white power activism from its roots in the Vietnam War to…
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Barbara Brown Taylor - Finding God in the Faith of Others - 4/30/19
Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest, teacher, and bestselling author of fourteen books on religion and spirituality, including Leaving Church, An Altar in the World and Learning to Walk in the Dark, named one of the best religion books of 2014 by Publisher’s Weekly. She has served on the...
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Jonathan Capehart - A Bold Look at Today's Headlines - 04/09/19
Jonathan Capehart is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and member of The Washington Post editorial board, focusing on politics, social issues, and cultural shifts nationally and globally. He is a regular contributor to the blog PostPartisan and hosts the podcast Cape Up. He is a periodic...
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David Hogg - Putting the USA Over the NRA - 03/19/19
David Hogg is a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He is among twenty Parkland students who founded Never Again MSD, a gun control advocacy group, and he is a founding member of March for Our Lives, one of the largest youth-led…
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Art Cullen - Change, Resilience and Hope in Rural America - 2-12-19
Art Cullen is editor and co-owner of The Storm Lake Times, a flourishing, family-owned, twice-weekly newspaper founded in 1990 in Northwest Iowa. In 2017, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for a series of columns indicting corporate agri-business for polluting the rivers and...
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Michael Beschloss - Presidents of War: 1807 to Modern Times - 11-13-2018
Michael Beschloss is an award-winning author of nine books on presidential history. He is the presidential historian for NBC News and a contributor to PBS NewsHour. A graduate of Williams College and Harvard Business School, he has served as a historian for the Smithsonian Institution, as a…
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Mona Hanna-Attisha - What We Can Learn From Flint, Michigan
Mona Hanna-Attisha is an associate professor of pediatrics at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and a pediatrician at Hurley Children’s Hospital in Flint, Michigan. She has been acclaimed internationally for her research that exposed elevated levels of lead in the blood of the...
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Clint Watts - Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News - 9/25/18
Clint Watts is a former FBI agent with expertise in electronic espionage operations, misinformation campaigns, fake news, and the manipulation of social media. In 2017 and 2018, he testified before four Senate committees on Russia’s information warfare campaign in advance of the 2016 presidential...
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Richard Stengel - Mandela's Way: Lessons for an Uncertain Age - 5/22/18
Richard Stengel is a journalist, author, and former managing editor of Time. He has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, New Republic, Spy, and The New York Times, and he appears regularly on television as a political commentator. In 2013, he accepted the position of Under...
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Honey Thaljieh - Global Sports: Inclusion, Equity, and Human Rights - 5/17/18
Honey Thaljieh is known internationally for promoting the role of sports in empowering women and girls in the Arab world and beyond. She is a co-founder of women’s football (soccer) in Palestine, and she served as the first captain of the Palestinian national football team. Following her career…
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Steve Schmidt - A Candid Look at Today's Headlines - 05/01/2018
Steve Schmidt is a political strategist, public relations executive, and a political analyst on MSNBC. He was an advisor in the George W. Bush administration and served as the top strategist for the president’s re-election campaign. In 2008, he was the senior advisor to the John McCain…
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Nadine Burke Harris - Healing the Effects of Childhood Adversity and Trauma - 4/10/18
Nadine Burke Harris is a pediatrician and advocate for children’s health. She is the founder of the Center for Youth Wellness, which researches the impact of adverse childhood experiences on long-term health, behavior, and learning. She has shared her findings at the Mayo Clinic, American Academy...
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Suzy Hansen - An American Abroad in a Post-American World - 3/22/18
Suzy Hansen is an American journalist and editor. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she moved to Istanbul in 2007 after receiving a journalism fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs to write on Turkish politics and foreign affairs. Since then, she has traveled to…
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James Forman Jr - Crime and Punishment in Black America - 11/28/17
Crime and Punishment in Black America. James Forman Jr. is a professor of law at Yale Law School, teaching and writing on criminal procedure, constitutional law, juvenile justice, and education law and policy. He is the author of the book "Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black…
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Ari Melber - The Mueller Report - 10/24/2017
Ari Melber is Chief Legal Correspondent for MSNBC, covering the U. S. Supreme Court, Justice Department, and FBI, and the host of the political news program The Beat. He has written on law and politics for The Nation, The Atlantic, Reuters, Salon, and Politico. Raised in Seattle, he earned a BA…
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Carl Pope - Can We Save the Planet? - 09/19/2017
Carl Pope is the former executive director and chairman of the Sierra Club and a veteran leader in the environmental movement. He is now a senior climate advisor to former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and the principal advisor at Inside Straight Strategies, where he focuses on the links...
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RICHARD HAASS - Shaping a New Foreign Policy - 05/04/2017
Richard Haass is president of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan think-tank and an educational institution seeking better understanding of global issues facing the U. S. and other countries. He was chair of the multiparty negotiations in Northern Ireland in 2013, and he...
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OTIS MOSS III - Building the Beloved Community - 04/11/2017
Otis Moss III is the senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, former church-home for then-Senator Barack Obama. Since coming to Trinity in 2008, Moss has focused his ministerial work on community advancement, civil rights advocacy, and social justice activism, calling…
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Frank Bruni - Media in the Age of Misinformation - 03/21/17
Frank Bruni is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. Since joining the paper in 1995, he has covered a broad range of topics, including American politics, higher education, travel, the arts, gay rights, and more. As a political columnist, he has focused on the nation’s divisiveness and what...
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Irshad Manji - From Polarization to Conversation - 02/14/2017
Irshad Manji is the founder of the Moral Courage Project, headquartered at the University of Southern California and committed to helping people identify, express, and act according to their values. In 2013, MCP launched its award-winning You-Tube channel, which features stories of people taking...
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Westminster Town Hall Forum currently has 319 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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Podcast by westminsterforum
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Westminster Town Hall Forum publishes regularly with 319 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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Westminster Town Hall Forum is created and hosted by westminsterforum.
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