Acclaimed National Book Award-winning author George Packer diagnoses America's descent into a failed state, and envisions a path toward overcoming our injustices, paralyses, and divides.
This program is read by the author.
In the year 2020, Americans suffered one rude blow after another to their health, livelihoods, and collective self-esteem. A ruthless pandemic, an inept and malign government response, polarizing protests,

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"A beloved culinary historian's short takes on six famous women through the lens of food and cooking--what they ate and how their attitudes toward food offer surprising new insights into their lives. Everyone eats, and food touches on every aspect of our lives--social and cultural, personal and political. Yet most biographers pay little attention to people's attitudes toward food, as if the great and notable never bothered to think about what was...

"It's a truth universally acknowledged that terrible apologies are the worst. We've all been on the receiving end, and oh, how they make us seethe. Horrible public apologies-excuse-laden, victim blame-y, weaselly statements-often go viral instantaneously, whether they're from a celebrity, a politician, or a blogger. We all recognize bad apologies when we hear them. So why is it so hard to apologize well? How can we do better? How could they do better?...

Beth Macy, master chronicler of life in the South, combines exhaustive research, exclusive interviews and sources, and attention to detail in this riveting American story about race, greed, and a mother's love. George and Willie Muse from Truevine, Virginia were two little boys born in a brutal time, sharecropping a field in the segregated South, stolen away by a white man offering candy, and set on a path of events that would forever change their...

"For years, Kim's day job was a social worker to the home-bound elderly in Brooklyn Heights. Then she'd scramble into Manhattan to make her hostess shifts at Babbo, where even the Pope would have trouble scoring a reservation, and Gwyneth Paltrow and Ryan Reynolds squeezed through the jam-packed entryway like everyone else. Despite her sometimes fifteen-hour days, Kim couldn't make ends meet, up to her eyeballs in grad school debt. Her social work...