From the Editors Archives - Page 8 of 172

Interviews

The Nitty-Gritty of Craft

A conversation with writer Mychal Denzel Smith

April 20, 2022 • by Mychal Denzel Smith and Erica Marrison

“Coming off of a decade or so—oh God, this year marks 12 years since I first published—of thinking about the worst things that happened to Black people in the United States, I just wanted some pleasure in my life,” says writer Mychal Denzel Smith from his balcony in Brooklyn. Smith’s most recent ...

Interviews

The Promise and Perils of Life in Outer Space

A conversation with architect Fred Scharmen

April 19, 2022 • by Emma Celebrezze and Fred Scharmen

I got really obsessed with these paintings from a NASA project that was about designing giant, free-floating, spinning cities to orbit Earth. I decided to take them seriously as real proposals that were in the lineage of architecture and urban design. What I found was that far from being this ...

The Promise and Perils of Life in Outer Space

Interviews

Does Time Pass or, Do We Pass the Time?

Lisa Hsiao Chen explores what it is that keeps us going

April 13, 2022 • by Shweta Nandakumar and Lisa Hsiao Chen

Lisa Hsiao Chen’s Activities of Daily Living examines the interconnections between work and life, loneliness and kinship, and the projects that occupy our time. Moving between present-day and 1980s New York City, with detours to Silicon Valley and the Venice Biennale, this is a vivid, and tender examination of the ...

Interviews

Dismantling Truths About Emerging Adulthood

A conversation with Rainesford Stauffer: Breaking down the structural challenges behind living your #BestLife

April 12, 2022 • by Rainesford Stauffer and Shivani Somaiya

We need a really radical re-imagining of, not just how we think about young adulthood, but how we move through our lives and where we find value. I would want people to know that this myth of young adulthood is not your individual burden. Doing the best you can within ...

Dismantling Truths About Emerging Adulthood

Interviews

AI Remains Unchecked: A Conversation With Patrick K. Lin

How technology can mirror biases in our criminal justice system

March 23, 2022 • by Patrick K. Lin and Miko Yoshida

The diversity of faces used to train an algorithm can influence the kinds of photos and faces that an algorithm is most adept at examining. If the set of face images is skewed towards a certain race, the algorithm may be better at identifying members of that group as compared ...

AI Remains Unchecked: A Conversation With Patrick K. Lin

Interviews

Phillis Wheatley’s Lost Years

She didn’t go far from Boston, but a keen-eyed historian glimpsed her in the archive—and that find opens up a door to both the poet’s marriage and the final years of slavery in Massachusetts

March 16, 2022 • by Cornelia H. Dayton and Claire Potter

In September 2021, University of Connecticut historian Cornelia Dayton broke the news that three “lost” years of African American poet Phillis Wheatley had been accounted for: the first three years of her marriage to John Peters, a free Black New Englander who she married in 1780. In an article published ...

Interviews

The University Ate My Neighborhood

A conversation with urbanist and cultural historian Davarian L. Baldwin, author of In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities

February 15, 2022 • by Davarian L. Baldwin and Claire Potter

Claire Potter sat down with urbanist Davarian L. Baldwin to discuss his new book, In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities (Bold Type Books, 2021), to hash out what these relationships do to reshape our cities....

Interviews

Walking This Road Together

A conversation with historian Linda Hirshman about interracial alliances, social movements, and her new book, The Color of Abolition: How a Printer, a Prophet, and a Contessa Moved a Nation

February 9, 2022 • by Linda Hirshman and Claire Potter

Linda Hirshman is a lawyer and cultural historian whose book The Color of Abolition: How a Printer, a Prophet, and a Contessa Moved a Nation, is making its debut this week. Linda, a historian of social movements who is also the author of books about the feminist and gay rights ...

Interviews

Why Privatization Is Worse Than You Know

An argument for more, and better, government

January 7, 2022 • by Donald Cohen and Claire Potter

Many people think privatization only means contracting for a prison or selling off a water system, but my definition is broader: private control of, and power over, public goods. By public goods, I mean things that we all depend on, essential services. So that includes prisons, but it also includes ...

Why Privatization Is Worse Than You Know

Interviews

How Much of History Is a Haunting? An Interview with Kaitlyn Greenidge

The author shares the process behind her new novel, Libertie, in a conversation with Mira Jacob

December 15, 2021 • by Kaitlyn Greenidge and Mira Jacob

Upon the publication of Libertie, novelist Kaitlyn Greenidge chatted with Mira Jacob about ghost stories, historical fiction, and craft....

How Much of History Is a Haunting? An Interview with Kaitlyn Greenidge

Democracy

Navigating the World of Grand Strategy with Christopher McKnight Nichols and Andrew Preston

The two historians talk to Public Seminar about Rethinking American Grand Strategy

December 8, 2021 • by Gregory Coleman, Christopher McKnight Nichols and Andrew Preston

Award-winning historians Christopher McKnight Nichols and Andrew Preston spoke (virtually) with Public Seminar editorial intern Gregory Coleman to discuss their new book Rethinking American Grand Strategy (Oxford University Press, 2021). Edited by Nichols and Preston with fellow historian Elizabeth Borgwardt, the collection of curated essays discusses what American grand strategy ...

Navigating the World of Grand Strategy with Christopher McKnight Nichols and Andrew Preston

Interviews

Can We Talk about Race?

An award-winning journalist says yes—it isn’t easy, but everyone can learn to do it

November 10, 2021 • by Celeste Headlee and Gregory Coleman

Celeste Headlee, an award-winning journalist, professional speaker and author of We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter (Harper Wave, 2018), and Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving (Harmony, 2021) met (virtually) with Public Seminar editorial intern Gregory Coleman to discuss writing about the difficult conversations that need to happen ...

From the Editors

The Nitty-Gritty of Craft

A conversation with writer Mychal Denzel Smith

The Promise and Perils of Life in Outer Space

A conversation with architect Fred Scharmen

Does Time Pass or, Do We Pass the Time?

Lisa Hsiao Chen explores what it is that keeps us going

Dismantling Truths About Emerging Adulthood

A conversation with Rainesford Stauffer: Breaking down the structural challenges behind living your #BestLife

AI Remains Unchecked: A Conversation With Patrick K. Lin

How technology can mirror biases in our criminal justice system

Phillis Wheatley’s Lost Years

She didn’t go far from Boston, but a keen-eyed historian glimpsed her in the archive—and that find opens up a door to both the poet’s marriage and the final years of slavery in Massachusetts

The University Ate My Neighborhood

A conversation with urbanist and cultural historian Davarian L. Baldwin, author of In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities

Walking This Road Together

A conversation with historian Linda Hirshman about interracial alliances, social movements, and her new book, The Color of Abolition: How a Printer, a Prophet, and a Contessa Moved a Nation

Why Privatization Is Worse Than You Know

An argument for more, and better, government

How Much of History Is a Haunting? An Interview with Kaitlyn Greenidge

The author shares the process behind her new novel, Libertie, in a conversation with Mira Jacob

Navigating the World of Grand Strategy with Christopher McKnight Nichols and Andrew Preston

The two historians talk to Public Seminar about Rethinking American Grand Strategy

Can We Talk about Race?

An award-winning journalist says yes—it isn’t easy, but everyone can learn to do it

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