In this episode, Niki, Neil, and Natalia discuss the current controversy over critical race theory.
Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:
- A series of legislative bills seek to ban the teaching of critical race theory in K-12 public institutions. At CNN, Niki looked at how the controversy over journalist Nikole Hannah-Smith’s appointment at the University of North Carolina is part of this larger battle. Natalia referred to historian Jonathan Zimmerman’s book Whose America?
In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History:
- Natalia discussed the new “Little Island” development in New York City, described in this Wall Street Journal interview with developers Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg.
- Neil recommended historian Julie Golia’s book, Newspaper Confessions: A History of Advice Columns in a Pre-Internet Age.
- Niki reflected on Bob Dole and Michael Huffington blaming their election losses on immigrants in the 1990s.







![A lantern slideshows four overlapping illustrations of the Earth depicting its tilt at different time periods in the past, present and future. Dates represented are 13000 BC, 5544 BC, 1921 AD, 2296AD. Handwritten in blue ink at bottom left corner of plate is the text 'G53 CLW [illegible] Aug '22'.](https://i0.wp.com/publicseminar.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Wragge_Earth.jpg?fit=768%2C749&ssl=1)





