Our school program the Quincy Club is back on the road! The coming weeks Albertine Bloemendal will visit around 20 high schools in the Netherlands to teach about the upcoming presidential elections. First stop: the Stedelijk Dalton College in Alkmaar....
The story of the Pilgrims and the Mayflower is remarkable, and one worth telling. But over time, it was also greatly romanticized and distorted. Based on the exhibition ‘Pilgrims to America’ at Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden, this blog series tries to paint a more nuanced picture of the Pilgrims’ enterprise....
The video of our webinar with Samantha Power and Karel van Oosterom is now online. Here you can also watch or rewatch the video’s of our previous online events....
In the final blog of this series, journalist Sjors Roeters describes crossing the US by van and experiencing the effects of the pandemic on the homeless firsthand, and how the housing crisis in the country is at breaking point....
Two Dutch doctors who live in New York City describe how dealing with COVID-19 drastically changed their work as health care workers at a cancer center....
In this next part of our blog series, podcast maker Leon Neyfakh counts his blessings being able to sit out the pandemic from the comfort of a home outside the city, protecting him from a reality which others cannot escape....
In the 8th part of this blog series, US correspondent Bas Blokker tries to figure out how to balance enjoying the peacefulness in Washington DC without trivializing the gravity of the epidemic....
In the 7th part of ‘Stories From The Other Side’, North Carolina resident Michael Martin discovers the blessings of being alone together and reflects on ‘the herd instinct’ of both humans and animals....
Correspondent Casper Thomas reports on tuning into the daily White House corona briefing, where he listens to President Trump creating false hope and spreading confusion....
Former John Adams director Russell Shorto describes what family life is like living in a small town in the mountains of western Maryland while sheltering in place: about untouched jigsaws, a homemade gym, roaming the house and the need to be nice when there’s nowhere to go....
What do you do as a photographer in New York now the streets are empty? Brian Rose decided not to take pictures of the calamity that has befallen the city, but instead capture this moment of emptiness as a lesson to never take anything for granted....
How do you celebrate while in self-isolation? California resident Deborah Frieden talks about virtual birthdays, social distancing Happy Hour and how small gestures have turned into big things in the age of the coronavirus pandemic....
In the second blog of this series, constitutional expert Kim Wehle reflects on America’s dealing with COVID-19 on the personal, political and ethical level....
This series tells the stories of a range of people living the U.S. during the current pandemic. In this 1st part, New York City resident David van der Leer tells how the city that never sleeps is quieting down....
Moderator Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal delivered the following introduction to Kim Wehle, who discussed the importance of the Constitution in connection to current U.S. politics....
Moderator Ronald Leopold delivered the following introduction to Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Last Train to London, a novel based on the true story of the Vienna Kindertransports and the heroic Dutch woman who led the rescues, Truus Wijsmuller....
Moderator Chris Kijne delivered the following introduction to Daniel Ziblatt, one of the autors of How Democracies Die. Ziblatt gave an alarming analysis of the collapse of various democracies in recent history, and compared them to the state of the US government today....
Former John Adams-director Russell Shorto wrote a foreword to the English translation of the book Don’t Drown a Dead Duck: The art of gentle effectiveness by former chair of the board Marry de Gaay Fortman. Current director Tracy Metz wrote a review....
Moderator Joyce Roodnat delivered the following introduction to Megan Twohey, one of the autors of She Said, the explosive book about the investigation into Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement that followed....
Moderator Chris Kijne delivered the following introduction to George Packer, who discussed his biography about diplomat, policy maker, presidential advisor and international negotiator Richard Holbrooke....
Moderator Sheila Sitalsing delivered the following introduction to Joseph Stiglitz who told a compelling story about the dangers of free market fundamentalism and the many economic challenges America is facing....
Moderator George Blaustein delivered the following introduction to Harvard historian Jill Lepore who discussed her brilliant new book These Truths – A History of the United States....
In our newest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana in black and white photographs. In this final blog, Waagenaar visits the old and new generation of Cajun musicians....
In our newest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana in black and white photographs. In this sixth blog, Waagenaar discovers the origins of ‘see you later, alligator!’...
In our newest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana in black and white photographs. In this fifth blog, Waagenaar tells about his personal encounters with Cajun musicians while traveling the Deep South....
In our newest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana in black and white photographs. In this fourth blog, Waagenaar portrays Cajun musicians in their home....
In our newest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana in black and white photographs. In this third blog, Waagenaar goes in search of legendary Cajun musicians....
In our newest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana in black and white photographs. In this second blog, Waagenaar visits the origin of the Cajun people....
In our newest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana on film. Over the coming weeks we will showcase several of his images....
Moderator Hollis Kurman delivered the following introduction to Jonathan Safran Foer. Foer talked about his new book We are the Weather in which he explores climate change and how we are dealing with it all wrong....
Moderator Natascha Drabbe delivered the following introduction to Raymond Neutra. Neutra talked about his father Richard Neutra, one of the most influential architects of the past century. Talking points were his father’s work and his relationship to architecture in America....
Moderator Roberta Haar delivered the following introduction to Hendrik Meijer. Meijer spoke about Senator Arthur Vandenberg, who paved the way for the creation of NATO by putting the greater good of the country ahead of partisanship....
Moderator Haroon Sheikh delivered the following introduction to Barry Eichengreen. Berkeley economist Eichengreen examined the concerns that populists raise from an economic and historical context....
Maarten van Essen, Program Director of the John Adams, delivered the following introduction to Stephen P. Williams. Williams explained what Blockchain is, how it works and what the implications are for the future of our world....
Moderator Els Quaegebeur delivered the following introduction to Kristen Roupenian. Roupenian discussed You Know You Want This, a collection of short stories that explore the complex – and often darkly funny – connections between gender, sex, and power....
Moderator Ronald Leopold delivered the following introduction to Saskia Coenen-Snyder. Coenen describes people’s experience of war through their senses: a new approach she calls ‘sensory history’....
What is a “unique” photograph? Is it still possible to make photographs that are unique, given the medium’s ubiquity in our world? In Unique: Making Photographs in the Age of Ubiquity, artist and editor Katherine Oktober Matthews guides photographers through today’s complex landscape of images....
In this compelling essay for De Groene Amsterdammer, Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University, writes about Vladimir Putin’s so-called ‘politics of eternity’ which has been implemented since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Click here to read the article and here for Timothy Snyder’s up-coming event with the John Adams....
In this compelling article for the Washington Post, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Capehart writes about the imperiled Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh and the related issue of white (male) entitlement. Click here to read the article and here for this event with the John Adams....
Katherine Oktober Matthews interviews Matthew Desmond on the contemporary American epidemic of evictions. Desmond will be speaking about his work at the John Adams Institute on July 4....
Jennifer Egan spoke about her novel ‘Manhattan Beach’ at the Aula on February 21st. Watch the short video of the lecture here. The full lecture and interview are available on Lezen TV....
Jonathan Taplin, author of ‘Move Fast and Break Things’ was interviewed by Katherine Oktober Matthews. Taplin will be our guest on February 2nd, 8 PM at Pakhuis de Zwijger – moderator Tracy Metz. ...
Tracy Metz’ new week vlog about the trip she made with her colleague Maarten van Essen to Texas, where they met with a few prominent Texans – to persuade them to give a talk in Amsterdam. And where they experienced some Texan culture.....
Watch the video of our event with Ryan Lizza, who spoke with Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal about the press and the situation in the White House during a year of Trump....
John Adams director Tracy Metz interviewed Julia Gruen, the executive director of the Keith Haring Foundation, about the restored canvas by American artist Keith Haring, which is again on display at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Click here for the video....
Numberphiles is a Youtube channel where a variety of mathematicians regularly post accessible numbery video's. The Numberphile videos are always fascinating, both for the layman as for a mathematician....
‘The Dutch are able to see children for who they are’
Happiness is something that every parent, regardless of country or culture, wishes for their children. As it turns out, the Dutch may be onto something: according to UNICEF studies of child well-being in 2007 and 2013, Dutch children are the happiest kids in the world. But why? In their book ‘The Happiest Kids in the...Read More
Tracy Metz interviewed Sarah Leary, co-founder of the Nextdoor app: "Leary calls the app ‘a lifeline to your neighborhood wherever you go’: “I know here in Amsterdam what’s going on in my neighborhood in San Francisco.”...
According to UNICEF studies of child well-being in 2007 and 2013, Dutch children are the happiest kids in the world. But why? Journalist Katherine Oktober Matthews interviews American writer Rina Mae Acosta about how she broke down the Dutch approach to parenting....
