Podcast

In 2018, the tech and democracy activist Yaël Eisenstat joined Facebook as the head of Global Elections Integrity for political ads. Six months later, she left, disillusioned at how Facebook financially profited from voter manipulation. In the years before she had worked for years to strengthen and defend democracy—at the CIA, State Department and as a White House advisor. These days Eisenstat is a Senior Fellow at Cybersecurity for Democracy, working on policy solutions for how social media, AI-powered algorithms and generative AI affect political discourse, polarization and democracy. As someone who goes into the belly of the beast to initiate lasting change, she’s hopeful on how we can change the cybersphere to benefit, rather than hinder, the democratic process.

A gem rescued from the archives! We are re-releasing the Toni Morrison episode after cleaning up the audio. Toni Morrison writes about history, slavery, racism, resilience and survival with an unflinching voice. Her novels, once a staple of every American school bookshelf, are now the targets of politically motivated reviews and book bannings. Despite this, there is no getting around the fact that she was one of America’s greatest writers. Before her death in 2019, her oeuvre stretched out over almost four decades. Her debut novel, The Bluest Eye, in 1970, already showed her ear for dialogue, and richly expressive depictions of African American struggles. In 2009, she came to Amsterdam on the strength of her book, A Mercy.

Meet Ivo Daalder, Dutch-born American, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2009-2013), and foreign policy advisor to President Obama’s 2008 campaign. He also served on the U.S. National Security Council under Clinton and is now the CEO of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. In September 2024, he returned to his homeland to mark NATO’s 75th anniversary. With conflict on the Eastern front and rising tensions with China, Daalder warns that the stakes for NATO—and liberal democracy—are higher than ever. The shifting political landscape, from populism to growing concerns about NATO’s future, is more pressing than ever. What’s next for global security?

Super Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020. Professor of law, a constitutional scholar, a commentator and author Kim Wehle joined the John Adams to lay out exactly what was at stake in the election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The constitutional issues were, and still are, enormous. In her book How to Read the Constitution – and Why Kim Wehle describes in clear language what is actually in the Constitution, and most importantly, what it means today. In this new podcast episode of Bright Minds, she describes how the Constitution’s protections are eroding and why every American needs to heed this “red flag” moment in our democracy back in 2020 and right now.

It’s April 14th, 1865. The actor John Wilkes Booth pulls a gun and assassinates President Lincoln at Ford Theatre in Washington DC. Booth becomes one of the most infamous men in American history. But what about his family? Who were they? What did they believe? Did they have any role in the killing? These are questions author and Man Booker finalist Karen Joy Fowler discusses in her epic book, Booth. This conversation was recorded on 15 Sept, 2022.

History is entering a new phase, where old forms and ideas clash with present realities. In his book Liberalism and Its Discontents, Francis Fukuyama argues that we cannot grow complacent; liberalism—despite its flaws—appears to be the only system adaptable enough to accommodate the myriad challenges the future holds. Today, caught up in the maelstrom of political ideologies and cultural realities, where can people take ideological and organizational refuge? How can we not only survive, but thrive together in a world whose present is dominated by immense challenges and an uncertain future? Listen to this topical conversation with one on the today’s most engaging thinkers.

Bret Easton Ellis took 13 years to write The Shards. It’s a horror novel. Or maybe it’s an autobiography.  In fact, it’s both. The Shards is a fictionalized retelling of Mr. Ellis’s 18th year.

It tells the story of a group of superficially sophisticated teens have their lives shattered by a series of terrible events. It’s 1981 Los Angeles and a local serial killer known only as The Trawler draws ever closer to Bret and his friends. He taunts them with grotesque threats and acts of violence. As Bret’s obsession with the killer grows, he spirals into paranoia and isolation.

In the third and final episode of the election specials of our podcast Bright Minds, America expert and podcaster Laila Frank talks to law professor, constitutional scholar, commentator and author Kim Wehle. She is an expert on constitutional law and the separation of powers, with particular emphasis on presidential power and administrative agencies. Her latest book Pardon Power – How the Pardon System works – and Why just dropped. What are her hopes, fears and expectations for this election cycle?

In the second episode of our Bright Minds election specials, Laila Frank talks to author, journalist and political insider Mark Leibovich. What are his hopes, fears and expectations for this election cycle?

Mark is a staff writer for the Atlantic and the author of five books, including three New York Times best sellers, and two No. 1 Times best sellers, This Town (2013) and Thank You for Your Servitude. He is the recipient of a National Magazine Award for profile writing.  His latest piece in the Atlantic is a true gem of anecdotal yet brutal political analysis of the Republican Party.

The next three episodes of Bright Minds are all about the U.S. presidential elections. America journalist Laila Frank, specialized in politics and change in the U.S., will bring you conversations with remarkable American political thinkers about their hopes, fears and expectations for this election cycle.

First up is professor of African-American studies and author Carol Anderson. She is a renowned speaker and has written several books on race, systemic inequality and power structures. All are extremely relevant for this election cycle.

This fourth episode of the Future 400 podcast is all about theater and dance. Battery Dance, New York City’s longest running public dance festival, is hosting the Dutch-Turkish choreographer Rutkay Özpinar from Korzo Theater as part of the Future 400 exchange. And the Dutch theater director Ira Kip is working on her new play, Kings… Come Home a reflection the impact of being uprooted, which will go to the National Black Theater and the Apollo Theater in New York. Both Kip and Özpinar are searching for a global conversation that brings disparate cultures and histories together on the stage. “The reason why we dance is not just the music,” says Rutkay. “In every culture you can find dance, from a prayer to a celebration.”

This is the final episode of the Future 400 podcast series from the Dutch Consulate in New York, created and presented by John Adams Institute director Tracy Metz. It marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of New Amsterdam, the city that became New York. Each episode highlights a selection of the creative collaborations between artists, communities and institutions in both the Netherlands and the United States. For the full Future 400 cultural exchange program see www.dutchcultureusa.com.

Design your look, design your life. Rambler Studios is a creative platform for raw talent. It offers young people a safe space where they can discover what they’re good at and find a sense of belonging – and maybe a career in street fashion. Started by Carmen van der Vecht in Amsterdam in 2010, it has branched out to New York’s Lower East Side. It operates there under the wings of the Henry Street Settlement, a philanthropic institution dating back to the late 1800’s. In the same basement in a social housing project where he himself learned to sew, fashion coach Andres Biel helps kids create and market their own ideas – “with some help from TikTok!”. On both sides of the Atlantic, the young people in the program say: “The most important thing I’m getting here are life skills.”

This is the third episode of the four-part bi-weekly Future 400 podcast series from the Dutch Consulate in New York, created and presented by John Adams Institute director Tracy Metz. It marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of New Amsterdam, the city that became New York. Each episode highlights a selection of the creative collaborations between artists, communities and institutions in both the Netherlands and the United States. For the full Future 400 cultural exchange program see www.dutchcultureusa.com.

This second episode of the Future 400 podcast looks at work by Dutch and American photographers who are part of the annual international photo festival Photoville in Lower Manhattan. Dutch photographer Ernst Coppejans delves deep into the lives of LGBTQIA+ people living on the streets in New York. Kennedi Carter, a young Black photographer from the South, dresses people of color in a combination of garb from colonial times and contemporary streetwear. Photoville’s founder Sam Barzilay says: “Even though they are an Atlantic apart, there is a shared sensibility here.”

Future 400 is a bi-weekly four-part podcast series from the Dutch Consulate in New York, created and presented by John Adams Institute director Tracy Metz. It marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of New Amsterdam, the city that became New York. Each episode highlights a selection of the creative collaborations between artists, communities and institutions in both the Netherlands and the United States.

Future 400 is a bi-weekly four-part podcast series from the Dutch Consulate in New York. It is part of the two-year cultural program of the same name, marking the 400th anniversary of the founding of New Amsterdam, the city that became New York. Each episode highlights a selection of the creative collaborations between artists, communities and institutions in both the Netherlands and the United States. Want to learn more about Future 400? The Dutch Consulate in New York City made a site for that! Just go to dutchcultureusa.com

Presenter: Tracy Metz,  producers: Tracy Metz and Jonathan Groubert

Episode 1: New York Before New York

When the Dutch colonists set foot on the island of Manhattan, four hundred years ago, there were already people living there: the Lenape. Historian Russell Shorto curated an exhibition for the New York Historical Society to tell the other stories about the town of New Amsterdam – and invited the Lenape to react with a powerful letter to an Unknown Ancestor, read by Brent Stonefish. And Pauline Toole, New York’s Commissioner of Records, tells us about the wonderful stories of real live people of many faiths and nationalities living in New Amsterdam that can be found in the 17th century archives.

A video animation of the 1660 Castello Plan was made which you can rent online here.

Andrea Elliott is an investigative reporter for the New York Times whose 2022 Pulitzer winning book, Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City follows eight dramatic years in the life of a young homeless woman named Dasani Coates. Dasani was just 11 years old when they met. Her story as told by Andrea Elliott has become emblematic of one of America’s most wicked problems: homelessness. It’s a powerful expose on just how the disparity between those with wealth, and power, and those without, is rapidly growing.

In his book Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal National Book Award-winning author and journalist George Packer makes the case for why the 2024 election may be the most important in the US ever. With polarization on the rise, Packer says this ‘cold civil war’ has made Americans profoundly unreal to one another: they lack a shared reality and have sealed themselves in digital echo chambers of angry prejudice. Is there still hope for a better America or are we moving towards a ‘failed state’?

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones’s 1619 project has inspired both throngs of like-minded people as well as a severe backlash. The project was published in the New York Times Magazine—and is now also a successful podcast and television series. So, why 1619? That was the year an English ship carrying enslaved Africans and flying the Dutch flag appeared on the horizon of Point Comfort, Virginia. No aspect of American society is untouched by the centuries of slavery that ensued. From the contemporary economy to American popular music, 1619 implores us to radically rethink America as we know it.

2024 is an election year and Donald Trump is running again. This makes journalist and political commentator Mark Leibovich’s nonfiction blockbuster Thank You for Your Servitude: Donald Trump’s Washington and the Price of Submission, particularly timely. Leibovich sketches the political landscape of Washington during the Trump presidency. But instead of focusing on the former President, Leibovich centers his narrative on the people and mechanisms that enabled his meteoric rise to power.

Jane Fonda has led a very public life. She’s a movie and TV star, a sex symbol, and a political lighting rod. But if you ask her, she used to be a deeply insecure person. This is why her book, My Life So Far is both a jaunt through many historical eras as well as an extraordinary inward, yet universal journey of learning to become comfortable with being an independent individual. Jane Fonda visited the John Adams in 2005, but her story is as topical as ever.

From Hemingway to Dickens, from Nabokov to Twain, from Isak Dinesen to Graham Greene, many of the world’s great writers were also great travel writers. Paul Theroux, arguably the most renowned living travel writer, has capped a fifty-year writing career with The Tao of Travel, a collection of travel stories – by himself and others. Join us for a trip around the world with the man who gave us The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, To the Ends of the Earth, and other classics of the genre.

In 2008, we hosted an evening with Robert B. Reich to talk about his book Supercapitalism. He argued capitalism has flourished at the expense of democracy for the last three decades. That people now see themselves as buyers and sellers first and citizens later, if at all. The U.S. leads in this dark trend, according to Reich, but Europe is right behind. Is it too late yet to turn consumers back into citizens and renew civic participation?

In Teju Cole’s novel Open City, the narrator Julius is a Nigerian psychiatry student who lives in Manhattan and likes to walk in the city. As he does, he has encounters. Most are small. He watches children playing in a park. He discovers that the woman next door died recently, and is quietly devastated, though he hardly knew her. The book’s blended texture reminds you of something: real life. You get a sense of this man and this city, but also of how we construct ourselves. Teju Cole visited the John Adams in 2012 to discuss his award-winning novel.

Rickey Jackson was sentenced first to death, which was commuted to 39 years in prison. This was based on the false, coerced testimony of a 12-year-old boy. Last year, Mark Godsey, director of the Innocence Project in Ohio and author of the book Blind Injustice told our Amsterdam audience how DNA evidence finally proved Rickey’s innocence. Then Rickey took to the stage to talk about his journey from imprisonment to freedom and the extraordinary power of forgiveness.

New York City, 1741: fires break out throughout the city. Fueled by the paranoia that accompanies hearsay, the authorities find a convenient scapegoat on which to pin the crimes: enslaved Black people and poor white settlers. But after a witch-hunt-like series of trials and vigilante justice, no specific plot was ever uncovered. In the latest episode of our podcast ‘Bright Minds’, Harvard historian Jill Lepore tells us this remarkable story as described in her book New York Burning.

Until the war in Ukraine, Bill Browder was Vladimir Putin’s enemy number 1. Browder used to run the largest foreign investment firm in Russia, until he was declared ‘a threat to Russian national security’ and got kicked out of the country. He has spent the last 14 years trying to understand the dark money flowing out of Russia. In this podcast episode, Bill Browder tells the story of his quest to establish a global regime for imposing sanctions on Russians involved in corruption and criminality.

For years, fringe ideologues were able to use Facebook undisturbed to promote their extreme ideologies and conspiracies. New York Times tech reporter Cecilia Kang reveals how Facebook’s algorithms sacrificed everything for user engagement and profit, while creating a misinformation epicenter and violating the privacy of its users.

On paper, every American has the right to vote and to bear arms. But in reality, says Carol Anderson, Professor of African-American studies, both these rights are undermined by the racism which is so deeply rooted in American society. And that, in turn, undermines democracy.  Listen to Carol Anderson discussing her two most recent books, ‘The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America’ and ‘One Person, No Vote’.

In December of 2010, The John Adams Institute hosted an evening with the great film director, Spike Lee. Among many things, he talked about how New York City’s historically hot and dangerous summer of ‘77 got him started in filmmaking.

In 2008, we hosted an evening with David Sedaris. The humorist and author of ‘Me Talk Pretty One Day’ and ‘Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim’ brought his entourage to Amsterdam for the Dutch publication of his latest collection of wisdom, ‘When You Are Engulfed in Flames’.

For 20 years, the John Adams Institute has organized a lecture program called The Quincy Club at schools all through the Netherlands to help young audiences better understand American culture. In 2020, the Quincy Club took a closer look at California and Silicon Valley. You know the names: Facebook, Apple, Google, Tesla, and more dominate the tech industry worldwide. How did this come to be?

In 1999, Ruth Bader Ginsburg sat down for an interview and waxed legal about things like how unimportant the Supreme Court used to be, why it’s good justices serve for life and what a nice place the Supreme Court is to work.

Despite her success, Ruby Wax has been open about her struggles with depression. Her book, Sane New World, based on personal experience, achieves the rare feat of addressing mental illness while being readable and funny at the same time.

American author Anthony Doerr joined us in 2015 on the back of his book, All the Light We Cannot See, a masterful and moving novel about two young people during World War II, which rapidly became a New York Times #1 bestseller.

Political commentator David Frum digs deep into the causes of America’s tragic national fragmentation, warning us that “no two-party system can remain a democracy unless both parties adhere to democratic values, not just one”.

If we can just get through the 21st century, humanity might have a chance, says Elizabeth Kolbert. We have already intervened in the earth’s system to the extent that we are now living in the ‘Anthropocene’. Maybe we can buy time by intervening even more, with so-called geo-engineering?

Gore Vidal was an American writer known for his essays, novels, screenplays, and Broadway plays whose major subject was America. Through his work and media appearances he was a longtime critic of American foreign policy. He was also famous for his acerbic wit: “There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.” He visited the John Adams in 1992.

Hanya Yanagihara returned to the John Adams for a conversation about To Paradise, her three-part epic tale told across multiple timelines and characters, centered around New York City. It shows an America not identical as we know it, but a ‘what if’ narrative: what it has been, what it might have been and what it could be.

The late, great Christopher Hitchens came to Amsterdam in 2008 touring his book God is Not Great. Hitchens excelled at polemics which he shows in this new ‘Bright Minds’ episode by arguing that religion is a worse than any totalitarian regime, that science and religion are fundamentally incompatible, and why it’s a bad time for secularism in politics.

Way back on March 14, 1993, the then fresh new Southern author, Donna Tartt, visited the John Adams hot on the heels of her massive bestseller ‘The Secret History’.

How do democracies die? Not at the hands of generals, but of elected leaders – presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that brought them to power. That is the unsettling conclusion of Harvard professor Daniel Ziblatt’s highly praised book How Democracies Die.

In 2002, we proudly presented an evening with Jonathan Franzen, winner of the National Book Award 2001. He discussed The Corrections, his novel about the American family, giving a view on modern Western society that is both humorous and poignant.

The great American author and investigative journalist, Patrick Radden Keefe, discusses the Sackler Family, one of the richest families in the world.

Just where all their money came from was vague, until it emerged that the Sacklers were the owners of Purdue Pharma, responsible for making and aggressively marketing OxyContin, a blockbuster painkiller that was the catalyst for today’s opioid crisis.

In 2019, CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour joined us for what turned out to be a witty and revealing conversation about her career and the state of modern journalism.

This week’s guest is Francis Fukuyama. He argues that populist nationalism is not motivated by economics, as it was through the second half of the 20th century, but by an innate need for dignity.

That sounds like a given, but Francis Fukuyama says this is being exploited. Democracy is being undermined as the old world order is swept away and demagogues rise country by country as they preach identity politics based on religion, ethnicity and gender.

This week’s guest is New York Times journalist Megan Twohey, whose reporting about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse of women in Hollywood was, as she put it, “an X-ray into the abuse of power”. The #Metoo movement really got going after Megan Twohey and her colleague Jodi Kantor published their investigative articles about Harvey Weinstein in ‘She Said’, a book sometimes called the feminist “All the President’s Men”.

Seven years ago, Garry Kasparov came to Amsterdam and predicted the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He also described Vladimir Putin’s psychology and motivations in a way that you hear in every current affairs program nowadays.

In this episode, Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz talks about his book, People, Power, and Profits. The renowned economist states that the U.S. is in need of some serious reform and that government and democracy must be freed from the grasp of wealthy corporate forces in finance and other sectors.

In this episode of the show, Russell Shorto talks about his eye-opening book The Island at the Center of the World, a marvelous historical retelling of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam before it became New York.

As John Adams was one of the great men of his era, we thought our next episode should be with one of the great people of our time: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Brooklyn born and raised, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical advisor to president Biden. This was an online interview conducted by Damiaan Denys, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Amsterdam.

Democracy and the rule of law in Western societies are under threat, according to Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University. In his book The Road to Unfreedom, Snyder examines how Western societies left themselves open to anti-democratic forces after the Cold War, and how Russia fell into Putinism, and the rise of Donald Trump, which has become a major threat to democracy around the globe.

Michael Pollan’s book, How To Change Your Mind, delves into the world of psychedelics and their medical use. In the past decade, there has been renewed interest in psychedelic research as a form of psychiatric therapy, and to Pollan’s mind this renaissance is long overdue. In this episode, Pollan makes a strong case for researching these drugs further.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright talks with former Dutch foreign minister, current EU Vice President, Frans Timmermans, about how the current state of world leadership inspired her book, the ominously titled: Fascism: a Warning.

From now on, we will also present our talks and interviews to you in the form of the podcast Bright Minds. Every two weeks you can listen to a new 30 minute talk and/or interview from our rich archive of American speakers. Sign up for our newsletter to keep updated about upcoming episodes. And while you’re there, why not become a member of the John Adams. Not only will you support what we do, you get a discount to future live events.