The Zero Marginal Cost Society
In his book The Zero Marginal Cost Society (Campus, 2014), social theorist Jeremy Rifkin argues that capitalism is becoming a victim of its own success: machines powered by alternative energies are undermining our sense of private property, taking away jobs, and turning consumers into free agents in a global “sharing economy.”
Germany and the Euro: The Revenge of Helmut Schmidt
C. Fred Bergsten argues that Germany has an overwhelming number of reasons to make sure the euro succeeds, and that the Eurozone holds together through the crisis.
Noir et Moi, or Finally Getting It Right
Jules Feiffer’s graphic novel Kill My Mother (W.W. Norton, August 2014), reaches back to his first obsessions, and it launches him into a form of graphic expression he says he was unable to find until the age of 80
Dissident Gardens
Writer Jonathan Lethem reads from sections of his highly-acclaimed novel Dissident Gardens, depicting Miriam Zimmer as a teenager and after first making contact with her estranged father.
My Beloved World
United States Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor talks about her journey from social housing in the Bronx to the bench of the United States Supreme Court.
The Unwinding
New Yorker staff writer and spring 2014 fellow George Packer reads from his National Book Award-winning account of American change over the last fifty years, The Unwinding.
Secular Individualism and Religious Communities
George Rupp, former president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, examines the tension between traditional religious conviction and modern secular individualism.
Criticism in the Expanded Field
Robert Smith, the co-chief art critic of the New York Times and, Isabelle Graw, the founding editor of Texte zur Kunst and a professor of art history and theory at Berlin’s Hochschule für Bildende Kunst, discuss the role and purpose of art criticism.
Making Sense of Security in the Cyber Age
Jane Holl Lute, former deputy secretary for the US Department of Homeland Security, examines the social effects of global technological connectivity and ask what it means to speak today of personal privacy or personally identifiable information.
The Arab Awakening in Its Fourth Year – Where is the Middle East Headed?
Ambassador Frank G. Wisner addresses the revolutionary changes that have swept the Middle East since 2010, considering, too, the origins of the crisis and the ongoing "situations" in Egypt and Syria.