92NY Talks

What does it take to force the most powerful institutions in America to keep their promises? For John Feal, it took unimaginable personal loss, relentless determination, and an unlikely partnership with Jon Stewart that would help change history.
Together, Stewart and Feal join us for a moving, inspiring conversation about Feal's new memoir, I Will Follow You Anywhere: The True Story of the 9/11 Responders Who Took On Congress — the extraordinary story of the 9/11 responder who transformed personal tragedy into one of the most influential advocacy campaigns of our time.
On September 11, 2001, Feal rushed to Ground Zero to aid in the recovery effort. Five days later, an 8,000-pound steel beam crushed his foot, resulting in a partial amputation — and because he was injured outside the initial 96-hour window set by Congress for the original victims' fund, he was denied compensation. As he rebuilt his life, he watched fellow responders fall ill from toxic exposure while the country — and Congress — failed to honor its promise to care for them. Feal became the driving force behind the campaign to secure healthcare and compensation for tens of thousands of 9/11 responders and survivors. He found a steadfast ally in Jon Stewart, whose impassioned public advocacy on The Daily Show and unforgettable testimony before Congress helped galvanize national attention and ultimately bring lawmakers to action.
On the 25th anniversary of Feal's life-changing accident at Ground Zero, Stewart and Feal discuss the hard-won victories behind their decades-long friendship and shared mission, the untold stories of the responders whose courage inspired a movement, and why the lessons of their persistence, moral conviction, and grassroots activism remain urgent today. Don't miss this powerful conversation about service, resilience, and the extraordinary impact that determined individuals can have on history.

 
 
Supported by Craig Newmark Philanthropies in association with Take9, a cybersecurity awareness initiative promoting safer online practices to strengthen our nation's security

Sarah Longwell wants to build a winning political coalition to defeat MAGA-style politics — and she's ready to tell you how. Hear her in a conversation about her new book, How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time.
Longwell is the CEO and publisher of The Bulwark, one of the largest and fastest-growing independent media companies in the country. Her unlikely political journey from the Republican Party to the front lines of the anti-MAGA movement has brought her to the center of the debate about how to defeat Donald Trump — and Trumpism.
After Trump won the 2024 election, she did what she's done nearly every week for the past eight years: She sat down with voters to talk. She's conducted hundreds of focus groups and listened to thousands of ordinary Americans ― Republicans, Democrats, and independents ― with the goal of understanding politics through the eyes of the people who will decide our country's future.
In How to Eat an Elephant, Longwell lays out the playbook for building a coalition big enough, bold enough, and tough enough to defeat authoritarian populism for good. In a conversation that is equal parts pep talk and game plan, Longwell discusses how we got here and, more importantly, what we must build next ― all while drawing on what she's learned from the most important political actors in the country: the voters themselves.

Supported by Craig Newmark Philanthropies in association with Take9, a cybersecurity awareness initiative promoting safer online practices to strengthen our nation's security

October 7, 2023 forever changed the dynamics of the Middle East, the global conversation about Israel and Palestine, and the lives of so many in the region and beyond. 
Three years later, Jaser AbuMoussa and Jonathan Dekel-Chen — two fathers from Gaza and Israel whose families and communities have endured profound loss — have chosen to reach across the divide. 
Jonathan is a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small agricultural community devastated by the October 7 attack, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad murdered or kidnapped one in four of its 400 residents, among them his son Sagui who was held hostage in Gaza for 498 days. Jaser was born and raised in Khan Younis, Gaza. During the war, he suffered devastating losses during IDF airstrikes, which killed his wife Heba, two of their four children,(Hmaid and Abdulrahman), his mother, sister, uncle, nieces and nephews and many other close family members. Jaser ultimately left Gaza with his two surviving children, Abdallah and Sham, for medical treatment in the United Arab Emirates before settling in the United States.
Despite the loss and suffering they and their communities have experienced, Jonathan and Jaser have chosen to engage with one another rather than retreat into the anger and distrust that have deepened on both sides. 
Join us for a unique and candid exchange about what Israelis and Palestinians can do now to create a different future for their children and grandchildren.
Co-presented with The Institute of Global Politics at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs

#1 New York Times-bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell takes our stage with a bold new lens on one of America's most urgent crises. The gun violence epidemic in America seems unstoppable. Why can we find no bipartisan consensus to stop this painful cycle? What are we missing? Deeply reported and characteristically fascinating, Malcolm Gladwell's new book poses new questions about why our efforts to confront one of American society's greatest challenges have fallen short. Gladwell moves beyond familiar debates to uncover hidden patterns, unlikely histories, and uncomfortable truths. Through vivid stories — from a miraculous gunshot survival in Washington, D.C. to a German prison system that defies American assumptions — Gladwell shines new light on American violence, responsibility, and gun reform.
At a moment of stalled policy and entrenched positions, Gladwell reframes the conversation: what if the roots of gun violence lie not only in laws, but in culture, systems, and the stories we tell ourselves? What can other countries — and our own past — reveal about what actually works? Don't miss a probing, wide-ranging discussion that opens up new ways of understanding — and confronting — American violence.

What did Francis Fukuyama mean when he declared that the world had reached "the end of history" — and does he still believe it?
One of the most consequential conservative political thinkers of our time, best known for his international bestseller The End of History and the Last Man and for his work advising the presidential administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Francis Fukuyama has spent decades shaping the way policymakers, scholars, and everyday citizens think about power and the fate of liberal democracy. Now, with In the Realm of the Last Man, he offers a strikingly personal new intellectual memoir and a reflection on the ideas and policies he's reconsidered — a life story that doubles as a history of liberalism and political disillusionment over the last 50 years.
In his new memoir, Fukuyama's lens turns inward for the first time, tracing his evolution from a young student in the orbit of conservative intellectual legend Allan Bloom to his years in the halls of power in Washington, DC. Opening up about his Japanese American family history, including his relatives' internment during World War II, he reflects with unusual candor on the experiences that changed his thinking — including his public break with neoconservatism over the Iraq War.
In a wide-ranging and reflective conversation with author and political scientist Shadi Hamid, hear Fukuyama discuss how his ideas were transformed by his lived experience and how the crises of the 21st century have altered his understanding of democracy's future.
Expect a return to the concepts central to Fukuyama's work — the qualities that define human nature, the value of democratic institutions, and his controversial theory of the "Last Man" at the end of history — a rare encounter with a major thinker measuring his own life against the convulsions of history.