Consider This: Our Place in the World with Ben Rhodes
A conversation about geopolitics, American power, and public service with Ben Rhodes, a former national security and diplomacy advisor to President Barack Obama and host of the Pod Save the World podcast. How much should the general public know or understand about global affairs and foreign policy? How do the US government’s actions on the world stage respond to public interest? How do people who work on those policies respond when their understanding of the public interest differs from the majority of public opinion? Ben Rhodes is a writer, political commentator, and national security analyst. He is the author of After the Fall: The Rise of Authoritarianism in the World We've Made and The World As It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House. From 2009–17, he served as a speechwriter and Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama. Rhodes is currently cohost of the podcast Pod Save the World; a contributor for MSNBC; and chair of National Security Action.
The People and the Public: 2024–25 Consider This Series
In 2024 and 2025, join us for a series of onstage conversations about all things public.
Mushrooms as Medicine
Derek DeForest writes about using psilocybin as a voice-hearer.
For the People
Jordan Hernandez writes about how Oregon libraries are responding to the evolving needs of their communities.
Climate and Fire
The Almeda Fire devastated my community. We can make future fires less destructive.
Getting to the Roots of Climate Change
Bob Devine on why the market alone can't solve the problems of a warming planet
What's Growing in John Day
Juliet Grable writes about the Eastern Oregon town of John Day, a small city with big plans for the future that start in the greenhouse.
One Country Again
Astrid Melton reflects on her East German identity after the fall of the wall and reunification.
The Life We Pay For
Tina Ontiveros writes about the different paths her life and her sister's have taken since their shared childhood experiences of poverty and abandonment.
Conversation Project: Keeping Tabs on America
Surveillance and You
Conversation Project: Keeping Tabs on America
Surveillance and You
Film screening: No Man's Land
The High Desert Museum presents a screening of David Byars' documentary about the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, followed by a facilitated discussion. This program is made possible in part by a Responsive Program Grant from Oregon Humanities.
Conversation Project: Democracy from the Inside Out
Listening to Our Consciences and Our Neighbors
Whose Land?
The High Desert Museum presents a community conversation about public lands. This program is made possible in part by a Responsive Program Grant from Oregon Humanities.
Conversation Project: Keeping Tabs on America
Surveillance and You
Malheur Reflections, Two Years Later
A discussion of the Malheur occupuation, restoration, and public lands in Oregon. This program is made possible in part by a Responsive Program Grant from Oregon Humanities.
Conversation Project: Keeping Tabs on America
Surveillance and You
Conversation Project: Keeping Tabs on America
Surveillance and You
Conversation Project: Democracy from the Inside Out
Listening to Our Consciences and Our Neighbors
Conversation Project: Keeping Tabs on America
Surveillance and You
Conversation Project: Democracy from the Inside Out
Listening to Our Consciences and Our Neighbors
The Orphan and the Oxbow
Matthew Minicucci writes about searching for the origin of a tiny sliver of public land in Marion County.
Conversation Project: A World without Secrets
Privacy and Expectations in the US
Conversation Project: Keeping Tabs on America
Surveillance and You
Conversation Project: Keeping Tabs on America
Surveillance and You
Dry Years, Wet Years, Tradition and Change: An Evening with Patricia Nelson Limerick
This is an Oregon Humanities grant-funded event.
Community Forum on Identity and the Use of Race on National Forms
The NAACP Eugene-Springfield Branch hosts a forum about racial identification on government forms. This is an Oregon Humanities grant-funded event.
King Tide
An excerpt from Micah White's book, The End of Protest: A New Playbook for the Revolution
The Longest of Long Shots
A Sanders delegate's brush with national party politics. An essay by Valdez Bravo
Just People Like Us
Writer Guy Maynard on a little-known history of a Southern Oregon community during World War II where prisoners of war were more welcome than US military of color
Stolen Land and Borrowed Dollars
Creative resistance bloomed in the lead up to the Vancouver Olympics. An excerpt from Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics by Jules Boykoff
In the Land of the New
Mexican immigrants find home in el nuevo South. An excerpt from Translation Nation by Héctor Tobar
Conversation Project: Keeping Tabs on America
Surveillance and You
This Way through Oregon
Illustrating the systems that move salmon, waste, traffic, and legislation
Trademark Offense
Bandleader Simon Tam explains his fight to trademark his band’s name, “The Slants.” Tam recently argued his case before the US Supreme Court. He won.
Civil Rights with Guns
Are there alternatives to police that could keep communities safe? Author Kristian Williams discusses lessons from the Black Freedom Movement.
Magazine Podcast: Quandary
Talking about Ferguson, feminism, and filling out forms with Oregon Humanities magazine contributors
Who's Minding Your Business?
A conversation with writer William T. Vollmann on privacy, surveillance, and hope
The State That Timber Built
Tara Rae Miner on what Oregon owes the struggling timber communities that helped shape the state’s identity
Continual Watching
Historian Bob Bussel on Oregon's long history of protecting workers