Transform Them News Today

U.S. politics isn’t working how it used to. The system seems brittle and unresponsive. Making a difference starts with understanding mistrust.

As we close out 2023, we look ahead to a new year with a landscape partially defined by fear and mistrust. Many Americans say their confidence is shaken. They feel like every institution — from the government, to the banking system, to corporations, to religion, to the news media — are corrupt. What to do when so many of us can’t trust the institutions that hold our society together?

CITP Seminar: Ethan Zuckerman – The Good Web: Competing Visions for the Future of Social Media Between the US Capitol Insurrection – broadcast and organized online – and Frances Haugen’s revelations about the inner workings of Facebook, 2021 was a rough year for social media. Many social media observers – including legislators concluded that tools like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were harming individuals and society and needed regulation. But there are others reimagining social media...

Departures Podcast with Ethan Zuckerman By Robert Amsterdam | Published: March 5, 2021 At some point, people stopped believing that electing the right leaders and passing the right laws was the most effective way to achieve social change. Since at least the 1970s, people have been rapidly losing faith in government, democracy, big banks, big corporations, organized religion, and other institutions which were thought to help give order and shape norms for society. In Ethan Zuckerman’s new boo...

11 New Books We Recommend This Week Feb. 11, 2021 Crime and punishment make their presence felt in this week’s recommended titles, from Russell Shorto’s family history of his grandfather’s mob ties (“Smalltime”) to Philippe Sands’s account of a Nazi fugitive (“The Ratline”); Maurice Chammah’s study of the death penalty and its decline (“Let the Lord Sort Them”) to Reuben Jonathan Miller’s look at the life that awaits ex-inmates (“Halfway Home”). Also on our night sta...

OLLI, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College, will present a live online program featuring two renowned writers and thought leaders on the impact of the internet at