Aside from being America’s most prolific, acclaimed, and respecteddocumentary film maker, Ken Burns is an astute observer ofAmerican political life, both past and present. Known for his doggedcommitment to pursuing the truth through locating and uncoveringprimary source documents, Ken Burns has had dramatic influencenot only as the greatest documentarian of the day, but also as aninfluential thinker and analyst of American life.In this America at a Crossroads program Pulitzer Prize winning writer,columnist and broadcast journalist, Patt Morrison, will engage withKen Burns, the country’s greatest filmmaker and popular historian,about the current state of American life, politics and where, throughhis special lens, he sees America headed.

Since 2011, Aluf Benn has been the Editor in Chief of Haaretz, thelongest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. Haaretz,founded in 1918, describes itself as “an independent daily newspaperwith a broadly liberal outlook both on domestic issues and oninternational affairs.” Aluf Benn holds an MBA degree from theKellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and adegree from Tel Aviv University. At Haaretz, Benn has served as aninvestigative reporter and head of the news division. His articles havebeen published in a variety of international newspapers, including theNY Times, The Guardian, Foreign Affairs and Newsweek. He is ahighly respected journalist and an astute observer and analyst of thewar in Gaza, of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and the broader politicsof the Middle East.Benn will be in conversation with award winning NPR broadcastjournalist Madeleine Brand.

This program features the dynamic duo of two renowned journalistswho have covered national politics, elections and presidencies fordecades. They will be discussing their observations and analysis ofthe 2024 Elections in conversation with Madeleine Brand of NPR’saffiliate KCRW.Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for The New YorkTimes and a political analyst for MSNBC Baker has covered fivepresidencies: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald J.Trump and now Joe Biden. There are few reporters who are moreconversant than Peter Baker with presidencies and presidential politicsSusan Glasser has served as the top editor of several Washingtonpublications, including Politico, where she founded the award-winning Politico Magazine, and Foreign Policy, which won three NationalMagazine Awards, among other honors, during her tenure as editor inchief. Previously, she worked at the Washington Post as editor for nationalnews and oversaw coverage of the impeachment of Bill Clinton, served asa reporter covering the intersection of money and politics, spent four yearsas the Post’s Moscow co-bureau chief, and covered the wars in Iraq andAfghanistan. She edited Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, early in hercareer.

The featured speakers for this program, Dana Stroul and Michael Singh,both previously advised American presidents and secretaries of state onthe Middle East. They are now on the faculty of The Washington Institute(TWI), for Near East Policy, a pro-Israel American think tank based inWashington, D.C., focused on the foreign policy of the United States in theNear East.Dana Stroul served under President Biden as Deputy Assistant Secretaryof Defense for the Middle East, the pentagon’s top civilian official withresponsibility for the region. Currently, Stroul is Director of Research andSenior Fellow of TWI.Michael Singh was Senior Director for Middle East Affairs in the PresidentGeorge W. Bush White House; prior to that position Singh was a director onthe National security Council staff and served as special assistant toSecretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice. Currently, sing isa Managing Director and Senior Fellow at TWI.Stroul and Singh will discuss the current war in Gaza and the broaderquestion of Israel-Palestinian relations and prospects for peace. They willbe in conversation with award winning broadcast journalist Warren Olney.

Sarah Longwell, a Republican political strategist, is the founder andproducer of The Bulwark, a conservative anti-Trump news and opinionwebsite launched in 2018. Together with Bill Kristol and Charlie Sykes,Sarah has consistently presented outstanding podcasts, programming andarticles for Republican never-Trumpers, a movement which Longwellhelped to form and continues to lead. Longwell is the founder ofRepublican Voters Against Trump, which spent millions of dollars to defeatthen-President Donald Trump in 2020. She also heads Republicans for theRule of Law which advocated for the impeachment and removal of Trumpin 2019. Sarah Longwell, and The Bulwark continue to pursue theirmission of warning of the dangers to our democracy posed by MAGA andTrump.Simon Rosenberg is a highly regarded Democratic political strategist andcommentator with more than 3 decades of experience in national politicsand television news. He has built a new home for his political analysis,commentary, and live political discussions at Hopium Chronicles, anengaging new project on the Substack media platform. In 2022 Rosenbergwas the single political analyst who refuted the notion that the 2022 electionwould result in a “red wave”…and he got it right.Simon and Sarah were guests on America at a Crossroads in December,2023 looking ahead to the 2024 elections. Now that the 2024 elections areupon us, we have asked them to return to take A Close(r)Look at the2024 Elections. It will be fun, exciting and informative. Moderated byLAists’ Larry Mantle

Gidi Grinstein has spent most of his career promoting Israeli-Palestinianand regional peace in the Middle East. In his recent book (In)Sights:Peacemaking in the Oslo Process thirty Years and Counting, Grinsteinilluminates systemic issues relating to the failed efforts to arrive at a two-state solution. Ambassador Dennis Ross, a frequent guest on America at aCrossroads, and longtime US Special Middle East Coordinator, described(in)Sights as the single best book on understanding the issues …illuminating new dimensions” and said it was an “essential [read] for futureUS peace intervention.”Since October 7, America at a Crossroads has invited a variety of veterandiplomats, journalists, and scholars to provide occasional briefings aboutthe situation in the Middle East, focusing on the hostages, the Gaza War,and on US engagement and diplomacy in the region.On September 16, Gidi Grinstein, a foremost expert on Israeli-Palestinianrelations, the Oslo Process and the Permanent Status Agreement, will bejoining America at a Crossroads to provide our 17 th Israel in Crisis a briefingsince the heinous attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023.Grinstein will discuss the status and progress of hostage and cease firenegotiations and his views on what the future holds in terms of IsraeliPalestinian relations.

Since October 7, America at a Crossroads has invited a variety of veterandiplomats, journalists, and scholars to provide occasional briefings aboutthe situation in the Middle East, focusing on the hostages, the Gaza War,and on US engagement and diplomacy in the region.On September 12, expert Middle East analyst Aaron David Miller, a seniorfellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and acommentator on the subject for CNN, MSNBC and Bloomberg will bejoining America at a Crossroads to provide our 16 th Israel in Crisis a briefingsince the heinous attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023.Miller spent 24 years working with and often leading the Middle East teamat the US Department of State. He has advised both Democratic andRepublican presidents and secretaries of state and has participated inAmerican efforts to broker agreements between Israel, Jordan, Syria andthe Palestinians.Miller will discuss the status and progress of hostage and cease firenegotiations.

The severe uptick in antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents on collegecampuses since the October 7 Hamas massacre in Israel has been widelydocumented. In late 2023, Stanford University’s President appointed ourAmerica at a Crossroads guests, Larry Diamond, a senior fellow both atStanford’s Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute forInternational Studies and Professor Jeffrey Kosseff, to co-chair aCommittee to study antisemitism and anti-Israel bias on campus. TheCommittee conducted more than 50 different listening sessions and asmany individual interviews; hundreds of undergraduates, graduatestudents, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents participated. The Committeeissued a Report that they found widespread and pernicious antisemitism aswell as a failure on the part of the University to respond to complaints. Thisprogram reviews the findings contained in the Stanford Report and thespeakers discuss similar findings on other campuses. A key element of theCommittee’s work was to make recommendations as to what must be doneto address this serious and growing problem.

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Congressman Adam Schiff with Larry Mantle [Conversation continues with Zev Yaroslavsky and Larry Mantle at 38:00]

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