The Roundtable

Imagine being shown a two-frame storyboard depicting in the first drawing a white police officer having shot a black man holding a cellphone. In the second frame the officer tells his supervisor that he saw a gun and that he was sure that he fired on a white person if they had made the same threatening gesture. Then you are asked to make a judgement call; “Does this story involve racism?” This is the approach sociologist Betsy Leondar-Wright and Jessi Streib take in their book “Is It Racist? Is It Sexist?: Why Red and Blue White People Disagree, and How to Decide in the Gray Areas.” They bring the proceeding scenario and others like it to over 120 white Americans of different political stripes, genders, regions, and economic classes.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Biomedical Engineer and Principal Scientist at Regeneron Ahmad Abu-Hakmeh, Senior Fellow, Bard Center for Civic Engagement Jim Ketterer, Political Consultant and lobbyist Libby Post, and Preceptor in Public Speaking, Strategic Communications, and Public Relations for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University Terry Gipson.

Each weekday morning, The Roundtable's Joe Donahue is joined by various experts, journalists, educators, and commentators to discuss current events. On Roundtable Panel: The Week in Review, we feature your favorite panelists discussing news items from the previous week.

In the new book “Access Inside the Abortion Underground and the Sixty-Year Battle for Reproductive Freedom” award-winning author Rebecca Grant charts the reproductive freedom movement from the days before Roe through the seismic impact Dobbs.

Eli Zuzovsky is the author of “Mazeltov,” a debut novel. It is a book about a boy who confronts queer lust, shame, the threat of war, and the plague of family on the day he becomes a man. It all takes place in a banquet hall in the onset of war where Adam’s bar mitzvah party turns into a glorious catastrophe.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are public policy and communications expert Theresa Bourgeois; Former EPA Regional Administrator, Visiting Professor at Bennington College, and President of Beyond Plastics Judith Enck; writer, analyst, retired President of Siena College, and former New York Congressman Chris Gibson; and Investment Banker on Wall St. Mark Wittman.

The new book “Suspended by No String,” by Peter Himmelman, is a collection of essays, personal narratives, and poetical reflections for readers of all spiritual stripes, those who are devout and those who are unsure of what to believe, and those who may not be religious in a traditional sense.

This weekend marks the closing performances for this year's Powerhouse Season at Vassar College - with international artist Drita Kabashi in a solo performance of A Trojan Woman by Sara Farrington and directed by Meghan Finn.

The Woodstock Film Festival will present a special Book Banning and Freedom of Expression event featuring a screening of The Librarians, a powerful new film by acclaimed director Kim A. Snyder, followed by a post-screening conversation with the filmmaker at Upstate Films Orpheum Theatre on August 8th in Saugerties.

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond. Today's panelists are Joseph Palamountain Jr. Chair in Government at Skidmore College Beau Breslin, Vice President for Editorial Development at the New York Press Association Judy Patrick, and Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Robert Pondiscio.