EVENT SERIES
CREATING NEW
AMERICAN STORIES OF US
Let’s flip the script on our narratives of division.
ENTER THE STORYTELLERS. ENTER THE NARRATIVE SHIFTERS.
Storytellers can be the heroes America needs right now, dismantling the destructive “us versus them” dynamics that are fueling our current political crisis and isolating Americans from one another. Storytellers can act as societal norm-shifters for how we engage across our differences, helping us imagine a shared democracy for an ideologically diverse, multiracial America.
Creating New American Stories of Us is an event series that explores entertainment’s potential to strengthen America’s social fabric and create a shared sense of “us” as Americans.
CAN STORYTELLERS SAVE AMERICA? URGENCY, HOPE, & THE PATH FORWARD
Date: September 28, 2023
CAN STORYTELLERS SAVE AMERICA? URGENCY, HOPE, & THE PATH FORWARD
THE TRANSFORMATIVE PROMISE OF DOCUMENTARY STORYTELLING
Date: January 31, 2024
THE TRANSFORMATIVE PROMISE OF DOCUMENTARY STORYTELLING
WHAT’S MAKING US LAUGH? WHAT ROLE DOES COMEDY PLAY IN PULLING US TOGETHER – OR DRIVING US APART?
Date: TBD
WHAT’S MAKING US LAUGH? WHAT ROLE DOES COMEDY PLAY IN PULLING US TOGETHER – OR DRIVING US APART?
UPCOMING EVENT: WHAT’S MAKING US LAUGH? WHAT ROLE DOES COMEDY PLAY IN PULLING US TOGETHER – OR DRIVING US APART?
This event will take place in 2024 with additional speaks to be announced.
CATY BORUM
Executive Director, Center for Media & Social Impact
CATY BORUM
Caty Borum is Executive Director of the Center for Media & Social Impact. a creative innovation lab and research center based at American University that creates and studies entertainment for social change; and the Provost Associate Professor in AU’s School of Communication. She is an award-winning media producer, scholar, and author of three books about entertainment media and social change: A Comedian and An Activist Walk Into a Bar: The Serious Role of Comedy in Social Justice with co-author Lauren Feldman (foreword by Norman Lear, University of California Press); The Revolution Will Be Hilarious: Comedy for Social Change and Civic Power (NYU Press), published in February 2023; and Story Movements: How Documentaries Empower People and Inspire Social Change (Oxford University Press). In 2021, she won American University’s annual “Outstanding Scholarship, Research, Creative Activity, and Other Professional Contributions Award,” a refereed honor that recognizes extraordinary faculty achievement. In 2020, she was nationally recognized as one of DOC NYC’s “New Documentary Leaders” industry list. As a documentary producer, her films and TV programs have aired internationally and nationally, across TV, streaming, and theaters. Under Professor Borum’s leadership, CMSI founded and co-directs several large-scale national and international comedy programs: Yes, And Laughter, a first-of-its-kind creative incubator of comedy for social justice in partnership with Hollywood and social justice groups, co-directed with cultural agency Moore + Associates; and, with co-creator Bethany Hall, a program that brings together professional comedians and human rights organizations for comedy co-creation, convenings, and research; and, in collaboration with clean energy nonprofit organization Gen180, the Climate Comedy Cohort. Prior to her career at American University, she was Senior Vice President in the Social Impact Group at FleishmanHillard International Communications, where she and her team received the Public Relations Society of America’s prestigious Silver Anvil Award for Public Service; philanthropy director and producer with legendary TV producer Norman Lear; Program Officer in Entertainment Media; Public Health at the Kaiser Family Foundation; and fellow in civic journalism at Philadelphia Inquirer.
ROB LONG
Writer & Producer, “Cheers”; Co-Founder, Ricochet
ROB LONG
Rob Long is a writer and producer in Hollywood. He began his career writing and producing TV’s long-running “Cheers,” and served as co-executive producer in its final season. During his time on the series, “Cheers” received two Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe awards. Mr. Long has been twice nominated for an Emmy Award, and has received a Writers Guild of America award. He continues to work in film and television in Los Angeles and New York.
He is the co-founder of the podcast network Ricochet. Along with a series of podcasts that garner four to five million downloads per month, it’s alsonan online community for discussion and conversation from the center/right perspective.
His weekly podcast, Martini Shot, is available here and all podcast platforms. He writes regularly for The Washington Examiner and Commentary Magazine, and had been a Contributing Editor at National Review since 1993.
In recent years, he has been a columnist at The Spectator (London), The National (Abu Dhabi’s English-language newspaper), and The Observer.
His first book, Conversations with My Agent, chronicled his early career in television. It was published in the UK by Faber & Faber, in the US by Dutton, and in France by Actes Sud. His second book, Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke, was published in November 2005 by Bloomsbury.
His most recent book is Bigly: Donald Trump in Verse, published in October 2017 by Regnery.
Mr. Long graduated from Yale University, and spent two years at UCLA School of Film, Theater and Television, where he occasionally serves as an Adjunct Professor of Screenwriting. He serves as co-president on the Board of Directors of My Friend’s Place, an agency for homeless teens in Hollywood and is on the board of the American Cinema Foundation. He’s also an active and passionate member of the Southern Foodways Alliance.
On Twitter and Instagram, he’s rcbl.
Karith Foster
Founder and CEO of Inversity Solutions, Author “You Can Be Perfect or You Can Be Happy”
Karith Foster
For over a decade, Karith Foster has given presentations and training at top companies like Estée Lauder Companies, Berkshire Hathaway companies, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and top law firms like Fenwick & West. She has spoken at academic institutions including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Brown University and Emerson University. Her expertise is also sought after by industry associations like SHRM, CTIA, the US Chamber of Commerce, and the US Institute for Legal Reform. Karith has also shared a stage with Brené Brown at SHRM’s 2019 national conference, emceed SHRM’s 2022 conference, introducing Arianna Huffington and former President George W. Bush, and has been a repeat lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business for nine years.
Before founding INVERSITY’s groundbreaking diversity and belonging programs, Karith worked in Human Resources at Estée Lauder’s corporate headquarters for a decade after a career in broadcast journalism at ABC’s The View. Notably, Karith co-hosted MSNBC’s Imus in the Morning nationally syndicated show, was featured in two hit documentary films, and her TEDx talk “The Art of Defying Stereotypes,” received accolades in The Washington Post and TIME Magazine. Her 25-year passion for stand-up comedy led to TV and radio appearances on Oprah, The Today Show, and Comedy Central. Karith is an alumna of Stephens College and Oxford University.
As a speaker, humorist, diversity expert and bestselling author of You Can Be Perfect or You Can Be Happy, Karith creates seismic shifts in DEIB through INVERSITY’s methodology. Her blend of wisdom and humor inspires audiences to commit to inclusion and belonging. As CEO of INVERSITY Solutions and founder of non-profit F.R.A.M.E., Karith leverages her background in media, HR and comedy to transform challenging conversations into opportunities for growth, embracing her motto: “If you can laugh at it, you can get through it” – an invaluable lesson she seeks to instill in others.
PEDRO SILVA
Director of Engagement, YOUnify
PEDRO SILVA
Pedro Silva has been a conscious student of the human experience for most of his life. Fascinated by what makes us do what we do, he has studied culture and human motivation from a variety of angles.
Leveraging his upbringing as a multi-hyphenate American, he took his exposure to the many races, cultures, and beliefs that informed his worldview and developed a relational framework that facilitates navigating a variety of contexts. In his evolving career in spaces as diverse as Military Intelligence and ministry, he cultivated an understanding of how culture is often the silent communicator in most human interactions. And how, when unexamined, can unconsciously hinder relational progress.
He further refined this understanding through his linguistic studies at the Defense Language Institute, a certification in Diversity Training Management, and through earning his M.Div from Andover Newton Theological School. But, it was serving as a pastor for a decade, working with people in every station of society, that convinced Mr. Silva of the power of narrative structure to shape or shackle people, either binding us to a futureless story doomed to repeating the past, or liberating us from those binds and inviting us into an ever-evolving story replete with relational possibilities.
Now, in his work outside of the pulpit, Pedro’s concentrating his talents on helping people move beyond the stories that no longer serve them, their families, and their communities so that we can recreate a story that brings us closer to one another, wherever we come from. He currently serves as the Director of Engagement at YOunify.
Blake Pickens
Emmy Award winning comedian & filmmaker.
Blake Pickens
Blake Pickens is an Emmy Award winning Chickasaw comedian and filmmaker. Blake began his career writing satire for The National Lampoon, where he published numerous featured articles.
He is a part of A Tribe Called Sketch, the first all Native American sketch show on a US Second
City Stage. He can be seen performing stand up all over LA. Blake was selected for the Time Warner Sundance Native Producing Lab and Fellowship and the Sundance Producing Fellowship for his film, THE LAND. The film premiered in 2016 at the Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically by IFC Films. Blake has produced content with a focus on diversity and inclusion, ranging from feature films to commercials and music videos. He has produced commercials that have won a Grand Prix at Cannes Lions two years in a row (2017, 2018), and won a 2018 Emmy for his P&G commercial, THE TALK. He also won an MTV VMA for his work on John Legend’s music video, SUREFIRE. His second feature film as a producer, WILD INDIAN, with Michael Greyeyes and Jesse Eisenberg premiered at Sundance 2021. Blake was also selected for the inaugural 2020 Sundance Indigenous Intensive for his comedy pilot, THE WILDEST WEST, which was also selected for the Black List’s Indigenous List. He wrote on the Rugrats reboot for Nickelodeon and wrote on Spirit Rangers for Netflix. He is
currently in post production on THE ROOF for Disney+/Launchpad, writing on Rubble & Crew
for Nick Jr, directing a short as part of the Disney/AFI Underrepresented Filmmakers Initiative, and is part of Illuminative’s Producers Program. Blake is a graduate of the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC, has an MBA from LMU, and is also a graduate of the University of Oklahoma.
Tane Danger
Co-founder, Danger Boat Productions & Improv Comedian
Tane Danger
Tane Danger is on a mission to make good things fun. He’s a professional improv comedian with a master’s in public policy. He is an interviewer, event host, media personality, and keynote speaker. Tane is the co-founder of Danger Boat Productions and host of its nationally renowned civics-inspired improv comedy show, The Theater of Public Policy. At each show, he interviews newsmakers, policy-wonks, and big thinkers on issues ranging from education policy to the farm bill. Then the show’s cast of improvisers take everything that’s been said and turns it into
entirely unscripted improv comedy theater. The result is what the Star Tribune described as “C-SPAN invaded by the cast of SNL.”
Tane designed and teaches a class called Serious Play for the Mayo Clinic Center for Humanities in Medicine. The class uses improv to teach students new ways to be empathetic, collaborative, and caring with patients and colleagues. Tane also created and taught a class for the University of Minnesota School of Design called’ Improvisation for Design.’ The class explores how the tools improvisers use can help anyone be more creative, communicative, and cooperative. In workshops and keynote talks, Tane uses his background in improv comedy to help folks
practice communication, collaboration, and creativity differently. He’s taught improv for better communication to everyone from healthcare executives to Lutheran bishops.
He is a regular contributor to Almanac, the weekly public affairs program on Twin Cities Public Television. He is also a go-to moderator for public events and discussions for everyone from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve to the University of Minnesota. In 2023, he moderated a widely covered unscripted interview with former U.S. Representative Liz Cheney for the UofM. Tane is also well known as ‘the bus guy!’ In 2019 Tane began working with Minnesotaâ’s Metro Transit on a web series called, ‘Hey! Where Does This Bus Go?’ In each episode, Tane rides a local bus route from start to finish, noting landmarks along the way and chatting with riders. The series demystifies each bus route and changes people’s perception of who rides the bus.
From 2020-2024, Tane served as director and eventually moderator of the Westminster Town Hall Forum, the Upper Midwest’s largest national speaker series. In that role he interviewed legendary journalists Michele Norris and Kara Swisher, comedian Nancy Giles, LGBTQ-rights
activist Raquel Willis and economics and China expert Dr. Keyu Jin.
In 2014, Tane won a fellowship from the St. Paul-based Bush Foundation. The Bush Fellowship helped Tane earn a Master’s of Public Policy from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey
School of Public Affairs. In a self-designed concentration, Tane looked at how improv theater could inform and improve politics and public policy.
In addition to being on stage and in front of the camera himself, he regularly produces events for both nonprofit and corporate clients. Tane is a trustee of his undergraduate alma mater, Gustavus Adolphus College.
Brandon Boat
Co-founder, Danger Boat Productions
Brandon Boat
Brandon Boat is one of the co-founders of Danger Boat Productions, which produces The Theater of Public Policy. Since 2011, he’s produced and performed at over 700 shows and events around the country. He has entertained and educated experts and novices alike using unscripted theater.
Brandon has a strong commitment to public service in his background, whether it was working with the Center for Victims of Torture, at an affordable housing site with AmeriCorps, teaching English in Busan, South Korea, or advocating for community college students at LeadMN.
He has held numerous artistic residencies, including at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Central College, St. Johns and St. Benedict’s University, and Carleton College. He is also a winner of the Knight Foundation’s Knight Arts Challenge.
He graduated with a B.A. in History from Gustavus Adolphus College.
He currently lives in Minneapolis with his wife Ashley, his two sons Arie and Malcolm, and a french bulldog named Kimchi.
PAST EVENT: THE TRANSFORMATIVE PROMISE OF DOCUMENTARY STORYTELLING
This dynamic virtual event featured celebrated filmmakers, producers, and industry leaders as we explored the unique potential of documentary storytelling to help Americans better understand and engage with each other across our political and social divides.
SPEAKERS & MODERATORS FEATURED AT THE TRANSFORMATIVE PROMISE OF DOCUMENTARY STORYTELLING
FARHOUD MEYBODI
Filmmaker & Entrepreneur, Founder of Ritual Arts
FARHOUD MEYBODI
MATTHEW PALMER
Filmmaker, “This Land”
MATTHEW PALMER
Matthew fell in love with film when he was twelve-years-old and saw Fargo for the first time. He’s had a camera (or director’s monitor) in his hand ever since. Matthew’s work has been screened, published, exhibited globally in The de Young Museum, as well as on prime time TV, during the Winter Olympics, and at Big Sky Film Festival, Calgary International Film Festival, the Berlin Commercial Festival, and more. His documentary film This Land screened around the world and was praised by The New York Times, Film Threat, and more. His work in commercials and short films earned him the honor of being a part of the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase at Cannes Lions, a Shots Creative’s Rising Stars, an official nominee at the Berlin Commercial Festival, a Webby Award nominee, and the recipient of eight Vimeo Staff Picks.
SHERRY SIMPSON
Filmmaker and Senior Director of Engagement and Impact Innovation at ITVS
SHERRY SIMPSON
JOSH SABEY
Filmmaker, “The Abortion Talks”
JOSH SABEY
Josh and his wife Sarah write books and make movies together. Their film American Tragedy won best documentary at the prestigious Boston Film Festival where it was one of three films screened opening night. The other two were Terrence Malick’s USA premiere of A Hidden Life and Taika Waititi’s Jo Jo Rabbit. Their film The Abortion Talks will be screening on PBS World. Their writing has been published in Wayfare, The Exponent II, Routledge, The Mighty, The Federalist, Psych Central, The Metrowest Daily News, and many other platforms.Josh and Sarah have been invited to speak at numerous events and organizations including The Boston Globe GlobeDocs, 92NY, Heterodox Academy, YWCA, the JCC of Boulder, Cornell University, Columbia University, University of Mississippi, Bridgewater State University, Utah Valley University, University of Utah, Mormon Women for Ethical Government, Iron Light Entertainment Summit, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, GLIDE Memorial Church, American Public Square, Braver Angels National, Living Room Conversations, National Week of Conversation, Listen First Committee, WBUR Boston Public Radio, WUNC Raleigh Public Radio, BYU Radio, and the “Facing Project Podcast” on NPR. They’ve been covered by The Washington Post, Fox News National, NBC Boston, The Boston Globe, AP News, CBS News, Boston 25 News, Reason, WHDH 7 Boston News, and more.
ABIGAIL DISNEY
Documentary Filmmaker & Philanthropist, “The Armor of Light”
ABIGAIL DISNEY
Abigail E. Disney advocates for real changes to the way capitalism operates in today’s world. As a philanthropist and social activist, she has worked with organizations supporting peacebuilding, gender justice, and systemic cultural change. She is a documentary filmmaker who won an Emmy for “The Armor of Light.” Her latest film, “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,” which she co-directed with Kathleen Hughes, made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The film screened in select theaters and is available on-demand. In Season 4 of the podcast “All Ears,” Abigail used the film as a jumping-off point to ask big-thinking business leaders, union organizers, economists, and others how they would fix our broken economy.
She is also Chair and Co-Founder of Level Forward, an ecosystem of storytellers, entrepreneurs, and social change-makers dedicated to balancing artistic vision, social impact, and stakeholder return. She also created the nonprofit Peace is Loud, which uses storytelling to advance social movements and the Daphne Foundation, which supports organizations working for a more equitable, fair and peaceful New York City.
KRISTI KENDALL
Filmmaker, “Undivide Us”
KRISTI KENDALL
Kristi Kendall, president at Kristi Kendall and Co, is an expert in content production and storytelling with 25+ yrs experience. Kristi started her career as a journalist, producing for ABC News 20/20, and in 2009 became John Stossel’s executive producer at Fox Business, where she launched his highly-rated weekly show and oversaw more than a dozen documentary hours for Stossel and others. In 2014 she became the EVP at New Balloon and worked on film projects such as The Creative Brain with David Eagleman, Kasi Lemmon’s, Harriet, and Cary Fukunaga’s, Beasts of No Nation. In 2019 she started her own company with the mission of “Connecting Hearts and Minds to Ideas that Matter” and there has produced and directed dozens of projects. Her most recent project, UNDIVIDE US, is a feature documentary tackling toxic polarization and demonstrating how each of us, through our communities and individual actions, can stop it. Kristi serves on the boards of the Moving Picture Institute (MPI) and the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) and lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, two teenagers, dog, and cat—all in the same apartment.
LANCE KRAMER
Filmmaker, “The First Step”
LANCE KRAMER
Lance is a DC-based filmmaker and co-founder of Meridian Hill Pictures. Lance produced THE FIRST STEP (Tribeca, AFI DOCS); CITY OF TREES (Full Frame, PBS, Netflix); and the Webby Award-winning documentary series THE MESSY TRUTH. Lance was selected to the 2018 Sundance Creative Producers Summit, the 2017 Impact Partners Documentary Producers Fellowship and was named to the DOC NYC “40 Under 40” list in 2021. Lance was awarded four Individual Arts Fellowships by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities between 2014-2022. In 2014, Lance received the DC Mayor’s Arts Award, the highest honor given to working artists in the city. Lance has served two terms as Board Member of Docs in Progress, and has been an active member of the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA) since 2016. Lance holds a bachelor’s degree in history and film from Dartmouth College.
BEN REKHI
Filmmaker, “The Reunited States”
BEN REKHI
Ben Rekhi is an award-winning filmmaker of mixed Punjabi and American descent. After working with the Coen Brothers in the camera department of O Brother, Where Art Thou? Rekhi was hired by George Clooney to shoot the behind-the-scenes for the actor’s directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Rekhi went on to direct the independent feature Waterborne which won an Audience Award at SXSW; The Ashram, a spiritual thriller set in India starring Academy Award Winner Melissa; and Watch List, a crime-drama set against the extra-judicial killings in the Philippines. As a non-fiction filmmaker, Rekhi co-directed the ITVS series The Hidden Vote, which profiled minority voters who support Trump and The Reunited States, a documentary feature that followed everyday citizens on the difficult journey of bridging our political divides. The latter was executive produced by Van Jones and Meghan McCain. Rekhi lives in Los Angeles and is represented by ROAR Management.
MELISSA REGAN
Filmmaker, “No Dumb Questions”
MELISSA REGAN
Melissa is a Sundance award-winning documentary filmmaker. She has produced award-winning social change films for nonprofit and corporate clients, co-founded an early Internet software company, taught math, science and engineering, and published research on innovative uses of technology for learning. Her short documentary No Dumb Questions received an award at Sundance, appeared on HBO, PBS, MTV/LOGO and Oprah. The film and related educational campaigns are changing hearts, minds, and policies in schools, colleges, and communities around the world. Client projects include an award-winning short documentary series for The Coca-Cola Company about water and sanitation in Kenya and Uganda, and an e-learning Executive Education product line for the Stanford and Harvard Business Schools. She is currently in post-production on her first feature documentary about Sister Simone Campbell and the Nuns On The Bus — rebel nuns fighting to save our democracy. She has a masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
PAST EVENT: CAN STORYTELLERS SAVE AMERICA? URGENCY, HOPE, & THE PATH FORWARD
On Sep. 28th, hundreds of Americans gathered together in-person and online as a part of the Creating New American Stories of Us kick-off event hosted by Bridge Entertainment Labs and the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future.
Eboo Patel (Founder and President, Interfaith America)
Baratunde Thurston (Executive Producer & Host, How To Citizen // America Outdoors, PBS)
Moderator: Riaz Patel (Executive Producer, Two-time Emmy and NAACP Image Award Nominee)
Dave Caplan (Writer/Executive Producer, The Conners)
Joel Fields (Writer/Showrunner, The Americans, The Patient, Fosse/Verdon)
Moderator: Jo Jensen (Co-Founder and President of Iron Light Labs) Nicole Starr (Senior Vice President, Content Representation and Impact, Participant)
Erika Soto Lamb (Vice President, Social Impact Strategy Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios at Paramount Global)
Moderator: Alex Cohen (Political Anchor, Spectrum News One) Mike Murphy (Veteran Republican Media Consultant, Co-Director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future) Steven Olikara (President of Bridge Entertainment Labs, Founder of Millennial Action Project, Former U.S. Senate candidate)
SPEAKERS & MODERATORS FEATURED AT THE CREATING NEW AMERICAN STORIES OF US KICK-OFF EVENT
TIM SHRIVER
Founder & CEO, UNITE, Co-Creator of The Dignity Index
TIM SHRIVER
Timothy Shriver is married, a father of 5, the Chairman of Special Olympics International and co-founder of UNITE – an initiative to promote national unity and solidarity across differences. Tim began his career as an educator and subsequently co-founded and currently chairs the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the leading school reform organization in the field of social and emotional learning. Shriver earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University, a Master’s degree from Catholic University, and a Doctorate in Education from the University of Connecticut. He has produced 6 films, is the author of the New York Times bestseller Fully Alive – Discovering What Matters Most, and co-editor of The Call to Unite: Voices of Hope and Awakening.
NICOLE STARR
Senior Vice President, Content Representation and Impact, Participant
NICOLE STARR
Nicole Starr is Senior Vice President, Content Representation and Impact at Participant, the leading media company dedicated to entertainment that stands at the intersection of art and activism. In this newly created role, Starr is responsible for ensuring that Participant’s narrative, documentary, and episodic content aligns with the company’s impact priorities and authentically reflects the world around us.
In her previous role as VP, Social Impact, Starr oversaw the development and execution of impact campaigns to accelerate progress around the world’s most pressing issues. Her passion for leveraging the power of storytelling to inspire action drives her work at Participant, which has included the creation of social impact and culture change campaigns for numerous films, such as the critically acclaimed Judas and the Black Messiah, American Utopia, RBG, On the Basis of Sex, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power and Academy Award® winner Roma. Notably, the impact campaign around Roma helped shift the narrative around domestic workers and inspired the cultural conditions for policy change in the US and Mexico.
Starr came to Participant with over a decade of experience in the entertainment industry, including a six-year stint at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, building corporate partnerships around film and TV properties such as Avatar, Life of Pi, the X-Men franchise and Glee. In addition, she is a founding member of Storyline Partners, an organization working in writers’ rooms to create authentic portrayals of underrepresented or misrepresented communities in pop culture.
BARATUNDE THURSTON
Executive Producer & Host, How To Citizen // America Outdoors, PBS
BARATUNDE THURSTON
Baratunde Thurston is an Emmy-nominated, multi platform storyteller and producer operating at the intersection of race, tech, democracy, and climate. He is the host and executive producer of the PBS television series America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston, creator and host of How To Citizen with Baratunde which Apple named one of its favorite podcasts of 2020, and a founding partner of the new media startup Puck. His comedic memoir, How To Be Black, is a New York Times best-seller. In 2019, he delivered what MSNBC’s Brian Williams called “one of the greatest TED talks of all time.” Baratunde is unique in his ability to integrate and synthesize themes of race, culture, politics, and technology to explain where our nation is and where we can take it. Baratunde serves on the boards of Civics Unplugged, BUILD.org, and Brooklyn Public Library and lives in Los Angeles, California.
JOEL FIELDS
Writer/Showrunner, The Americans, The Patient, Fosse/Verdon
JOEL FIELDS
JOEL FIELDS is a writer and executive producer whose work on FX’s critically acclaimed series The Americans earned him an Emmy® Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series and two WGA Awards for Best Dramatic Series. The Americans has also been honored with a Golden Globe® Award, two Critics’ Choice Awards, two Peabody Awards, and numerous AFI Awards, TCA Awards, and Emmy nominations. Fields also wrote and executive produced FX’s limited series Fosse/Verdon, for which he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series. Fosse/Verdon earned an AFI Award for TV Program of the Year, as well as Emmy, Golden Globe, and Critics’ Choice nominations for Best Limited Series, a PGA nomination for Outstanding Producer of a Limited Series, and a WGA Award for Long Form Adapted Series. Most recently, Fields wrote and executive produced the limited series The Patient starring Steve Carell, alongside his The Americans collaborator Joe Weisberg. The Patient was nominated for a Peabody Award, as well as a Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Mini-Series or Specials. Fields lives in New York with his wife, Jessica, and their two children.
MÓNICA GUZMÁN
Curiosity Author & Bridge Builder
MÓNICA GUZMÁN
Mónica Guzmán is Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels; author of I Never Thought of it That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times; and founder and CEO of Reclaim Curiosity. She was a 2019 fellow at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, and a 2016 fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Moni is the inaugural McGurn Fellow at the University of Florida, working with researchers at the UF College of Journalism and Communications and beyond to better understand ways to employ techniques described in her book to boost understanding. A Mexican immigrant, Latina, and dual US/Mexico citizen, she lives in Seattle with her husband and two kids and is the proud liberal daughter of conservative parents.
DAVE CAPLAN, PhD
Writer/Executive Producer, The Conners
DAVE CAPLAN, PhD
Writer and Executive Producer Dave Caplan has enjoyed a career in prime-time television and feature films that spans more than 30 years. He is currently writer/Executive Producer and co-showrunner of ABC’s “The Conners,” and previously served as writer and Co-Executive Producer on the acclaimed “Roseanne” revival. That show was the highest-rated scripted show in a decade. Among ABC’s other shows that Caplan has written and executive produced are “George Lopez,” “The Drew Carey Show” (showrunner), “Norm,” starring Norm MacDonald, and the ‘90s cult hit “Dinosaurs.” He was also writer/Executive Producer/co-showrunner of the FX series “Anger Management.” His other notable shows include “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose” and TNT’s police/medical drama “Rizzoli and Isles.” Caplan has been signed to several exclusive talent deals with major studios, where he developed new shows and consulted on numerous others. He has won numerous awards, including the Humanitas certificate and Environmental Media Award. Caplan has been quoted in many national publications and blogs, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Entertainment Tonight Online, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, CinemaBlend, The Wrap, Refinery 29 and several others. Caplan holds a PhD in Psychology, focusing on media-related issues, from Fielding Graduate University. Having conducted original research into story’s influence on audience empathy, he regularly speaks at schools and universities on topics ranging from media and news literacy to audience psychology and narrative persuasion. Caplan is an advisor to the Bridge Entertainment Labs, which aims to decrease toxic partisanship and polarization. He also created a writers’ mentorship program at California State University at Northridge to encourage diversity in TV comedy. Caplan is represented by management agency Odenkirk-Provissiero Entertainment.
ERIKA SOTO LAMB
Vice President, Social Impact Strategy Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios at Paramount Global
ERIKA SOTO LAMB
Erika Soto Lamb works with companies, organizations, and individuals on how to make a positive impact on the toughest social issues.
Erika was the founding head of social impact strategy at Comedy Central and now leads campaigns to educate, engage and activate people to take action on social issues for Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios at Paramount Global. In this role she is a co-founder of Power the Polls, the first national campaign to recruit a new generation of poll workers; a founder of Mental Health Action Day; a steering committee member for the inaugural Vote Early Day; and an advisory board member of the Civic Alliance and the Impact Guild.
She was previously the founding chief communications officer at Everytown for Gun Safety, where, in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, she helped build the country’s largest gun violence prevention organization that includes Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and Michael Bloomberg-founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Erika was previously a vice president at Ketchum, a global PR firm where she provided strategic communications and reputation management counsel to major international corporate and government clients. Earlier in her career, Erika focused on media relations and message development for candidate and issue campaigns, as well as for public and private sector clients.
Erika side hustles to help elect more women and people of color to public office and she sits on the board of the Violence Intervention Program, Inc., a direct service and advocacy organization working to end intimate partner violence and empower women – and in particular Latinas – in New York City.
Erika has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Stanford University and a Master of Science in Strategic Communications from Columbia University. She is an indigenous Latina from border town El Paso, Texas and resides in New York City with her family, including two young sons.
SHAMIL IDRISS
CEO, Search for Common Ground
SHAMIL IDRISS
Shamil Idriss is CEO of Search for Common Groundrn(Search), an international non-profit organization whosernmission is to transform the way the world deals with conflict, away from adversarial approaches toward cooperative solutions. With 850+ staff working in 32 countries, Search is the largest dedicated peacebuilding organization and was nominated by the Quakers for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. Speaking of Search’s impact in 2016, then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said “your work in Burundi helped to prevent genocide…and during the Iran [nuclear] talks, the fresh ideas you provided helped us to achieve a breakthrough.” Prior to his current role, Idriss was the CEO of Soliya where he led a public-private sector coalition to establish the field of virtual exchanges. In 2005, he was appointed by then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as Deputy Director of the UN Alliance of Civilizations. He served on the Steering Committee of the World Economic Forum Council of 100 Leaders and is a member of the World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders and recipient of the 2015 Open Society Foundation New Executive Award. He has delivered numerous lectures and keynote addresses on international conflict resolution, social impact media, and social entrepreneurship, including: 2022 Skoll Foundation Featured Speaker: Applying Lessons from International Conflict to a Divided United States 2020 Bridgewater Associates Distinguished Speaker Series: Coming Together and Falling Apart: Peace and Conflict in the 21 st Century 2017 Ambassador Chris Stevens Memorial Lecture: Conflict is Inevitable, Violence is Not 2016 TEDx-Marin Talk: Truths About Violent Conflict 2016 Global Philanthropy Conference Plenary: The Search for Belonging through Violent Extremist Networks
ALEX COHEN
Political Anchor, Spectrum News One
ALEX COHEN
MIKE MURPHY
Veteran Republican Media Consultant, Co-Director of the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future
MIKE MURPHY
Mike Murphy is the Co-Director of the Center for the Political Future at USC and a Republican Strategist Murphy is one of the Republican Party’s most successful political media consultants, having handled strategy and advertising for more than 26 successful gubernatorial and senatorial campaigns. His record in helping Republicans win Democratic states is unmatched by any other GOP consultant. Murphy has been called a “media master” by Fortune magazine, the GOP’s “hottest media consultant” by Newsweek, and the leader of a “new breed” of campaign consultants by Congressional Quarterly. He is a widely known political pundit, appearing frequently on NBC, CNN, and NPR. Previously, he served as a regular on the Meet the Press political roundtable and wrote the “Murphy’s Law” column for TIME Magazine.
Murphy served as senior strategist for both John McCain’s first campaign for President in 2000 and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s historic election as Governor of California. Murphy has worked on successful campaigns for many GOP Governors and Senators including Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Terry Branstad, Lamar Alexander, Jeff Sessions, Slade Gorton, Dirk Kempthorne, Tommy Thompson and John Engler. In the 2016 primary season, Murphy served as the chief strategist to the Right to Rise PAC, which supported Jeb Bush’s candidacy. In 2020 Murphy joined former aides to George W. Bush and John McCain to endorse Joe Biden for president. He has advised political leaders in six foreign countries, too. A partner in the Washington, DC based Revolution Agency, Murphy also advises several Fortune 500 corporations and several of America’s largest trade associations.
Murphy has partnered with fellow campaign veteran, David Axelrod, to discuss American politics twice a week on their podcast, Hacks on Tap. Murphy previously hosted Radio Free GOP where he facilitated insider discussions about political campaigns with campaign veterans from both parties.
He was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1962 and attended the Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Murphy also served as a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and is on the Board of Advisors for the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago. In addition to his consulting practice, Murphy also works as a writer/producer in the entertainment industry. He and his wife Tiffany now live in Los Angeles, California where they have been based since 2003.
EBOO PATEL
Founder and President, Interfaith America
EBOO PATEL
Eboo Patel is a civic leader who believes that religious diversity is an essential and inspiring dimension of American democracy. Named “one of America’s best leaders” by News and World Report, Eboo is Founder and President of Interfaith America, the leading interfaith organization in the United States. Under his leadership, Interfaith America has worked with governments, universities, private companies, and civic organizations to make faith a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division. Eboo served on President Obama’s Inaugural Faith Council, has given hundreds of keynote addresses, and has written five books, including We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy. He is an Ashoka Fellow and holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. Eboo lives in Chicago with his wife, Shehnaz, and their two sons.
JO JENSEN
Co-Founder and President of Iron Light Labs
JO JENSEN
Jo Jensen is the co-founder and president of Iron Light Labs, a nonprofit with the mission to empower purpose-driven people to change the world. Labs was recently named “Nonprofit of the Year” by the Shorty Awards. As a serial entrepreneur, Jo has created three successful companies, led non-profits, produced award-winning films, and designed high-profile marketing campaigns. An invited speaker at the White House, Jo’s work has been featured in national news outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Good Morning America, IndieWire, and People Magazine. Her unique collaboration style has resulted in partnerships with Amazon, Facebook, Google, and celebrities Kevin Bacon, Katie Couric, and Queen Rania of Jordan. Jo holds a Guinness World Record, is the winner of the WeWork Creator Award, and is an avid bridge player.
RIAZ PATEL
Executive Producer, Two-time Emmy and NAACP Image Award Nominee
RIAZ PATEL
Riaz Patel is an Executive Producer/Director of TV series & media projects that create ‘perspectiveshifting’ experiences for real people. He has been nominated for Two Emmy-Awards, an NAACP Image Award, a Women’s Image Network (WIN) Award for creatively leading shows like HOW DO I LOOK? forNBC/Universal, HOW TO LOOK GOOD NAKED for Lifetime, FAMILY SOS WITH JO FROST for TLC, RACE TO ESCAPE for Discovery and many others. His shows have been filmed in twenty-one countries and distributed worldwide by companies like Discovery, A&E, MTV, NBC/Universal, Hulu, & Netflix. His most recent project, “The RAD Impact Awards” featured Priyanka Chopra, Margot Robbie, Charlize Theron, Laverne Cox & Travis Scott and earned 138.4 million impressions online. He is represented worldwide by ICM Partners.
Beyond the “screen world,” Riaz has also created entertainment-based solutions for real world problems: immersive “perspective-shifting” experiences that can catalyze change very quickly with a completely unconventional approach.
The first of those projects is a ten-year collaboration with The Jenesse Center, a domestic violence shelter in Los Angeles, to offer authentic ‘Self-Esteem Makeovers’ for victims of domestic violence. For his creation of ‘The Style Center at Jenesse’ – a physical boutique/salon within the shelter itself, Riaz was awarded the Silver Rose Award from Halle Berry, a special commendation from the City of Los Angeles, and the project was recently featured in a pivotal scene of the hit Netflix scripted series, MAID, about domestic violence.
Working directly with HRH Princess Reema of Saudi Arabia (currently the Saudi Ambassador to the US), Riaz creates tv programs and interactive workshops for millions of women in her nation. His work is specifically focused on helping women develop their personal identity and sense of self as they begin pursuing new rights, opportunities, careers, and dreams as equal citizens.
In reaction to the growing “divide” in America – and our social media-induced communication crisis – Riaz created The EPIC System, a new framework that changes HOW we talk about divisive issues. Forbes describes EPIC as: “Refreshingly elegant and simple, but under-girded by sound behavioral science, The EPIC System is a game changer for those working to build bridges while breaking down walls.” Riaz & his EPIC System have been mentioned in Forbes, The Washington Post, CNN, The Blaze, The Daily Beast, and The Huffington Post. EPIC is currently taught at universities, high schools, companies, and places of worship.
After seven years of testing, in 2022 Riaz will launch ConnectEffect, a 60-minute in-person experience, that will take large groups of total strangers – from all sides – and quickly emotionally connect them to each other. Once “connected” the audience will have desperately-needed conversations with each other about the real issues that are dividing them – but with real connection, compassion & understanding.
STEVEN OLIKARA
President of Bridge Entertainment Labs, Founder of Millennial Action Project, Former U.S. Senate candidate
STEVEN OLIKARA
Supporting Partners
