If any of you have friends on the other side of your respective aisle and if you’re on this newsletter, I hope you do, you may have had an argument where you realized that you had the same facts but your fundamental values collided. Take crime committed by illegal immigrants. All available estimates say this is number is fairly nominal relative to total crime. If you don’t see illegal immigration as an issue in it of itself (vs the impact on indirects like crime and employment), your opinion is essentially “I don’t care, it’s not statistically significant”. If you DO see illegal immigration as bad on its face (let’s say on values like assimilation & culture, law & order, fairness), then your opinion is closer to “if even one person is hurt by an illegal immigrant, we are failing as a country”). This is a real chasm of values. So the question is - are there any practical ways to bring us back to some sense of shared values?

One man may have a solution. On Thursday evening, February 26th, we are hosting a small dinner with Oliver Libby, the Managing Director of H/L Ventures and author of Strong Floor, No Ceiling - a policy proposal disguised as a book on what structural changes we need to move the country forward. This will be an intimate discussion for leaders across industries, limited to 15 participants - past attendees have included Forbes 30u30 members, McKinsey partners, thinktank EDs, and congressional candidates. We have two spots left, so if you think you fit the mold, please email [email protected]. Ticket includes food and drink, and copy of book.

Upcoming UNMUTED Events

Tuesday, 2/17: An UNMUTED Dialogue: Medicare for All, Who Pays? (link)

Monday, 2/23: An UNMUTED Dialogue: Crime and Punishment and Mamdani (link)

Wednesday, 3/4: An UNMUTED Dialogue: The Path Forward on Immigration (link)

Check out all our events here

The events I’ve got my eye on in the next two weeks. Check them out!

🗓 Monday, February 16
•2:00 PM – American Presidents in New York
Subject: Federal Hall National Memorial
Where: Regional History
Who: Culture Now
What: Program examining the connections, influence, or history of American presidents as they relate to New York… its a national holiday, I know y’all got nothing going on. 

•7:30 PM – Presidents’ Day Spectacular
Subject: Political Comedy
Where: The PIT LAB, 156 W. 29th Street, Floor 2, New York, NY, 10001
Who: PIT NYC
What: A Presidents’ Day-themed comedy special… do we need a comedy night for our politics to be funny?

🗓 Tuesday, February 17
•7:00 PM – Civility Unbound: NYC Launch Event
Subject: Public Discourse
Where: NYU Wagner 105 East 17th Street, New York, NY 10003, Room: Main Event Space
Who: Brademas Center
What: Launch event for Civility Unbound in NYC, centering on conversations about civility, public dialogue, and social engagement. This will be a bunch of NYU professors waxing poetic.

•7:00 PM – Jon Meacham in Conversation with John Dickerson: American Struggle
Subject: Politics/ History
Where: 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10128
Who: 92nd Street Y
What: Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Jon Meacham discusses American political history, democratic ideals, and national identity with journalist John Dickerson…actually epic.

🗓 Wednesday, February 18
•6:00 PM – Promoting Civil Discourse: The Value of Political Pluralism in Academia
Subject: Political Theory
Where: 47-49 East 65th St. Manhattan, Roosevelt House
Who: CUNY
What: Part of an Intellectual Dialogue Series exploring the importance and value of political pluralism within academic settings and discourse. Lot of events on this topic this week! But the problem is most of them don’t bring in Republicans!!! Got to have both sides of the aisle.o

•10:00 PM – So What’s Funny Is… with Jack Bensinger
Subject: Comedy
Where: Union Hall
Who: Jack Bensinger
What: Political stand-up comedy show featuring comedian Jack Bensinger … No idea who this is, but it says politics and comedy. If you go, let me know if it was funny or Sam Hyde slop. 

🗓 Thursday, February 19
•7:00 PM – Checks and Balances: What Limits Are There on Presidential Power
Subject: Law and Politics
Where:  92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10128
Who: 92nd Street Y
What: Conversation examining constitutional checks and balances and the limits on presidential authority, with legal scholars and former senior government officials discussing executive power, unilateral actions, and separation of powers in contemporary U.S. governance… I try not to put two events from the same organization for diversity's sake, but these events are very topical.

•7:00 PM – St. Valentine’s Special
Subject: Religion
Where:  Address given upon registration
Who: New York Young Republicans
What: Join the New York Young Republicans in an evening of spirituality, religious exploration, and celebration of St. Valentine’s Day.

🗓 Friday, February 20
•5:00 PM – DisclosureLand: How Corporate Worlds Constrain Racial Progress
Subject: Corporate Power and Racial Studies
Where: CUNY, 6112: Sociology Student Lounge
Who: CUNY Graduate Studies Center
What: Panel examining how corporate practices, structures, and power dynamics shape and potentially constrain progress on racial equity and justice.

🗓 Saturday, February 21
•2:00 PM – Book Discussion: The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
Subject: Political Theory and Literature
Where: New Amsterdam Library 
Who: New Amsterdam Library 
What: Group discussion focused on Hannah Arendt’s analysis of totalitarianism, power, ideology, and modern political systems…apparently this book changed the way my intern views the world.

🗓 Sunday, February 22
•7:00 PM – In Vino Veritas
Subject: Theology
Where: 371 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10014
Who: St. Joseph’s Catholic Church
What: A weekly congregation (see what I did there) drawing young adults to converse on all topics of theology, spirituality, and religion. It also features a friend of UNMUTED Father Jonah.

Monday, February 23
•6:00 PM – Lewis Mumford Lecture — From Crisis to Proximity: A New Social Contract for Cities
Subject: Urban Studies
Where: Great Hall in Shepard Hall, 160 Convent Ave, New York, NY 10031, Manhattan
Who: The City College of NY
What: Lecture on reimagining the social contract for cities through the lens of proximity as a civic and ecological principle in response to modern urban challenges…I don’t know, I personally don’t talk to my neighbors but….someone else probably has?

•7:00 PM – Celebrate 30 Years of Independent Global News with Democracy Now!
Subject: Democracy !!!!!
Where: Riverside Church
Who: Democracy Now!
What: Celebration of the 30th anniversary of Democracy Now! and independent media at large. Music from Michael Stipe and activists and scholars like Angela Davis, Naomi Klein, and others. Actually badass.

🗓 Tuesday, February 24
•6:00 PM – Human Rights Series: Identity Politics vs. Citizenship
Subject: Human Rights, Illegal Immigration
Where: La Maison Française NYU, New York, NY
Who: La Maison Française NYU
What: A session exploring tensions and intersections between identity politics and citizenship as part of a human rights series. As you can tell by the “human right’s framing” this is going to be a liberal leaning event.

•5:00 PM – Poetry Book Discussion: ‘Zong!’ by Marlene Nourbese Philip
Subject: Law and art
Where: Community Room, LL2, Mulberry Street Library
Who: New York Public Library
What: A discussion on Marlene Nourbese Philip’s poem, which explores themes of law and the transatlantic slave trade… Actually kinda interesting, legal poetry, poetry of law?

🗓 Wednesday, February 25
•6:00 PM – NYC Young Lawyer Social with the Solicitor General of Pennsylvania
Subject: Law and Policy
Where: Wheeltapper Pub, 141 E 44th St, New York City, NY 10017 
Who: America 250, the Federalist Society
What: Join the Federalist Society in a social networking event with the Solicitor General of PA, Stephen Raiola.

•6:00 PM – Hegel 13/13 with Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Subject: Philosophy and Social Perspective
Where: Columbia University 
Who: The Center for Contemporary Critical Thought
What: Lecture connecting Hegelian philosophy with postcolonial, literary, and critical theory perspectives… OK OK I know, but I already put the other two in this series, so I thought I would keep it going (If you're over it, just send me a review 🙂 )

🗓 Thursday, February 26
•6:00 PM – Black History Month Book Talk — A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power
Subject: Politics
Where: 47-49 East 65th St, Manhattan
Who: The City University of New York  (two in one week, but these are great)
What: Book talk hosted by CNN host Abby Phillip on exploring Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaigns and their impact on Black political power in the United States… see told you it was cool!

•6:30 PM – Alone Together: Effects of Headphone Culture on Politics
Subject: Sociology and Politics
Where: Register for event details
Who: Lectures on Tap
What: A lecture by Prof. Lindsey Cormack exploring how personal technology, or rather individual isolation, affects political engagement. This is such an important topic, I would love to go to this one.

🗓 Friday, February 27
•6:30 PM – Global Shocks and the Future of Food System Resilience
Subject: Consumerism and Global Challenges
Where: Serendipity Labs, Grand Central, NYC
Who: 1014
What: A discussion with Thomas Pogge (Yale University) and Jonas Jägermeyr (Columbia University) on the vulnerability of interconnected food systems due to global shocks.

🗓 Saturday, February 28

•4:00 PM – VESSELS: Latin American Revolutionary Cinema with Ana Begoña Armengod
Subject: History, Contemporary Thought, and Art
Where: Strother School of Radical Attention (Wut…)
Who: Attensity!
What: A screening of Tercer Cine films followed by an open discussion on revolutionary movements and media

🗓 Sunday, March 1

None interesting!

Show up, think deeper, and as always, stay Unmuted!

The Unmuted Team