discussions

How to Save Lives: A Conversation With Peter Singer

Hamilton Nolan · 04/17/15 10:00AM

Do your charitable donations suck? Are you failing to save lives due to greed you don't even realize you have? Do poor people have the right to take all of our stuff? One of the world's most famous philosophers talked about these very topics with us.

Does Organized Labor Have a Future? Ask Stanley Aronowitz

Hamilton Nolan · 10/13/14 10:50AM

Economic inequality in America has reached staggering levels. Union membership has reached all time lows. What is the future of labor in America? Let's discuss it right now, with author and labor expert Stanley Aronowitz.

Ken Silverstein Is Here to Talk About "The Secret World of Oil"

Hamilton Nolan · 05/21/14 11:50AM

Ken Silverstein, a veteran of Harper's, the LA Times, and many other places, is one of America's great crusading balls-to-the-wall lefty investigative journalists. His new book explores power, intrigue, and corruption in the global oil industry. He will be answering your questions at 1 p.m. Ask your question now!

The Dangerous 'Metal That Runs the World': Chat With Author Bill Carter

Hamilton Nolan · 04/24/14 11:45AM

Some years ago, journalist Bill Carter found arsenic in his family's garden. It was there because of local copper mines. That prompted him to delve into the hidden dangers of copper—"the metal that runs modern civilization." He will be here to answer your questions, below.

The Rockefeller Consumed By Cannibals: A Chat With Author Carl Hoffman

Rich Juzwiak · 04/01/14 12:15PM

The story goes like this: In 1961, the 23-year-old Michael Rockefeller (son of Nelson), was in the Asmat region of New Guinea, collecting local relics for his father's Museum of Primitive Art. His boat overturned a few miles from shore and he decided to swim back. After doing so for some 20 hours, he was greeted by locals on the shore, who speared and then ate him.

Peter Singer Is Here to Talk About Right and Wrong

Hamilton Nolan · 02/25/14 05:00PM

Peter Singer is a professor of bioethics at Princeton University and one of the world's most prominent—and controversial—moral philosophers. He's written influential works on poverty, charity, and euthanasia, and is considered a founder of the modern animal rights movement. He's here to speak to you.

Is the Black Community Homophobic?: A Discussion With Yoruba Richen

Rich Juzwiak · 02/12/14 03:05PM

Yoruba Richen's documentary The New Black (opening today at New York's Film Forum) achieves what seemed impossible before it: It examines the generalized notion that the black community is homophobic with specificity and subtlety. Using the backdrop of the fight for marriage equality in Maryland in 2012 (where it was eventually approved by voters), Richen's film examines both sides of the debate within the black community by primarily using the National Black Justice Coalition Sharon J. Lettman-Hicks to represent the pro-equality side, and Maryland Marriage Alliance's Derek McCoy as the face of the anti-equality side.

Ask Former Air Force Drone Operator Brandon Bryant Anything

Adrian Chen · 10/30/13 12:03PM

During his six years as a U.S. Air Force drone sensor operator, 27-year-old Brandon Bryant helped kill, by his estimation, 1,626 people in combat, mostly from bases in the U.S., thousands of miles away from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Years later, he's dealing with PTSD and speaking out about the realities of drone warfare. Got a question for Bryant? Ask it at the bottom of the post. Bryant will join us at 2pm EST to answer your questions. [Update: Q + A is done, thanks for stopping by!]

Chat With Rush and Molloy About Gossip, Celebrities, and Scandal

Hamilton Nolan · 10/23/13 12:15PM

Veteran journalists and married couple George Rush and Joanna Molloy spent 15 years as gossip columnists at the New York Daily News, earning a reputation as the more upstanding yin to Page Six's take-no-prisoners yang. Rush and Molloy will be here at 2 p.m. to discuss their new book, Scandal. Ask them gossipy questions below!

A Discussion with the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne

Max Read · 09/27/13 01:15PM

We've got someone exciting dropping by today: Wayne Coyne, the frontman and songwriter for indie-rock legends the Flaming Lips, will be joining us at 3 p.m. to answer your questions. Just ask in the comments using your Kinja account, or create a burner account to ask questions anonymously (instructions here).

Chat With the Pulitzer-Winners Who Exposed The NYPD's Spy Ring

Adrian Chen · 09/03/13 12:33PM

Since 9/11, the NYPD has transformed itself into a mini CIA in an effort to fight terrorism. Associated press reporters Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman have admirably exposed the NYPD's intrusive, and possibly unconstitutional, secret surveillance program in a series of articles that won them the Pulitzer Prize. Their new book, Enemies Within, details how NYPD basically treats the entire Muslim population of New York City as potential terrorists—mass-surveilling mosques, deploying undercover "rakers" to snoop on random hookah bars, restaurants and cafes—with negligible results and less oversight even than the NSA's spying programs. To promote the book and refute the NYPD's pushback, the duo today released a cache of documents related to their investigations.