New America Nyc

When the online blog Gawker posted an excerpt of a secretly filmed sex tape of professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, it ignited a high stakes legal battle that pitted privacy rights against the First Amendment.

Gonna be a lot of irate citizens when they find out that they’re paying for water they’re not gonna get. — Jack Nicholson as J.J. “Jake” Gittes in Chinatown In 1994, a handful of California state officials met in secret with representatives from big agriculture to transform wide swaths of formerly arid land into some of the country's most fertile megafarms. Two decades later, amidst an historic drought, the Monterey Amendments have all but depleted the state's river waters, leaving homeowners with dry wells and agribusiness billionaires with skyrocketing profits. Water & Power: A California Heist, a new National Geographic documentary from Emmy Award-winning director Marina Zenovich, examines the little-known events in California's notorious history of water manipulation and the far-reaching implications for the thousands of people currently lacking access to safe drinking water. Playing like a real-life, modern-day Chinatown, Roman Polanski's 1974 film noir, the film lifts the lid on the chilling effect

What happens when a democratically elected leader evolves into an authoritarian ruler? India and Turkey are two of the world's biggest democracies—multi-ethnic nations that rose from their imperial past to be founded on the values of modernity. The have fair elections, open markets, and freedom of religion. But despite their democratic values, each of their charismatic leaders—Narendra Modi in India and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey—have used their electoral support to amass significant control, in some cases limiting press freedom, pursuing opposition, and subverting democratic methods to extend their rule.       For his new book, A Question of Order, Basharat Peer spent a year and a half traveling across India and Turkey to uncover the alarming, illiberal drift these countries have engineered and the terrible human toll it has exacted. Through a combination of right-wing populism, majoritarian politics, and aggressive nationalism, the two countries provide a shocking warning to what many say are the same

A former insider discloses the story behind for-profit schools to explain the exorbitant price tags, the questionable credentials, and the lose-lose options for Americans seeking a better life. More than two million students are enrolled in for-profit colleges, from the small family-run operations to the behemoths brandished on billboards, subway ads, and late-night commercials. These schools have been around just as long as their not-for-profit counterparts, yet shockingly little is know about why they have expanded so rapidly in recent years. Lower Ed, a new book by Tressie McMillan Cottom, herself a former for-profit college recruiter, lifts the lid on this big-money industry to show precisely how it is part and parcel of the growing inequality plaguing the country today. Behind the shareholder earnings and congressional battles are human stories—from mothers struggling to pay for beauty school to accomplished professionals pursuing doctoral degrees—that illustrate the inextricable links between the for-p

What happens when a revolution unravels? While motivations vary widely, revolutions are, at their core, a clash between old and new ideas. The Tahrir Square uprisings were no different. Nearly two-thirds of Egypt's 70 million citizens were under thirty years old and newly online, and it became harder for the regime to isolate the public from radical ideas. That influx of ideas—and the political sentiments that followed—created a new wave of turmoil for many young people torn between the ever-shifting balance of tradition and change in their own lives. In her new book, Generation Revolution, journalist Rachel Aspden offers a window into the Arab Spring through the millennials who experienced it firsthand. Following the stories of four young Egyptians—an atheist software engineer, a village girl in defiance of her community, a one-time religious extremist, and a would-be teenage martyr—the book reveals a growing generation in Egypt vastly different from preceding ones, struggling to find a place for various voi

If you're looking for a place to hide, this isn't it. At our school, we want you to demand that we help you. There is no shame in asking for help. – Vonda Viland, Principal, Black Rock High School At a remote Mojave Desert high school, educators believe that empathy and life skills, more than academics, give at-risk students command of their own futures. At Black Rock High School, the methods are unique and the model is innovative: no punitive measures, no end-date, and no formal graduation. Employing a vérité approach during a year at the school, The Bad Kids follows Black Rock High School principal Vonda Viland as she coaches three at-risk teens – a new father who can't support his family; a young woman grappling with sexual abuse; and an angry young man from an unstable home – through the traumas and obstacles that rob them of their spirit and threaten their goal of a high school diploma. The film depicts how a radical approach to education can combat the crippling effects of poverty in the lives of these

Over the past 25 years, the United States has seen a disturbing militarization of its sworn law enforcement offices – a 25 percent increase in SWAT team raids, a mass influx of military-grade equipment in small-town communities, and the seeming immunity of a new force of violent warrior-cops. Starting on the streets of Ferguson, Mo., as the community grapples with the death of Michael Brown, Tribeca Film Festival award winner Do Not Resist offers a disturbing glimpse at the current state of policing in America and, if left unchecked, a troubling indictment on the future of police culture. The film puts viewers in the center of the action – from a ride-along with a South Carolina SWAT team to the inside of a police training seminar that teaches the importance of "righteous violence" – before exploring where controversial new technologies, like predictive policing algorithms, could lead the law and criminal justice fields next. Join New America NYC for a conversation following the screening of Do Not Resist a w

With the death of Osama bin Laden and the explosion of the Arab Spring five years ago, it seemed like the war on terror might be ending. Instead, the Arab Spring inaugurated civil war in much of the Middle East, out of which sprang brutal attacks by a rising global presence: the Islamic State. Exactly on year ago, ISIS-trained militants killed 130 people at the Bataclan concert hall and several other locations across Paris. Ever since, extremism has moved beyond the spheres of the military and foreign policy and into the daily discourse of our news feeds and living rooms. In a new five-part series, VICE founder Suroosh Alvi travels the world to investigate the origins and impact of the world's deadliest terrorist organizations from the inside out. TERROR provides viewers with an on-the-ground look inside the places and ideologies that shed light on the notorious groups that confound and threaten much of the globe. Following his travels to Iraq, join Suroosh Alvi and New America's Peter Bergen for a screening

In 2008, the collapse of the US financial system plunged the economy into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Between 2008 and 2009, the U.S. labor market lost 8.4 million jobs – 6.1% of all payroll employment – and the average household brought in roughly $5,000 less in 2009 than it did in the year 2000. Since then, the wealth gap has only gotten worse: the top 10 percent now averages nearly nine times as much income as the bottom 90 percent. It should be no surprise, then, that Americans feel disenchanted. From Occupy Wall Street and more recent racial and economic movements to the left and right populisms of the 2016 election, Americans across the ideological spectrum are increasingly concerned by the concentration of both private and public power. Are our post-election politics on the precipice of change? According to Democracy Against Domination, a new book by New America fellow K. Sabeel Rahman, today's inequality crisis will only be solved with a complete overhaul of how we govern t

They stomp on our neck, and then they tell us, ‘Just chill, O.K., just relax.’ Well, look, we are mad, and we’ve been had. —Sarah Palin, endorsing Donald Trump for president, January 19, 2016 More than five years ago, renowned sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild embarked on a journey from her liberal hometown of Berkeley, California, deep into Louisiana bayou country—a stronghold of the conservative right. As she got to know people who strongly oppose many of the ideas she champions, Hochschild nevertheless finds common ground with the people she meets—people whose concerns are ones that all Americans share: the desire for community, the embrace of family, and hopes for their children. In a new book, Strangers In Their Own Land, Hochschild explores the right-wing world and discovers powerful forces—fear of cultural eclipse, economic decline, perceived government betrayal—that help explain the emotional appeal of a candidate like Donald Trump. Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of the sociology of emoti

In the spring and summer of 2016, the world's richest democracies witnessed a collective upheaval that shocked the globe. As if overnight, many Democrats backed a socialist named Bernie Sanders; the United Kingdom voted to the leave the European Union, in a stunning rebuke; the nativist billionaire Donald Trump became the presidential nominee of the Republican Party; and a slew of extreme parties continued to win election after election in countries like Norway, Austria, and Greece. A new book by John B. Judis, The Populist Explosion, traces the phenomenon of populism back to its roots in the 1890s United States and sees it in a new light: as a warning sign for the ideological crises to come. What started in the United States spread to Europe and back again. As the EU grapples with the aftershock of Brexit, the U.S. must also come to terms with the implications of the rise of Sanders and Trump: growing numbers of people are insisting that our standard worldview is breaking down and in desperate need of repair

The only warheads we thought would go off in the United States were Soviet warheads. We never considered that our own warheads could detonate our own continent. – Allan Childers, Missile Combat Crew It is September 19, 1980, and a nuclear disaster is playing out in a missile silo outside Little Rock, Arkansas. A worker accidentally drops a socket, puncturing the fuel tank of an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying the most powerful nuclear warhead in our arsenal. It sets in motion a chain of emergency responses to head off damage and destruction of unknown reach. Directed by Emmy Award winner Robert Kenner (Food, Inc., Merchants of Doubt) and based on the critically acclaimed book by Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Command and Control is a minute-by-minute account of the long-hidden story of the "Damascus Accident." With original footage and eyewitness accounts, the film recalls this near-miss catastrophe, shocking for being only one of thousands of close brushes with nuclear incidents, according t

In a world in which the instant push of a button can lead to the death of a particular individual more than eight thousand miles away, is it possible to define "war" with any clarity? What separates the targeting of an enemy combatant under lawful wartime from the extrajudicial murder of someone suspected of wrongdoing? What is the purpose of a modern military in a world where future threats come from computer hackers, terrorists, and other nonstate actors? These are some of the questions Future of War fellow Rosa Brooks poses in her new book,  How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything. Backed up by a career with human rights NGOs and top positions in the Pentagon, she argues that by viewing more and more threats as "war," its ambit of law seems to apply to more and more spheres of human activity. The result: a greater tolerance for secrecy and coercion, the inevitable expansion of the military, and a society distrustful of the entity tasked with protecting it. Join New America NYC for a di

It has been 43 years since Roe v. Wade passed 7-2, yet the war against reproductive health clinics has not subsided. In the past six years, 288 TRAP () laws have been passed by state legislatures, subjecting reproductive health clinics and abortion providers to legal restrictions not imposed on any other medical professionals. Unable to comply with these extensive laws, dozens of clinics in states like Alabama and Texas have been forced to close, leaving scores of women under-served, without access to legal healthcare services. But now, a contingent of clinic workers and lawyers have taken the fight to the courts. Trapped follows leaders on the front lines of an escalating battle who are working to change the fact that, for many women, a zip code determines the fate of their constitutional rights. As another landmark Supreme Court case addressing abortion is decided this month, join New America for a screening of Sundance Film Festival award-winner Trapped and a conversation with leading experts on what remai

In the wake of the Great Recession, as the housing bubble burst and unemployment rose, millions of American families experienced a precipitous decline in their net worth. Those who were able to stay in their homes were able to weather the storm, but others couldn't. Tragically, something more nefarious – and preventable – was also in play: foreclosure fraud. In his new book, Chain of Title, David Dayen chronicles how a small group of ordinary people uncovered the large-scale corporate malfeasance that undermined the financial security of families when they were at their most economically vulnerable. Scores of families were faced with eviction from their homes based on false evidence by mortgage companies with no legal right to foreclose. Stories like this are, at once, a cautionary tale on how financial services firms can behave badly and an inspiring story of the citizens fighting back. Chain of Title provides a valuable context for the current and future fight to protect New York homeowners from the next wa

“By the middle of this century we will trigger runaway climate change — a process beyond our control. What do you do if you have that information? What do you do?” – Dr. Steven Chu, Former U.S. Energy Secretary and Nobel Prize winner Climate change may be the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced. There are solutions, but we are in a race against the clock to respond to this critical global threat. In Time To Choose, Academy Award® winner Charles Ferguson (Inside Job, No End In Sight) explores the far-reaching effects of the climate change crisis and examines the potential of solutions already available and the promise of those to come. Shot on five continents, from the oil fields of Nigeria to the forests of Indonesia and the coal mines of Appalachia, Time To Choose investigates the costs that fossil fuels and industrialized agriculture take on human lives and future of the land. Through interviews with clean energy and environmental entrepreneurs; innovators in urban planning and design; global and lo

Four years ago – in the infancy of Syria's civil war – Janine di Giovanni traveled to Syria on assignment for the New York Times. That trip became the first of many as conflict in the region escalated tragically, reaching far beyond borders and affecting millions of lives. When di Giovanni, a seasoned war correspondent, first arrived in Damascus in 2012, she immediately recognized the familiar sight of a country trembling on the brink of war. Through the intimate stories of the ordinary civilians she encountered in places like Damascus, Homs, Darayya, and Aleppo, The Morning They Came For Us illuminates the harsh realities of warfare from all sides. What began with a handful of teenagers writing anti-government slogans rapidly turned into a full civil war, transforming a people in denial into a people in the midst of violence from which they have never recovered. Join New America for a conversation with International Security Program Fellow Janine di Giovanni on the devastating impacts of the Syria crisis

Catherine "Kitty" Genovese was stabbed to death on a street in Queens, New York, in 1964, and 38 witnesses, it was claimed, did nothing. More than 50 years later, her brother uncovers a lie that transformed his life, condemned a city, and defined an era. The murder of Kitty Genovese transfixed New York and the world; it came to symbolize the apathy and indifference of urban life, and for many, a great social breakdown. Now, The Witness, a new film by James Solomon, follows Kitty's brother Bill Genovese about his sister's life and tracks down the neighbors who, according to the press, did nothing as the terror-filled screams of rape and murder took place outside their windows. A half-century after the crime, spurred by the recent death of Kitty's murderer Winston Moseley, the film also re-examines the journalistic telling of the story, its distortions, and how certain narratives "go viral" by capturing the anxieties of their times. Join New America for a screening of The Witness followed by a conversation that

Popular awareness of postpartum depression has improved tremendously in recent years. Obstetricians now regularly screen patients for post-delivery symptoms of sadness and anxiety, and depressive illness in new parents is discussed in thousands of books, articles, support groups, and online forums. Yet there has been no such growth in public understanding of prenataldepression. Though studies show that depression during pregnancy is just as common, and equally dangerous, many newly pregnant women are unaware that it is even a possibility. Conditioned to believe that pregnancy should be a joyful period, depressed expectant mothers may avoid seeking help, or find that their feelings are trivialized or stigmatized by partners and friends. Many obstetricians and psychiatrists remain reluctant to prescribe antidepressants to pregnant patients, even as suicide has become one of the leading causes of death among pregnant women and new mothers. And in the United States, a pregnant woman who survives a suicide attempt

For many investors, emerging markets appear to be a turbulent and risky frontier; for others, they represent an opportunity to transform lives and communities. In recent years, impact investing has gained significant momentum as a way to match socially-minded entrepreneurs with risk capital. This investment movement has occurred alongside massive technological innovation – and with it unprecedented ways to reach and connect the developing world. Increasingly, business solutions to entrenched social and economic problems are taking advantage of new technologies to bring goods, services, and opportunities to some of the world's underserved people and places. But what does this mean in practice? Where do investors see the most promising opportunities – and barriers – to earn financial returns while addressing unmet needs? And what is it like to actually build these ventures on the ground?