New America Nyc

Imagine a centralized database replete with your personal information that links together your and your family’s vital health, education, and social welfare records. Now imagine the database includes an entire country’s population. Fifty years ago this year, Denmark launched the world's first nationalized big data project. The country's Civil Personal Registration (CPR) system assigns every resident a "digital ID" that directly connects them with the Danish state to facilitate government-citizen interactions from birth to death and everywhere in between. Originally created to render tax collection  and the distribution of social benefits more efficient, the system has become a popular and benevolent instrument in Denmark built on the values of trust in government and sense of community. Now similar data infrastructures—often built by private sector platforms—are being applied across the globe, but in a climate in which data breaches are growing more frequent and more severe, their implications must adapt to

There are no good guys in this story, including me. – Dan David, GeoInvesting After the 2008 financial collapse, U.S. investors began scouring global markets for new opportunities for high returns, and they turned to China to take part in its explosive economic growth. Looking beyond profits that seemed too good to be true, a band of rogue Wall Street outsiders uncovered a massive web of multibillion-dollar fraud. From the producers of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, The China Hustle takes a deep dive into China's economic miracle to reveal how many ordinary Americans who want to invest in China's dynamic growth—through pension funds, retirement savings, and mutual funds—are unaware they could be holding billions of dollars of junk. Academy-Award® nominee Jed Rothstein follows Dan David and a group of whistleblower investors who go to China to discover a landscape ripe for fraud. Working with Chinese investigators who put their freedom at stake, they expose hundreds of small Chinese companies that have

Optimism is a moral choice. – Dr. Jim Yong Kim Thirty years ago, as much of the world was being ravaged by horrific diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, three young people, not yet out of medical school, set out to provide healthcare for Haiti's rural poor. They went on to spend the next three decades on the frontlines of health crises across the globe. Paul Farmer, Jim Yong Kim, and Ophelia Dahl came together to deliver a world-class level of care — the kind they would expect for their own families — and build health clinics in remote areas ignored by everyone else. Their idea was controversial and revolutionary: to create partnerships with the patients themselves by training ordinary villagers as healthcare workers. Despite enormous resistance from the outside world, they made groundbreaking advances in combating the life-threatening conditions of impoverished communities and against the spread of pandemics including drug-resistant TB, HIV/AIDS, and Ebola. Their inspiring vision is the subject of Bend

In January 2013, on an early morning in Guatemala City, soldiers with automatic weapons are standing on street corners. A long line of Mayan women and men head into the high court, an institution historically dominated by the interests of a small white elite minority. Just three decades earlier, the ruling elite, with U.S. backing, engineered a coup that would topple a democratically elected government and unleash a dark period of repression and massacres. 200,000 mostly indigenous people were murdered; 45,000 urban artists, intellectuals, and activists disappeared.  Thirteen years later, the Mayan survivors and activists prevailed: former president Efraín Ríos Montt was brought before the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity and  a citizen uprising forced a corrupt president, Otto Perez Molina, to resign.  This heroic story is the subject of 500 Years, the third installment in Director Pamela Yates’s The Resistance Saga trilogy. Focusing on universal themes of racis

Many American workers are unwell. They live with serious economic insecurity; succumb to diabetes, depression, and addiction at alarming rates; and struggle to balance the conflicting needs of their employers, their families, and their own well-being. That outlook won’t improve until we think of health as the driver of prosperity — not just the product of it. In the U.S., we spend extravagantly on treating illness but spend proportionally less on keeping people healthy than most developed nations. But research shows a strong correlation between healthy communities with little economic disparity and healthy economies. People live longer in the nation's more equal states. What can we do to change the country's focus from health care as a cost with limited returns, to health as an investment that pays off over the long term — socially and economically? How can we better elevate health as a policy priority? Join New America NYC for a conversation on the future of health and wellness — and what both governments an

The United States and China are in a race to build the world’s first quantum machine, and whoever crosses the finish line first will attain global dominance for generations to come. In The Quantum Spy, a new genre-bending thriller, New York Times bestselling author and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius tells the fictional story of a hyper-fast quantum computer—the digital equivalent of a nuclear bomb—able to shred any encryption and break any code in existence. When top-secret U.S. research labs are compromised by a suspected Chinese informant, CIA officer Harris Chang sets in motion a history-altering investigation that forces him to question he thinks about loyalty, diplomacy, and the primacy of truth. Couched in the real-world technological arms race, the novel asks pivotal questions about contemporary national security issues—the competition to achieve quantum computing technology, the high stakes rivalry between the U.S. and China, and the conduct of spycraft in the digital age.     Join New Ameri

Today, almost half of the American workforce earns less than $15 per hour and a third of working-age men are either unemployed or unable to keep a family of four out of poverty. Few have sufficient savings to retire with, while businesses continue to push healthcare and other social safety costs onto their employees. Yet American companies are far from struggling. Is the contract between employee and employer broken? In his new book, The End of Loyalty, Rick Wartzman chronicles the erosion of the relationship between American companies and their workers through the histories of four major American employers — General Motors, General Electric, Kodak, and Coca-Cola. Wartzman argues that big businesses once took responsibility for providing their workers and retirees with an array of social benefits, but in a twenty-first century economy turbocharged by the pace of technology, access to a good, stable job no longer guarantees access to the American Dream. The cause, he says, is clear: the American workforce cann

When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than one percent of the United States’ total wealth. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. According to a new book by Mehrsa Baradaran, The Color of Money, this absence of wealth isn't just a failure to atone for oppression imposed by slavery and Jim Crow — it's the product of contemporary acts to maintain their legacies. Today, the racial wealth gap persists in building wealth for those who already have it and sowing debt among those who don't. Many policies animated by this trend — fees and fines levied my municipal governments and the criminal justice system; residential segregation; the rise of predatory payday lenders — disappear mainstream banks from communities of color, pass off responsibility of investment in their wealth, and enforce conditions that disproportionately push them from profit to poverty. Join New America NYC and the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research for a conve

On Sunday, October 8th, join New America NYC for a private screening of Human Flow, a sweeping new film by world-renowned artist, activist, and icon Ai Weiwei, followed by a conversation with Richard Gere and David Miliband on the plight of refugees all over the world. More than 65 million people have been forcibly displaced due to war, persecution, climate change, and crushing poverty in the greatest human displacement since World War II. Setting out on a journey across 23 countries, Ai Weiwei, who spent his own childhood as a displaced person during China's Cultural Revolution, follows a chain of urgent human stories across the globe to bear witness to this massive human migration, elucidating both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its intimately personal human impact. From perilous ocean crossings to barbed-wire borders, Ai follows the desperate attempts of men, women, and children as they move from dislocation and disillusionment to endurance and adaptation. HumanFlow is a testament to the

Extremism across the continent of Africa has been widely researched and reported; less covered are the stories of those who have been survivors—and resisters—of it. A Moonless, Starless Sky, the debut book by New America National Fellow, Alexis Okeowo, is a vivid account of Africans who are courageously countering their continent's wave of fundamentalism. Okeowo weaves together four narratives that form a powerful tapestry of modern Africa: a young couple, kidnap victims of Joseph Kony's LRA; a Mauritanian waging a lonely campaign against modern-day slavery; a women's basketball league flourishing amid war-torn Somalia; and a vigilante who takes up arms against the extremist group Boko Haram.  Complicating the simplistic good-guy, bad-guy narratives common in describing the continent, the book illuminates the inner lives of ordinary people doing the extraordinary — lives that are too often hidden, underreported, or ignored by the rest of the world.    

The only United States bank indicted for mortgage fraud related to the 2008 financial crisis is the one you’ve never heard of.  Charged with securities fraud, mortgage fraud, and conspiracy, Chinatown’s Abacus Federal Savings Bank — the country's 2,531st largest bank and a cornerstone of the Chinese immigrant community — became the only bank in the U.S. to face criminal charges in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Part legal thriller, part underdog saga, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, a film from director Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Life, Itself), tells the incredible tale of the Sung family and their five-year, ten-million-dollar legal battle to defend themselves and their bank’s legacy.  Thomas Sung, a prominent lawyer and real estate developer, opened the Abacus bank in 1984 to provide the small housing and business loans that Chinatown’s residents and business owners were routinely denied. The small, fiscally conservative bank weathered the 2008 worldwide economic meltdown, but at the same time large,

For her entire life, German-born and -educated Souad Mekhennet has had to balance the two sides of her upbringing—Muslim and Western—and provide a mediating voice between these cultures, which too often misunderstand each other. In Mekhennet's new memoir, I Was Told To Come Alone, she journeys behind the lines of jihad, starting in the German neighborhoods where the 9/11 plotters were radicalized and culminating on the Turkish-Syrian border where ISIS is a daily presence. Traveling across the Middle East and North Africa, she documents the failed promise of the Arab Spring, and then returns to Europe, where she uncovers the identity of notorious ISIS executioner "Jihadi John" and delves into the terror that has pierced the heart of Western civilization. With unprecedented access to some of the world's most wanted men, she's told to never come alone to an interview. As she gets closer and closer to the inner circles of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, and their affiliates, she can never underestimate the personal

The future of the Negro in this country is precisely as bright or as dark as the future of the country.— James Baldwin In the final years of his life, James Baldwin began writing Remember This House, a personal account of the lives and assassinations of three of his closest friends—Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Now, more than 30 years later, a new documentary picks up those letters and unfinished manuscripts to explore how race became the defining struggle of American society. I Am Not Your Negro , an Academy Award-nominated film by Raoul Peck, is an up-to-the-minute examination of race in America. Using Baldwin's original words and a spellbinding flood of archival material, the film is a journey into the black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights Movement to the present of Black Lives Matter. Baldwin's legacy makes one thing clear: the piercing endurance of racism—and the very definition of what America stands for—remains as relevant as ever. On the eve of its theatrical

As the debate about which bathroom transgender people should use continues, a more complex question is emerging about how early the medical transition begins for trans kids. Families and doctors are rewriting the rules as they decide when and how to start medical intervention before transgender youth hit puberty. In a special VICE on HBO episode, VICE correspondent Gianna Toboni explores this emotionally charged and rapidly evolving issue with trans youth and their parents in the midst of this intense process. On August 9, New America NYC and VICE presented a special screening of VICE on HBO's Trans Youth at Lincoln Center, followed by a talkback with the segment's producers and some of the featured family members on the state of the transgender rights movement today. PARTICIPANTS Tom, Rachel, and Max O'Brien Featured subjects, Trans Youth Nicole BozorgmirProducer, Trans Youth, VICE on HBO   Hendrik Hinzel @JH_Hinzel Associate Producer, Trans Youth, VICE on HBO Tim Clancy @FancyTimClancy Executive Producer, 

The regime’s biggest fears were those who held cameras, so they were the first to be eliminated. — Obaidah Zytoon, co-director, The War Show When the Arab Spring reached Syria in 2011, 35-year-old radio DJ Obaidah Zytoon joined the revolution armed with two things: a video camera and hope. The portrait that resulted—encapsulating both the euphoria of protest and the devastating violence—is the subject of the 2016 Venice Days Award-winning documentary, The War Show. Against the brutal backdrop of chaos and civil war, The War Show unfolds as an intimate account of the daily lives of Zytoon and her friends—among them a dentist, law student, and poet—and the transformations they endure documenting their own experiences of the Syrian conflict. But as protest marches turn into funerals, their ideas about the resistance—and their own identities—splinter. One thing, however, becomes clearer: the camera footage they collect doesn't just record the revolution—it is the revolution.    On May 9, New America NYC presented

Baltimore is a city fighting to save its youth. In the wake of the death of Freddie Gray, the inaugural class of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women began their senior year. Established in 2009, the charter school had a simple mandate: send every girl to college, regardless of any barriers their home lives and communities might present. Step, the 2017 Sundance Special Jury Award winner for Inspirational Filmmaking by director Amanda Lipitz, chronicles this pressure-filled year and the girls' dedication to a source of empowerment: the school step team. We follow the trials and triumphs – on and off the stage – of three tenacious seniors and the women who champion and challenge them, as their commitment to step becomes more than just a hobby, but a new approach to life.  PARTICIPANTS  Amanda Lipitz @stepthemovie Director, Step Abigail Swisher @Abigail_Swisher Program Associate, Education Policy Program, New America Paula Dofat @pauladofat Director of College Counseling, Baltimore Leadership Scho

When unarmed teenager Michael Brown, Jr. was killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marked a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial bias, and renewed anger brought together residents and activists from across the nation to confront this flashpoint in a long history of injustice. Their stories are the subject of Whose Streets?, a new film narrated by the artists, parents, teachers, and children of Ferguson working to counter the mainstream media headlines that characterized the protests as looting, fire, and mayhem. Their cell phone video footage and social media updates tell another story: as the National Guard descended on Ferguson, nonviolent organizers were met with military-grade riot gear, their right to peaceful assembly rescinded. As we approach the third anniversary of Brown’s death, the struggle persists and these young community members have stepped up to become the torchbearers of a new wave of resistance. For them, the battle is no

The traditional narrative of the American Dream — hard work, steady saving, and a little bit of luck will lead to security today and mobility tomorrow — has all but become an American Myth. Today, insecurity is so pronounced that 92 percent of Americans, when asked to choose between being a little richer or more financially stable, chose stability. But amidst 30 years of wage stagnation and radically decreased mobility, neither has been attainable. In The Financial Diaries, authors Jonathan Morduch and Rachel Schneider track the financial lives of 235 low- and middle-income households to cast a light on the pervasive economic anxiety felt across the country. The individuals they profile — among them a casino dealer, a street vendor, and a tax preparer — challenge popular assumptions about how Americans earn, spend, borrow, and save and suggest new tools the U.S. needs to correct the broader distress of income and wealth inequality. Join New America NYC for a conversation on the growing financial instability A

Amidst daily revelations about Russia's global web of influence, is there a way to chart a path ahead? Not since the end of the Cold War has Russia received as much front page media attention as it gets today. Russia has been blamed for several recent global upsets — Trump's election, Le Pen's surge, and Assad's ability to remain in power. At the same time Russian oligarchs have structured a network of financial influence across Europe and into the U.S., Russian media has been charged with turning into an unabashed propaganda mouthpiece. How should we read Putin's goals? As congressional and FBI investigations into election interference continue, is the Kremlin nervous about what might come out? And ultimately, how long can Putin's power be sustained, among everyday Russians and abroad? Join New America NYC at the CORE: club for a conversation with leading reporters and editors on this age of Putinism and what its blowback means for the future of Russia's relationship to the world. PARTICIPANTS Joshua Yaffa @

Police play an indispensable role in our society. But the responsibility for keeping them accountable may lay with us, the people. In June 2013, documents leaked by Edward Snowden sparked widespread debate about secret government surveillance of Americans. Just over a year later, the shooting of Michael Brown, a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, set off protests and triggered concern about militarization of law enforcement and discriminatory policing. In his new book, Unwarranted, Barry Friedman argues that these two seemingly disparate events are connected—by the failure of policing, from local officers to the FBI and NSA, to be accountable to the public. In recent decades, policing has changed dramatically. Technologies like CCTV and predictive policing software have made suspects of us all, while proliferating SWAT teams and militarized forces have put property and lives at risk—particularly for communities of color and the poor. The effects beg a critical realization for all of us: it's not a question