Let's Find Common Ground

CPF Executive Director Kamy Akhavan joins Democratic campaign strategist Addisu Demissie and former Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus for a conversation on the 2024 presidential race. With Election Day on November 7, the discussion explores the election's potential impact on control of Congress, state legislatures, governorships, and the 2024 presidential race. Featuring:  Addi...

Violent threats against members of Congress are up, and hate crimes have increased to the highest levels ever recorded. Fear is being used as a tool by both Republicans and Democrats to win votes.  In this episode, we speak with Rachel Kleinfeld, a fellow in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  Rachel says people talking across differe...

CPF's inaugural discussion of our Combating Antisemitism and Hatred Series features CPF Director Bob Shrum, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bret Stephens, and former Los Angeles elected official Zev Yaroslavksy. The series explores the struggle against antisemitism in the context of countering hate, reducing violence, promoting empathy, and nurturing civil dialogue.   Featuring:  William Deverel...

Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan, was an elected politician, served as a senior British government minister, and was a visiting fellow at Yale University. Today he is the host of a highly successful podcast— "The Rest Is Politics"— and outgoing president and advisor of the global anti-poverty charity, GiveDirectly. By any measure, he is a man of many parts.  In our podcast, Stewart raises th...

For the 2023 USC Trojan Family Weekend, CPF Co-Directors and veteran political strategists Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy participate in an insightful and entertaining discussion on the latest political news.   Featuring:  Bob Shrum: Director, Center for the Political Future; Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics, USC Dornsife Mike Murphy: Co-Director, Center for the Political Future; NBC Political Anal...

CPF Director Bob Shrum joins a panel of public health experts for a discussion on post-pandemic health inequities in America.   Featuring:  Sofia Gruskin: Director, USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health  Sujeet Rao: Former Senior Policy Advisor, White House COVID-19 Response Team; Director, USC Dornsife Public Exchange Health and Wellbeing Practice  Dr. Bradley Stoner: Head of the Departm...

What a time to try and fix Congress. But that's what our guests on this episode are determined to do. This show features two politicians from the newly launched Fix Congress caucus. Reps Derek Kilmer (D-Wa) and William Timmons (R-SC), first appeared on our show last year as members of the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. The stakes were high when we recorded this latest int...

CPF Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy join Fall 2023 CPF Fellows Arnon Mishkin and Reince Priebus for a conversation on polling and its ability or inability to predict voting outcomes as the 2024 presidential race approaches. Featuring: Arnon Mishkin: Political Analyst and Director of the Fox News Election Decision Team; Fall 2023 Fellow, USC Center for the Political Future Reince Priebus: Fo...

When we consider the meaning of citizenship, most Americans usually think about individual rights. In this episode, we hear a bold call for change. Our guest, Richard Haass, says that if democracy is to survive, we must re-envision citizenship and consider our obligations to one another.  He argues that the greatest threat the country faces comes not from foreign adversaries but from none other th...

Until recently most of us outside of state government didn't know much about the role of Secretary of State, the state's top election official. We simply didn't think about it. But since 2020, election laws and procedures have been in the spotlight – and election officials have come under attack.  In this episode of Let's Find Common Ground, we meet Democrat Steve Hobbs, Secretary of State for Was...

CPF Co-Directors Bob Shrum and Mike Murphy join Fall 2023 CPF Fellows, Addisu Demissie, Arnon Mishkin, Mike Schmuhl, and Betty Yee, for a lively discussion on former President Trump's indictments, what this means for President Biden, and how the 2024 presidential race is shaping up. The conversation also explores their USC study groups and impressive careers in politics.   Featuring:  Addisu Demis...

The United States has one of the highest news avoidance rates in the world. Tens of millions of Americans don't read, watch or listen to the news each day. The media is generally held in low regard. So, is there a better way to report and analyze current events that will satisfy readers' interests? In this repeat episode, we hear from Mark Sappenfield, Editor of  The Christian Science Monitor,  an...

Are Americans really as divided as we think we are? One liberal and one conservative jumped in an old Volvo and drove along nearly 20,000 miles of roads and highways in a series of journeys to find the answer. They went through 44 states and met an extraordinary range of people along the way. At a time of political gridlock and hyper-partisanship, Republican Jordan Blashek and Democrat Chris Haugh...

Love is a central force in mitigating conflict, says writer and entrepreneur Chloé Valdary. She founded the diversity and inclusion training company, The Theory of Enchantment, and has a unique take on how we can heal racial division and hatred inside organizations and across American society.  Chloé developed a program for "compassionate anti-racism" that combines social-emotional learning (SEL),...

Moderate Republican Will Hurd insists that across the country "there is more that unites us than divides us." The former GOP Congressman threw his hat into the ring in June with a video announcement that he's running for President of the United States. Our latest episode of "Let's Find Common Ground" re-visits our interview with Will Hurd, recorded one year ago.  Hurd stresses the need for both pr...

Working across party divides is the best way to bring people together and make progress, says our guest, Tulsa Mayor, G.T. Bynum. But he also points out that common ground is "the least valued political real estate in America today". Overwhelmingly reelected to office as a nonpartisan in a deep-red state, Mayor Bynum calls himself a moderate and tells us that his administration is a test case for...

Veteran journalist Judy Woodruff has been covering US politics for more than 50 years. She moved to Washington DC in 1977 and has been there ever since, reporting for NBC, CNN, and PBS, most recently spending 11 years as anchor of the PBS News Hour. During her career, she has gotten to know a lot of politicians socially as well as professionally. In this episode, we speak with Ms. Woodruff about h...

Memorial Day honors the men and women who sacrificed their lives in service to our country. In our next podcast episode, we discuss different ways to look at patriotism. Our guest, retired US naval officer and Washington Post newspaper columnist Theodore Johnson ponders the question, "How can we take pride in a nation with a history of injustice and inequality?"   At a high school football game, J...

We speak with two women from opposing sides of the bitter and often toxic debate over abortion. Frances Hogan and The Rev. Anne Fowler were involved in a series of years-long intensive, secret talks. Their candid conversations began after a gunman opened fire at two Massachusetts abortion clinics nearly thirty years ago. The attack left two women dead and five people injured.   In this episode, we...

CPF Director Bob Shrum joins Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, for a discussion on the politics of globalization. They discuss the war in Ukraine, challenges from China, the 2008 global financial crisis, and America's role in globalization.  Featuring:  Gordon Brown: Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education; World Healt...

CPF Director Bob Shrum joins Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, for a discussion on the politics of globalization. They discuss the war in Ukraine, challenges from China, the 2008 global financial crisis, and America's role in globalization.  Featuring:  Gordon Brown: Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education; World Healt...

It's often said that America is as politically divided as it has ever been. In this week's show we dive into the data from two different groups that study American attitudes. What they discovered challenges some of our assumptions about the current state of US politics, and offers us a sense of context missing from noisy 'us versus them' type arguments.  John Geer of Vanderbilt University discusse...

Every day we are bombarded with negative news and polarizing opinions from politicians, pundits, and others who seek attention, power, and money by escalating division. Our guest, Amanda Ripley, calls them "conflict entrepreneurs." In this podcast, Amanda explains why she believes the problem we face in America isn't too much conflict. Instead, it's the  type  of disagreement we are having. We hea...

USC Wrigley Director Joe Árvai joins former White House Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy and New York Times Opinion Columnist Bret Stephens for a conversation on finding common ground in climate conversations. They discuss how climate science leads to action, COVID-19's impact on climate change, the economic impact on climate action, and messaging around climate change. Featuring: Gina McCarthy: Firs...

CPF Director Bob Shrum joins former U.S. Representatives Val Demings and Adam Kinzinger for a conversation on the politics of climate with the goal of finding common ground. They discuss political barriers to enacting climate action, climate legislation passed by Congress, and how environmental legislation can help achieve climate justice.   Featuring: Val Demings: Former U.S. Representative (D-FL...