The Unity Forum

Episode Summary In this episode of The Unity Forum, Chris Malone speaks with former Congressman Carlos Curbelo—now President of Vocero and an NBC News political commentator—about three forces reshaping American civic life: redistricting, immigration, and climate risk. Curbelo explains why aggressive gerrymandering fuels polarization and weakens accountability, why durable immigration reform requir...

Episode Summary In this episode of The Unity Forum, Chris Malone speaks with Dan Hesse —Chairman of Akamai Technologies and former CEO of Sprint—about why healthy capitalism and healthy democracy are “meant to go together,” and what business leaders can do to strengthen civic norms without becoming partisan. About the Guest Dan Hesse is Chairman of Akamai Technologies and serves on the board of PN...

Episode Summary In this episode, Chris Malone speaks with constitutional law scholar Professor Stephen Wermiel about the legal guardrails—and vulnerable norms—that sustain American democracy. Drawing on current events and long-running constitutional debates, Wermiel explains how executive power expands under political pressure, how courts respond, and why public understanding of constitutional bas...

Episode Summary Dr. Don Berwick joins Chris Malone and Terry Akin on The Unity Forum for a timely discussion about the state of U.S. healthcare. Drawing directly from current policy developments, Dr. Berwick examines looming Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage losses, rising insurance premiums, workforce strain, and growing threats to science and public trust. He reflects on what these chang...

Episode Summary Social psychologist Dr. Ronnie Janoff-Bulman joins Chris Malone to explain how two distinct moral systems—proscriptive (“do no harm”) and prescriptive (“help others”)—shape liberal and conservative worldviews. Drawing on her book The Two Moralities , she describes how approach-and-avoidance motivations give rise to social-order and social-justice moralities, why both are essential...

Closing thoughts from Professor and former President & CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Dr. Patrick Harker.

Episode Summary Dr. Patrick T. Harker joins The Unity Forum to unpack the moment we’re in: why he describes the backdrop as “stagflation light,” how to read the Fed’s dot plot as guidance—not a promise, and why long-term rates may not fall soon despite policy moves. The discussion explores the Fed’s independence, the neutral rate (r★), AI’s potential productivity boost, and listener questions on t...