Common Ground with Jane Whitney

A panel of guests join Jane Whitney for a discussion of the state of the country in the shadow of the pandemic but through an intensely personal lens, a series of vignettes with influencers and thought leaders that, like a jig-saw puzzle, provide a view of the broad landscape when pieced together. The headliners, interviewed one-on-one, include:

• Tim Daly, actor and president of The Creative Coalition
• Joe Scarborough and Mik...

The defining political question of the moment, many pundits claim, probably is: Whither the GOP? When Donald Trump was sworn into office, the GOP held both houses of Congress and was considered untouchable. Two years later, the Democrats won back the House; two years after that, the Senate and the presidency. While the GOP dominates the South and still controls the majority of state legislatures and governorships, moderate Republic...

“We’re the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we’re the last that can do something about it” has become something of a cliché, a summary of the existential threat posed by global warming. As climate change moves from an imminent peril to a deadly reality for vast swaths of the country, a panel of nationally recognized groundbreakers discuss the gaping dichotomy between what scie...

A century after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote, the uncertainty that foreshadowed the suffrage victory foreshadows the precariousness of women’s rights. “Finish the Fight!”, a rallying cry from the struggle to win the final battle of the women’s voting rights movement once again characterizes the ongoing demand for full gender equality and is the focus of the show...

In the wake of the January 6 insurrection, probably the most serious threat to our constitutional government since the Civil War, leaders of the FBI and law enforcement authorities have repeatedly warned that the threat of domestic grown terrorism is metastasizing. Are they overreacting to a momentary spasm of the body politic or does the danger to our democracy run deeper than previously acknowledged? The panel of experts address ...

Has America lost its preeminent place in the world? Emerging from World War II as the first among equals, the United States became the architect and leader of a series of overlapping international alliances and agreements that relied on cooperation to seed the unrivaled progress and prosperity of the post-war era. But the popular platform of “America First,” which propelled President Trump to victory and symbolized his ...

Since the Kardashians became America’s royalty – famous for being, well, famous – celebrity has defined the country’s culture, an essential element to win power and influence. Donald Trump took celebrity to new heights, using it to become the most powerful man in the world. Now a new generation of luminaries is coming of age. Who are they? What do they have in common? What do they tell us about the country&r...

The Trump administration’s signature achievement was the expansion of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority and the confirmation of hundreds of lower court judges, the capstone of conservatives’ 30-year mission to restructure the courts in their own image. Case by case, the Supreme Court is rewriting the rules that have long structured the way we live, how we are governed, how we worship, even who we are. Immi...

Although race and identity always have shaped U.S. politics, they reemerged four years ago with new intensity. In what was supposed to be Obama's post-racial America as the pivot point of the election, they became the unapologetic driver of Donald Trump's unexpected victory. But the reenergized forces that propelled Trump to the White House did not spring out of a vacuum. The crowd-pleasing candidate merely marshaled spirits unleas...

The battle to sustain democracy, which many historians and pundits consider this century’s preeminent challenge, is the heart of the third show slated to air this season. Once considered democracy’s bedrock, a proud model for the world, the American experiment in the constitutional government is being battered as never before and, many analysts warn, now is crumbling. The show brings together a panel of renowned voices ...

Common Ground’s second show of the season focuses on whether the widespread longing for compromise and civility is nothing more than the vestigial dreams of a bygone era – or if the country can recapture the unity of spirit and purpose that has written America’s history in overcoming previous crises.

The panelists, leading voices from across a broad swath of the political spectrum, will talk about the formidable ...

The opening show in Common Ground’s season, “Life Beyond the Pandemic,” explores what we’ve learned about the pandemic and its profound impact of how we live, think and play. The expert panel, lead by Dr. Anthony Fauci, discuss how the ongoing crisis is shifting the ground beneath our feet and inevitably lead to permanent changes in political and economic power. But since every calamity also is ...

Common Ground with Jane Whitney is a new series that features deep-dive conversations with the nation’s leading thinkers, leaders and experts around the nation’s most important issues. The 12-episode series explores national public affairs issues from government and politics to the environment and global affairs -- with a mission to inform and inspire communities through shared dialogue and providing thought-provoking s...