All upcoming News, Politics, & Media programs

The allure of the sea has always captivated the hearts and minds of Americans, including some of our most notable leaders. Whether aboard naval vessels or presidential yachts, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, George H.W. Bush, and other residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue have used the ocean as a backdrop for reflection, decision-making, and diplomacy. Veteran White House correspondent and historian Ken Walsh examines their seagoing stories and the maritime experiences that have left an indelible mark on the fabric of American leadership.

Thomas Jefferson, primary author of the Declaration of Independence and our third president, has been called the architect of American democracy. Yet his legacy has been questioned in large part because he owned over 600 slaves during his lifetime. Historian John Ragosta examines the question of what a white slave-owning aristocrat has to teach us about the nature of American leadership.

The role is unpaid and undefined, yet many women serving as First Lady made pivotal contributions that helped shape the United States. From early trailblazers like Dolley Madison, whose residence on Lafayette Square was nicknamed the “second White House,” to those in the role who are less well-known, like Harriet Lane—the first to use the title—explore how first ladies can personify persistence and perseverance. Join staff from A Tour Of Her Own to hear stories of America’s first ladies, not often recognized with monuments but ingrained in the fabric of history.

It has become increasingly common for Western museums to be portrayed not as sites of preservation and education but rather as homes of works stolen by imperialists. Historian Justin M. Jacobs challenges that perspective, providing an overview of the five primary channels through which Western museums acquired their artifacts. Only by better appreciating the historical context that informed the transfer of art and antiquities from the source country to a museum, Jacobs argues, can calls for cultural restitution be properly assessed.

In America’s collective consciousness, Pat Nixon has long been perceived as elusive and enigmatic. Her biographer Heath Hardage Lee examines a figure who bore little resemblance to the woman so often described in the press: an empathetic, adventurous, self-made woman who wanted no power or influence but who connected warmly with both ordinary Americans and people from different cultures she encountered worldwide.

Filmmaker Céline Cousteau recounts the making of her documentary Tribes on the Edge, which examines the human and ecological threats faced by the Indigenous peoples of the Javari Valley reservation, located along Brazil’s Amazon border with Peru. She examines those aggressive forces—from deforestation to health crises, illegal mining to the dismantling of protections of land and human rights—and why the struggle for survival that played out in the Amazon has implications that reach across the globe.

No presidential election in American history carried stakes as high as the 1864 contest between Abraham Lincoln and former Union General George B. McClellan. In it, Northern voters would decide the holder of the nation’s highest office—as well as the future of the country. Historian Christopher Hamner traces the buildup to November through the experiences of Americans who witnessed the election’s turmoil and for whom its outcome was a frightening unknown.

In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement ended a 30-year period of violence in the north of Ireland known as “the Troubles,” but the difficult legacy of that era still overshadows politics in Ireland north and south to this day. Historian Jennifer Paxton explores the origins of the Troubles as well as the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland and the prospects for Irish unity now that the United Kingdom’s territory has its first-ever nationalist first minister.

Pennsylvania Avenue has hosted inaugurations, protests, and parades throughout the history of the United States. But the development of this grand boulevard connecting the Capitol to the White House was fraught with conflict and intrigue. Visit Lafayette Square, walk Pennsylvania Avenue, and learn from Carolyn Muraskin, founder of DC Design Tours, how this part of downtown Washington went from being Murder Bay to America’s Main Street.

While all sorts of climate-related issues are in the news, we have solved planet-threatening problems before, atmospheric scientist Susan Solomon argues, and we can do it again. The path to success begins when an environmental problem becomes both personal and perceptible to the general public, Solomon says. She tells stories of environmental victories against ozone depletion, smog, pesticides, and lead whose heroes include angry mothers, gang members turned social activists, and iconoclastic scientists.