The Marquette Civic Dialogues Program is thrilled to welcome Alexander Heffner, host of PBS’ The Open Mind and coauthor of A Documentary History of the United States, to campus. Heffner will discuss the effects of divisiveness on discourse, campaigns, and governance as well as the influence of new media, dis/misinformation, and filter bubbles that polarize American society. What are possible prescriptions to correct this cycle? How can our social footprint translate into constructive instead of destructive behavior? How can citizens, government, and the press restore faith in civic life and the integrity of public policy?
Alexander is host of The Open Mind on PBS and coauthor of bestselling A Documentary History of the United States (Penguin, 2022). He has covered American culture, politics, and civic life since the 2008 presidential campaign. He is recipient of Johns Hopkins University’s Agora Institute Fellowship, University of Denver’s Anvil of Freedom Award, Franklin Pierce University’s Fitzwater Medallion for Leadership in Public Communication, and Yale University’s Poynter Fellowship in Journalism. He is profiled in The Wrap, Mediaite, The Washington Post, The Des Moines Register, Christian Science Monitor, Variety, Medium, and on MSNBC, C-SPAN, NPR, CNN, ABC and the BBC. His writing appears in USA TODAY, WIRED, TIME, The Wall Street Journal, The Independent, NYT's Room for Debate, Boston Globe, and Philadelphia Inquirer, among other publications.