Why It Matters: White Supremacy and the Threat to Democracy
Join Nevada Humanities for a conversation with journalists John L. Smith (Nevada Independent and author of the forthcoming book, Saints, Sinners, and Sovereign Citizens: The Endless War over the West's Public Lands), Talia Lavin (independent journalist and author of Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy), and Eli Saslow (Washington Post and author of Rising out of Hatred: the Awakening of a Former White Nationalist).
In response to historic events at the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, panelists delve into this dramatic moment for our nation, exploring the threads of white nationalism, armed militias, and unrest that threatens to destabilize our democracy. This event is moderated by Dr. Todd Felts, Teaching Associate Professor of Public Relations & Advertising at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. This event was live streamed on Thursday, February 4, 2021, at 6 pm PST.
Nevada native John L. Smith is a freelance writer, journalist, and author of more than a dozen books, including The Westside Slugger: Joe Neal’s Lifelong Fight for Social Justice. He writes an award-winning weekly column for The Nevada Independent, and is a contributor to Nevada Public Radio’s State of Nevada; and a wide range of publications. In 2016 he was inducted into the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame. Saints, Sinners, and Sovereign Citizens: The Endless War over the West's Public Lands, a book about the grazing rights battle between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the federal government, is forthcoming in 2021.
Talia Lavin is a freelance journalist and antifascist with bylines in the Washington Post, the New Republic, the Village Voice, GQ, and many more publications. She is the author of the recent book Culture Warlords: My Journey into the Dark Web of White Supremacy (Hachette, October 2020), a critically acclaimed, wide-ranging examination of the far-right's metastasis online with an emphasis on antisemitism, misogyny, and violence.
In his Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage for The Washington Post, Eli Saslow covers the impact of some of the most pressing national issues and policy decisions on individual lives, from racism and poverty to addiction and school shootings. Saslow’s latest book, Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist, charts the rise of white nationalism through the experiences of one person who abandoned everything he was taught to believe. Saslow won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting for a yearlong series about food stamps in the United States, later collected into the book American Hunger.
This program is produced by Nevada Humanities and funded by the “Why It Matters: Civic and Electoral Participation” initiative, administered by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
