David Shipler, who has authored several books on the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, will discuss the constitutional framework of checks and balances created by the framers and how it’s being challenged now more than ever. He will examine the aggressive policies of the current administration that are being applied beyond government and into civil society, including deploying the US military in US cities. Shipler will address censorship, re-interpreting history, and the ethics of threatening political opponents. And he will consider whether this is a major infection point in American political history?

David K. Shipler is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of nine books and a former New York Times correspondent in Saigon, Moscow, Jerusalem, and Washington. He was executive producer, writer, and narrator of two PBS documentaries on the Arab-Israeli conflict and has taught at Princeton, Dartmouth, American University, and the University of Southern California. His book of poetry, The Wind is Invisible, was published in 2023. His latest book, The Interpreter, is a novel set at the end of the Vietnam War 50 years ago. He writes online at The Shipler Report and co-hosts a podcast, Two Reporters.