Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this video belong to the speakers and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of any entities they are associated with or Marguerite Casey Foundation.
The Marguerite Casey Foundation (MCF), in partnership with Seattle Arts and Lectures, invites you to a virtual book club event!
Tune in virtually on Sept 8 at Noon PST for a conversation with MCF President and CEO Carmen Rojas, Ph.D., Anand Giridharadas, author of The Persuaders, and Faiz Shakir from A More Perfect Union, as they discuss Anand's new book The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy
This event is part of our MCF Book Club: Reading for a Liberated Future series. The MCF Book Club shares the ideas of leaders who encourage us to imagine how we can radically transform our democracy, economy, and society.
An insider account of activists, politicians, educators, and everyday citizens working to change minds, bridge divisions, and fight for democracy—from disinformation fighters to a leader of Black Lives Matter to Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and more—by the best-selling author of Winners Take All and award-winning former New York Times, columnist.
Dr. Carmen Rojas is the president and CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation. Under her leadership, the foundation launched the prestigious Freedom Scholar award, and since starting in 2020 granted more than $165M in funding to dozens of organizations doing the hard work of shifting power to those people who have long been excluded from having it. Prior to MCF, Dr. Rojas was the cofounder and CEO of the Workers Lab, an innovation lab that partners with workers to develop new ideas that help them succeed and flourish.
Anand Giridharadas is a writer.
He is the author of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas, and India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation’s Remaking. A former foreign correspondent and columnist for The New York Times for more than a decade, he has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Time, and he is the publisher of the popular newsletter The Ink.
He has spoken on stages around the world and taught narrative journalism at New York University. He is a regular on-air political analyst for MSNBC.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he was raised there, in Paris, France, and in Maryland, and educated at the University of Michigan, Oxford, and Harvard.
His writing has been honored by the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism at Yale, the Porchlight Business Book of the Year award, the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award for Humanism in Culture from Harvard, and the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Award. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Priya Parker, and their two children.
Faiz Shakir is the Founder and Executive Director of More Perfect Union, a progressive nonprofit advocacy journalism organization devoted to advancing economic justice and restoring democracy by telling the stories of the working class, holding corporations accountable, and connecting these fights to the need for strong democratic institutions.
Shakir continues to serve in his capacity as Chief Political Advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders after leading the charge as campaign manager for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign. Under Shakir’s leadership, the Bernie 2020 campaign changed the political landscape in this country, bringing progressive policy discussions to the forefront of the national narrative.
Prior to working for Bernie Sanders, Shakir was the National Political Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from January 2017 – March 2019. As National Political Director, he oversaw the ACLU’s National Political Advocacy Department, which houses the organization’s Washington Legislative Office and State Advocacy and Policy departments. In his role, Shakir developed and implemented strategies to advance the organization’s priorities at the federal and state levels.
Shakir worked as one of the most senior advisers to former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, prior to joining the ACLU. He directed policy and communications work for Senator Reid while also coordinating with Democratic members and staff, key interest groups, and press to organize issue campaigns. Prior to that, Shakir served as Senior Adviser and Director of Digital Media for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.
