America’s Public Forum: Self-Creation, Spirituality, and Politics in Our Social Media World

** This event is open to the media upon approval. Media contact: Ciaran O’Connor, ciaran@braverangels.org

From a series of events bridging the worlds of ideas and depolarization, hosted by Braver Angels and friends, “America’s Public Forum.”

Who are “You” on social media? Is it the same person you are in real life and in person? Or is it a person who is recognizably you, but maybe a bit better, polished off and improved, more fashionable and witty? Or maybe a more aggressive political arguer than you ever could be to someone’s face? For better and for worse, we are always creating ourselves in a sense, and we’ll be joined by one of the most insightful of America’s rising public philosophers, Tara Isabella Burton, to discuss some of the deeper questions that reality opens in the digital age, and particularly in the pandemic-induced age of Zoom calls and TikToks.

But it’s not just the comparatively personal question of “who am I?” by any means. For what and who each of us, in our private lives, seems to be inextricably connected with spiritual questions—how should I live, is there good and bad out there, how do I find meaning in my life—and political questions, and sometimes both at the same time. Are politics and religion really so impersonal as we sometimes think they are, and if they’re not, can we live together without solid shared answers to the questions they raise? Maybe, maybe not—but Tara will be joined by Braver Angels’s own John Wood Jr., a rising moral thinker in his own right, to sort through these questions and many more. Luke Nathan Phillips will MC the evening.

Join us for a special session of America’s Public Forum this coming week to hear Tara’s and John’s takes on these and other questions, and we’ll be looking forward to you adding your voice to the mix as well!