Conversations About What Every American Should Know

Podcast

Identity and Equity

David Henry Hwang, Playwright, Screenwriter, and Opera Librettist

In this Aspen Ideas To Go Podcast “Extra” episode, Eric Liu talks to David Henry Hwang, Tony-winning American playwright, screenwriter, and opera librettist.

BY Aspen Ideas To Go

Podcast

06.03.2016
Identity and Equity

Maria Hinojosa, News Anchor and Reporter

In this Aspen Ideas To Go Podcast “Extra” episode, Eric Liu talks to Maria Hinojosa, an award-winning news anchor and reporter.

BY Aspen Ideas To Go

Podcast

05.26.2016
Identity and Equity

Colin Woodard Describes Differing American Values

In this Aspen Ideas To Go Podcast "Extra" episode, Eric Liu talks to Colin Woodard, an award-winning author and journalist. In his book, "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America," Woodard describes why American values differ across the country.

BY Aspen Ideas to Go

Podcast

05.19.2016
Identity and Equity

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on a Modern American Language

Eric Liu talks to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Gates is a filmmaker, scholar, journalist and cultural critic. He offers his ideas on what terms should make up a modern American language.

BY Aspen Ideas To Go

Podcast

05.13.2016
Culture

Aspen Ideas to Go Podcast: What Every American Should Know

In 1987, E.D. Hirsch sparked a national debate with his book "Cultural Literacy," claiming that there is a foundation of common knowledge every American should know — and codifying it in a list of 5,000 facts and cultural references. Today, amidst giant demographic and social shifts, the United States needs such common knowledge more than ever.

BY Marci Krivonen, Guest Blogger

Podcast

02.25.2016

Articles and Blog Posts

Civic Action

Exercise the Power of Voting—for Those of Us Who Can't

To be knowledgeable about and understand voting is beyond civic engagement, it’s an act of people power.

BY Crystal Campos

Blog Post

10.30.2020
Identity and Equity

History Lessons on the Immigrant Experience

Throughout history, groups have formed against immigrants in the name of a false sense of national identity or patriotism.

BY Araceli Hernandez

Blog Post

09.14.2020
Civic Action

From Historically Silenced to Civically Engaged

Immigrating from communist Vietnam to the United States, Ho's parents feared political participation—he's changing that.

BY Tri Ho

Blog Post

02.27.2020
Civic Action

Youth Insights for Building a Collective Civic Identity

As we make space for more voices in our democracy, our civic identity gets richer, stronger and more honest. Join the conversation — what’s on your list?

BY Citizenship and American Identity Program

Blog Post

11.13.2019
K-12 Education

Engaging Youth in Realizing our Civic Purpose

Here's what happened when Chicago Public Schools students were asked to help define their own civics.

BY Citizenship and American Identity Program

Blog Post

05.03.2019
Civic Action

What Every American Should Know

We are asking individuals around the country: What do you think every American should know?

BY Citizenship and American Identity Program

Video

04.17.2018
Identity and Equity

The Artists Who Shaped US Identity

Their works taught us who to be.

BY Kimber Craine

Blog Post

03.30.2018
Civic Action

How the Erie Canal Explains American Democracy

Originally written off as an absurd public works project, the canal set the standard for US infrastructure.

BY Kimber Craine

Blog Post

02.15.2018
Identity and Equity

Ten Monumental Americans You Should Know

They may not have had their likenesses set in bronze, but their stories are testaments to American progress.

BY Ruby Shamir

Blog Post

11.14.2017
Immigration and Society

Ten Ways to Understand America's Full History

In a more perfect union, the United States would embrace the unabridged version of its democratic experiment.

BY Sayu Bhojwani

Blog Post

05.25.2017
US Government

Unlocking the Legacies of Angel Island

Today's detainees have much in common with those held off the coast of San Francisco.

BY Kimber Craine

Blog Post

04.20.2017
US Government

Fake News Is Not New

You don't even have to go back a century to find a familiar climate of spin and propaganda.

BY Kimber Craine

Blog Post

03.22.2017
Civic Action

Remembering the Abolitionists Who Made American History

Frederick Douglass, William Still, Samuel J. May, and more helped lead and chronicle the movement.

BY Kimber Craine

Blog Post

02.23.2017
Civic Action

Lessons from the Women's Suffrage Movement

The recent election has brought many democratic issues into stark relief.

BY Kimber Craine

Blog Post

01.04.2017
Civic Action

The Manhattan Project and Scientific Cooperation

The work of refugees helped the US change the scientific world.

BY Kimber Craine

Blog Post

01.26.2017
How to Be American

Why cultivating a shared cultural core is more important than ever—and why such a project serves progressive ends by Eric Liu (Democracy Journal, Fall 2015)
What Every American Should Know

"When we fail to build a common knowledge base, we're condemning our kids to something less than full literacy and citizenship" by Robert Pondiscio (US News & World Report, Jan. 11, 2016)
What Every American Should Know

"Defining common cultural literacy for an increasingly diverse nation" by Eric Liu (The Atlantic, July 2015)

Videos

"Top 10 Civic Ideals and Cultural Principles that Every American Should Know" by Robert Pondiscio

"What Every American Should Know: Defining common cultural literacy for an increasingly diverse nation" by Eric Liu (The Atlantic)