The 2025 Phil Lind Initiative Series, What It Means to Be “American”: Navigating Identity in a Changing Nation, brought together artists, politicians, and public intellectuals to explore how American identity is being reshaped through historical legacies, cultural narratives, and current events. From immersive art installations and performances to powerful candid discussions, this year’s series sparked important conversations around race, belonging, justice and the stories that define America today.
Whether you joined us in person or not, you can now watch recordings of this year’s talks below:
Smriti Keshari & Eric Schlosser
A conversation about the bomb, an immersive art installation by filmmaker Smriti Keshari and writer Eric Schlosser. Eric Schlosser is a writer and filmmaker. His book Command and Control, a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in History, describes the challenges of managing America’s nuclear arsenal. His book Fast Food Nation (2001) helped to launch the modern food movement. Smriti Keshari is an acclaimed Indian-American director and is an artist-in-residence at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the National Theatre in London.
Adam Kinzinger
A six-term Republican congressman and U.S. Air Force veteran, Rep. Adam Kinzinger made headlines as one of only two GOP members to serve on the Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Offering a candid look at one of the most tumultuous periods in modern American politics, Kinzinger takes us into the deeply polarized and fractured system that facilitated the Republican party’s transformation under Trump.
His Phil Lind Initiative talk “American Identity and the Republican Party” took place at UBC mere weeks after president-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to be sworn in following a decisive victory over Kamala Harris. This recording features the Q&A portion of the talk.
Ziwe
A positively fearless comedian, writer and actress, Ziwe has taken the internet by storm and redefined the boundaries of satire and cultural commentary with her provocative and hilarious interviews that confront America’s most uncomfortable truths about race, power, identity and politics.
As the host of “Ziwe,” she has welcomed guests like Fran Lebowitz, Gloria Steinem, and Stacey Abrams, along with a viral interview with George Santos after his expulsion from Congress. Named one of TIME’s 100 Next Gen Leaders, Ziwe blends wit and sharp insights into politics and culture.
Raven Chacon
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, performer and installation artist Raven Chacon creates evocative and powerful multidisciplinary works that challenge, question and reframe America’s colonial legacy from an Indigenous perspective. Born in Fort Defiance on the Navajo Nation, his experimental practice invites audiences to question the narratives that shape our world.
This Phil Lind Initiative event features a live performance of Chacon’s work Horse Notations alongside a conversation with moderator Jarrett Martineau that reflects on the on-going legacies of colonialism and how they challenge and unsettle notions of “American” identity.
Heather Cox Richardson
As a professor of history at Boston College and an award-winning author, Heather Cox Richardson has explored critical periods of American history, from the Civil War and Reconstruction to the Gilded Age and the evolution of the Republican Party. Reaching over 1.5 million readers daily with her wildly-popular newsletter Letters from an American, she has earned a reputation as one of the most trusted voices in American public life.
Bridging academic rigor and public discourse with insight and precision, Cox Richardson offers accessible yet profound commentary on American politics. Her Phil Lind Initiative talk draws from a deep well of historical knowledge to contextualize the current threats to American democracy.
