Podcast #188: Van Jones: "You have to keep open the possibility for redemption."

By NYPL Staff
October 31, 2017

The New York Public Library Podcast features your favorite writers, artists, and thinkers in smart talks and provocative conversations. Listen to some of our most engaging programs, discover new ideas, and celebrate the best of today’s culture.

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Few people manage to be simultaneously as outspoken and as civil as activist, CNN analyst, and author Van Jones. The complicated and admirable mix is on display on today's epsidode, in which Jones speaks with his CNN colleague Brooke Baldwin about his latest book, Beyond the Messy Truth: How We Came Apart; How We Come Together

Jones has been hailed as someone who tries to “fight the right way.” In Beyond the Messy Truth, he draws on his years of activism and political analysis to take aim at the failures of both parties and to show the nation how to focus on practical answers to problems that affect us regardless of region or political ideology. Speaking at LIVE from the NYPL, Jones shared stories of his life, traced the arc of his career, and explored some of the friendships—from Prince to Newt Gingrich—that have shaped his life. He offered some of his prescriptions for warding off the disease of divisiveness that he argues is impeding national progress—Jones calls on citizens to abandon the politics of accusation and get down to the business of solving—together—some of our nation’s toughest problems.

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