This was FUN! Every year the John Adams Institute organizes a lecture series for high school kids. This year Gabe Marino gave a great talk, both in schools and online, about California, ranging from the 19th century Gold Rush through its gorgeous landscapes, its culture of surf sun & sex, movies and music and of course Silicon Valley. Ever wondered what all those garages looked like where Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and the Google boys invented our modern-day tech culture? Check it out in this video! Read the article…
In times of corona, the John Adams Institute is doing its utmost to bring the best and the brightest of American thinking to the Netherlands – online. On May 26th, the day that she was supposed to speak live at the John Adams, I interviewed Esther Safran Foer about her post-Holocaust memoire ‘I Want You to Know We’re Still Here’.
The John Adams Institute and De Balie joined forces to collaborate on an interview with the renowned American political scientist Francis Fukuyama about the geo-political consequences of the corona pandemic. The title was ‘In Government We Trust’: but do we?
Under corona lockdown, the entire cultural world has pivoted to producing online content. The first online event of the John Adams Institute was an interview I held with the American filmmaker Roger Ross Williams and the Dutch lawyer and judge Bart Stapert. Roger – who has spoken at the John Adams twice before – made the first three episodes of a new Netflix Originals series called ‘The Innocence Files’.
Recently I interviewed the American journalist and writer Russell Shorto, my predecessor as director of the John Adams Institute, the independent center for American culture in the Netherlands. We talk about Trump and the meaning of his victory for the United States and its relationship with the rest of the world.
