Norm Eisen, Special Counsel to the House Judiciary Committee on Impeachment
2020-08-06 | BigTent Zoom Room

Tent Talk: The Fairness Project- Ohio’s Latest Power Grab
2023-07-18 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | BigTent Zoom Room
We welcome Hannah Ledford Deputy Executive Director and Campaign Director for the Fairness Project.
In Latest Power Grab, Ohio Senate Advances Anti-Democratic Supermajority Requirement for Ballot Measures. In the latest attack on direct democracy, Ohio legislators on Wednesday voted to advance a supermajority threshold for future ballot measures, co-opting a tactic being pushed by extremist officials in multiple states to limit voters’ decision-making power.
Anti-abortion groups have been open about the fact that efforts to advance the supermajority threshold are intended to block a potential measure this November that would enshrine reproductive freedom in the state constitution. However, if the threshold were to be raised to 60%, it would impact all future ballot measures, not just those related to abortion.

In response to repeated attacks on direct democracy, including in states like South Dakota, Arkansas, Ohio and more, the Fairness Project has been fighting to defend the ballot measure process and ensure citizens can use this critical tool for years to come. Since last year, the Fairness Project has organized $5.6 million to fight back through its Ballot Measure Rescue Campaign.

The Fairness Project’s Ballot Measure Rescue Campaign is working to protect the ballot measure process itself across the country. They are leading a strategic multi-state coalition to fight back using litigation, legislative advocacy, and ballot measure campaigns. Where they need to bring litigation, they will litigate. Where they can stop bad laws from being passed, they will run aggressive communications and lobbying campaigns to stop anti-democratic bills. And where the legislature refers suppressive measures to the ballot, they will fight to win those ballot campaigns. Link for more information Here

Spotlight Speaker: Andrew Weissmann
2023-08-21 18:30 - 19:30 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTent welcomed veteran prosecutor and legal analyst Andrew Weissmann, to answer questions we had (and some we didn’t know we had) about THE INDICTMENTS.
Weissmann served as the lead prosecutor for the Mueller investigation, was Chief Counsel of the FBI, and, while chief of the criminal division of the Eastern District of NY, prosecuted members of infamous crime families. Weissmann is the co-host, with Mary McCord, of the podcast Prosecuting Donald Trump.
Andrew Weissmann is a Professor of Practice with the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law. He served as a lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office (2017-19) and as Chief of the Fraud Section in the Department of Justice (2015-2019).
During his previous tenure at NYU Law (2013-2015), Weissmann was a Senior Fellow at both the Reiss Center on Law and Security and the Center for the Administration of Criminal Law. He taught courses in national security and criminal procedure.
From 2011 to 2013, Weissmann served as the General Counsel for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He previously served as special counsel to then-Director Mueller in 2005, after which he was a partner at Jenner & Block in New York City. From 2002-2005, he served as the Deputy and then the Director of the Enron Task Force in Washington, D.C., where he supervised the prosecution of more than 30 individuals in connection with the company’s collapse. Weissmann was a federal prosecutor for 15 years in the Eastern District of New York, where he served as the Chief of the Criminal Division. He prosecuted numerous members of the Colombo, Gambino, and Genovese families, including the bosses of the Colombo and Genovese families. Weissmann has extensive experience in private practice. Weissmann won the largest Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration award in history. He has taught criminal law and procedure at Fordham Law School and Brooklyn Law School. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School and was on the managing board of the Columbia Law Review. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University and attended the University of Geneva on a Fulbright Fellowship.

*In-Person* Spotlight Speaker: Michael Waldman, How the Supreme Court is Reshaping America with AG William Tong (D-CT)
2023-09-13 18:00 - 20:00 | Greenwich, Connecticut, To Be Provided
Join us for cocktails and conversation, in Greenwich, CT on Wednesday, September 13th at 6:00PM with Michael Waldman, President of The Brennan Center for Justice, and Attorney General William Tong (D-CT). They will discuss Michael’s new book, Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America, what role the state courts play, and, possible court reforms that can protect our democracy.
In The Supermajority, Michael Waldman explores the tumultuous 2021–2022 Supreme Court term. He draws deeply on history to examine other times the Court veered from the popular will, provoking controversy and backlash. And he analyzes the most important new rulings and their implications for the law and for American society. Waldman asks: “What can we do when the Supreme Court challenges the country?”
Michael Waldman is president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to revitalize the nation’s systems of democracy and justice. He was director of speechwriting for President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1999 and is the author of The Second Amendment: A Biography and The Fight to Vote. Waldman was a member of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court. A graduate of Columbia College and NYU School of Law, he comments widely in the media on law and policy.
Address will be sent in a separate email.
*Michael Waldman’s book will be provided!

Tent Talk: We the People for Education with Tiffany Van Der Hyde
2023-09-19 12:00 - 13:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
Join us as we discussed the changing the narrative for public schools.
We The People For Education (WTPFE) wants to return local school districts’ focus to its students and tamp down on the extreme rhetoric pushed by some activists and elected officials. They’re tired of efforts like book bans that both target specific groups of people and can divide their local communities.
Tiffany Van Der Hyde, the group’s executive director, will speak to us and share the message they want to convey to people across the commonwealth, from Southwest Virginia to the Eastern Shore, and everywhere in between.
The organization wants to work with communities statewide to get people more involved with their local school boards and to help support candidates who support their mission.
“We understand that the problems we want to fix and the people we want to be able to reach out and support and help in this effort are from Roanoke to Virginia Beach to Fairfax to Harrisonburg and Rockingham; they’re everywhere,” said Van Der Hyde.
In Virginia, pretty much every locality has some sort of school board race coming up this year.
“I think as far as where people should pay attention, it’s their own backyard; it’s their own neighborhood school, school board races, it’s who’s at the end of your ballot,” she said. “Whether it’s you running…whether it’s starting a group of like-minded parents, or supporting another local entity who’s really focused on sound policy and student mental health, and supporting our teachers…I think there’s something in every community to be done right now,” she said.
We the People for Education is a non-partisan 501c4 focused on supporting and empowering pro-public education leadership in all of Virginia’s communities.

Tent Talk: Center for Common Ground with Andrea Miller
2023-09-26 12:00 - 13:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
Join us in a discussion with Andrea Miller, founding Board member of Center for Common Ground.
Center for Common Ground was founded to educate and empower under-represented voters in voter suppression states to engage in elections and advocate for their right to vote. In partnership with local, on-the-ground organizations, they build advocacy and voting campaigns that educate and mobilize Black voters across the South. Together, they provide voters with the tools they need to learn how national, state and local policy and politics impact their communities, where their elected officials stand, and what can be done to create needed change.
They partner with local on-the-ground organizations in our target states of Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. They also build technology tools to help empower local communities and organizing networks long after elections are over.
Andrea Miller is the Founding Board Member of the Center for Common Ground, Executive Director of People Demanding Action, Founding President of the National Women’s Political Caucus of Virginia, and a member of the Democracy and Governance working group of the Virginia Green New Deal. Andrea is an IT and Political Director and a digital and elections strategist. She designs and administers digital phone banks and texting programs. From 2013 to 2015, she led the Progressive Round Table on Capitol Hill, bringing together members of Congress, activists, and non-profit leaders. Her expertise is in voting rights, climate, and the Equal Rights Amendment. She has successfully advocated for legislation on both the Federal and State level. In 2008 she was the Democratic nominee for the Virginia 4th Congressional district.
Center for Common Ground

Spotlight Speaker Series: Simon Rosenberg and Robert Hubbell
2023-09-27 19:00 - 20:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
Join Simon Rosenberg and Robert Hubbell for a conversation about the state of our democracy and the growth of the Pro-Democracy Coalition that must be ready for 2024.
Simon Rosenberg is a political strategist and founder of New Democrat Network (NDN) and the New Policy Institute, a liberal think tank and advocacy organization based in DC. He is a veteran of two Presidential campaigns, including a senior role in the 1992 Clinton War Room. Subscribe to his YouTube channel. Sign up for Simon’s Substack here.
Robert Hubbell is a retired lawyer who started an email newsletter in 2017, “Today’s Edition,” which morphed into a Substack email with over 35,000 subscribers. Robert distills the news for his readers with a lawyerly point of view and a good dose of hope.

Spotlight Speaker: Banned in the USA with Suzanne Nossel and Richard Dresser
2023-10-04 19:00 - 20:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
2023 Banned Books Week is upon us, and we were thrilled to host Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, and Richard Dresser, President of the Writers Guild Initiative. They examined the current movement to ban books in public schools and libraries across the country, underscoring the impacts of increased censorship on students and schools, as well as authors and artists. Unlike book bans in our past, the recent rash of book banning in schools and public libraries is a well-funded, coordinated effort by an extreme minority on the far right. The repercussion in classrooms and lecture halls, on students, teachers, librarians, authors, artists, and publishers are extremely damaging and far-reaching.

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Over the last 100 years, PEN American has advocated for free expression by defending writers and fighting censorship around the world. As part of these efforts, we champion the freedom to write, research and report on challenges to the freedom of expression, host educational and advocacy events, draft op-eds, and provide support for writers and artists at risk. Now, our cause has been made all the more urgent by the current wave of book bans and censorship in schools. To learn more, visit pen.org
Operating under the umbrella of the Writers Guild of America, East, the Initiative’s mission is to give a voice to populations not being heard, through writing workshops all over the country, including veterans, caregivers, wounded soldiers, exonerated death row prisoners, DACA recipients, LGBTQ asylum seekers, inmates at the Pendleton Prison in Indiana, victims of Hurricane Sandy, people living with HIV/AIDS, people living with chronic illness, and, more recently, nurses, paramedics and other first line responders in New York. To learn more, visit Writers Guild Initiative.
About Suzanne Nossel
Suzanne Nossel currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of PEN America, the leading human rights and free expression organization, and is the author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All. She also serves on the Meta Oversight Board. Her prior career spanned government service and leadership roles in the corporate and nonprofit sectors. She has served as the Chief Operating Officer of Human Rights Watch and as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. During the first term of the Obama Administration, Nossel served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations. Nossel coined the term “Smart Power,” which was the title of a 2004 article she published in Foreign Affairs Magazine and later became the theme of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s tenure in office. Nossel is a featured columnist for Foreign Policy magazine and has published op-eds in The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, and dozens of other outlets, as well as scholarly articles in Foreign Affairs, Dissent, democracy and other journals.
About Richard Dresser
Over the past twenty year Richard Dresser’s plays have been widely produced on and off Broadway, in the nation’s leading regional theaters, and extensively throughout Europe. He has worked in television for many years on a number of series including HBO’s “Vietnam War Stories” for which he won a cable ACE award, “The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd” starring Blair Brown, “The Job” starring Denis Leary, “The Education of Max Bickford” starring Richard Dreyfuss, “Madigan Men” starring Gabriel Byrne, and such cult favorites as “Bakersfield P.D.,” and “Keen Eddie.” He created the web series “Life Coach” starring Cheri Oteri for AMC. He has sold pilots to all the major networks.

Spotlight Speakers: A Conversation with Heather Cox Richardson and Katie Couric
2023-10-25 19:00 - 20:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
On Wednesday October 25th at 7PM ET, BigTentUSA is thrilled to host historian and popular Substack author Heather Cox Richardson in conversation with award-winning journalist Katie Couric. They will discuss Richardson’s new book Democracy Awakening: The State of America; how we got to this perilous point, what our history really tells us about ourselves, and what the future of democracy can be.
Many books tell us what has happened over the last five years. Democracy Awakening explains how we got to this perilous point, what our history really tells us about ourselves, and what the future of democracy can be.
In the midst of the impeachment crisis of 2019, Heather Cox Richardson launched a daily Facebook essay providing the historical background of the daily torrent of news. It soon turned into a newsletter and its readership ballooned to more than 2 million dedicated readers who rely on her plainspoken and informed take on the present and past in America.
In Democracy Awakening, Richardson crafts a compelling and original narrative, explaining how, over the decades, a small group of wealthy people have made war on American ideals. By weaponizing language and promoting false history they have led us into authoritarianism — creating a disaffected population and then promising to recreate an imagined past where those people could feel important again. She argues that taking our country back starts by remembering the elements of the nation’s true history that marginalized Americans have always upheld. Their dedication to the principles on which this nation was founded has enabled us to renew and expand our commitment to democracy in the past. Richardson sees this history as a roadmap for the nation’s future.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
Katie Couric (@katiecouric) is an award-winning journalist and #1 New York Times best-selling author of her memoir, Going There, which was published in October 2021. She is also a co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) which has raised more than $700 million for cancer research. Couric was the first woman to solo anchor a network evening newscast, serving as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News from 2006 to 2011 following 15-years as co-anchor of NBC’s Today show.
In 2017, she founded Katie Couric Media (KCM), which has developed a number of media projects, including a daily newsletter, “Wake-Up Call”, a podcast, “Next Question”, digital video series and several documentaries. You can find it all at katiecouric.com.
Heather Cox Richardson is Professor of History at Boston College. She writes widely about Reconstruction, the Civil War, and the history of the Republican Party. She is the author of seven books including, most recently, Democracy Awakening, as well as the award-winning How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and The Continuing Fight for the Soul of America. She writes the popular newsletter, Letters from an American, a daily chronicle of the history behind American politics.

Spotlight Speaker Series: Neal Katyal
2023-11-01 19:00 - 20:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTent was thrilled to host Neal Katyal, the former Acting Solicitor General of the United States, under the Tent. He has argued more than 50 cases before the Supreme Court. Katyal previewed the cases before the Court this term, and discussed the hottest legal issues in Trump’s cases.
About Neal Katyal
Neal Katyal, the former Acting Solicitor General of the United States, focuses on appellate and complex litigation. At the age of 53, he has already argued more Supreme Court cases in U.S. history than has any minority attorney, recently breaking the record held by Thurgood Marshall. Neal has extensive experience in matters of constitutional, technology, corporate, patent, securities, criminal, employment, and tribal law. In the most recent 2022-23 Term, he argued five separate cases (nearly 10% of the docket), including winning the landmark voting case Moore v. Harper, which Judge Michael Luttig described as “the most important case for American democracy in the almost two and a half centuries since America’s founding.”

Neal served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States, where he argued several major Supreme Court cases involving a variety of issues, such as his successful defense of the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, his victorious defense of former Attorney General John Ashcroft for alleged abuses in the war on terror.
In 2021, Neal was named a Trustee of Dartmouth College. In 2022, he was named a Trustee of the Whitney Museum in New York City. In 2023, he was named Vice President and Trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society.

Tyranny of the Minority: Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt in Conversation with Ian Bassin
2023-12-13 19:00 - 20:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
We were honored to host a special conversation with Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, authors of the new book Tyranny of the Minority (the follow-up to the bestselling How Democracies Die) and Protect Democracy Executive Director, Ian Bassin.
Levitsky and Ziblatt put forth the argument that the American political system incorporates counter-majoritarian elements designed to prevent the unchecked dominance of the current majority and to provide mechanisms for safeguarding the interests and rights of political minorities. These mechanisms encompass the Electoral College in presidential elections, the Senate’s uneven representation of smaller states, its filibuster rule, and the Supreme Court’s role in judicial review, along with the lifetime appointments of its judges. However, it is worth noting that the apprehension regarding the “tyranny of the majority” has been taken to an extreme, as the tyranny of the minority has become a palpable reality.
In the discussion they explored the historical rationale behind the inclusion of counter-majoritarian features within U.S. institutions. Additionally, the conversation dove into how this minority influence has grown so substantially and why it is essential to consider both short-term solutions and long-term reforms to mitigate this phenomenon and ensure a more balanced democratic system.
Steven Levitsky is the David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government, Harvard University.
Daniel Ziblatt is Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and director of the Transformations of Democracy group at Berlin’s Social Science Center ( WZB Berlin Social Science Center ).
Ian Bassin is co-founder and Executive Director of Protect Democracy. He previously served as Associate White House Counsel. His responsibilities included ensuring that White House and executive branch officials complied with the laws, rules and norms that protect the fundamentally democratic nature of our government. He is a recipient of a 2023 MacArthur Fellowship, the Skoll Award for Social Innovation.

James Carville and Sarah Longwell in conversation with Katie Couric
2024-01-24 19:00 - 20:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTentUSA was pleased to host legendary political consultant James Carville and focus group guru and publisher of The Bulwark, Sarah Longwell, in conversation with award-winning journalist Katie Couric. They dove into the mindset of voters as the 2024 Presidential election approaches, exploring topics such as voter preferences for candidates and the underlying reasons for these choices. They also discussed the Democratic Party’s messaging problem, Trump, and the craziest members of Congress.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
James Carville is a well-known American political consultant, who has successfully managed many political campaigns, most notably, the first presidential campaign (1991–92) of Bill Clinton. He is also a speaker, talk-show host, actor, and author with six New York Times bestsellers to his credit. He co-hosts a weekly podcast, Politics War Room, with journalist Al Hunt, and has co-founded Democracy Corps, an independent, non-profit polling organization dedicated to making the government more responsive to the American people.
Sarah Longwell is a Republican political strategist and publisher of The Bulwark. She is also host of the Bulwark podcast The Focus Group, which presents the broad takeaways from hundreds of hours of voter opinion focus groups across both the country and the political spectrum.
Katie Couric is an award-winning journalist and #1 New York Times best-selling author. Couric was the first woman to solo anchor a network evening newscast, serving as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News from 2006 to 2011 following 15 years as co-anchor of NBC’s Today show.
In 2017, she founded Katie Couric Media (KCM), which has developed a number of media projects, including a daily newsletter, “Wake-Up Call”, a podcast, “Next Question”, digital video series and several documentaries. You can find it all at katiecouric.com.

Michael Waldman and Judge J. Michael Luttig: Is the U.S. President Above the Law?
2024-01-30 12:00 - 13:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTent was thrilled to host Michael Waldman, President of the Brennan Center for Justice and retired Judge J. Michael Luttig. They joined us to discuss the 2024 election, and whether Trump is ineligible for the presidency in accordance with Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. This section bars anyone who has violated their oath to uphold the US Constitution by “engaging in insurrection”, from holding public office. Judge Luttig has said that the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the question of Trump’s eligibility will be “one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions since the founding of the nation.”
About our Speakers:
Michael Waldman is president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to revitalize the nation’s systems of democracy and justice. He was director of speechwriting for President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1999 and is the author of The Second Amendment: A Biography and The Fight to Vote. Waldman was a member of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court. A graduate of Columbia College and NYU School of Law, he comments widely in the media on law and policy.
J. Michael Luttig served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for 15 years, from 1991 to 2006. He was appointed to the federal bench by President George H.W. Bush, and served as assistant attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice and counselor to the attorney general of the United States. He was assistant counsel to the president at the White House from 1981 to 1982 under President Ronald Reagan. From 1982 to 1983, he was a law clerk to then-Judge Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. From 1983 to 1985, he served as a law clerk and then special assistant to the chief justice of the United States.

Jocelyn Benson, Michigan Secretary of State: Election Security in 2024
2024-02-13 12:00 - 13:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
We were thrilled to host distinguished guest speaker, Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s 43rd Secretary of State and Wendy Weiser,vice president, Brennan Center for Justice. Secretary Benson is a celebrated figure in the realm of electoral integrity and accessibility, and she has emerged as one of the nation’s foremost authorities in conducting secure and inclusive elections. The conversation was moderated by Wendy Weiser who directs the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center. Her program focuses on voting rights and elections, money in politics and ethics, redistricting and representation, government dysfunction, rule of law, and fair courts. This event provided an unparalleled opportunity to hear directly from Secretary Benson about her groundbreaking work in overseeing Michigan’s 2020 and 2022 general elections. These elections not only set records in voter turnout but also established new benchmarks in electoral security and transparency.
Listen to their insights into the challenges and triumphs of administering elections that have shaped the course of our democracy.
About Our Speakers
Jocelyn Benson is Michigan’s 43rd Secretary of State. In this role, she has become one of the nation’s most prominent leaders in ensuring elections are secure and accessible. Benson’s work overseeing Michigan’s 2020 and 2022 general elections, both of which drew record-breaking turnout and were more secure than any prior election in state history, earned her national recognition, including the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award and the Presidential Citizens Medal. She also implemented new voting rights for all eligible Michiganders prior to the 2020 election, including the right to vote absentee, and oversaw more than 250 audits after the election, all of which affirmed its integrity and accuracy.
Jocelyn has been recognized for her work. She is a recipient of the 2022 Profile in Courage award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, the Defenders of Democracy award from the Center for Election Innovation and Research and most recently, was is serving in a leadership position with the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), the nation’s oldest, nonpartisan professional organization for public officials.
Wendy Weiser is vice president for democracy at the Brennan Center and founded and directed the program’s Voting Rights and Elections Project, directing litigation, research, and advocacy efforts to enhance political participation and prevent voter disenfranchisement across the country.
She has authored a number of nationally recognized publications and articles on voting rights and election reform, litigated groundbreaking lawsuits on democracy issues, testified before both houses of Congress and in a variety of state legislatures, and provided legislative and policy drafting assistance to federal and state legislators and administrators across the country. She is a frequent public speaker and media commentator on democracy issues. She has appeared on CBS News, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, PBS, ABC News, and NPR, among others; her commentary has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, and elsewhere. See link for more information here

Empowering the Youth Vote in America with The Civics Center Founder Laura Brill & CNN Anchor Jake Tapper
2024-02-27 12:00 - 13:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTent hosted a discussion featuring Laura W. Brill, CEO and Founder of The Civics Center and Jake Tapper, CNN Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent. Their conversation dove into the current state of youth civic engagement and explored strategies for lowering the barriers to registration and voting. Laura and her team are on a mission to make voter registration part of every high school in America.
About our speakers:
Laura W. Brill is CEO and Founder of The Civics Center, as well as an attorney, former law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and a mother of two young adults. She launched The Civics Center in 2018 to stop youth voter suppression and tackle the decades-old problem of low youth turnout.
Jake Tapper is a CNN anchor and chief Washington. He currently anchors a two-hour weekday program, The Lead with Jake Tapper. He has hosted CNN’s Sunday morning show, State of the Union, since June 2015. In April 2021, he became the lead anchor for CNN for Washington, D.C. events.

Vote Forward and BigTentUSA Letter-Writing to Voters!
2024-03-12 12:00 - 13:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTent is thrilled to launch our letter writing partnership with Vote Forward! Mark your calendars for Tuesday, March 12, at 12pm ET, as we launch our partnership!
We’re working together to increase civic participation by sending letters to voters. Writing letters to voters is one of the most effective ways to help increase election turnout. And you can do it right from home! Our plan is to send out over 100K letters by October 2024!
During this event, we are honored to welcome Catherine Vaughan, Emily Wasserman, and Nia Bentall from Vote Forward. They will dive into the impact of letter-writing and explore its effectiveness in creating positive change.
Here is link to what letter writing entails! ????
If you can’t make event but just want to request letters use this link!
About Vote Forward:
VoteForward is dedicated to empowering grassroots volunteers to send handwritten letters encouraging fellow Americans to vote. Their flagship voter contact program trains and supports volunteers in writing personal, heartfelt letters to potential voters with an easy-to-use online platform. The majority of Vote Forward letter writing campaigns are 501(c)(3) nonpartisan (“Social”) campaigns, which focus on mobilizing potential voters in historically marginalized communities, including people of color, women, and young voters, to ensure that every voice is heard in the democratic process.

Protecting the Right to Vote: One ID at a Time with Lauren Kunis, CEO VoteRiders
2024-03-19 12:00 - 13:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTent is thrilled to host a Tent Talk with VoteRiders’ CEO and Executive Director, Lauren Kunis.
We will also be writing letters to North Carolina voters who have very strict voter ID laws and we need your help to ensure that every voter in North Carolina has the ID they need as they prepare for the upcoming election season.
Each letter we send delivers essential information and assistance to the voters most likely to be disenfranchised by voter ID laws in North Carolina.
VoteRiders is a non-partisan, non-profit organization with a mission to ensure that all citizens are able to exercise their freedom to vote. VoteRiders informs and helps citizens to secure their voter ID as well as inspires and supports organizations, local volunteers, and communities to sustain voter ID education and assistance efforts.
Kathleen Unger founded VoteRiders in 2012 as a direct response to the increasing number of stringent voter ID laws across the country.
Today, their team works alongside thousands of partner organizations and an ever-growing community of 10,000 volunteers across the country.
About our Speaker:
Lauren Kunis has spent her career working to strengthen democracy at home and around the world, designing and managing impactful voter education, civic engagement, and government accountability programs. Lauren most recently worked at Nonprofit VOTE, where she was the National Voter Registration Day program director and led the holiday to a record-setting number of voter registrations in 2020. She previously worked at the nonpartisan National Democratic Institute and the World Bank on democracy and governance programs in over 15 countries in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Domestically, Lauren has worked on national political campaigns, served on the Steering Committee for the DC Paid Family Leave campaign, and worked as an NYC Urban Fellow in the Bloomberg administration. Lauren has a BA with honors in Government from Cornell University and an MPA in Public and Nonprofit Management from New York University. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and their two young children.

Marc Elias and Lauren Groh-Wargo: The Ongoing Fight Against Voter Suppression
2024-03-20 19:00 - 20:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTent is honored to host Marc Elias, the founder of Elias Law Group and Democracy Docket, alongside Lauren Groh-Wargo, the dynamic CEO of Fair Fight Action. Marc and Lauren are at the forefront of defending voting rights and combating voter suppression. Their unwavering commitment and groundbreaking work have had a significant impact on preserving the integrity of our democracy.
This event is an opportunity to engage in a discussion about how voter suppression has impacted elections to date and what are the next lines of attack in 2024.
About the Speakers:
Lauren Groh-Wargo is a top political, democracy and civic engagement strategist, executive, and fighter for economic justice. In 2012, Lauren began a partnership with Stacey Abrams to chart and then execute a ten-year plan to build power and policy wins for Georgia through supporting existing and building new civic engagement infrastructure. Spurred by wide scale voter suppression during the 2018 election, Lauren founded and is the CEO of Fair Fight Action, which focuses on fighting voter suppression and advancing voting rights. Fair Fight Action brings the full force of strategic campaign tactics and culturally relevant engagement and voter education to those most targeted by suppression and disinformation. Fair Fight played a leading national and battleground state role in the 2020 election and in the 2021 Georgia runoff.
Lauren started her career by organizing tenants to improve living conditions in Brooklyn, New York. An organizer at heart, Lauren has led or advised campaigns, nonprofit organizations, donors and leaders over the past 22 years in states in every region and at the national level. Raised near Cleveland, Ohio, she holds a degree in Economics from American University. Lauren resides in Atlanta, Georgia with her partner and nine-year-old son.
Marc Elias is the Firm Chair of Elias Law Group and is a nationally recognized authority and expert in campaign finance, voting rights, redistricting law, and litigation. As a litigator, Marc has handled hundreds of cases involving politics, voting rights, and redistricting. He has successfully argued and won four cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as dozens of cases in state supreme courts and U.S. courts of appeal.
In 2020, Marc led the historic legal effort to protect voting rights, winning over 60 lawsuits against MAGA’s efforts to suppress the vote. As aggressive challenges to voting continue, Marc keeps fighting back in court. Marc is also the founder of Democracy Docket, the leading platform for progressive advocacy and information about voting rights, elections, redistricting and democracy.
Marc is an alumnus of Hamilton College, Duke Law School and Duke Graduate School. He is a proud owner of a Portuguese Water Dog named Bode.

Unmasking the Christian Right: Kathryn Joyce and Jeff Sharlet
2024-03-27 19:00 - 20:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTent was pleased to host investigative journalist Kathryn Joyce and author Jeff Sharlet. Both are long-time observers and experts on the American right-wing and conservative movement. They write on the central role of the Christian right in the rise of Trumpism and neofascism, and the types of institutions that the right-wing has built to create and sustain their movement to end democracy.
Currently the christian movement is explicitly arguing that there is one acceptable culture in the United States—a Christian, conservative culture—which should be supported by the law and assumed to be the norm across all areas of public life here. And with the Speaker of the House, a self-defined Christian Nationalist, unmasking christian nationalism will be key to preserving American democracy.
KATHRYN JOYCE is investigative editor at In These Times and author, most recently, of The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of Adoption.
JEFF SHARLET’S most recent book is The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War. He is the Frederick Sessions Beebe ​’35 Professor in the Art of Writing at Dartmouth College. He also wrote The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power which became a 5-part Netflix documentary with the same name.

A Conversation with GALVANIZE Executive Director Jackie Payne and Journalist Bonnie Fuller
2024-04-02 12:00 - 13:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTent was thrilled to host a conversation with Galvanize Founder and Executive Director Jackie Payne and renowned journalist Bonnie Fuller. They dove into what is happening with the moderate white woman voter and what role could they play in the 2024 election.
Galvanize Action connects with moderate women to build a broader base for progress and an America that works for everyone. There are millions of women—most living in rural, small town, and suburban communities—who want progress on things like access to healthcare and climate, but whose civic impact does not always reflect those goals. Galvanize uses research-backed approaches to support this group of women to vote in line with their values and play an active role in promoting social welfare in their communities.
About our Speakers
Jackie Payne has over two decades of experience leading organizations and working to advance gender, racial, and economic justice. As the Founder and Executive Director of Galvanize USA and Galvanize Action, Jackie is working at the intersection of data science, behavioral psychology, and neuroscience to connect with moderate women, grow their support on key issues, and increase pro-democracy behavior. She has developed specific expertise with women in rural, small town, and suburban communities, and with white women—the single largest voting bloc in this country. Her efforts are effectively moving this audience to support progress—providing a necessary complement to the work being done by and for communities of color—to build a thriving, multiracial democracy.
Bonnie Fuller is the former CEO and editor-in-chief of HollywoodLife.com, and former editor-in-chief of Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and USWeekly. She is now writing about reproductive freedom and politics.

Immigration Reform and Next Steps with Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Political Strategist Lis Smith
2024-04-03 19:00 - 20:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTent was thrilled to host Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) in conversation with political strategist Lis Smith. Senator Murphy was the lead Democratic negotiator of the breakthrough bipartisan border reform agreement. He had a firsthand view of both Republicans coming together for immigration reform and then Republicans’ stunning about-face on border security. The bill was filled with tough, conservative policy, including an ability for the President to shut down parts of the border to asylum claims when the system is overwhelmed. It was endorsed by the Border Patrol Union, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Heading into the final seven months of the 2024 election, there is no issue with greater importance than border security.The Harvard CAPS-Harris poll showed that immigration had overtaken inflation as the top issue for 2024 voters. Polling in swing states in a recent Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll showed that in states that will decide the Electoral College, immigration and the economy are the two top issues for voters, and for key independent voters.
What both sides agree on is that any immigration reform bill must prioritize strong and fair border policies, and one that supports legal immigration and a pathway to citizenship. Senator Murphy and Lis Smith discussed immigration reform, what went wrong and where do we go from here?
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), the junior United States Senator from Connecticut, has dedicated his career to public service as an advocate for Connecticut families. Senator Murphy has been a strong voice in the Senate fighting for job creation, affordable health care, education, sensible gun laws, and a forward-looking foreign policy.
Senator Murphy is a consensus builder and many times throughout his political career has worked to bridge the political divide. He led a bipartisan effort to reform the mental health system, working across the aisle to craft the first comprehensive mental health bill in the Senate in decades. Following the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012, Senator Murphy became one of the leading proponents of commonsense reforms to reduce gun violence. He has championed a number of bipartisan bills aimed at expanding background checks and keeping guns out of the hands of criminals. And most recently, he was the lead Democratic negotiator of the breakthrough bipartisan border reform agreement.
Lis Smith has been hailed as a “next-gen gunslinger,” “not your grandfather’s political consultant,” and “the hard-charging New York operative [who] helped turn an obscure Indiana mayor into a national name.” She is one of the most in-demand strategists in today’s political environment. Named to Fortune’s “40 under 40 in Government” and Crain’s “50 Most Powerful Women in New York,” Smith continues to work as a strategist and regularly contributes opinion pieces to publications like the New York Times, Washington Post, and Vanity Fair, in addition to appearing as a frequent guest on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, and HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.

A Conversation with Anne Applebaum and Katie Couric: The State of American Democracy
2024-04-25 12:00 - 13:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTentUSA is thrilled to have back Pulitzer Prize–winning author and esteemed historian Anne Applebaum under the tent in conversation with award winning journalist Katie Couric. They will dive into the critical issues of our era: the global rise of authoritarianism and the evolving landscape of American democracy.
About the Speakers:
Anne Applebaum is staff writer for The Atlantic and author of the best-selling 2020 book Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism. Applebaum is also a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and the SNF Agora Institute, where she co-directs Arena, a program on disinformation and 21st-century propaganda.
Katie Couric is an award-winning journalist and #1 New York Times best-selling author. Couric was the first woman to solo anchor a network evening newscast, serving as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News from 2006 to 2011 following 15 years as co-anchor of NBC’s Today show. In 2017, she founded Katie Couric Media (KCM), which has developed a number of media projects, including a daily newsletter, “Wake-Up Call”, a podcast, “Next Question”, digital video series and several documentaries. You can find it all at katiecouric.com.

Liz Cheney In Conversation with Charlie Sykes – Oath and Honor
2024-05-01 19:00 - 20:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTent is pleased to host a conversation featuring Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) and MSNBC contributor Charlie Sykes. This conversation will explore a range of topics including the future of democracy, insights from Cheney’s book ‘Oath and Honor’, the dynamics within the Republican Party, perspectives on Trump and the Capitol assault, and previously undisclosed stories from Congress. Additionally, they will delve into ways we can safeguard American democracy.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
Liz Cheney is an American attorney and politician. She represented Wyoming’s at-large congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2017 to 2023, and served as chair of the House Republican Conference the third-highest position in the House Republican leadership from 2019 to 2021. In 2022, Cheney, along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, received the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library’s prestigious Profile in Courage Award, with a commendation for her consistent and courageous voice in defense of democracy. In 2023, Liz Cheney joined the UVA faculty as the first Professor of Practice with the UVA Center for Politics.
Charlie Sykes was until recently, a founder and editor-at-large of The Bulwark, host of The Bulwark Podcast. Currently he is an NBC/MSNBC contributor and columnist. He is author of nine books, his most recent book is How the Right Lost Its Mind.
Sykes has written for numerous publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Post, Commentary, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Time.com, USA Today, National Review, The New York Review of Books, the New York Daily News, and other national publications.
He is enjoying getting off the “hamster wheel” and spending time with his dogs and grandchildren.

Judy Woodruff & Sarah Longwell: Voices of America, Navigating the Political Divide
2024-05-08 19:00 - 20:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
PBS senior correspondent, Judy Woodruff, and The Bulwark Founder, Sarah Longwell, joined us to discuss what’s driving American polarization. Judy highlighted her findings from her PBS show, America at a Crossroads, while Sarah shared insights from her unique focus groups, shedding light on public opinion and what issues are shaping political dialogue.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Judy Woodruff is the Senior Correspondent for the PBS NewsHour after serving for 11 years as its Anchor and Managing Editor. She has covered politics and other news for over four decades at CNN, NBC, and PBS. In 2023 and 2024, she is undertaking a reporting project, “America at a Crossroads,” to better understand the country’s political divide.
Sarah Longwell is a Republican political strategist and publisher of The Bulwark. She is also host of the Bulwark podcast The Focus Group, which presents the broad takeaways from hundreds of hours of voter opinion focus groups across both the country and the political spectrum.

Why Letter Writing Wins: Yasmin Radjy, Executive Director, Vote Forward
2024-05-14 12:00 - 13:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTent was thrilled to bring back Vote Forward! We welcome Executive Director, Yasmin Radjy to the tent. We will dove into how Vote Forward determines its strategy and how they will help a win for democracy in 2024.
Vote Forward and BigTentUSA are working together to increase civic participation by sending letters to voters. Writing letters to voters is one of the most effective ways to help increase election turnout. And you can do it right from home. Our plan is to send out over 100K letters by October 2024!
Here is a presentation on the impact of letter-writing
If you can’t make event but just want to request letters use this link!
ABOUT OUR SPEAKER
Yasmin Radjy is the Executive Director of Swing Left, one of the largest drivers of grassroots volunteers in competitive races up and down the ballot, and Vote Forward, whose innovative letter-writing strategy has enabled more than 250,000 volunteers to encourage citizens in underrepresented communities to vote. Previously, Yasmin served as Senior Advisor for Recovery Program Outreach at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, National Political Director at Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF), Director of Organizing and Training at PPAF and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Virginia State Director at Mobilize America in the 2017 election.
ABOUT VOTE FORWARD
VoteForward is dedicated to empowering grassroots volunteers to send handwritten letters encouraging fellow Americans to vote. Their flagship voter contact program trains and supports volunteers in writing personal, heartfelt letters to potential voters with an easy-to-use online platform. The majority of Vote Forward letter writing campaigns are 501(c)(3) nonpartisan (“Social”) campaigns, which focus on mobilizing potential voters in historically marginalized communities, including people of color, women, and young voters, to ensure that every voice is heard.

Brian Stelter and Angelo Carusone - The Right Wing Media’s Effect on Democracy, Discourse and Disinformation
2024-05-15 19:00 - 20:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
Brian Stelter, former CNN media correspondent and host of “Reliable Sources,”and Angelo Carusone, President of Media Matters for America, will discuss the profound impact of right-wing media on our democratic processes, public discourse and polarization, and the pervasive spread of disinformation.
The discussion will explore:
• The mechanisms through which right-wing media influences public opinion and political landscapes.
• The direct implications of media practices on democratic values and Election Security.
• Strategies for navigating and countering disinformation AND misinformation in the media landscape.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
Angelo Carusone is Chairman and President of Media Matters — a nonprofit organization and the United States’ premier media watchdog. Carusone is a recognized authority on right-wing extremism and frequently provides expert opinion about extremism, online toxicity, and the underlying structures fueling their rise. He has also become a go-to resource for journalists writing about fake news and the ways technology platforms are addressing the issue.
Brian Stelter was the anchor of CNN “Reliable Sources,” which examined the week’s top media stories and was the chief media correspondent for CNN Worldwide.Prior to joining CNN in November 2013, Stelter was a media reporter at The New York Times. He was also a lead contributor to the “Media Decoder” blog. Stelter published the best-selling book, HOAX: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth in fall 2020, which tells the story of the relationship between President Trump and Fox News. Over the course of two years writing the book, Stelter spoke with over 250 current and former Fox insiders in an effort to understand the inner workings of Rupert Murdoch’s multibillion-dollar media empire.

Tent Talk: Lauren Groh-Wargo - Voting in Georgia
2024-05-22 12:00 - 13:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
When Larry David ended his twelve season run playing himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm, he chose to highlight a provision of SB 202 passed in 2021.The first “election integrity law” in the wake of the 2020 election. This legislation effectively bars third-party groups or anyone else who is not an election worker from providing food and water to voters waiting in line within a 150-foot radius of a polling place. Larry David succinctly summarizes why he chose to hone in on SB202, “This law is insane.” While it makes for very funny television, it is far from funny for the citizens of Georgia.
Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of Fair Fight, will breakdown how Georgia has led the way at making it harder for certain Georgians to vote.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Lauren Groh-Wargo is a top political, democracy and civic engagement strategist, executive, and fighter for economic justice. In 2012, Lauren began a partnership with Stacey Abrams to chart and then execute a ten-year plan to build power and policy wins for Georgia through supporting existing and building new civic engagement infrastructure. Spurred by wide scale voter suppression during the 2018 election, Lauren founded and is the CEO of Fair Fight Action, which focuses on fighting voter suppression and advancing voting rights. Fair Fight Action brings the full force of strategic campaign tactics and culturally relevant engagement and voter education to those most targeted by suppression and disinformation. Fair Fight played a leading national and battleground state role in the 2020 election and in the 2021 Georgia runoff.
Lauren started her career by organizing tenants to improve living conditions in Brooklyn, New York. An organizer at heart, Lauren has led or advised campaigns, nonprofit organizations, donors and leaders over the past 22 years in states in every region and at the national level. Raised near Cleveland, Ohio, she holds a degree in Economics from American University. Lauren resides in Atlanta, Georgia with her partner and nine-year-old son.

Trump-palooza: The Trump Trials with Amb. Norm Eisen (Ret.) and George T. Conway III
2024-05-29 19:00 - 20:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTent was thrilled to welcome two of the renowned experts in “Trumpian Law” – Amb. Norm Eisen (Ret.), CNN legal analyst, and George Conway III, President of the Society for the Rule of Law. Norm and George have spent A LOT of time at 100 Centre Street the past few weeks and have an insiders perspective on the “The Trump Trials: Outcomes, Precedents, and the Future of Our Democracy.”
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????️ ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Ambassador Norman L. Eisen (Ret.) is a CNN legal analyst and editor of “Trying Trump: A Guide to His First Election Interference Criminal Trial.” He served as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee for the first impeachment and trial of then-President Donald Trump. Eisen is the Co-Founder and former Executive Chair of the States United Democracy Center
George T. Conway III is an attorney and the board president of the Society for the Rule of Law. Conway was considered by President Donald Trump for several positions in his administration but withdrew himself from consideration. In 2018, Conway emerged as a vocal Trump critic. During the 2020 presidential election, Conway was involved with the Lincoln Project, a coalition of former Republicans dedicated to defeating Trump. Currently, Conway has a podcast, George Conway Explains It All, with The Bulwark’s Sarah Longwell.

Barbara McQuade and Kimberly Atkins Stohr - Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America
2024-06-04 19:00 - 20:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
On Tuesday, June 4th at 7:00PM ET, BigTent is thrilled to host MSNBC Legal Analyst Barbara McQuade and NBC Contributor Kimberly Atkins Stohr. They will discuss McQuade‘s new book, Attack from Within. The conversation will explore how disinformation is shaking the foundations of democracy, while discussing urgent, actionable strategies to empower the public, bolster the media, and safeguard truth-based politics.
About the Book: Attack from Within is an urgent, comprehensive explanation of the ways disinformation is impacting democracy, and practical solutions that can be pursued to strengthen the public, media, and truth-based politics. An MSNBC legal expert and former US Attorney, McQuade breaks down the ways disinformation has become a tool to drive voters to extremes, disempower our legal structures, and consolidate power in the hands of the few.
Barbara McQuade is a professor from practice at the University of Michigan Law School, her alma mater, where she teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, national security, and data privacy. She is also a legal expert for NBC News and MSNBC, and a co-host of the podcast #SistersInLaw. From 2010 to 2017, McQuade served as U.S Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. Ms. McQuade was appointed by President Barack Obama, and was the first woman to serve in her position.
Kimberly Atkins Stohr is a senior opinion writer and columnist at The Boston Globe. She is also an MSNBC contributor, a frequent panelist on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” and co-host of the weekly Politicon legal news podcast #SistersInLaw. Previously, Kim was the inaugural columnist for The Emancipator, a collaboration between The Boston Globe and Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research that reframes the conversation about racial justice and equality.

Tent Talk: Protect Our Winters - Stoking the Vote
2024-06-11 12:00 - 13:00 | BigTent Zoom Room
BigTent welcomed Erin Sprague, CEO of Protect our Winters and Team Captain and pro climber Abbey Smith . In 2024, Protect Our Winters aims to mobilize its alliance members, including athletes, creatives, scientists, brands, and resorts, to encourage civic engagement and voter turnout in November’s general election. The POW ‘Stoke the Vote’ campaign is an opportunity to create a cultural shift toward voting and have an impact on the margins in the most important election of our lifetime. They are combating widespread apathy and misinformation. POW will strategically conduct this work nationally and in targeted geographies where it knows it can have an outsized impact by engaging the Outdoor State.
Hear about POW’s strategies and initiatives to get out the VOTE and how we can get involved in driving meaningful change.
About our speakers
Erin Sprague is the CEO of Protect our Winters (POW), where she helps outdoor enthusiasts protect the places and experiences they love from climate change. Previously, Erin built world-class brands in the outdoor industry as the Chief Brand Officer at Aspen Skiing Company; VP of Marketing at Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Sport; and Global Head of Women’s Brand and Product at Specialized Bicycles. Most recently, Erin has worked with leaders from Google and Nest to help build climate tech start-ups tackling food waste and heat pump adoption. Erin started her career in finance and public affairs at The Blackstone Group, and graduated from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Harvard College.
Erin grew up in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York where she raced Nordic skiing, cross-country running, and hiked with her family most weekends. She previously Chaired the Board of Protect our Winters and started a non-profit called In the Running to support youth fitness initiatives while setting a World Record as the Youngest Woman to Run a Marathon on all Seven Continents. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and two daughters, who are already beating her up and down most mountains.
Abbey Smith is the POW Climb Alliance Team Captain, professional climber, producer and storyteller born and raised in Colorado. For the last 25 years, she has dedicated her life to climbing, exploring uncharted territories, and sharing stories that offer new perspectives through writing, film, virtual reality, and live experiences. Her unrelenting drive for exploratory and big mountain bouldering has led her all over the world. She’s established first ascents on five continents from the extreme altitudes of the Himalayas and Andes to remote islands in Thailand. Abbey currently lives in Los Angeles, California. She’s an Explorers Club National Member, and sponsored by La Sportiva and Marmot.
