i'm ken paulson. my cohost today is john seigenthaler, a highly respected journalist who also served as special assistant to attorney general robert f. kennedy during the civil rights movement. after retiring from newspapers, john went on to found the first amendment center. john and i are delighted to welcome a pulitzer prize-winning author and journalist whose recent book, called the children, focuses on the work of courageous young people in the civil rights movement, and whose earlier book, the best and the brightest, was the definitive study of american policy in vietnam. david halberstam. [applause] i have to ask the first and most basic question. you graduate from harvard in 1956. five. '55. with great distinction. no, i was a terrible student. [laughter] i was in the bottom third of my class. that was the heart of my question. how badly did you do at harvard? [laughs] i think i had-- i mean, i think it's true of a lot of people in journalism. i had in those days what we didn't know was attenti

[applause] i'm ken paulson. back next week with another conversation about free expression, the arts, and america. i hope you can join us then for speaking freely. captioning provided by the first amendment center, funded by the freedom forum. captioning by tate at captionmax www.captionmax.com

i'm ken paulson. since the founding of jefferson airplane in 1965, our guest has produced an extraordinary body of music, sometimes popular, sometimes provocative, sometimes both. we're delighted to welcome rock and roll hall of fame member paul kantner. [applause] not long ago, paul, the washington post called you "the political conscience and space cadet of the jefferson airplane." do you plead guilty as charged? oh, and more. were you really the political force behind a very political band? no, no, we're a very apolitical band, if you really analyze it. and--we have the luxury of coming from san francisco, which is very nutritious for off-the-beam, off-the-normal-beam kind of people and nurtures them, really, in its own way. and we, in contrast to, say, berkeley, for example, in the '60s or the s.d.s. or the weathermen, chose and got away with creating our own alternate quantum, if you will, universe: this type of place where we-- rather than going up against city hall and fighting city hall, like

i'm ken paulson.t week with another conversation about the first amendment, the arts, and american culture on speaking freely. captioning provided by the freedom forum first amendment center. captioning by tate at captionmax www.captionmax.com >> thanks for coming today. we are announcing are temporary homeowner's property tax reduction program. this is what most assessor's up and down the state are doing. homeowners are reliable -- of all property owners are eligible for a temporary, 1-year property-tax assessment reduction if they believe or if we believe dave -- the assess the value has fallen above their market value, which means that the value would be lower than the market value. in general, homeowners who are eligible, chances are, they purchased homes after 2003. we do get applicants who have owned homes since 1995 or earlier. in general, anybody who is owned their home prior to 2003, they are doing well, which is good

i'm ken paulson, executive director of the first amendment center, and we're pleased to inaugurate a new series called whitney dialogues at the first amendment center. the cohost for this series is the director of the whitney museum of american art, max anderson. we're delighted to be working with the first amendment center on an exciting and important series of conversations with american artists. with this series, we'll have an opportunity to talk with the people who push the boundaries that society often sets for itself in the arts. our special guest today is an artist who came to prominence in the late 1980s with "fluid abstractions," a series of works that lit a bonfire in the u.s. congress and subsequently was decried and defended worldwide, a man who has continued to explore topics that others may see as off limits, andres serrano. thank you. that had to be a difficult period for you, a piece of art you created that involved a crucifix immersed in your own urine. i've heard observers say that if you did not know the content, you would think it was a very respectful piece of ar

i'm ken paulson. today we'll look at the history of comic book censorship. our guests today include wendy pini of elfquest, joe quesada of marvel comics, and carmine infantino, the former publisher and president of d.c. comics. welcome to you all. (man) thank you. [applause] well, what a great lineup, and we've got folks with every possible perspective on comic books here. just by way of background, there is something called the comics code that is on comic books, most of the comic books i grew up reading-- many of which were illustrated by carmine-- had the comics code authority approval on it, which basically said this comic book has been sanitized for your protection. every comic book we read as kids was censored in some way for our own good so we would not grow up warped in any way, and all of this was inspired by a guy named dr. fredric wertham, who wrote a really influential book called seduction of the innocent in 1954, and he suggested, among other things, that comic books were a negative-- had a negative impact on kids, that it encouraged juvenile d

i'm ken paulson. our guest today is a highly respected actress, activist, and citizen; susan sarandon, welcome. thank you. i know you've spent your entire career, your entire life balancing art and activism. when was the first hint that you would some day be the kind of woman who was arrested for her beliefs? well, i was--i was just lucky to come of age at a time when your, i think, natural sense of need for justice and need for equality and all those things had issues that were very clear. i mean, there was the war. there was, you know, the rise of women wanting equal pay. there was voter registration in the south, desegregation. and there wasn't quite as much ability-- at that time, the media wasn't owned by just a handful of people, and so you were getting a lot of views, and they hadn't yet figured out not to allow the press in. so you had pictures. you had-- part of being young and being idealistic meant, you know, looking for a better way around the violence, looking for a better way for everybo

i'm ken paulson, executive director of the first amendment center. today, we'll discuss one of the most powerful and provocative songs of the past century. the song is strange fruit, and it's the subject of a new book by our guest, david margolick. welcome. thank you, ken. are there other books out there about a single song? i'm familiar with dave marsh's take on louie louie, but this has to be an unusual premise for a new book. i don't think there are very many. i think there's a book about amazing grace, and i'm told there's a book in the works about we shall overcome. but i think there really aren't many songs that you could write entire books about. this is one of the few. and this was not a tough sell to a publisher because they saw your piece in vanity fair. they saw the piece in vanity fair, and they thought that it could be expanded upon into a book. and it certainly works very well. for a generation of americans who are not familiar with the song-- and it's been conspicuously absent-- how would you describe the song and its impact? well, the

[applause] i'm ken paulson. back next week with another conversation about free expression, the arts, and america. i hope you can join us then for speaking freely. captioning provided by the first amendment center, funded by the freedom forum. captioning by tate at captionmax www.captionmax.com >> about four years ago, [inaudible] look at how beautiful this was. there is our relationship to the planet. these regions are the wealthiest, the most powerful. that really has impacted the planet. it is almost impossible now to go anywhere and had it really be completely dark. there are very few locations that you can find. that means our relationship to the sky, there is a way where we dominate the sky. we cannot see anything really. we are blinding ourselves in a way. >> you can look at the images, they are beautiful. when i started four years ago, there was a conversation about environmental issues that was very different. this is not being talked about in the way it is now. . this has just been like an amazing grow

paulson. richard mcgarry, the josh man, carol holly. >> my name is ken craig.m not as talented as the last person. i serve on the lgbt chips advisory board. i am one of the castro community patrol. i come at this from a couple of different angles. i want to say the advisory board works very well. it is a good opportunity for the police department to get different input on what is going on and what affect neighborhoods. a month to bring a perspective we do not always get a chance to do in other forums. as far as community policing, i am from britain originally, hence the extra. there is one thing i think is important to this discussion. the community are the police and the police are the community. i think you have to recognize the two elements of community and police. i think that is a very important concept. the public has to become more involved. the youth were talking about the police being unapproachable. part of that is walking up to the officer will that are on the beat and saying hello and getting to know them. that is on the community as much as the pol