January 6th, 2021 violently shifted the world’s view of contemporary American politics. When Donald Trump-supporting insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol Building, it sparked a series of investigations, reports, and stories seeking to explain how we reached that combustion point for our democracy—and grasp the future dangers it could portend. PEN America welcomes journalist and author Jeff Sharlet and Chief Election & Campaign correspondent for CBS News, Robert Costa for an illuminating fireside chat, taking us to the heart of January 6’s implications. Sharlet’s recent book, The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, follows his “anguished quest to understand the rise of antidemocratic extremism” (The New York Times) and Costa’s Peril, centers “the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and … how President Trump behaved in the lead-up to and the aftermath of that crisis” (The New York Times). Join Costa, Sharlet, and moderator Joan Walsh, national affairs correspondent for The Nation, for this vital conversation on American culture, politics, and polarization, and a lucid and sobering look at the state of the nation.
