What is a demagogue? Are we seeing the end of our republic and the rise of an empire? Matt Burriesci has studied the foundations of our Western civilization. He knows that history has given us many great teachers to learn from at this moment. Join us for a candid conversation about these troubling times and what we need to think about so we don't repeat past mistakes.

About the Guest
Matt Burriesci is the author of Dead White Guys: A Father, his Daughter, and the Great Books of the Western World (Viva Editions, June 2015), and Nonprofit (New Issues Press, 2015), which won the AWP Award for the Novel. He is currently the Executive Director of the Providence Athenaeum, a library and cultural institution dedicated to the advancement of the humanities. He began his career at the Tony Award Winning Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier, and later served as Executive Director for both the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) and the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. During his tenure at AWP, he helped build the largest literary conference in North America, and he served as a national advocate for literature and the humanities. In his work as a consultant, he has interviewed dozens of global leaders in healthcare, scientific research, and higher education. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with his wife Erin and their children, Violet and Henry.