Our annual conversation and audience q&a about politics in America and the prospects for an enduring democracy

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Join us for a conversation about politics in America and the prospects for an enduring democracy. Panelists will include: 

 

Devlin Barrett, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who grew up in Troy, is the author of The Department of Revenge: How Trump Took Control of American Justice (2026), a book that “pulls back the curtain on President Trump’s Justice Department and the way he has used it as a tool to settle political scores” (PBS NewsHour). His 2020 book, October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election, examined the 2016 Presidential election. The Washington Post said it, "delivers an exquisitely sourced indictment of Comey and the bureau he once led."

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Barrett is a staff reporter for the New York Times where he covers the Justice Department and FBI. He previously worked for The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, and the New York Post. He has been part of four Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting teams, winning for Public Service, National Reporting, Investigative Reporting and Breaking News Reporting. 

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Jimmy Vielkind is a deputy managing editor overseeing the Albany Times Union Capitol bureau, a position he has held since October 2026. He has covered New York state government and politics since 2008, including as a reporter for WNYC/Gothamist, The Wall Street Journal and Politico.

 

In 2023, Vielkind won an Arthur F. Burns reporting fellowship to Munich, Germany. Vielkind led a team of reporters that won a New York Press Club award for coverage of Andrew Cuomo’s downfall and was on a team that won a Gerald Loeb Award for coverage of Amazon’s HQ2 process. He has two degrees in urban planning and grew up in Clifton Park.

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(Due a scheduling conflict, Jonathan Alter will be unable to attend.)