Heritage Events Podcast

Secretary Azar reflects on the Trump Administration’s early actions on COVID-19 and what lessons can be drawn from the response, including travel restrictions that slowed the spread, pressure for transparency from China, bringing Americans home safely from abroad, rapidly formed partnerships with the private sector, and educating the American people with the best science available at the time.

Human trafficking in all forms is abhorrent, but when governments enslave and sell their own people, it takes on an even more pernicious edge. 2020 marked the first year that the State Department designated state sponsors of human trafficking, with ten nations earning the dubious distinction. These designations were an important step in raising awareness about how regimes exploit their own citizens for profit and serve as a vital mechanism to hold them accountable. Join us to commemorate National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, as we spotlight this concerning trend and identify solutions.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) and public policies based on this worldview will not alleviate racial inequality in the real world. In fact, this dogma undermines human and social factors—such as family, entry-level work, and merit-based education—the wellspring of upward mobility. Yet, the rigid persistence with which believers apply this theory has made CRT a constant, daily presence in the lives of hundreds of millions of people.CRT underpins Identity Politics, an ongoing effort to reimagine the United States as a nation riven by the division between racial groups, each with specific claims on victimization. In education and the workforce, as well as entertainment and social media, CRT has become entrenched, driving decision-making based on skin color rather than individual merit and talent. As Critical Theory becomes more familiar to the public in everyday life, CRT’s intolerance, and the idea of systemic racism is being “normalized” in the American psyche. This weakens public and private bonds that create trust between citizens and allow for civic engagement.Join us for a timely conversation on CRT and how to push back against this new wave of intolerance.

Join us for an exclusive conversation on the China challenge between Heritage’s James Carafano and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf. At the conclusion of a year dominated by COVID and China Policy, Acting Secretary Wolf will discuss the policies that the Department of Homeland Security has put into place to address China, including travel, trade, and what is yet to come.

Modern Anti-Semitism often manifests itself as hostility against Israel—particularly on college campuses, at the United Nations, and even in U.S. Congress. Despite claiming to lack hostility toward the global Jewish people, today’s “anti-Zionists” single out the world’s only Jewish state for specific and demonizing criticism. Casting Israel as a villain on the world stage, this rhetoric makes ample use of historic anti-Semitic tropes such as greed, global conspiracy, and media puppetmastery.Elan Carr, the State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor anti-Semitism, has successfully pursued recognition that this language is indeed anti-Semitism. By promoting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, which includes anti-Israel rhetoric, Carr has moved this definition solidly into public discourse.Join us for an important conversation about modern anti-Semitism, anti-Israel rhetoric, and the role of the IHRA in combatting both.

To conclude this two-part series, we ask what the future of work and unions looks like in America. We will discuss both positive and negative ideas for long-term labor reform; from sectoral bargaining, which would mandate one-size-fits-wall wages and benefits across entire industries, to more positive recommendations that would instill flexibility and voluntarism in collective bargaining.Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. labor market was experiencing record-setting lows in unemployment and rising incomes, with the largest gains accruing to the lowest-income workers. This was the result of pro-worker and pro-growth tax and regulatory policies. A new congress and administration could not only undo some of those policies but could also pursue actions that could set American workers back decades. The Heritage Foundation and Institute for the American Worker would like to invite you to join us for a two-part series on the future of labor policy in America, for 2021 and beyond.