THE OPEN MIND a weekly half-hour public affairs interview hosted by journalist Alexander Heffner, debuts on Sunday, September 6 on the WORLD Channel as an ideas-driven alternative to Sunday political talk shows. WORLD is produced and distributed by WGBH/Boston, American Public Television (APT) and WNET/New York in association with Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA).
This thoughtful excursion into the world of ideas across media, politics, technology, the arts and all realms of civic life airs on a growing number of public television stations weekly across the country including in New York City (WNET, CUNY TV), Washington, D.C. (WETA, WHUT), and Los Angeles (KOCE) as well as streams online at
thirteen.org/openmind . The WORLD premiere episode "Growing the Next Generation" is a conversation with Purdue University president and former two-term Indiana governor Mitch Daniels on college accessibility and economic growth.
As the youngest weekly host on television, Heffner is focusing in particular on public policy in connection to a new generation of Americans. For example, National Institute of Health leader Maria Freire considers in an upcoming show how the next phase of the Human Genome Project can prepare us to treat disease more effectively according to biomarkers.
Heffner will be exploring the intersection of Millennials and the 2016 campaign as the Fitzwater Fellow at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire. Among the guests on The Open Mind this fall are Chairmen Frank Fahrenkopf and Michael McCurry of the Presidential Debate Commission, Szelena Gray of Run for America, John Opdycke of Open Primaries, Ben Rattray of Change.org , and Annika Savill of the U.N. Democracy Fund. The most recent guests have been Obama Presidential Library Founding Board Member Maya Soteoro-Ng, Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibarguen, bestselling author James Patterson and former U.S. Senator Bob Graham.
Regarding the show itself, Heffner says, "We recently updated the introduction for a more modern feel. The longstanding format, and the founding principle behind it, is intact. Nonadversarial face-to-face conversation can more meaningfully stimulate a meeting of the minds than the commonly elicited talking points."
He adds, "An example of our sweet spot is when we asked Carolyn Lukensmeyer if politics is killing our mental health. We always strive to entice our audience with provocative exchange...but a commitment to civic education first and foremost leads to me ask questions differently, I think, toward the goal of a more workable government of, by and for the people."
Heffner covered the Millennial vote in 2012 for Need to Know, founded SCOOP08 and SCOOP44 that covered the 2008 election and Obama administration and taught a civic education/journalism seminar in New York City public school classrooms. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer,
USA Today, Newsday, American Way Magazine and RealClearPolitics, among other publications. He has been interviewed about politics, education and stories in the news by PBS, C-SPAN, CNN,
CBS and the BBC, among other networks.
He has lectured and moderated panels at major universities, including the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Drake University, the Quello Center for Telecommunication Management and Law at Michigan State University, the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the Harris School of Public Policy at University of Chicago, the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, the Communication and Journalism Department at University of New Mexico, the School of Social Sciences at University of California-Irvine and the Center for Social Sciences at Bryn Mawr College.
The Open Mind is a production of Richard Heffner Associates. Elaine Heffner is Executive Producer. Rebecca Wharton is Senior Producer.
Continuing production of The Open Mind has been made possible by grants from Anne Ulnick Gumowitz, Angelson Family Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Joan Ganz Cooney & Peter G. Peterson Fund, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Joann and Kenneth Wellner Foundation, Sally Minard and Norton Garfinkle, Schumann Media Center and Mutual of America.
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