Another great year!

2021 sessions available to view

Coming out of the tumultuous changes of last year, we looked ahead to what the future will look like here in Madison and Wisconsin. In the fifth year of Cap Times Idea Fest, our theme focused on how we reckon with the change brought by pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement and other forces.

Reach A Better State

77 speakers. 26 sessions. 6 days. Our event this year was a hybrid: virtual-only sessions Sept. 13-16, 2021 combined with in-person sessions at UW-Madison’s Memorial Union on Sept. 17-18. All are available to view and check out the Cap Times’ complete coverage of the festival.

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Sessions

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One-on-one with Sara Nelson

Sept. 17, 6:00 p.m.

Sara Nelson and John Nichols

Hailed as the most dynamic labor leader in the United States, Sara Nelson is the president of the Association of Flight Attendants and a key member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council. She will speak with Cap Times associate editor John Nichols about renewing the power of organized labor and her work with Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders to address economic and racial injustice.

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How Trump Broke It

Sept. 17, 7:15 p.m.

Carol Leonnig, David Maraniss and Philip Rucker

Pulitzer-prize winning Washington Post writers Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker in conversation with colleague David Maraniss about their book “I Alone Can Fix It” and its richly detailed account of the damage the Trump presidency did to American government and democracy.

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Dark Money and Democracy

Sept. 18, 11:30 a.m.

David Maraniss and Jane Mayer

The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer, the nation’s leading investigative reporter on the role of dark money in politics, speaks with David Maraniss about attempts to curtail voting rights and the role of Wisconsin’s Bradley Foundation in that effort.

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2021 Speakers

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Howard Bryant

In addition to his work at ESPN, Bryant has been the sports correspondent for NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday since 2006. He is the author of nine books, including two (“The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron” and “Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston”) that...

Gloria Ladson-Billings

The former Kellner Family Distinguished Chair of Urban Education in the university's School of Education, Ladson-Billings is the current president of the National Academy of Education and former president of the American Educational Research Association. She is a...

David Maraniss

Maraniss is a New York Times best-selling author, fellow of the Society of American Historians, and visiting distinguished professor at Vanderbilt University. He has been affiliated with the Washington Post for more than 40 years as an editor and writer, and twice won...

Jane Mayer

Mayer covers politics, culture, and national security for The New Yorker, where she has worked since 1995. Among other books, she is the author of the 2016 best-seller “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right” and also...

Philip Rucker

Rucker leads the coverage of President Biden and his administration for the Washington Post. Rucker and a team of Post reporters won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for their coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 election. He is also a co-author of “I Alone Can Fix...

Rebecca Ryan

Ryan wakes up every day hell-bent on making the world better for future generations. She is a top-50 futurist, economist, best-selling author and keynote speaker. Ryan empowers bold and ambitious futures for her clients as she walks them through foresight experiences...