Past CHA Events
Claire Bond Potter
Professor of History Emeritus, The New School for Social Research
📅 Wednesday, March 25, 2026 | 4:00–5:30 PM
ʦ️ Free & open to all
Registration:
📍 at Macky Auditorium
Claire Bond Potter will join us to highlight her latest book:
Political Junkies: From Talk Radio to Twitter, How Alternative Media Hooked Us on Politics and Broke Democracy
(Basic Books, 2020)
Claire Bond Potter is a political historian at the New School for Social Research. She is executive editor of Public Seminar and was the author of the popular blog Tenured Radical from 2006 through 2015.
🎙 Don’t miss her insights, plus check out her podcast “?” and her Substack, .
"I'm a political junkie, and if you're reading this, you probably are too. Which means you're going to want to grab Claire Potter's new book and dive in. This vivid, lively narrative shows us how the rise of political populism and the emergence of alternative media have gone hand in hand. Spotlighting the operatives you haven't heard of, the innovations you didn't know about, and the stories you haven't heard, Potter reveals the history that happened when we were looking the other way. The gatekeepers have fallen, the barbarians are inside the city, and Political Junkies -- with insight, fresh detail, and delicious wit -- makes sense of how it all happened."―David Greenberg, author of Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency
"Do you follow political news obsessively? Do you tweet about it even more obsessively still, compulsively dismissing and disbelieving all information that doesn't fit your ideological lens? You might be a political junkie! You're not alone. In this incisive, clear-headed book, Claire Potter diagnoses the condition ailing so many of us, and persuasively argues that it's bad for democracy. Political Junkies is wise, open-minded, and bracing."―Liza Featherstone, author of Divining Desire: Focus Groups and the Culture of Consultation
"In her lively new book, Claire Potter tackles a topic too many historians ignore -- the central role media play in shaping our political lives. From the political newsletters of the 1950s to cables news in the 1980s to the social-media revolution of the 2000s, Potter maps the ways alternative media remade our politics, broke our democracy, and gave birth to a new kind of American: the political junkie."―Nicole Hemmer, author of Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politic
"To understand 21st-century populism, we need to know the media that helped to create it. Claire Potter's Political Junkies tells that story -- sometimes glorious, sometimes dismal, but always fascinating and well worth the read."―Beverly Gage, author of The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror
Homelessness in Boulder: Balancing Humanity & Community Safety
📅 Wednesday, March 11, 2026 | 6:00–7:30 PM
📍 at Colorado Chautauqua's Community House
Boulder continues to grapple with homelessness—from camping bans the ACLU has criticized as “cruel and unusual,” to financial strain in implementing a “housing first” approach. Join us for a candid conversation about the complexities of homelessness and how we can pursue more humane solutions.
Difficult Dialogue: What Makes Free Speech Hate Speech?
📅 Wednesday, February 11, 2026 | 6:00–7:30 PM
📍 at Colorado Chautauqua's Community House
Social media, mobile technology, and digital platforms have transformed how we express ourselves—and how quickly our speech can have consequences. This event explores both our rights and responsibilities as speakers and how we navigate challenging or harmful speech in a connected world.
Colorado River Stories: Legacies of Water
📅 Wednesday, February 4, 2026 | 6:30–8:00 PM
✨ Opening reception: 5:45–6:30 PM (heavy appetizers)
🎭 Performance: 6:30–8:00 PM
📍 CASE Building, 4th Floor Auditorium & Chancellor’s Hall, 鶹ѰBoulder
🍽️ Heavy hors d’oeuvres
ʦ️ Free & open to all
🔗 Registration:
This unique event incorporates improvisational theater to explore stories of water rights, regional history, sustainability, and environmental justice. Storytellers include Indigenous leaders, water scientists, and policy advocates. You are invited to listen, learn, and share your own experiences with the Colorado River.
Difficult Dialogue: The First Amendment
📅 Tuesday, January 20, 2026 | 11:15 AM–12:30 PM
📍 CBIS Room, Norlin Library, 鶹ѰBoulder
🍽️ Lunch provided
ʦ️ Free & open to the public
Registration:
🤝 Co-sponsored by: Keller Center
It has been a year since the second Trump administration took office, and during this time we have seen increasing challenges to rights and protections that many have taken for granted—especially those guaranteed by the First Amendment.
This event will bring together faculty experts from journalism, political science, and law to examine contemporary threats to freedoms of speech, religion, assembly, the press, and the right to petition the government. Panelists will share scholarly insights and discuss what individuals and institutions can do to protect First Amendment rights in today’s political climate.
Audience participation is central, with time dedicated to both pre-submitted and live questions.
Normalization: Is Denial a River in Egypt?
Wednesday, December 10, 6:00–7:30 PM at Colorado Chautauqua's Community House
📍 Colorado Chautauqua's Community House
Part of the Difficult Dialogues: Community Conversations series (with Colorado Chautauqua and Voices at Chautauqua).
Normalization is the process of accepting—sometimes quickly—new ways of doing things or experiences as the “new normal.” What are the dangers of this all-too-human approach? How can we avoid this pitfall when it matters most? Join us as we discuss the implications normalization has on ourselves and our society.
Israel. Gaza. Boulder. A Very Difficult Dialogue.
Thursday, November 13, 6:00–7:30 PM at Colorado Chautauqua's Community House
📍 Colorado Chautauqua's Community House
Part of the Difficult Dialogues: Community Conversations series (with Colorado Chautauqua and Voices at Chautauqua).
The Israel–Gaza conflict has surfaced in Boulder through heated City Council meetings and even violent acts such as the Pearl Street Mall firebombing.
This dialogue will:
- Address how we can lower tensions.
- Create space where all sides are heard.
Immigration: Is This Who We Are?
Thursday, October 9, 6:00–7:30 PM at Colorado Chautauqua's Community House
Difficult Dialogues: Community Conversations series (partnered withand theirseries).
You hear it time and again: the United States is a nation of immigrants. Yet, as ICE’s aggressive tactics continue to escalate, this adage has become increasingly politicized. Is this who we are as a country—and who we want to be?
Join us for a conversation on the implications that current immigration policy and enforcement have on American identity, led by Dr. Jennifer Ho of 鶹ѰBoulder.
Immigration: Caring for Others in Times of Need
Monday, September 29, 6:30pm - 8pm at Grace Commons Church
(in partnership with Grace Commons)
Immigration to the US has been a hot button issue over the last few decades. Since January 2025 under the second Trump administration, Homeland Security has deployed ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Custom and Border Protection) officers who have detained and deported people who are extra legal (people without proper documentation to remain in the US), visa holders, and green card holders. This panel will talk about the recent uptick in aggressive and violent detentions and deportations, which have even swept up US citizens. How can we talk about immigration and a path to citizenship during a time when ICE and CBP are racially targeting those they believe do not “look” like they belong in the US?
there may be some parking in the church lot available, but you may need to utilize street and garage parking.