CODY ENGLANDER
Staff Writer
Columnist Christine Emba reflected on the shift of America’s attitude ahead of today’s lecture.
“I was surprised this July 4 at how [uncelebrated the holiday was], seeing people very detached and unoptimistic about the future of our union,” Emba said. “And that was in Washington D.C.”
At 10:45 today in the Amphitheater, Emba and E.J. Dionne Jr. will continue Week Three with a conversation on the modern political landscape and technology’s role within it.
Emba is a senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute and a contributing writer at The New York Times. She authored Rethinking Sex: A Provocation. Before joining AEI, Emba was a columnist and editor at The Washington Post.
Dionne is a senior fellow and the W. Averell Harriman Chair in American Governance in the Governance Studies program at Brookings Institution and is a contributing columnist at The New York Times. He was a national politics reporter for The Washington Post, and remained a columnist until 2025, when he transitioned into a role as a contributor at the publication.
The two are longtime friends, first meeting when both worked at The Washington Post.
“Christine Emba is somebody I have admired since she started writing,” Dionne said. “She has her own perspective on things which does not fit into anyone’s preconceived ideas of what constitutes liberalism and conservatism, left and right. She’s a really fun and interesting person to engage with.”
The two individuals said they plan to discuss some of the shifts in modern politics, along with the role technology plays in elections from multigenerational perspectives.
“I spend a lot of my time in my own work at AEI talking to and researching [Generation Z] and millennials and the way we live our lives,” Emba said. “One of the things I’m really interested in, and frankly worried about, is that we are seeing a decline in social connection in younger generations. There is a growing distance between men and women especially, influenced and egged on by technology.”
Dionne said he believes the country is at a turning point, pointing to the 2026 midterm elections as a point where big change is possible.
“We are at a real heated moment in the country,” Dionne said. “… I think there is a sort of new sentiment in the country that’s developed over the course of this year. The way I’ve described it is in terms of what Fannie Lou Hamer — the civil rights activist — said at one point, ‘I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.’ I think that’s where the country is now.”
Both Emba and Dionne contribute some of the modern political climate to an area of expertise for both of them — religion.
“This is where E.J. and I overlap, in religion, a really important force in political life right now,” Emba said. “But, the way that religion is interacting with our politics has really shifted.”
Although there are challenges, Dionne said he also believes there is hope in the modern landscape. He said he holds the belief that the country is due for a shift toward younger people in roles of governmental leadership.
“People are tired of division, they are tired of anger, they’re worried that we’re not solving some of the fundamental problems facing the country,” Dionne said.
