Death, the old saying goes, is part of life. That wisdom seems especially appropriate if, like this week’s guest, Margalit Fox, you are a staff writer on the Obituaries desk at The New York Times.

The history of the period between the first and second World Wars reads like a tragedy, progressing from the horror of war, to an idealistic hope for lasting peace, before descending into cataclysm. This week’s guests seize on one of the most idealistic moments in that history; the diplomacy to outlaw war. Oona Hathaway and Scott Shapiro argue that its importance far exceeds the respect given to it by most historians.

Edgars is a former national security and intelligence official, cybersecurity expert, privacy lawyer and civil liberties activist. He joined the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), shortly before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and spent five years fighting in Congress against abuses in the “war on terror.” He left the ACLU to try to make a difference by going inside America’s growing surveillance state – a story he tells in Beyond Snowden: Privacy, Mass Surveillance and the Struggle to Reform the NSA.

For generations, one of the central stories of American identity has been that our diversity is our strength. That story is being openly challenged by those who see America’s changing demographics as a threat. Teja Arboleda uses storytelling to celebrate diversity and challenge those who would dismiss its value.

“What would I have done?” It’s a central question in the student of history’s imagination when confronted by the horrors of the holocaust. Our guest this week, Omer Bartov, delves deep into the experience of one town in Ukraine changed forever by genocide.

Even in the age of social media, we rely on journalists to find and tell the stories of people stuck in extreme circumstances. Joining us this week is one of the best of a new generation of journalists, Sulome Anderson.

A Civil Rights Movement hero and nonviolence activist for more than fifty years, Dr. Bernard LaFayette was a co-founder and leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Nashville Sit-ins, a courageous Freedom Rider, an associate of Dr. King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and national coordinator of the Poor People’s Campaign. An ordained minister, professor, educator, lecturer, he is recognized nationally and around the world as an authority on the strategy on nonviolent social change. He gifted us with this incredible song on set of Story in the Public Square.

Conventional wisdom tells us that Donald Trump’s campaign benefited mightily from his use of Twitter. However, conventional wisdom and the truth are not always synonymous. Jacob Groshek’s research shows it was not the Tweets themselves, but the television coverage they generated that shaped the 2016 election.

Maddie McGarvey is a freelance photographer based in Columbus, Ohio. She graduated from Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication in 2012 with a degree in Photojournalism, interned at the San Francisco Chronicle in 2011, and worked as a staff photographer at the Burlington Free Press in Vermont before returning to the Midwest.