July 4th: 100 Years of America the Superpower; Frances Perkins; New Yorker Poetry; Blacklisting; Celia Cruz

On this Fourth of July holiday, highlights from our centennial series, 100 Years of 100 Things:

• Richard Haass, American diplomat, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, senior counselor at the global investment firm Centerview Partners, and the author of The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens (Penguin Press, 2023) reviews the history of American's global influence, from World War I to today.
• Annie Polland, president of the Tenement Museum, looks at the life and enduring legacy of Frances Perkins, the first female cabinet member as Secretary of Labor who was instrumental in crafting The New Deal, and passing a slew of federal workers protections, including Social Security, a minimum wage and a 40-hour work week.
• Kevin Young, poet, New Yorker poetry editor and the editor of A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker (Knopf, 2025), goes through the history of poetry appearing in The New Yorker, and what was left out.
• Clay Risen, New York Times reporter and the author of Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America (Scribner, 2025), goes through the history of the Cold War-era struggle inside the US between the FDR progressives and social conservatives and how it continues to reverberate.
• Felix Contreras, host and co-creator of NPR's Alt.Latino, talks about the life and legacy of music icon Celia Cruz, born 100 years ago.

 

These interviews were lightly edited for time and clarity and the original web versions are available here:

100 Years of 100 Things: America the Superpower (Nov 24, 2024)
100 Years of 100 Things: Frances Perkins (Mar 17, 2025)
100 Years of 100 Things: New Yorker Poetry (Mar 7, 2025)
100 Years of 100 Things: Blacklisting (Mar 26, 2025)
100 Years of 100 Things: Celia Cruz (May 8, 2025)