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Monica Lewinsky has been many things: White House intern, media punching bag, writer, anti-bullying activist, and now, producer. She talked to David about her upbringing and her parents' tumultuous divorce, her struggles with mental health following her affair with former President Bill Clinton, the dangers of social media, and how she took back control of her own story, most recently as a producer on "Impeachment: American Crime Story."
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Assistant Professor Cera Murtagh organized a podcast with students (four of whom are PSC) as a follow-up to the Northern Ireland symposium that took place in March. Episode 6 of the podcast features Monica McWilliams, who is a leading figure … Continue reading →

With less than a week until the U.S. runs out of cash, economists and policymakers are using words like "cataclysmic event" and "calamity" to describe what will happen if Congress doesn't raise the debt limit. It seems bad. Economists are predicting that if the government is unable to pay its bills, it could bring much […]

Presidents are getting older and older. Former President Donald Trump was the oldest person to assume office when he was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017, and President Biden broke that record four years later. If either is elected again next year, at ages 78 and 81, respectively, they will be older than the previous […]

Student loan payments are scheduled to begin again this October after a pause of more than three years. Because of a Supreme Court decision last month, these payments will resume without a forgiveness plan from the Biden administration that would have wiped out up to $20,000 from some borrowers' balances. We want to know more […]

In a ruling on two related cases on Thursday written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court just ended affirmative action in higher education as we know it. The two cases — Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina — […]

When Congress voted in May to restart student loan payments this fall — and then the Supreme Court overturned President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan in June — Alexa Goins and her husband realized they had a choice: They could keep their house or they could pay off their student debt. Together, she and her […]

The economy is doing well. Americans just don't believe it. By many metrics — employment, consumer spending and wages — the economic recovery from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic was rapid. But Americans have been displeased with President Biden's handling of the economy since he moved into the job. An Associated Press/NORC Center for […]

On Friday, the last day of this year's term, the Supreme Court struck down President Biden's student loan forgiveness plan. The court concluded in a 6-to-3 ruling that the president overstepped his executive authority by making such a large-scale change to the program via a waiver, as laid out in a 2003 law. Chief Justice […]

Legislators across the aisle have recently linked social media platforms with increasing rates of teen depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia, and in more severe instances, suicide. As young people find themselves heavily engaged with social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, policymakers and now parents have raised concerns and potential interventions as extreme as banning…

Colleen Hroncich


Education entrepreneurs come from all walks of life. Monica Hall, founder of THRIVE Christian Academy near Atlanta, didn't set out to start a school. She was serving as an Army chaplain and gradually realized her soldiers needed more support. This prompted her to open a community center focused on well being. She was also a youth pastor at a nearby church, and people started asking her to add tutoring at the center or start a school. Monica was initially reluctant, but after a few different people suggested something similar, she realized maybe this was what she was meant to do.
In 2013, Monica opened THRIVE Christian Academy, which stands for Truth, Humility, Respect, Integrity, Victory, and Excellence—the six pillars of the school. There were initially just two students—both children whose parents helped inspire her to create the school. Because she only had two students, Monica met up with homeschoolers throughout the year for various activities. She finished the school year with three students and gave them each a "brag book" that compiled some of the things they'd done during the year.
One of the parents shared photos of the brag book on Facebook where a local teacher saw it. The teacher showed up at Monica's door one day and said she wanted to be part of the school. "I don't have any kindergartners and you teach kindergarten," Monica recalls telling the teacher. The teacher said three of her fellow teachers also wanted to join THRIVE and assured Monica that students would come if she hired the teachers.







She was right—THRIVE opened the new school year with 56 students, pre‐​K3 to 5th grade. Enrollment kept growing. Monica added a middle school and then a high school. The first graduating class was 2020—the COVID class they called themselves. In Georgia, things started opening back up from COVID-19 restrictions by the end of May, so they held that first graduation on Juneteenth. Monica expects to have around 300 students when school is back in session this fall.
THRIVE utilizes a unique blended curriculum that pairs high‐​quality video lessons with in‐​person instruction from dedicated teachers. This allows students to have a more tailored, individualized experience. Monica estimates that around 40 percent of her students have special needs. Most of them just need extra attention and are integrated into the general education population.
"Some have a significant educational delay, like maybe they're in 6th grade but they read on a 2nd grade level," she says. "So, let's figure out where the stepping stone was missed. Let's fill in that gap, and let's just watch you accelerate." 14 students have more intensive needs and are in their own classroom with a dedicated teacher and aide, which is pretty impressive for such a small school.







The school also offers a variety of extracurricular academic activities, including debate, robotics, geography and spelling bees, a science fair, and math, history, and quiz bowls. Each year, they take an enrichment trip; previous destinations have included Washington D.C., New Orleans, Memphis, Niagara Falls, Baltimore, and Chicago.







Monica wants to make sure THRIVE alum have plenty of options in the future. "We make sure that they apply to at least three colleges, and we have a 100% acceptance rate now," she explains. "So far from the senior classes, probably about 60% of them are in college." The others are pursuing various careers like the Army, EMT, modeling, and entrepreneurship. "For me, the point of requiring them to apply is that they know they always have that option," says Monica. If they start down one path and it doesn't work out, they'll "forever know that push comes to shove I've been accepted to schools before. I can go back and go to college if I decide to do that."
Like most of the education entrepreneurs I talk to, Monica says if you have the urge to open your own school, just do it. "It wasn't the ideal time for me when I started THRIVE—my son was two weeks old on the first day. I carried him in there in a car seat, fed him, burped him, put him down, and went next door to welcome two 1st graders for the first day of school," she says. "But the feeling isn't going to leave. You're going to keep feeling this tug until you do it, so you're going to be sleepless anyway. You may as well just go ahead and jump out there and trust God to catch you."

Monica Petersen was assassinated in Haiti while she was investigating the Clintons' child trafficking.

Journalist and CNN anchor Jake Tapper joins the show to talk about cartooning at Dartmouth, his date with Monica Lewinsky that helped launch his journalism career, moderating the second Republican primary debate, his new novel, and more.
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Democratic strategist Stephanie Cutter says she has a fearless streak. This fearlessness gave her the confidence to walk into Gov. Mario Cuomo's office asking for a job in her early twenties and to later successfully execute the virtual 2020 Democratic National Convention during a pandemic. Stephanie joined David to talk about her upbringing in a small town in Massachusetts, her close relationship with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, working for former President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky period, and putting together President Joe Biden's Emmy-nominated inauguration program.
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Journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser met while working together at The Washington Post. While they spent long hours together in the newsroom investigating the Monica Lewinsky scandal, they didn't realize they lived on the same block until a colleague pointed out the coincidence. Today, Baker—who famously doesn't vote for the sake of objectivity—covers the White House for the New York Times, and Glasser writes on Washington for The New Yorker. The now-married couple joined David to discuss what they learned about democracy in their four years based in Russia, finishing their first joint book while Glasser was in labor and how much Washington has changed since the time of James Baker, a political player and power broker who served most notably as President George H.W. Bush's secretary of state. James Baker is the subject of the pair's latest book, The Man Who Ran Washington.
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