Town and Gown Go to Court: Redistricting Fight Hits Boone, NC
Third-place Submission for 2026 High School Essay Competition.
Interviews
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Between Two Lists: Who Gets Counted After Disaster?
Winning Submission
of the 2026 High School Essay Competition
Interview with Sheriff Chad Bianco
Sheriff Chad Bianco has spent more than three decades in the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, rising from deputy to the county’s highest elected law enforcement office. In the 2026 California gubernatorial primary, he ran as a Republican in a crowded field against fellow Republican Steve Hilton and a slate of 60 other candidates. Bianco finished fourth with 10.2% of the vote, failing to advance; Hilton and Democrat Xavier Becerra took the two runoff spots.
AI and the Historian: Interview with John Lewis Gaddis
John Lewis Gaddis is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale. Named the “Dean of Cold War Historians” by The New York Times, his landmark works include Strategies of Containment, The Cold War: A New History, The Landscape of History, and On Grand Strategy. In 2012, Gaddis won the Pulitzer Prize for the official biography of the diplomat George F. Kennan. A recipient of the National Humanities Medal who advised President George W. Bush and his speechwriters, Gaddis is the founding director of Yale’s Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy and winner of multiple undergraduate teaching awards. Gaddis has incorporated AI into both his teaching and his research, using it to test the same questions about patterns, judgment, and interpretation that have defined his work for decades.
Politics in the Arts: Interview with Ari Weinzweig
Ari Weinzweig was born in 1956 in Chicago, Illinois. He is a co-founder of Zingerman’s, a gourmet food business group in Ann Arbor, Michigan, comprising eateries such as Zingerman’s Delicatessen, Miss Kim, and Zingerman’s Bake House.
Politics in the Arts: Interview with Dread Scott
Born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1965, Dread Scott would become an artist whose work would ignite national outrage, reach the Supreme Court, and redefine the limits of political art in America. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and works in a variety of media—including performance, photography, painting, and printmaking.
Politics in the Arts: Interview with Janeil Engelstad
Janeil Engelstad was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1961. She has an MFA in photography from New York University and the International Center of Photography’s dual program. Her work spans different media and is focused upon making “a generative and positive contribution to people and the planet.”
Politics in the Arts: Interview with Mark Seliger
Mark Seliger was born in Amarillo, Texas, in 1959. He is an acclaimed photographer, most recognized for his portraiture, and was the chief photographer for Rolling Stone from 1992 to 2002. Afterwards, he worked at GQ and Vanity Fair until 2012.