Busboys and Poets 14th & V welcomes Joel Berg to present their new book "America, We Need to Talk: A Self-Help Book for the Nation."
America We Need to Talk: A Self-Help Book for the Nation is both a parody of relationship and self-help books and a serious analysis of the nation’s political and economic dysfunction. Explaining that the most serious—and most broken—relationship is the one between us, as Americans, and our nation, the book explains how, no matter who becomes our next president, average Joes can channel their anger with our hobbled system into concrete actions that will fix our democracy, rebuild our middle class, and restore our stature in the world as a beacon of freedom and hope. Starting with the belief that it is irresponsible for Americans to blame the nation’s problems solely on “the politicians” or “the system,” Joel makes a case for how it is the personal responsibility of every resident of this country to fix it. The American people are in a relationship with their government and their society, and, as in all relationships, it is the responsibility of both sides to recognize and repair their problems.
Labeled “Mister Frowny Pants” by The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (on which he once appeared), Joel Berg is CEO of Hunger Free America, which the Nation called “one of the leading direct service and advocacy organizations on hunger and poverty in the nation.” He is a nationally and internationally recognized expert on US politics, hunger, poverty, food, volunteerism, and nutrition.
Berg wrote the decade’s definitive book on US hunger, All You Can Eat: How Hungry Is America? (Seven Stories Press, 2008). Playboy (which Berg reads only for the reviews) called the book “refreshing” for its “optimism … rationality and passion.” He has also published numerous op-eds, poems, and policy papers and has been a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, as well as a Policy Analyst at the Progressive Policy Institute, two DC-based think tanks.
Berg has delivered hundreds of keynote speeches on four continents and in 37 states, from Maine to Alaska, while surviving moose attacks and volcanic eruptions. One audience member wrote, “Seeing Joel Berg speak in person is like watching the History Channel, C-Span, and Comedy Central all at once.”
Noted by City Limits magazine for his “trademark good-natured snarkiness,” Berg has been covered extensively by national and international media, appearing on Hardball with Chris Matthews, Fox News, CNN, National Public Radio, The Kudlow Report, All in with Chris Hayes, and the NBC Evening News, and quoted by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and tons of obscure blogs. He has also been featured in three documentary films.
Prior to joining Hunger Free America, Berg worked for eight years in senior executive service positions in Bill Clinton’s presidential administration, served on the Clinton/Gore Presidential Transition Team, and staffed the 1992 Bill Clinton for President campaign. While working for 13 years as a political campaign professional, he lived in Kansas, Alaska, New Jersey, Maine, Arkansas, and New York.
He now resides in Brooklyn, New York but has yet to overdose on local, artisanal kale chips
