The Forum featuring Jelani Cobb
January 29, 2026 | 6:30 PM | MINT MUSEUM UPTOWN
the state of journalism today—its power, its ethical dilemmas, and the pressures it endures.
On January 29, 2026, The Charlotte Center hosted the Forum featuring Jelani Cobb, Dean of Columbia Journalism School and gifted staff writer at The New Yorker, for a compelling conversation on the evolving landscape of journalism and its role in shaping our democracy.
Blending historical perspective, cultural insight, and masterful storytelling, Cobb illuminated the challenges and opportunities confronting journalists in a time of rapid change and deep public skepticism.
The conversation examined journalism’s enduring power alongside the ethical dilemmas and mounting pressures it faces today. Drawing on his work as a Peabody Award–winning correspondent for PBS Frontline, his leadership at Columbia Journalism School, and his incisive political and historical writing for The New Yorker, Cobb offered a thoughtful exploration of how journalism can recommit to its foundational values of truth, accountability, and public service in an increasingly fractured media landscape.
Connect. Consider. Ignite. The program ran from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM including time for conversation, connections, and Q&A.
The Forum has a three-part structure:
• First third: Participants connect and build relationships in small break-out groups prompted by a question;
• Middle third: Participants consider a presentation that ends with the speaker posing a community-facing question;
• Final third: Participants discuss the question, igniting new ideas and interactions.
THE HUMANITIES | Languages | Literature | History | Philosophy | Religion | And More!
Participate in the important questions of our time. The Forum is a conversation and speaker series that brings people together to explore challenges and opportunities that affect human flourishing through the lens of the humanities and civic imagination.
