TRANSPARENT Creator Jill Soloway to Visit Public TV Series THE OPEN MIND

This weekend airs a fascinating interview with Producer/Writer JILL SOLOWAY, on the upcoming episode of the national public TV series THE OPEN MIND, hosted by Alexander Heffner.

THE OPEN MIND series encourages thoughtful discourse and provocative exchanges-- hosting an eclectic mix of guests, from Independent senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to musician Aloe Blacc to bestselling novelists James Patterson and Salman Rushdie.

Select highlights follow:

Alexander asks Jill Soloway about what feminism means for today's generation: I think that feminism is just about to break open into a place where there can be a lot of inclusivity and a lot of conversation and hopefully a lot of excitement, and things seem like they're changing right now.

How the popularity of the series TRANSPARENT has contributed to civil rights: And of course the process is always gonna be primarily about creativity, primarily about creativity but as we started to put the show out into the world, we recognized how important the show was to the civil rights movement of the trans community right now.

Gender equality: Well, there are so many women who don't have any access to a lot of the things that men have access to, so that's the first thing is that there?s an imbalance between, the masculine and the feminine in our society, so trans-ness is one thing and transmisogyny is something else entirely.

Male privilege: that access to male privilege kind of gets them applauded by society, like oh look, now you're a man, we're happy for you. However when men transition and become women, they really, really have a hard time.
The Open Mind, a weekly half-hour public affairs interview hosted by journalist Alexander Heffner, debuted on Sunday, September 6 on the WORLD Channel as an ideas-driven alternative to Sunday political talk shows.

WORLD is produced and distributed by WGBH/Boston, American Public Television (APT) and WNET/New York in association with Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA).

This thoughtful excursion into the world of ideas across media, politics, technology, the arts and all realms of civic life airs on a growing number of public television stations weekly across the country including in New York City (WNET, CUNY TV), Washington, D.C. (WETA, WHUT), and Los Angeles (KOCE) as well as streams online at thirteen.org/openmind .

As the youngest weekly host on television, Heffner is focusing in particular on public policy in connection to a new generation of Americans. For example, National Institute of Health leader Maria Freire considers in an upcoming show how the next phase of the Human Genome Project can prepare us to treat disease more effectively according to biomarkers.

Heffner will be exploring the intersection of Millennials and the 2016 campaign as the Fitzwater Fellow at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire. Among the guests on The Open Mind this fall are Chairmen Frank Fahrenkopf and Michael McCurry of the Presidential Debate Commission, Szelena Gray of Run for America, John Opdycke of Open Primaries, Ben Rattray of Change.org , and Annika Savill of the U.N. Democracy Fund. The most recent guests have been Obama Presidential Library Founding Board Member Maya Soteoro-Ng, Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibarguen, bestselling author James Patterson and former U.S. Senator Bob Graham.

Heffner covered the Millennial vote in 2012 for Need to Know, founded SCOOP08 and SCOOP44 that covered the 2008 election and Obama administration and taught a civic education/journalism seminar in New York City public school classrooms. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, Newsday, American Way Magazine and RealClearPolitics, among other publications. He has been interviewed about politics, education and stories in the news by PBS, C-SPAN, CNN, CBS and the BBC, among other networks.

The Open Mind is a production of Richard Heffner Associates. Elaine Heffner is Executive Producer. Rebecca Wharton is Senior Producer.

Continuing production of The Open Mind has been made possible by grants from Anne Ulnick Gumowitz, Angelson Family Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Joan Ganz Cooney & Peter G. Peterson Fund, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Joann and Kenneth Wellner Foundation, Sally Minard and Norton Garfinkle, Schumann Media Center and Mutual of America.

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