Insurrection, Domestic Terror and White Supremacy

The Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol is one of the most shocking events in American history, and the gravity of the moment has only grown. What appeared at first to be a chaotic breaching of the building has proved rather to be an organized effort to prevent the certification of the electoral vote and perhaps do harm to elected officials. It was also an event years in the making, an uprising by groups motivated by a white, nationalist agenda. This month’s guest journalists, Leah Sotille and Bill Morlin, have been reporting on these groups and will speak about this long-standing threat and the reckoning at hand.

Inspired by the Crosscut Festival, the At-Large speaker series features in-depth conversations with renowned journalists and authors about the big issues and big ideas making headlines across the country and here at home.

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About the speakers: 

Leah Sottile is a freelance journalist whose features, profiles, investigations and essays have been featured by the Washington Post, The New York Times Magazine, Playboy, Rolling Stone, California Sunday Magazine, Outside, The Atlantic and High Country News, where she is a correspondent. She is the host of the podcast Two Minutes Past Nine, produced with BBC Radio 4, and the National Magazine Award-nominated series "Bundyville," made in collaboration with Longreads and Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Bill Morlin has covered the Aryan Nations and off-shoot extremist groups engaging in violent criminal activities and domestic terrorism for decades with the Spokesman Review and Associated Press, among many other publications. He and the Spokane newspaper have received numerous awards for extremism coverage. His work took him from the Aryan Nations compound in North Idaho to various courtrooms and extremist enclaves throughout the United States. He has interviewed dozens of racists, covered demonstrations, cross-burnings, rallies and federal and state trials of white supremacists accused of assorted violent crimes. He has written hundreds of articles about white supremacists, The Order in the 1980s, Ruby Ridge in 1992, the birth of the militia movement, the Montana Freeman in 1996, so-called sovereign citizens, Phineas Priest bombers and assorted anti-tax and anti-government groups. More recently, he wrote about the 2016 Malheur standoff in Oregon, the deadly white supremacy rally in Charlottesville and the Bundy trial in Las Vegas in 2017, and Patriot Prayer-Proud Boys rallies in Seattle and Portland the following year.  And, he loves dogs and cats.

Mark Baumgarten is the managing editor at Crosscut where he oversees a newsroom of dedicated reporters, producers and editors telling the stories of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. He is also the host of the Crosscut Talks podcast.

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