Greg Berman
Verified
editor: @VitalCityNYC
fellow: @HFGuggenheim
alum: @innovjustice
Gradual: bit.ly/42JgC3u
The Nonprofit Crisis: bit.ly/3Ny41h7
Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Greg Berman
The Foibles of the Educated Elite
As I wrote last week, I am launching a new series called Thinkers Who Matter where I plan to highlight the work of writers who have particularly insightful things to say about contemporary American political discourse. My motivation is to acknowledge some of the people who have influenced my thinking and writing over the past half decade or so. First up is a look at Musa al-Gharbi, who wrote one of the best books I have read about the emergence of wokeness.
How to Survive in New York City, According to Spider-Man
Life lessons from the latest superhero film Anyone who hangs on to the very end of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” as viewers have been conditioned to do by decades of after-the-credits Marvel surprises, will discover an uncomfortable truth: Despite taking place in New York City, almost none of the moviewas actually filmed locally. The fine print reveals that the “New York” that Spidey swings through is actually located in various parts of Scotland and England.
Spider-Man and New York
Over the years, I have managed to write about many of my cultural interests: Arsenal, hip-hop, punk rock, basketball, trading cards, etc. Somehow, amidst all of this activity, I have never really written about my most enduring obsession: Spider-Man. I used to joke that I stole my whole personality from Spider-Man. It’s an exaggeration, but not by much. Reading Spider-Man as a kid struck a deep chord with me. Like Peter Parker, I was bookish and skinny.
My city and party are changing. The implications for liberal Jewish New Yorkers could be enormous.
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story. But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking.
The latest essay every day.
Since 2020, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has been transformed from what was basically a leftist academic theory into a protest. “These are now fighting words,” writes Greg Berman in The Nonprofit Crisis: Leadership Through the Culture Wars.
My Life Liking the New York Knicks
It is borderline heretical to say this among New York Knicks fans, but the championship teams of 1970 and 1973 don’t really mean much to me. Born in 1967, I was too young to watch Walt Frazier, Willis Reed and their merry band of brothers win both the NBA and the hearts and minds of basketball aficionados. Plus, I had the misfortune to be born in Washington DC, so my default setting was to support the hometown Bullets/Wizards.
Nonprofits should resist politicization first
How do you solve a problem like Donald Trump? That question is on the minds of many nonprofit leaders these days. There are good reasons why: According to the Urban Institute, in the wake of the Trump administration’s decision to cancel hundreds of federal grant agreements, one out of three nonprofits reported a government funding disruption in 2025.
Yale Looked in the Mirror. Other Nonprofits Should Try It.
A few weeks ago, Yale University issued a report on declining public trust in higher education. Given the source and the topic, it comes as little surprise that the report received mixed reviews: Heterodox Academy praised the report as a “landmark” that could meaningfully shift the public discourse about academia, focusing attention on issues of political bias and self-censorship on campus.
What Yale Got Right That Other Nonprofits Keep Getting Wrong
Last month, Yale University did something that doesn’t come naturally to elite institutions: It engaged in rigorous self-reflection and then actually shared the results with the world. The “Report of the Committee on Trust in Higher Education,” which was commissioned by Yale President Maurie McInnis and produced by a 10-member faculty committee, didn’t emerge out of nowhere. In recent years, Yale has repeatedly found itself on the front lines of the American culture wars.
Crime Story
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -1:36:09 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Robert Francois Damiens (1715-57) before the judges at the Chatelet, Paris, 2nd March 175. Musee de la Ville de Paris, Musee Carnavalet. This converstion with Greg Berman, former longtime CEO of the Center for Justice Innovation and author of the Small Sanities Substack, is both like and unlike a lot of previous conversations I’ve had in the anti-woke liberal space.
Evidence Over Intuition
Jennifer Doleac’s new book delivers some hard truths about criminal justice to both progressives and conservatives. Over the past decade or so, the field of criminal justice reform has seemed to tilt on its axis. Thanks in no small part to Black Lives Matter, what had been for many years a fairly technocratic, under-the-radar area of endeavor became the stuff of front-page news — and yet another battleground in the culture wars that have consumed so much of American life.
The Case for Softer Leadership With Young Staff
This is one of two essays that argue from opposing perspectives how to mentor and manage young workers. Read a defense of “tough love” leadership from Interfaith America’s Eboo Patel. When I entered the nonprofit field more than 30 years ago, I had the good fortune to work with someone who became the most important mentor of my career. John Feinblatt is now the long-standing president of Everytown for Gun Safety, but back then, he was the head of the Center for Justice Innovation.
The Woke Explainer
One of my favorite literary genres at the moment is what might be called the woke explainer. This is admittedly a niche genre. And my interests are actually a niche within a niche — I’m not interested in anti-woke screeds and I’m not interested in spirited defenses of wokeness. What I want to read are fair-minded, critical appraisals of the social justice trends that have transformed so many institutions over the past decade.
The Seduction of Nonprofit Mission Creep (SSIR)
The Nonprofit Crisis: Leadership Through the Culture Wars Greg Berman 224 pages, Oxford University Press Publication, 2025 Buy the book » When I was the head of the Center for Justice Innovation, one of the largest criminal justice nonprofits in the country, I was often asked about our organization’s mission statement. That’s because, for years, we didn’t have one. This flummoxed some of our funders, and not a few staffers as well.
The Seduction of Nonprofit Mission Creep (SSIR)
The Nonprofit Crisis: Leadership Through the Culture Wars Greg Berman 224 pages, Oxford University Press Publication, 2025 Buy the book » When I was the head of the Center for Justice Innovation, one of the largest criminal justice nonprofits in the country, I was often asked about our organization’s mission statement. That’s because, for years, we didn’t have one. This flummoxed some of our funders, and not a few staffers as well.
“It’s Probably as Bad as It Can Get”: A Conversation with Lilliana Mason
In the aftermath of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the threat of political violence has become a topic of urgent concern in the United States. While public support for political violence remains low—according to Sean Westwood of the Polarization Research Lab, fewer than 2 percent of Americans believe that political murder is acceptable—even isolated incidence of political violence can have a corrosive effect.
‘The Potential for Terrorism Is Pretty Frightening’: A Conversation with Gary LaFree
When terrorists hijacked and crashed planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, criminologist Gary LaFree was teaching at the University of Maryland, where he had built a career researching global and domestic crime. In fact, in the ’90s, LaFree was awarded two grants by The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation to support his research on global homicide rates, as well as race and crime. But the events of 9/11 forever changed the trajectory of his career.
The Enduring Power of “Tough on Crime”
During the slow news days at the end of August, there was a minor kerfuffle at the Democratic National Committee meeting in Minnesota. A speaker at the gathering, Insha Rahman of Vera Action, a political advocacy group that seeks to reduce the use of incarceration, unexpectedly became the main character on social media when she warned Democratic officials not to overreact to President Trump’s efforts to focus public attention on “lurid, awful stuff” like migrant crime and carjackings.
The Secret Ingredient to Zohran Mamdani's Success
I recently came across this graph in Nate Silver’s Substack and it struck a chord with me. Gallup has been surveying Americans about their life satisfaction for decades now. As you can see, there’s been a clear drop-off since 2020, but a recent surge has brought the number of respondents who are satisfied with their lives up to 81 percent.
Zohran Mamdani is benefitting from Eric Adams’s success as mayor - The Washington Post
Greg Berman and Josh Greenman are editors at Vital City, an urban policy journal in New York. New York’s mayoral race might be chaotic, but the city itself is thriving. On crime, education, sanitation, transportation and jobs — all traditional metrics mayors are judged on — things are largely heading in the right direction.
Fire watch issued for Friday; cooler temps coming, rain possible
The National Weather Service issued a “Fire Weather Watch” for Friday. Today’s high will be in the mid- to upper-80s with extremely low humidity, ranging from 10 to 15 percent. Winds could gust up to 35 mph, creating a dangerous combination of hot temperatures, low humidity, and strong winds. The fire danger is expected to subside with the cooler temperatures over the weekend.
Nuts Crooklyn
One of the little rules that I try to live by is that I never post anything negative on social media — the world already has enough negativity in it and I don’t want to feed the online outrage machine if I can avoid it. I’m choosing to make a rare exception to my policy today. My topic is the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets moved to Brooklyn in 2012 — the borough’s first major American professional sports team since the departure of the Dodgers in the 1950s.
Political Violence Used to be a Daily Fact of Life in New York
As the New York mayor’s race unfolds and the chances of a Zohran Mamdani victory grow more likely, a number of commentators have expressed the worry that the city could be at risk of returning to the “bad old days.” When people use this expression, they mostly mean to conjure the ghosts of the fiscal crisis (“Ford to City: Drop Dead”) and the dramatic increase in street crime that happened a half century ago (“Welcome to Fear City”).
New York is Not Broken
Despite the political bluster, this city is a miracle. I live just a few hundred yards away from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. In the spring and summer of 2020, the arena was the site of numerous Black Lives Matter protests. Day after day, I would look out my window and watch hundreds of protestors streaming by.
Fear and Loathing in the Nonprofit Sector
This article is brought to you by American Purpose, the magazine and community founded by Francis Fukuyama in 2020, which is proudly part of the Persuasion family. I have worked in the nonprofit sector for nearly 40 years. During that time, I have experienced several economic downturns that made it extremely challenging to fundraise. The aftermath of 9/11 dramatically affected the discourse and put anything that required travel on hold for months.
We Need More Ringos
Like so many people, the Beatles were a gateway drug for me, sparking a life-long interest in rock music. Almost everything about the band is remarkable, including the fact that they somehow continue to generate interest — and new product! — despite having broken up more than fifty years ago. I am currently reading Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation by Philip Norman.
‘When People Spend Time Together, They Are Less Inclined To See Each Other As the Enemy’: A Conversation With Matt Grossmann
In The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway famously observed that a character went broke in two ways: gradually, then suddenly. The same dynamic has been at work in American politics. For decades, the composition of our principal political parties has been slowly shifting, without a great deal of public attention. And then the 2024 presidential election happened, and it was suddenly obvious: the Democrats, traditionally the party of the working class, had become the party of educated elites.
Nonprofits and the City
Do nonprofits have too much power — or not enough?
Trump’s misguided war on nonprofits
It is hard to keep track of the steady stream of executive orders and announcements coming out of the Trump administration — almost every day seems to bring a new provocation. But one released last week definitely got the attention of nonprofits around the country. That’s because, in a two-paragraph memorandum, President Trump essentially declared war on them.
Incivility in Brooklyn
This past weekend, Miriam, an Israeli restaurant located around the corner from me in Brooklyn, was hit with graffiti. In blood-red stencils sprayed on its front door and windows, the restaurant was accused of “stealing culture” and engaging in “genocide cuisine.” The denunciations came thick and fast.
The Problem with the ‘Criminal Legal System’
The activist urge to change basic terminology has significant drawbacks. How best to make sense of Donald Trump's victory? Every day since the election has brought dozens of new takes trying to explain why Kamala Harris and the Democrats lost.
Talking Weather: A mild Christmas, but maybe snow by New Year’s Day in Estes Park
Talking Weather: A mild Christmas, but maybe snow by New Year’s Day in Estes Park
‘There are very few democracies that are as polarized as we are today’: A conversation with Jennifer McCoy
How worried should we be about the state of democracy in the United States? According to Jennifer McCoy, a professor of political science at Georgia State University and a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who has been studying democracy, both in the United States and in other countries for more than three decades, there is ample reason for concern.
Political polarization has become entertainment: A conversation with Clionadh Raleigh
Berman is a distinguished fellow of practice at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, co-editor of Vital City, and co-author of "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age." This is part of a series of interviews titled "The Polarization Project." Clionadh Raleigh, a professor of political violence and geography at the University of Sussex, has been studying violence for more than 20 years and has come to a depressing conclusion: Global rates of conflict are rising dramatically.
'There's nothing inevitable or permanent about democracy': A conversation with Robert Talisse
Berman is a distinguished fellow of practice at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, co-editor of Vital City, and co-author of "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age." This is the 12th in a series of interviews titled "The Polarization Project." Robert Talisse, a professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University, believes polarization is a problem that cannot be solved, only managed. He also believes the greatest threat to American democracy comes from within.
‘Stories about the way the nation is organized are dividing us’: A conversation with Richard Slotkin
Berman is a distinguished fellow of practice at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, co-editor of Vital City, and co-author of "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age." This is the 11th in a series of interviews titled "The Polarization Project." Is the United States on the brink of a civil war? Few people are better placed to answer that question than historian Richard Slotkin.
‘We're ignoring our common values and interests’: A conversation with Monica Harris
Berman is a distinguished fellow of practice at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, co-editor of Vital City, and co-author of "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age." This is the 10th in a series of interviews titled "The Polarization Project." National elections in the United States tend to spark talk of “red” and “blue” America — two parallel nations divided by geography and politics, with rural and central states trending Republican and coastal and urban areas voting...
‘There is a diffused climate of threats and intimidation’: A conversation with Daniel Stid
Berman is a distinguished fellow of practice at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, co-editor of Vital City, and co-author of "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age." This is the ninth in a series of interviews titled "The Polarization Project." The problem of polarization has been on Daniel Stid’s mind for a while. Trained as a political scientist, Stid has spent time working in government (as a staffer for former Rep.
‘A healthy democracy requires social trust’: A conversation with Ilana Redstone
Berman is a distinguished fellow of practice at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, co-editor of Vital City, and co-author of "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age." This is the eighth in a series of interviews titled "The Polarization Project." Ilana Redstone has launched a personal campaign against certainty.
‘Democracy is something we have to fight for’: A conversation with Suzette Brooks Masters
Berman is a distinguished fellow of practice at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, co-editor of Vital City, and co-author of "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age." This is the seventh in a series of interviews titled "The Polarization Project." Is polarization in the United States laying the groundwork for political violence? That is not a simple question to answer.
Vital City | The Subway
Great! You’ve successfully signed up. Welcome back! You've successfully signed in. You've successfully subscribed to Vital City. Your link has expired. Success! Check your email for magic link to sign-in. Success! Your billing info has been updated. Your billing was not updated.
‘A truly pluralistic society has both inclusion and dissent’: A conversation with Ben Klutsey
Berman is a distinguished fellow of practice at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, co-editor of Vital City, and co-author of "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age." This is the sixth in a series of interviews titled "The Polarization Project." The documentary film “Undivide Us” brings together Americans from across the political spectrum for conversations about abortion, immigration, guns and other controversial issues.
‘The problem comes from the top’: A conversation with Yphtach Lelkes
Berman is a distinguished fellow of practice at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, co-editor of Vital City, and co-author of "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age." This is the fifth in a series of interviews titled "The Polarization Project." On Jan. 6, 2021, the threat of political violence in the United States became an issue of urgent national concern.
'It's time to be very afraid': A conversation with Peter Coleman
Berman is a distinguished fellow of practice at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, co-editor of Vital City, and co-author of "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age." This is the third in a series of interviews titled "The Polarization Project." “I am very worried about political violence,” Columbia University professor Peter Coleman told C-SPAN in August 2023.
'We’re in the danger zone': A conversation with Caroline Mehl
Berman is a distinguished fellow of practice at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, co-editor of Vital City and co-author of "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age." This is the third in a series of interviews titled "The Polarization Project." College campuses are often depicted as “ivory towers,” purposefully set apart from the rest of the world so that students and faculty can pursue intellectual inquiry in an unfettered way.
'Pluralism is a learned value': A conversation with Dan Vallone
Berman is a distinguished fellow of practice at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, co-editor of Vital City, and co-author of "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age." This is the second in a series of interviews titled "The Polarization Project." The headline of a recent Reuters special report tells a depressing story: “Political Violence in Polarized US at Its Worst since 1970s.” According to the report, “Explanations for today’s violence vary, ranging from widespread...
Illiberal ideas are having a negative effect on our political culture
Berman is a distinguished fellow of practice at The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, co-editor of Vital City, and co-author of "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age." This is the first in a series of interviews titled "The Polarization Project." In a 2022 speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, President Joe Biden issued a dramatic warning: Democracy in the United States is “under assault,” he announced.
Shiji Distribution Solutions
Skip to main content Shiji Distribution Solutions (“SDS”, formerly CHINAonline), a division of Shiji Group (Shenzhen Stock Exchange: 002153), is a leading online distribution technology and service provider. Founded in 2007, SDS built the first online travel distribution platform in China. It has expanded both domestically and internationally and now has offices in USA & UK.
Opinion: Is it possible to get the effort to close Rikers Island back on track?
The must-read daily newsletter for NYN's political community. Get it in your inbox. email My first visit to Rikers Island took place in 1992, when I participated in a small, day-long tour. It was an eye-opening experience. The daily jail population had only recently peaked, with more than 21,000 people behind bars. In addition to a decaying infrastructure of crumbling buildings, back then Rikers also featured a series of temporary tents which were needed to house the overwhelming flow of humanity.
Show More
loading
Actions
Get in touch with Greg
Contact Greg, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack