Usually an election year means important in-depth conversations on big national issues. This year it sometimes seems like we’re missing the forest through the tweets.

That’s not the way it used to be. When I was growing up, national conversations was so comprehensive and provocative that they resonated all the way to our dinner table. My mother is Cuban and black. My father is Australian and white. So we often talked about race, privilege. These were the topics of that period. We didn’t always agree, but the conversations were always lively, and those discussions shaped the way I think about my work and my fellow Americans today.

That’s why I’m honored to be able to have an impact on the current political environment, a chance to recreate the atmosphere of my youth when facts-driven, in-depth conversations were the rule, not the exception. On Friday, October 21st, I will be facilitating the third in the National Archives’ series of National Conversations, this one entitled, “Women’s Rights and Gender Equality,” in New York City. Conversations like this one have been happening across the country this year — first in Atlanta, for civil rights and justice, then in Chicago for LGBTQ human rights, and next month, in Los Angeles on immigration.