Winter 2026

On the evening of March 31, 2025, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey rose to speak in the US Senate chamber, declaring that he would keep talking “for as long as I am physically able.”

With 1,164 pages of notes in hand, for 25 hours and 5 minutes, he stood – literally – denouncing the Trump administration for undercutting decades of advancements for the protection of the poor, women and the undocumented; for threatening the financial stability of the nation; and for attacking the core foundations of American democracy.

“I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate,” he explained. “I rise tonight because I sincerely believe that our country is in crisis.”

At a moment when Democrats were confronting their powerlessness and their leadership was under growing pressure to become bolder in opposing the administration, Booker’s dramatic protest ignited millions, especially when he topped the existing record for longest-ever Senate speech – 24 hours and 18 minutes – delivered by Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina in 1957 against the Civil Rights Act.

His new book, Stand, is an amplification of that speech, a call to arms to those caught in despair or depression by the current political situation. “Now is not the time to surrender to cynicism or abandon our most noble ideals,” he said. “Now is the time to defiantly declare like our ancestors before us: I too stand for America.”

Senator Booker joins us to celebrate Americans who have stood up for justice, who have championed the values central to making ours a more perfect union – and to ignite new generations to follow their lead.