\u201cThe Work in Progress\u201d takes viewers on a tour of the American spirit at a time of deep division. Guided by UC Berkeley emeritus scholar Robert Reich, the documentary finds tension and doubt everywhere \u2014 but also signs of hope.<\/p>\n
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\nIn “The Work in Progress,” a new documentary from Berkeley emeritus professor Robert Reich, more than 100 Americans engage in deep and sometimes difficult conversations about the troubled spirit of the nation. The Work in Progress \/ Inequality Media<\/p>\n
In an early sequence of Robert Reich\u2019s new film, \u201cThe Work in Progress,\u201d two young men sit beneath an arching canopy, surrounded by wintry Iowa fields. We know almost nothing about them: One is a person of color, one is white, and they appear to be about 30 years old. There\u2019s a faint uneasiness between them.<\/p>\n
The white man studies a small card and haltingly reads a question: \u201cIn your early life, how did you learn about what America is?\u201d<\/p>\n
That question \u2014 very simple, and very complex \u2014 sets off a difficult discussion. His partner in this conversation describes being the child of immigrants, and how as a youth in his hometown, learning about America could be a \u201ccombative\u201d process. His counterpart responds by describing his own upbringing as a Mennonite, and the tension between patriotic ideas of service and the strict pacifist creed of his church.<\/p>\n
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\nExecutive producer Robert Reich stresses the importance of constructive dialogue. We\u2019ve lost \u201cexamples of people who have very different backgrounds and ideologies and values talking to each other in a friendly way,\u201d he says. The Work in Progress \/ Inequality Media<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a weird way,\u201d the son of immigrants replies, \u201cI think I have a very similar upbringing \u2026 where it was like, we\u2019re a part of America, but also there\u2019s this part of growing up where it\u2019s like \u2014 are we?\u201d<\/p>\n
After three minutes and 23 seconds, the two men have come to realize their shared American experience. In doing so, they\u2019ve provided an emblematic moment for the new documentary from Reich, the film\u2019s executive producer and a\u00a0professor emeritus<\/a>\u00a0at UC Berkeley\u2019s Goldman School of Public Policy.<\/p>\n The two Iowans aren\u2019t debating red vs. blue, or one politician versus another. Instead, they and others featured in the film are contemplating the meaning of America. They brood over who belongs and what it means to feel like an outsider. They worry about the battered condition of the American dream. Along the way, they consider issues of respect, of fear and hope, of past and future.<\/p>\n Reich has long been a prominent observer of the American scene. In a career of activism and public service spanning six decades, he has advised top political leaders of both major parties. Under President Bill Clinton, he served from 1993-1997 as secretary of the Department of Labor. He joined the Berkeley faculty in 2006 and became a beloved teacher and mentor to thousands of students. His retirement three years ago was captured in the popular 2025 documentary,\u00a0\u201cThe Last Class.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe Work in Progress\u201d<\/a>\u00a0is being released today (Sept. 4) and is already\u00a0scheduled for showings<\/a>\u00a0at nearly three dozen theaters across the U.S., including several in California and the San Francisco Bay Area.<\/p>\n An authentic American tapestry\u00a0<\/p>\n The film is a timely and thought-provoking addition to Reich\u2019s catalogue of writing, film, media appearances and other public commentary. Perhaps it\u2019s no surprise that it emerges from the culture of UC Berkeley. Scholars and students in recent years have pioneered\u00a0the practice of \u201cbridging\u201d<\/a>\u00a0profound political divisions through open-minded conversation; one Berkeley course helps students practice how to be\u00a0open to opposing views<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reich\u2019s core idea was not to bring together liberals and conservatives, but to convene younger and older Americans \u2014 over 100 of them in all, many living in the American heartland.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the age divide,\u201d Reich explains in the film, \u201cyou\u2019ve got a lot of people who are 30, and they are the future, and a lot of people who are boomers, like me. We are the past.\u201d<\/p>\n Trying to compress a complex project into a tight timeline, the filmmakers made strategic decisions that may seem counterintuitive in an era of television shouting and podcast snark.<\/p>\n They selected six states to visit in the first half of 2026: Iowa, Arizona, Illinois, Maine, Alabama and Hawaii (with a brief stop in California). They sidestepped political hotspots such as Texas, Florida and the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n In every locale, they avoided blunt confrontations with our most bitter political disagreements. There are no red MAGA hats here, and no extreme leftists.<\/p>\n In sheer numbers, the people featured in these discussions may tip slightly toward liberal, but more striking is the range of voices: farmers and truck drivers, teachers and scholars, a range of artists and artisans, military veterans, a conservationist, a rancher, Jewish and Christian clergy, and men incarcerated on drug charges. With a diversity of races, ethnicities and gender identities, they present as an authentically American tapestry.<\/p>\n There are some strong opinions among them, but no strident voices. No matter their age or location, they are distinctively thoughtful.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the most important things that we\u2019ve lost,\u201d Reich says on camera, \u201cis examples of people who have very different backgrounds and ideologies and values talking to each other in a friendly way.<\/p>\n \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t try to agree \u2014 that\u2019s not what we do. \u2026 But we should agree to a process for sorting out our disagreements.\u201d<\/p>\n An urgent need to listen<\/p>\n As with the two young men in Iowa, the question of belonging is a through-line in \u201cThe Work in Progress.\u201d The filmmakers suggest such quasi-spiritual questions and doubts are at the root of America\u2019s crisis of faith.<\/p>\n A related through-line: the urgency of listening. In the film, director Ian Cheney recounts to Reich how filming these difficult conversations leaves him exhausted.<\/p>\n \u201cWell,\u201d Reich replies, \u201clistening \u2014 eloquent listening, I mean, really listening \u2014\u00a0is\u00a0exhausting. It\u2019s very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes, Reich says, when he encounters people who disagree with him, \u201cif I really am honest with myself, I don\u2019t want to spend the time and energy it requires to find common ground. It\u2019s just too exhausting. And yet \u2026 that\u2019s part of my responsibility as a citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n During the film\u2019s journey across America, there are occasional moments of levity, but more often those engaged in discussion seem to be searching for answers, and sometimes struggling. Occasionally, though, there\u2019s a breakthrough.<\/p>\n In one late discussion, featuring two women in Alabama, a young Black student is exasperated as she tries to persuade a retired white professor that structural racism is real.<\/p>\n \u201cThe starting line is just not the same for you \u2014 it never has been,\u201d the younger woman argues. \u201cNo matter how much we get along \u2014 we can go eat, we can go to church together \u2014 (but) it just wasn\u2019t meant for people like me to obtain a lot of the things that you\u2019re privileged to have.\u201d<\/p>\n Repeatedly, the professor urges her to leave negativity behind. \u201cIf you can let anything go,\u201d she says, \u201cyou\u2019ll be better for it.\u201d<\/p>\n And then, just when it seems that a bitter, longstanding American racial stalemate will lock the two in place, there\u2019s a shift \u2014 one that\u2019s visible in the expressions and body language of both women.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Neither looks at ease. Neither looks relieved. But they have heard each other, and thanked each other, and in the process they\u2019ve found some common ground, however narrow it might be.<\/p>\n In the emotional intensity of such discussions, viewers could easily miss another story that the filmmakers are telling, via the subtext of images and music. Their cameras are capturing the stirring beauty of American landscapes and cityscapes. They\u2019re capturing the extraordinary range of American roots music, from a poetic singer-songwriter to the blues, a high school mariachi band and Hawaiian slack-key guitar.<\/p>\n They\u2019re capturing the good-hearted character of the American people, in all of their diversity, as they search for a way back to their common dream.<\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Reich_film_question_cards_7x4-768x439.jpg\")
\nA range of questions written on cards prompted the film\u2019s participants to difficult conversations. The Work in Progress \/ Inequality Media<\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Reich_film_Iowa_men_7x4-768x439.jpg\")
\nThe conversations in Robert Reich\u2019s new documentary are often difficult, and participants can seem to struggle to connect across deep differences in values and experience. Sometimes, however, there are breakthroughs. The Work in Progress \/ Inequality Media<\/p>\n